johnnysomersett wrote: ↑Fri Jan 07, 2022 11:00 pm
wooderson wrote: ↑Fri Jan 07, 2022 7:38 pm
partscaster is also an option but comes in at $2k or so with all the right parts and a Starr Guitars finish.
I'm pretty sure these are just Partscasters anyway, just with good marketing and a $3000 price tag
I mean, yeah, almost any bolt-on neck guitar can be called a partscaster, including Fenders. Very few guitars out there being hand-shaped piece by piece these days, they're CNCed and combined. I don't see that as a knock on boutique "Fenders" - just saying that putting it together with your own pieces (Guitar Mill body, Musikraft neck, good finish, a good fret level and setup, labor if you don't want to shield and wire it yourself) isn't a real cost savings. These are made by Iconic Guitars, so I mean, whatever level of boutique guitar you want to put that at.
The point remains, though, that you can't get a similar product from Fender for $3k unless Wildwood or Dave's do their special runs. You can get a similar product from Fender for $4600+ if you find the right one.
Or if you don't care that much about particular aesthetics, you can certainly get one cheaper - but it's a luxury, I'd just as soon pay $500 more over an American Original to get something the way I want it, much as I'd pay American Original prices to get a nicer finish and rosewood instead of a Vintera's pau ferro.
Screwing and soldering a guitar together doesn't make you a builder any more than giving someone the heimlich maneuver makes you a doctor
You've got a weird beef with this guy. He doesn't claim to be a builder - they're openly stating that Iconic builds them and he does the final setup and acts as a go-between. But also I don't know what this means or matters in the end. If the CNC is in wherever Fender's American factory is or someone else's factory or at Guitar Mill doesn't really matter much.