Home built or bought?

[TPTroll]

I've had both home built and brand basses and just wondered what the consensus was, what do people prefer? I'm not talking about rickbackers or anything considerably expensive, but realistically, for simple jazz and precision type basses, is there really any difference in buying the parts and putting your own bass together, to your specifications, and buying a standard fender or other similar bass?

Anyone prefer playing basses they've put together themselves over brand basses?

[TheGreek]

Often thought the same..with so many Jazz/Precision parts being available from so many suppliers why aren't more people buying the parts they want (p/ups, tuners,etc) and building a "custom" themselves.

[EBS_freak]

The main differences come down to the detail and your ability to do the job.

For example take into account the following -

The quality of the paintjob. Unless you buy a prefinished body, a home spray job will not be up to the same spec as a pro polyester or nitro job.

The fitment of the neck in the neck pocket. We've all seen necks that have been too tight in the pocket and caused cracking in the paint or the pocket itself. Of course, you can ease it in, but unless you are tooled up correctly (or have any means to refinish body/neck if you mess up) it will be hard to get that perfect joint.

Of course, it's all possible - but if you aren't already tooled up or have access to the right equipment to get the detail correct, then it will be quite costly (how many people have screening paint hanging around for example) - and remember, you home built bass with have a limited resale value. (Depends if you are one of those people who like to have a "name" (or a fake Fender decal) on your headstock... or are actually chuffed that you have something that nobody else has got...)

Having said all that, everybody should build one... it's a reqarding experience.

[skankdelvar]

Having knocked together a few instruments over the years and observed the market, I've come to certain conclusions:

* The consensus? Judging from the 'for sale' section of BC, bitsas are in a minority. IMO.

* You never make your money back on resale.

* By the time you've clocked up the hours and paid for the bits (inc shipping), it costs more to build one than buy one.

* It's more fun than buying shop-bought and you learn some useful skills.

* Some spod is always going to look at your lovingly assembled frankenbass and ask "Is it a [i]proper[/i] Fender?" Then you have to spend days getting his teethmarks out of the headstock.

Edited October 27, 2011 by skankdelvar

[Dubs]

It's easy to spend a lot on custom home-built basses - parts can be expensive, and if you need help from a pro to put it together, their time can also be expensive. Resale value is the only reason I'd be more likely to put £1000 into a new Fender than £1000 into a custom build. I'm not saying the Fender would be better than a custom build, most likely not, just that the depreciation on a custom build would mean that I personally wouldn't want to put the money into it right now. Having said that, depreciation is the reason why I buy 90% of my gear second hand from here... and I own a very nice custom built Jazz bass that I bought off here for a good price.

[Muzz]

The biggest problem with homebuilding (or, as has been pointed out above, home assembling) basses, is that you can actually get what you want from a bass, without compromise, which kinda ruins the appeal of 90% of off-the-shelf stuff.

Once I'd been through a lot of basses, from cheapo stuff through the midrange to the top-end luthier-built stuff (all secondhand, I might add), I was able to identify what worked for me and what didn't, and now there's very little out there which would tick all my boxes. I can, however, put together (with some luthier assistance - fortunately I have a very good, very reasonably priced luthier at my disposal) what I want pretty cheaply. I wouldn't swap my FrankenP for any US Fender P (I had a couple of these when I built the main FrankenP, and subsequently sold them), and I'm currently having a ball with my Fenderbird.

I'm not sure I agree about depreciation being so bad, either: homebuilds can always be parted out and the bits either reused or sold on without much financial pain, especially if the bits have been bought second hand. If everything's bought new, then yeah, you won't see your money back, but you go and buy a new Fender (or worse, a boutique bass or a Warwick) at list price and see how much of that you get back after 12 months. I see plenty of things like Hipshot Xtenders flying around on here, and people don't lose much on them. I think far more emphasis is placed on bitsas depreciation than any other bass - would we really have a discussion about the next Fodera for sale on here along the lines of "Oh my God, he's losing £3500 in depreciation on that bass! New Foderas are SUCH a bad idea!".

Having some experience of bitsas now means depreciation isn't much of an issue for me anyway when we're talking about £200-300, which is where most of my builds lie, and because I buy the bits carefully. It's a market like any other, you can spend wisely or not.

I'll still buy off the shelf stuff, mainly to satisfy my curiosity, and I'll do this second-hand with one eye on the resale value. Inevitably they get moved on, but I'll learn from them.

All that said, I have a decent budget available at the moment, and I'm looking for a very special bass. It might even end up being a Dingwall or a Lull. But I'll be changing the pickups from standard...

[Mr. Foxen]

I've been up cashwise (not time though) on selling a bitsa bass once. Usually I've applied my by stuff at prices I can expect to recover upon sale policy, so if I no like, I can strip down and sell as parts. But I actually quite like my two bitsa basses, the third one got a bit overcomplicated and I never much liked the body. Think is any whole bass I've had will have been stripped own, reassembled and set up, so not even sure there is much difference.

[Paul S]

My last couple of forays have been into the middle territory - turd polishing, I think it is called Except not all have been turds.

I customised a Westone Thunder Jet, bought for £77 on eBay, with a pup upgrade, high mass bridge and a J. East P-retro. The body and neck were of good enough quality to justify this and I have have a unique and fun lightweight bass that sounds the business. When it comes to move it on I can revert it back to stock and sell the extra bits without losing too much.

My second turd was a Fender Precision Lyte, bought unseen for £300. When it arrived it was a dog - really badly refinished and the electrics didn't work properly. I couldn't live with it as it was but would have taken a massive hit trying to resell it. Instead of cutting my losses I decided to treat it as a teaching aid and completely renovated it - refinished the body from orange peel red to a decent gloss black, took the headstock back to natural from red. Shielded all the cavities and it now sports a custom 3 band eq from J-East bought second hand from sliddx. I have learnt an immense amount from doing this, have bonded immeasurably with the instrument and thoroughly enjoyed the process, too. I'll never get my cash back on this but it is now pretty much my perfect bass.

I think as long as the start instrument is of decent enough quality this is worth exploring.