The Partscaster - Final Installment

This is the end... beautiful friend. This is the end. My only friend, the end.

This was a fun project! I'd like to do more but after the last few months of refinishing the Strat and now putting together the Partscaster, I'm going to take a bit of a break. I'll still be fixing Scott's older guitars but nothing new for a while. I'm thinking maybe in the future - doing a Gibson ES-335 or looking for an old Harmony or Silvertone 335-ish guitar that has a working truss rod (real important there - that truss rod thingie) and do a recovery job.

In the end, it was a lot of work but I learned how to mix and apply shellac (and that it can be used on top of or under almost any other type of finish), how to modify electronics as well as fix really sharp frets. That was really my only complaint - and while the neck was pure mahogany and straight, well finished, etc., the stainless frets were a mess. So sharp after the 9th fret that I could have cut myself easily just playing it. Otherwise no complaints for a $170 tele neck with stainless steel frets, when something similar from Fender would have cost me $300-$400. I didn't mind a bit of filing and saving a few hundred bucks!

As of today, I got all the electronics sorted out (the 3 wire neck pickup threw me a little as I swapped the main ground for the secondary ground - which had me scratching my head a bit, but after a little experimentation, it all worked out.

Lastly I'd like to provide a big 'ol thumbs up for the following folks on Etsy of all places, who are really doing a great job making parts, bodies, and "custom" type stuff.

Mike from PlingPloing who's doing great stuff with old reclaimed barn wood all the way from Austria.

Ghost Custom Guitars creating custom and one of a kind pickguards, bridges, neck plates, out of the UK.

Havok Guitars who are making very nice necks to original spec from Canada.

I've put up some sound files. Because this is a 4-way switch and not a 3-way standard switch the sounds are as follows:

1 - Neck+Bridge in Humbucker mode 2 - Neck pickup 3 - Neck+Bridge in parallel 4 - Bridge pickup

All sound files were recorded using Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5 through Reaper DAW without any modification or additional effects. The GR5 model is provided.

Clean - Model Pretty Clean 1

Crunch - Model Blues 74

Overdrive - Hot Blues EL-34's

Here are some final pictures for anyone interested!