What sets the price of a guitar? How much cheaper is it to build your own guitar?

[plucky oracle]

I've owned an Ibanez S520 and a Chapman ML2 (the dual humbucker models, with the option for the Abyss colour).
I was looking at buying a new guitar since I'm moving quite far away and always carrying a guitar on me is not an option. I don't like the floyd rose on the Ibanez so I wanted to get get an S521 body and simply place the S520 neck on it, which got me thinking:
How much cheaper is it to actually assemble your own guitar as opposed to buying it?
It requires a lot more electrical thinkering (i.e., soldering a split coil setup) and I from what I saw some tools for neck assembly, but is it worth it financially and is there a market for people who wanna do this?

[calm raft]

Let’s say u already had all the tools it cost me just as much to build a guitar as it does to buy one now like I’m not talking a high end guitar but like beginner intermediate area like 3-400

Now when I built mine I started from scratch and I don’t have to buy wood bc my body isn’t made of wood and I didn’t buy the highest of end parts but I don’t buy the cheapest parts either

But if u mean like a parts build u could easily get a cheap guitar and change out parts and if u buy used stuff it could cost less then the guitar u want

How much depends on the deals u can find on the pieces u want

Re reading the question u want to do a parts build

The neck and the electronics are where most of the money goes but it can still be be cheaper

[gentle oracle]

How much cheaper is it to actually assemble your own guitar as opposed to buying it?

• Depends, how shit are you allowing it to be, whats your level of experience with repairing and modifying guitars, whatre your expectations. etc

It requires a lot more electrical thinkering (i.e., soldering a split coil setup)

• no. it's extremely easy

and I from what I saw some tools for neck assembly, but is it worth it financially and is there a market for people who wanna do this?

• no, it's not better financially unless you know what you're doing, and what to expect

yes there's a market for people who do this, guitar diy kits have been around for decades. but depending on how good you are at it, which only comes with experience, it either ends up being shittier than a guitar of equal cost or better, but the latter only comes with experience

ive handled some peoples first builds before, they didn't want to do the electronics work, so they paid me to do it. a lot of them were kinda shit guitars, paint job was medicore, the kit they bought was medicore, they didn't recognize the inherent issues and flaws on the body and neck so didn't address them before giving it to me, etc

don't build a guitar, for the first time, expecting it to be a cheaper alternative to buying a used one. it's not going to be cheaper while still being the same quality,chances are it'll be worse. so build a guitar for fun, and after doing that a couple times and with more tools and know-how, THEN it starts becoming cheaper

[versed portal]

I think if you factor in time, cost for extra materials and tools you'll probably not end up with a cheaper alternative

[gentle oracle]

a lot of people see like 100 dollar kits and go "wow i can put together my own guitar for only 100? im saving so much money"

but the resulting guitar usually does end up playing like it costs only 100 anyway lol

[versed portal]

then buys another 100 in materials and tools

[calm raft]

If u started with like a squier strat and bought a fender neck and pickups on the used market and install them in the squier body u might save abit of money or u could spend more depending on how much u payed for the parts

Not the kit route

But like the parts caster route u could end up w a decent guitar for less but u really have to hunt for the parts u want

[versed portal]

But not that much less that it would justify the trouble probably

[calm raft]

Yea if it’s not something u enjoy doing it’s not worth but for someone like me I like working on guitars so it wouldn’t be as big much of a trouble although searching for parts would be

[gentle oracle]

quality hardware and electronics arent hard to find

rather than a partscaster, if somebody wanted the best money value path

find a used dirt cheap guitar

assess issues, fix them, then throw parts in from brands like gotoh, cts, graphtech, etc

a used dirt cheap guitsrs gonna be like 70 bucks sometimes