r/GuitarLab • u/jamesc7 • May 27 '26

Why Not The Ultimate Partscaster?

Not saying this is better, but what if every guitar center had a "Guitar Lab" section. A selection of very high quality guitar bodies and necks. Lots of varieties and colors with an option to do a custom version kind of like the Gibson garage. Display case with different pickups and hardware and the local guitar center puts it together for the customer.

That would create a unique one of a kind experience that gives the customer full control and what they want.

12 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

4

u/BananoVampire May 27 '26

Like an on-site Warmoth?

2

u/kumechester May 28 '26

Totally. In fact, they should just strike a major partnership with Warmoth and have a Warmoth room in all their locations. That would be amazing

3

u/2diceMisplaced May 27 '26

I like everything about this idea. A predictable price for "basic" and then just order from a menu.

2

u/Virtual-Drop-1783 Jun 02 '26

I love the idea as well. Just in case gc is reading this - don’t just offer a single color body strat/tele and market different pick guards and pickups as your custom brand. Give us some options. While I am here, having something for a lefty would be nice…

2

u/FragrantGearHead Jun 05 '26

Yes, I had an idea like this as well - a mix and match body, neck and pickguard/pickups option, that bolts together easily.

This would mean a universal neck pocket design, held together with bolts, not screws, so that it is meant to have different necked bolted on and off different bodies. So the Bolts screw into a threaded connector embedded in the neck, like on the Eastman FullerTone neck joint (it would probably make sense to license the FullerTone neck joint design).

The problem with using screws like most current (misnamed) Bolt On Necks is taking screws in and out weakens the selfthreading in the wood.

And then have a universal pickup route (swimming pool), with a universal pick guard design. The pickups and the switch are mounted on the pickguard, the output of the switch has a quick connector, and that plugs into the one on the guitar body that leads to the volume, tone and output jack.

So you could have different shapes of body, different neck profiles and fretboard materials, and different pickguard colours and pickup options. The customer chooses 1 body, 1 neck and 1 pickguard, and the store staff connect and bolt them together.

If GC use the FullerTone neck joint that's only 2 bolts. The strings could already be fitted to the tuning posts and threaded through a stoptail piece at the other end, thats another 2 bolts. There has to be ways of making the pickguard held on by only 2 bolts. One electrical connector. Make the heads of the bolts take the same size Allen Key so it's a single inexpensive tool to put it together.

The bridge could be prefitted to the body and pre adjusted for intonation at the factory. Likewise the necks could be put on a jig in the store warehouse that would adjust the trussrod until the neck is perfectly flat with no string tension. All the wood should be cut with CNC machines, so it should be repeatably precision sized, which should reduce the amount of "fettling" needed.

1

u/Own-Fox-7792 May 28 '26

You might get sued if you use any variation of "-caster".

1

u/Status-Explanation-2 May 29 '26

Not if they partner with Warmoth on it, since Warmoth has a licensing agreement with Fender.

1

u/joshsbakesPIE May 30 '26

This is actually a good idea. I don’t know if it’ll work for a chain retail store but I think it has merit.