Straightforward Question

[Brent Hutto]

Originally Posted by LezPall

I actually am only looking for a solid body electric as I’m chasing an ultra clean sound with great sustain. I already have an amp as well. The reason I asked about the cheap options was that I was heavily considering a Player Tele, as they feel great and sound great but I’m aware it’s not their top model and people usually upgrade the bridge and pickups. It got me thinking, if there’s even cheaper guitars with pretty solid build quality, why not just upgrade bridge, pickups, and tuners on that and save some money?

I very much doubt that more than 1 out of 10 Player Telecaster buyers ever upgrades their pickups or anything else. You're getting a misleading impression from reading online discussions which tend to be among people who automatically "upgrade" every instrument they buy.

My 2021 Player Telecaster does indeed feel great and sound great to me and I'm happy with it exactly as it rolled off the assembly line (plus the minor setup work done by the local store where I bought it). If there's some other pickups you know you really did the sound of they're easy enough to swap but that's preference, not anything to do with the quality of the factory stuff.

As for buying an ultra-cheap guitar then putting several hundred dollars worth of "upgrades" into, some people really like that but for me it sounds like a good chance to waste a bunch of money. It's one thing to spend $900 on a guitar I can play before buying. It's quite another to spend $250 on a cheap guitar I don't like and another $500 on a bunch of parts I hope I like, assuming that it'll all work out to be worth $750 to me. If it doesn't, you've just soaked $750 into a guitar that isn't worth more than 1/3 that.

Find a guitar you like how it plays and sounds. Try before you buy. Use it for a while and if you're totally convinced some particular "upgrade" is something you can't live without, then do it. But the entire Partscaster rabbit hole is for people who enjoy the process, it's not a way to save a couple hundred bucks over buying a complete guitar you like.

[fpuhan]

Originally Posted by Brent Hutto

I very much doubt that more than 1 out of 10 Player Telecaster buyers ever upgrades their pickups or anything else. You're getting a misleading impression from reading online discussions which tend to be among people who automatically "upgrade" every instrument they buy.

My 2021 Player Telecaster does indeed feel great and sound great to me and I'm happy with it exactly as it rolled off the assembly line (plus the minor setup work done by the local store where I bought it). If there's some other pickups you know you really did the sound of they're easy enough to swap but that's preference, not anything to do with the quality of the factory stuff.

As for buying an ultra-cheap guitar then putting several hundred dollars worth of "upgrades" into, some people really like that but for me it sounds like a good chance to waste a bunch of money. It's one thing to spend $900 on a guitar I can play before buying. It's quite another to spend $250 on a cheap guitar I don't like and another $500 on a bunch of parts I hope I like, assuming that it'll all work out to be worth $750 to me. If it doesn't, you've just soaked $750 into a guitar that isn't worth more than 1/3 that.

Find a guitar you like how it plays and sounds. Try before you buy. Use it for a while and if you're totally convinced some particular "upgrade" is something you can't live without, then do it. But the entire Partscaster rabbit hole is for people who enjoy the process, it's not a way to save a couple hundred bucks over buying a complete guitar you like.

+1

This bears repeating.

I have not replaced any parts on any guitar except for the tuning pegs on my 1957 Gibson ESS-225 because they crumbled away. The middle pickup on my 50th Anniversary MIM Stratocaster was replaced because it went dead. Other than that, if I don't like the sound or playability of a guitar, I get rid of it.

[GoPappy]

Originally Posted by Brent Hutto

I very much doubt that more than 1 out of 10 Player Telecaster buyers ever upgrades their pickups or anything else. You're getting a misleading impression from reading online discussions which tend to be among people who automatically "upgrade" every instrument they buy.

My 2021 Player Telecaster does indeed feel great and sound great to me and I'm happy with it exactly as it rolled off the assembly line (plus the minor setup work done by the local store where I bought it). If there's some other pickups you know you really did the sound of they're easy enough to swap but that's preference, not anything to do with the quality of the factory stuff.

As for buying an ultra-cheap guitar then putting several hundred dollars worth of "upgrades" into, some people really like that but for me it sounds like a good chance to waste a bunch of money. It's one thing to spend $900 on a guitar I can play before buying. It's quite another to spend $250 on a cheap guitar I don't like and another $500 on a bunch of parts I hope I like, assuming that it'll all work out to be worth $750 to me. If it doesn't, you've just soaked $750 into a guitar that isn't worth more than 1/3 that.

Find a guitar you like how it plays and sounds. Try before you buy. Use it for a while and if you're totally convinced some particular "upgrade" is something you can't live without, then do it. But the entire Partscaster rabbit hole is for people who enjoy the process, it's not a way to save a couple hundred bucks over buying a complete guitar you like.

Another +1 on this. Well said indeed.

[LezPall]

Originally Posted by Brent Hutto

I very much doubt that more than 1 out of 10 Player Telecaster buyers ever upgrades their pickups or anything else. You're getting a misleading impression from reading online discussions which tend to be among people who automatically "upgrade" every instrument they buy.

My 2021 Player Telecaster does indeed feel great and sound great to me and I'm happy with it exactly as it rolled off the assembly line (plus the minor setup work done by the local store where I bought it). If there's some other pickups you know you really did the sound of they're easy enough to swap but that's preference, not anything to do with the quality of the factory stuff.

As for buying an ultra-cheap guitar then putting several hundred dollars worth of "upgrades" into, some people really like that but for me it sounds like a good chance to waste a bunch of money. It's one thing to spend $900 on a guitar I can play before buying. It's quite another to spend $250 on a cheap guitar I don't like and another $500 on a bunch of parts I hope I like, assuming that it'll all work out to be worth $750 to me. If it doesn't, you've just soaked $750 into a guitar that isn't worth more than 1/3 that.

Find a guitar you like how it plays and sounds. Try before you buy. Use it for a while and if you're totally convinced some particular "upgrade" is something you can't live without, then do it. But the entire Partscaster rabbit hole is for people who enjoy the process, it's not a way to save a couple hundred bucks over buying a complete guitar you like.

Thanks, I agree with other posters +1. I’ve been trying to build a partscaster to save money but no matter where I cut corners, I would end up buying about 7-900 dollars worth of parts and have to build it myself when there’s fine teles going for that price or less.

I got a chance to play the player, which sounded great and felt amazing, and also the American special as well as classic vibe. The Texas specials really were that much better, but luckily someone is selling a player body with specials….now I just need a neck-there goes another $300!