Re: Guitar Fetish XGP Bodies

[jtees4]

On Sun, 10 Apr 2016 16:37:25 -0700 (PDT), shoegazer
<graygh...@hotmail.com> wrote:

>This guitar looks amazing but looks don't make a good guitar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE9DaJeMKus
>Guitar Fetish XGP bodies only cost $89.95 but that seems too good be true for something of decent quality.
>
>I wanted to get one of their Jazzmaster bodies and a pickguard which would total $107.90, plus a seriously hefty ground shipping amount of $27.89 for a total of $135.79.
>
>I was gonna take my '06 Squier Standard Strat and populate the new Jazz body and pickguard with all the hardware and neck from it. The XGP bodies have a universal pickup route and route for a Strat trem, and the pickguard matches.
>
>Are these bodies worth the price? Are they at least comparable to the quality of a typical Squier?

I have seen guitars made with the cheaper, normal GFS bodies. They
were not extremely "exact" with their hole drilling etc. but with a
bit of work made decent guitars. I would suspect that these might very
well be pretty good.

[Squier]

yep. I knew a buddy that bought one those cheapie bodies.
The project was a little more than he planned for and he
had to empty out the toolbox to get it done. Nothing really
lined up and the body itself got a complete re-finish.

But in the end after quite a bit of work he has an acceptable
Strat type guitar. ps. the neck pocket doesn't quite properly
fit an actual Fender MIM or MIA strat neck so that's another bit
of work needed to be done. Ah well... what you are getting is
a plank of wood that gets you started. It is not plug and play.
The level of your work done on it will reflect the end quality
of the guitar produced from it. Anyways - it is not for someone
that just wants to screw in hardware and solder in pups and be
done with it.

Personally you would be better to go to ebay and get a Fender MIM body.
Some are already 'loaded' but you can get them unloaded and they will
match up with any Fender spec'd neck and hardware since they are real Fender bodies.
For the little money you save on the GFS bodies - it is not worth it (imho).
But some people love to tinker and wood work.. so... have at it.

[jtees4]

Just one note, I'm not sure about the year....but the cheap GFS bodies
have gotten better. The original run a few years ago was nothing but
problems. Supposedly they have fixed many of the issues....but I'm
sure they still need a bit of work to be useable.

[Squier]

that's good to know. yeah - the guy doing the project I was talking about
was a few years ago. It's good to know that GFS did some quality improvements
during that time and their bodies are better now or at least give a person
a better plank to work with. I suppose the real test is how well they
do carved tops but Strats/Tele bodies are (usually) never carved tops.

[Nil]

On 13 Apr 2016, Squier <squ...@strats.net> wrote in alt.guitar:

> Personally you would be better to go to ebay and get a Fender MIM
> body. Some are already 'loaded' but you can get them unloaded and
> they will match up with any Fender spec'd neck and hardware since
> they are real Fender bodies. For the little money you save on the
> GFS bodies - it is not worth it (imho). But some people love to
> tinker and wood work.. so... have at it.

Are the MIM bodies the same as the USA ones? I had gotten the
impression that the bridge route was a little different and the neck
pocket was a slightly different depth or something. No?

[jtees4]

I believe the neck pockets are the same. The bridge sizes, since the
string spacing is different, are in fact different. You also have
different bridges based on vintage vs: modern bridges (which are
different sized). I am currently planning a build and have run into
the bridge issue...I want a Tele body with a modern bridge...but the
cheaper bodies (like gfs, eden) are only made for vintage sized
bridges. For the record, where the strings go through the body are not
in the same place on modern vs: vintage, the overall bridge sizes are
different, and one uses four screws and one uses three...so the they
are not located in the same place at all.

[Nil]

On 14 Apr 2016, jtees4 <jte...@hotmail.com> wrote in alt.guitar:

> I believe the neck pockets are the same. The bridge sizes, since
> the string spacing is different, are in fact different.

The bridges themselves are different sizes, but are the routes
different? The screw hole placements?

> I am currently planning a build and have run
> into the bridge issue...I want a Tele body with a modern
> bridge...but the cheaper bodies (like gfs, eden) are only made for
> vintage sized bridges. For the record, where the strings go
> through the body are not in the same place on modern vs: vintage,
> the overall bridge sizes are different, and one uses four screws
> and one uses three...so the they are not located in the same place
> at all.

Yeah, I've run into that before with Teles. Mine has a modern bridge,
and as you say the mounting screw configuration and the string holes
are very different from the vintage bridges. I've been wanting to try
out a different bridge, but there aren't many aftermarket ones in the
modern style, but tons of them in the vintage style.

[jtees4]

I have a 2008 MIM Tele, but it is too heavy for me these days. I was
going to buy a lightweight pre-finished body and transfer the neck and
all hardware to it. That's when I discovered the bridge thing. I
prefer the modern bridge, but all the resonably priced pre-finished
bodies I found were vintage specs. Gotoh does make a vintage sized 6
saddle bridge, so that would work....but it is still not the look I
wanted....but it's an option. I'm waiting until I am sure what I want
to do. If I get a good offer, maybe I'll sell the guitar before I get
to that point. I am an SG guy, but I always like to have a Tele too.
Strats I can do wwithout, and LP's I like (and plenty are chambered
and light)....but I prefer SG's.