Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Cost and value are 2 different things. Resale on a parts instrument is far below a factory one, whether it plays and sounds like a dream or not. Having spent many years behind a retail gear counter, a store doesn't want it on anything but a consignment, if at all. It becomes a players piece, and you have to find a player who is totally gaga over it just to get back half of what you paid. It's like upgrading your MIM Strat with locking tuners and noiseless pickups and custom pickguard with upgraded electronics on it. The almost 300 bucks you spent upgrading it translates into about 20 bucks more the store will give you for it in cash or trade, if they even want it at all. Trying to sell a customized upgraded instrument will more times than not be met with "well I would have done this or that to it" and your customer will buy a stock one and talk about the Fralins his buddy has and such.

So, if you built it cos it's cheaper, better be married to it cos you'll be buried with it.

Now, if you're building something that you always wanted to build and have no intention of reselling it, a parts guitar can be an awesome alternative from what the stores have.

08 Ric 4003 wrote:This is my first fretless.

Have fun learning to play, don't get too frustrated, it will take time to be as good as me Jaco.

I did it for me. I really wanted to make a P Fretless, cause I already have a fretted Jazz bass, but P bodies are not as plentiful on ebay. I was going to go the full Warmoth rout, but when I found an American made Fender Jazz body for 260, I was quite pleased. A brand new Warmoth body is over 3 bills. I have a 95 Fender Jazz that I love, so it wasn't just a thing to do to say look what I did to everyone on the Forum, yes I did share it with the Forum and then most of what I got was flak. I have wanted to do it for some time. Granted I didn't make the bass from slabs of wood, but I did get to assemble it and put it all together. I toyed with the idea of doing a Ric but was told it would be cheaper to buy a new one. The resale value does not concern me. My guitars and basses are mine for me, and one day they will go to my kids if they want them. If I could have found a Ric fretless for 850 or so I would have jumped at the chance.

Sorry for sharing.

It all makes perfect sense.

Or, at least it did until I read the last three words.

Then, I thought, "What on earth???!"

The last 3 words were too be sarcastic.