In my experience for the vast majority of people most of the “popular misguided assumptions “ regarding what you should and shouldn’t do or what materials you should and shouldn’t use is not much more than cork sniffing. Jazz players and people who play mostly clean and low gain can find benefit in having more expensive gear, both in terms of reliability and performance. Unless you’re a successful gigging musician it’s easy to find decent gear for a fraction of what they would spend.
A simple example, I built a Telecaster from a Harley Benton kit, did a few mods to make it more reliable and am using it through a Bugera 5W tube amp and an Orange 1x8” cab or a homemade 1x10 cab which I had the speaker left over from a project and I have a Sonicake Matribox multi fx, total cost - approx £500!
This is an example of what I can do with it, My Bass is a Cort Artist 4 string, it’s played through a Harley Benton Bass amp that cost me £150, the Bass was £350 (ex display), drums are part through the Sonicake and tidied up in GarageBand.
Edit: not using that guitar for this!
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nice recording , I enjoyed it a lot 
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Sweet little jam there dude
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Lots of bits arrived yesterday.
Just the pickup to come. That arrives in two weeks
but tonight’s effort will be to get the bridge back in with the extra springs etc.
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I recommende messing around with a project guitar if the mindset is to actually play it.
Building a punk machine is probably the best route you can take because you’re less worried about complex wiring of making sure you keep it unscratched etc 
I wouldn’t worry about nut and tuners for now. first get your MVP (minimum viable product) going.
What’s necessary to make it a functioning guitar? some parts, wiring that works, a neck that sits well at a decent angle, strings and a basic setup. With basic setup I mean: mind the string height (action), itune, intonate, tune, intonate… and give it some good test runs!
Don’t worry about expensive parts, tonewoods, gimmicks… just try to make it work and make it fun to play. If that works, your project will keep momentum a lot easier
oi oi oi!
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This you do by putting shims in the neck pocket…
Progress update:
I’ve added the extra springs to lock the trem down. No movement in it now.
Test fitting the new pick guard, needed some
minor shaving around some of the cut outs for the neck and bridge to fit. Easy enough and it’s nice and snug.
Realised I bough pots that are physically too big, but that’s $12 fix and the other pots can be used on my next build.
I have some fret finishing blocks arriving tomorrow so I’ll give the frets a polish, while I’m waiting on the pickup to arrive.
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I have an cig burned, beer spilled on, gacked up body in need of a project. I can’t think of a better one for it, than a HSH punk project like you described, I think. I am going to take a look Lieven, thanks.
Thank you OP cool project and Nice discussion thread.
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Sure, go nuts, the cheaper the parts, the lower the resitance and fear factor to do something wrong!
Here I put a special pickup in a strat body. since it’s strance construction and me not wanting to mod a scratchplate, I fixed it with tape.
Later on I changed the position of the pickup and tried to fit a Jackson neck and put on some stickers.
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Straight up Frankenstein that thing.
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Haha that skeleton guitar is giving me a boner…get it 
.
A guitar like the middle photo would be really cool just by itself or with crime scene tape would even be way sick.
I would rock that all night long in a punk band if it sounded right. I guess tape would not last long but what a great idea to decide if you like a sound without commitment.
So this is the pickup I went with and it arrives today. Cheap SD Invader style knock off but the reviews on it are pretty good for the purposes of a high output punk rock slammer.
Hoping to get the rebuild done this weekend now. Since it’s my first crack and I have two young kids a derailment is likely but I’m excited none the less.
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It fkn works first fkn go!!
Quick vid of the fully assembled new weapon. Vid from literally first time playing after tuning up, even the first test on the volume knob.
(Self built NGD!).
It’s had the first tune on brand new string and you can hear it drifting a bit, still needs a set up (which I’ve never done before but shall endeavour to learn).
Pretty fkn happy overall. Still some stickers to come before I post a picture of it finished.
Edit: deco done
(New strap as a finishing touch)
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Took the Strat to the music shop today to talk to the guitar tech there. I couldn’t seem to get the intonation right so I thought I’d get a lesson. He told me I’d done a good job and actually the intonation was not far off at all and the trouble I was having was just that my clip on tuner was likely picking up some harmonics. Happy days!
He also reckons given the use case, blocking the trem is not a bad idea at all. He gave me some pointers on how to make a good block for it so I may try find a bit of scrap in the shed and get that sorted soon.
Kinda getting a buzz for this now. So I grabbed my acoustic out which had the same strings it came with ~10yo, and a loose tuning peg due to a missing screw. Needed some TLC.
Fixed, the tuner - got a good tip from my guitar guy to cut the head off a toothpick and stick it in the old screw hole so the new screw would have something tight to bite on.
Polished up the frets and put a set of new strings on.
So two old disused guitars back into circulation now. Plus my wife thought it was quite appealing to see me doing some Mr fix it stuff recently. I work hard so normally pay others to fix shit so I can enjoy my weekends. It different when it’s fixing your hobby gear though.
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Sweet! Thats awsome Funky. That strap is way cool. I am so down with your stickers too.
Especially that Drop Kick Murphys. My wife and I just saw the Drop Kick Murphys, Pennywise and The Scratch at the Mesa Ampatheater here in Arizona. Amazing show
Love your new rig.
Get you punk on bro 
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Sounds awesome.
Me first and the gimme gimmes are here next week but unfortunately I’m outta town for work.
I’m such a corporate sell out, a proper punk rock move would be to skip the work trip and go to the concert
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Cheak out the series on stew mac about guitar sets ups. Its really good.
Dont feel bad pulling cash for the fam. Its got to be done.
As Mike Ness says “That’s the way that it goes When you’re down here with the rest of us”
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