How many man hours go into building a Fender-style guitar?

[devinb]

I know there are some variables, but seriously, what are we talking about?

[bluesjuke]

If your talking Nitro and or relic than the hours will be more substantial.

[Tone_Terrific]

What do you mean "building?"

Search around here for Ron Kirn's pictorial build and you can see the craftsmanlike, hand built way, hours unknown but substantial.
Or, you can imagine the mass-produced method (I have no idea how to measure that) or, if you mean assembly from parts by a home hacker, well, YMMV

[RockStarNick]

In my experience, TWICE as long as you THINK it's gonna take. :crazy

I'm working on my 4th Warmoth home build. I don't consider myself a "home hacker" though. I've got all the pro fret tools and whatnot, and I take my time and do it right.

That being said, here's "problems" that I ran into that delayed my builds. Kinda turning some small, 2 second processes into 20 minute ordeals, etc.

• I opted to use a Fender American Standard bridge on my Strats and Supertele, but the 3 holes on that don't line up with the vintage 3 holes that are drilled. So, glue and dowels to fill the old holes, wait 24 hours, re drill, etc.

• Electrosocket on a tele didnt' fit into the hole because of SLIGHt extra finish around the hole. Gotta sand that down to fit, etc.

• The particular 250K pots for volume that I bought had taller shafts than the 500K pots for tone, which made the knobs stick up almost 1/8" taller and look bad. had to file out the insides of the knobs..

So, what I'm getting at is, if you're pressed for time and just want it DONE, don't expect perfection. but if you're willing to do it right and take some time and use a fine eye for detail, expect the unexpected. not big PROBLEMS per se, but some little stuff that, if done wrong, could be bad.

[Polynitro]

what do you mean by 'build'? What do you mean by 'Fender-style'? Are we talking partscaster, build from scratch, Tele, hollowbody, Jazzmaster, nitro, poly, etc;

I'm gonna guess and say 100 hours + 1 month-6 months to paint.

I read it took Stradavarious about 2 weeks to make a violin.

[mattmccloskey]

well, like others have said, it depends on how much you are doing.
For example, if you get a pre-finished neck and body from warmoth, for example, it may only take a few hours. They can provide a fretted, finished neck with a nut installed, neck holes drilled, etc. All you need to do is mount the neck, screw it on, drill holes for pickguard and jack plate, wire your electronics, install tuners,install bridge and pickguard and set it up. Plus strap buttons. To do that right it takes me around 3 hours, if everything is spec'd right and there are no problems.
However, if you want to cut your own nut, do your own finish, do fret level,etc. it is a month long process!
Nitro finishes take a few days to shoot, and a few weeks to cure, and a few hours to wet-sand and buff. Of course if you have to do any re-working it can drag on for a long time.
If you can paint certain poly finishes, and have the skills and gear, the finish can be done way faster. I have never done that though!

[sovtekking]

well, like others have said, it depends on how much you are doing.
For example, if you get a pre-finished neck and body from warmoth, for example, it may only take a few hours. They can provide a fretted, finished neck with a nut installed, neck holes drilled, etc. All you need to do is mount the neck, screw it on, drill holes for pickguard and jack plate, wire your electronics, install tuners,install bridge and pickguard and set it up. Plus strap buttons. To do that right it takes me around 3 hours, if everything is spec'd right and there are no problems.
However, if you want to cut your own nut, do your own finish, do fret level,etc. it is a month long process!
Nitro finishes take a few days to shoot, and a few weeks to cure, and a few hours to wet-sand and buff. Of course if you have to do any re-working it can drag on for a long time.
If you can paint certain poly finishes, and have the skills and gear, the finish can be done way faster. I have never done that though!

That's exactly what I was going to say. If you have to do all the finishing and fret/nut-work then the previous post of about 100 hours is correct over a 1 month period. It's easy to do today with all the pre-finished bodies and necks that have already had the work done.