"The more you tinker, the easier it becomes. You get used to remixing and improving your projects. You do research and get excited about what to try next. You get inspired by other people’s work. You might fall in love with an idea or get obsessed with finding the answer to a question. You’ll discover you don’t know all the answers."
― Ryan Jenkins
A few months back during Fender's initial "Cease and Desist" debacle, I started looking into PRS (Paul Reed Smith) guitars again. Dave's Guitar Shop had an open-box S2 Vela at an incredible discount, so I jumped on it. It's my second PRS—I had bought an SE Hollowbody a while back, but eventually sold it after never quite bonding with it. The S2 Vela, on the other hand, is definitely a keeper.
The treble pickup is a PRS DS-01 and the bass is a PRS Narrowfield, rendering a retro-voiced growl which I find great for the type of blues-rock I like to play.
In other guitar news, I recently swapped around a few necks and bodies on my partscasters. People love to debate what actually qualifies as a true partscaster, but to me, the defining line is straightforward: if the neck and body weren't originally joined together by Fender at the factory, it's a partscaster. Some players hate them, others like to tinker with them to learn more about guitars.
The CBS-style rosewood neck above was on a Performer Aubergine body, but I replaced it with this Arctic White one, which is also a Performer model.
The Eric Johnson maple neck went to the Aubergine body ...
This deserves a closer look ...
Just look at that neck alignment ...
A build I just completed yesterday consists of a Vintera II 2-tone sunburst body I've had for a while. I was going to sell it, but decided to make it a budget project. I got the maple neck for $180 from Mighty Mite, which is licensed by Fender. This is my second neck from them and I have to say their quality is really quite good.
The neck pocket needed a bit of extra routing to get the neck level. It was painstaking work, but I managed to pull it off without marring the body finish. It's pretty common for necks and bodies from different makers to lack the seamless alignment of a factory build.
The pickups are '58s from a Vintera III, which I got from TheSTRATosphere on eBay for $200.
Decals sourced from an Etsy seller added the finishing touch, giving it an authentic '50s Strat aesthetic. Total new investment in the build came to around $500. Partscasters rarely hold high resale value as complete instruments, making parting them back out the only real way to recoup your money.
Half the fun of building partscasters is the hands-on process itself. There's something deeply satisfying about taking separate components, solving fit and alignment quirks along the way, and dialing everything in until it plays the way you want it to.
All images © 2026 Mike McDowell