Things I Buy on eBay for Making Guitars

It’s been for a while since I’ve started to buy things on eBay for my guitar projects.
I can not claim that everything what I look for has the best price over there.
For example, some electrical parts: potentiometers, knobs, piezo transducers and other stuff I can find at the local electrical store much cheaper than anywhere else.

Another consideration. I don’t buy any tools on eBay anymore. Yes, they are cheap. But it’s mostly a garbage and waste of your money.
With a little exception. A caliper. See in my list below.

Another limitation. I live in Canada. Our customs limit for the tax free parcels is $20. Otherwise you pay not only the sale taxes but also the brokerage fees.
But we are talking about self made hobby instruments. Right? So it should not be a big problem. Just keep this in mind and consult with your customs regulations if you are not in Canada.

So here is what I usually buy on eBay without any problems:

• 
  Single Coil PickupIt will cost you between $3 and $4. Usually takes up to 3 weeks to deliver but the shipping is free. Not very good quality but overall quality is OK. Plus I always do the shielding which helps a lot with the buzzing sound elimination

• Precision Jazz Bass Bridge
  No. I’m not building too many bass guitars. Just only one I did for a while ago.
  But now I’m mostly making the Cigar Box Guitars. And one of the main quality of the CBG is that it rarely has more than 4 strings. In case you find that bass bridge has too big distance between the strings you may want to get one for 6 strings.
  Just remove the upper and the lower saddles (You will be able to recycle it in some future project. That’s exactly what I did in P-Bass Cigar Box Guitar

• 4 String Noiseless Pickup Set
• And again it is not for making the basses.  The cost is around $5. Not so expensive for the set of 2 pickups,eh? You just solder it to the guitar jack or add some controls and you are good to go with whatever your project is. So far I used them in 2 projects:
  • – P-Bass Pickups Cigar Box Guitar. The frequency range makes this beast roar.
  • – P-Bass Cigar Box Stomp Box. Same here. Low frequency makes the stomp box sound like a major tom. Almost. 🙂