Guitar kit

U

undeadstrife

New member
So I have been thinking about trying to build a guitar and I think a good place to start would be an inexpensive guitar kit. Do you guys have any experience with these or can give me some pointers. Or would you recommend saving up and trying to build one from scratch? I know there was a thread on this before but I cannot find it.
 
Re: Guitar kit

If you've never held a tool in your hand before, run any powered machinery, or done any exacting, close tolerance work - FORGET the "from scratch" part, OK? Most kits you might be able to handle with a screwdriver and a soldering iron.
 
Re: Guitar kit

I used to help my grandfather with some carpentry work and I have an uncle who is a wood worker. I have held and used the tools. The only thing that I really need to learn how to use is a soldering iron. :smack:
 
Re: Guitar kit

Got a kit for Christmas year before last. Kit came from ebay. Built it with no probs. Wound up reshaping the neck and doing a custom wiring setup with a blend pot, Duncan single coils in neck and mid, single-sizes humbucker in the neck, hand cut the pick guard from birch. Finished with Tru Oil on the neck and nitro on the body.

Had to do some minor sanding to get the neck to fit perfectly, especially the pocket angle. But overall it went together pretty easily. Don't expect top shelf quality, but still better than a Barracuda or other cheapie. With the good pickups it sounds pretty good, and I think it turned out to be a decent player. A gigging musician I know likes it, so take that for what you think it's worth.

If you want to chat about it in more detail, feel free to pm me.
 
Re: Guitar kit

i made a V from Albatross brand kits that can be found on reverb, etsy, and ebay. Guitar came out nice and with a custom5 it sounds airey versus a custom5 in my epiphone les paul
 
Re: Guitar kit

There have been some real horror stories with cheap kits. The glue-in necks are more troublesome......poor neck joins where every face needs work.....gaps between neck heel and body such that once fixed you need routing work for the neck pickup etc etc.

On the other hand sometimes those kits turn up and they go together smoothly.........its a lottery really.

Kits are a small exercise in gluing wood, then a big exercise in prep/painting.
If you want a good but inexpensive kit then a SG Jr from Precision kits is the way to go.

If you feel like building from scratch then buying some wood for a body and going for a Tele template kit is perhaps the easiest starting point - especially with a toploading bridge that negates the need for the through body ferrule drilling. Similarly a hardtail strat would be equally do-able. Buy a premade neck and you're off.
 
Re: Guitar kit

I'm not sure I'd want to use a Floyd provided with a kit. Likely to have poor workmanship and a host of probs. And cost of a decent Floyd is way out of proportion to what a finished kit is worth. If you want a floyded guitar, spend some $$ on a used Ibanez with an Edge or something with an OFR or Schaller made Floyd.

I'm happy with my kit, but I also managed my expectations and am not under any illusions that it is Fender quality, or even Gibson. It's better than cheap Chinese knockoffs, but a good mid level guitar like a Jackson JS will kill it quality wise.

I bought my pickups used, and treated it as a learning experience, and it exceeded my expectations, so I'm happy.

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Re: Guitar kit

undeadstrife said:
What would you guys say about this one?

http://www.byoguitar.com/Guitars/Electric-Guitar-Kit---JS-Style__BYO-JS.aspx
Click to expand...

That hardware and pickups are really, really cheapo stuff. As Taz said before me, a cheap floyd can turn into a nightmare. On low-budget guitar, the key factor is to keep things simple and basic, since the cost/quality can be a little higher. Furthermore, if this is your first build, a floyd rose can be quite tricky. Go with little steps and you go the long way ;) .
 
Re: Guitar kit

I built two Solo Guitar Kits. A tele that was quite good and an explorer that I absolutely love. Their stuff is good and cheap. Fretwork is ok and the materials are good enough. If you want to try building a kit withiut investing too much in case something gets messed up, they're a good option.
 
Re: Guitar kit

If you have access to some woodworking tools like a band saw, drill press, and a router you can buy a neck and hardware and make your own body. It is not that hard to do.
If it comes out great, that's great. If it comes out "okay" you can build another body. And if you hate it or get discouraged and never finish it you can resell the neck and parts and use the wood for a fire.
 
Re: Guitar kit

Dave Locher said:
If you have access to some woodworking tools like a band saw, drill press, and a router you can buy a neck and hardware and make your own body. It is not that hard to do.
If it comes out great, that's great. If it comes out "okay" you can build another body. And if you hate it or get discouraged and never finish it you can resell the neck and parts and use the wood for a fire.
Click to expand...
I don't disagree with Dave above, but if you do this, you need to make absolutely sure that the bridge placement is perfect or it will never intonate properly. Also the angle on the bottom plane of the neck pocket, which is not flat. Get that wrong, and you won't be able to get the action low without fret buzz.

Doing your own body is great for pride, and gives you the ability to be creative and original. The advantage of a kit body is the pre drilled bridge location and the neck and neck pocket being cnc cut to match each other. You choose according to your own skills and confidence.

For myself, I did the kit first and kept it simple to build my experience. Baby steps. YMMV
 
Re: Guitar kit

Here is a tip for locating the bridge: make or buy a simple trapeze tailpiece, string up both E strings, and move the bridge around on the body until the strings are centered on the edges of the neck AND the intonation is correct. Mark the location and that's where you drill. You just piece or two of cardboard under the bridge to give it the necessary height while you slide it around into position.
I did the on my scratch-built with a TOM and with a wraparound bridge on a Tele body. (Obviously this won't work for a strat-style bridge. I have no idea how to do that!)
 
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