DIY Electric Guitar Kit LP Style Build Your Own Guitar Kit

Really proud for my first project!

This was my first kit guitar. The quality of the neck fit is excellent! The veneer top is a bit thin and glue around the binding is a pain to get off without sanding through the veneer. I finished the top using Rit fabric dye and then sealed it with Minwax wipe-on polyurethane. The back of the body and neck were finished with boiled linseed oil. The whole project took me about a week to put finished and put together. If you can run a soldering iron, sandpaper, a screwdriver, apply simple wood finishes, and a bottle of wood glue, you can build this guitar. The tuning knobs are rather cheap and should be replaced. The rest of the hardware acceptable and the guitar has a nice tone. I would highly recommend it.

I’ve been in the process of building mine still. For the money you really can’t beat this build kit. The precision in how the neck sets in was excellent, hardware eh you get what you pay for. It’s cheaper and most of the parts I’m swapping are not that expensive besides pick ups. Guitars very sturdy. I ended up leveling the frets, crowning, and polishing them. Isn’t necessary as it comes pretty close out of the box. The rosewood fretboard needs to be conditioned right away. I made the mistake of putting painters tape on it for the fret job and masking for paint and splintered up some of the wood. Had to sand and condition but that was my ignorance. I have to give this 5 stars because you can’t beat the price point. Best $160.00 guitar you’ll find in my opinion. Just junk most of the hardware and upgrade a few things and it makes a pretty mean axe. Also when you’re sanding the maple top be very careful not to sand through it but also make sure you’re sanding all the glue off because you will notice it very easily if you stain.

My first wood working/guitar build. Really enjoyed putting it together. Folks are correct, the vineer is thin but manageable if you are sparse on sanding and thin out (denatured alcho) and wait for every application of stain to completely dry between. The electronics... work. But you get what you pay for. Expect to need a radius block and fret tools. Expect to replace the plastic nut with bone. Expect a strangely narrow fretboard. Expect some rough wood and needing to put some time getting it right at every step. But most of all, expect your friends and family to be amazed at what you did. Go in knowing the more you put into it, the more detail you put it, the better the final product will be. Surprisingly good tone wood in the body and neck in my kit. I am looking to do another!

This is a really cheap kit, and one should totally expect that. I bought this as a test to see if I'm any good at this sort of thing, fully understanding that this isn't high quality. So far, the main thing I've noticed is that the binding around the body is not put on very well. There was extra glue at the binding that didn't get removed, and apparently some of the glue that was wiped off got pushed into the wood grain. I'm staining it, and there are splotches all around the body where the stain won't take. On further examination, there's a significant amount of glue embedded into the grain, and sanding hasn't been able to get it out. So I'll be changing the finish to hide that.