Guitar Building & Guitar Repairs Forum

Has anyone tried one of these http://www.jpgelectronics.com/product_p/174.460.htm or something similar? i know its not the full on guitar build and if the quality is fair and i can make something that sounds half decent without buzzing all over the place i'd be pretty happy.

Any other kit recomendations?

I saw that kit selling for £63 not more than 6 months ago.

really? well to be fair its just an idea and i would dig around a bit more to find a good price etc. but just wondering if anyone has had any experience with a kit good or bad

I was considering building a kit guitar but I took the plunge and ordered all the bits separately in the end.
The best one I found was a Strat kit that came from America but it was £400 before import duties and delivery costs so would have had to be a very very good kit.

There are some kits out there with badly cut ply bodies, and necks that could have been made by a five year old ... beware!

Yes was a bit worried that taking a plunge and buying a kit would end up with some cheapo rubbish that sounds like a bumble bee when u play it.

I guess sourcing the bits separately is kind of like buying a kit anyway just a little more time consuming. Where did you get the bits and bobs from? And those that have "self built" would you recommend it over buying? I am after a strat so it's either make or buy

I made up an SG kit from Guitar Warehouse in Dublin. I know they do Strat kits for €89 but would caution a couple of things. Tuners are rubbish and will need better ones. For me, their humbucker pickups are a bit mushy, so I added an IronGear hot one in the bridge which brought it to life nicely.
The actual kit was pretty good for a first attempt at a set neck. Went together just fine and now plays with a great action and perfect intonation. The rest depends on your finishing skills but well worth the effort to bring them up a few notches. The neck is decently straight and individually matched to the body. One or two fret ends needed a little filing to get a nice feel but I have seen far worse on budget guitars. Mine has basswood body with mahogany neck and rosewood fretboard, so pretty standard and no sign of plywood anywhere.

Brian

I've not done the full-kit thing before, but I've built a couple from separately bought parts.

The most cost efficient way is often to buy a couple of guitars as "breakers", taking the best bits from each then selling the rest as parts. It's more up-front investment but can get you a better guitar for less investment by the end of the process

Kit you are looking at is a solid Alder body though it looks like it is made from more pieces than a box of matches.
You could do it a bit at a time. Buy an unloved "orphan" from Gumtree or Cash Converters. Take it to bits, clean it, re-assemble and set up. Then get a reasonable body and finish it how you want. Then transfer the bits over to that body. Next upgrade the hardware, as little or as much at a time as you wish. Some time later get a quality neck. Fit that and transfer the hardware over to that. You can steadily improve and manage the cost until a year or so from now you have a quality instrument to your own specification.
When I built my Tru-caster I had a long wait for the neck I required so I fitted a temporary "B" quality neck which is now on my Blue Strat.

http://www.axesrus.com/axecart.htm


axetec too plus there's a few decent quality people on ebay,CHGuitars,CDGuitars,Wild Rainbow Music,Woodwoo2