DIY Electric Guitar Kits with Mahogany Body and Neck - Laurel Wood Fingerboard and All Components Included

OK, so I'm one of the people who received a kit with no manual, but I can't ding it. There are plenty of videos of people building these online. For the money, this kit is extremely valuable for just the body and the neck. I have not assembled it yet because I have other custom parts coming such as a new loaded pickguard with AlincoV Humbuckers, Locking Tuners, a new Tremolo System and new strings. I have, however checked it out thoroughly. The neck is straight, and my fret rocker did not detect any fret issues to speak of. The neck has a really nice feel to it and fits snugly into the neck pocket on the body. The body is solid and will look good either as-is or stained and oiled or painted. I can't speak to the electronics, Tuners, or Tremolo System since I won't be using the ones supplied. You do get everything you need to build a fully working strat for a beginner, but I invested in upgrades out of the gate. I fully expect this to be a nice, playable strat from everything I have seen. The fret work is really good out of the box, but I will crown, polish and round any rough edges, which are really not bad at all as is. It comes with plenty of copper tape for shielding to help reduce noise level or interference. I've messed around with guitars for years, but I am a beginner builder and I am looking forward to working on this to make a nice quality budget player.

Nice kit, fun to put together. easy to piece together. My only issue is that I had to buy neck shims and shim the neck to get the action to be playable. After a little tinkering I was able to get it. plays nice. The tuning pegs are kinda cheap so you may wanna buy new ones. they stay in tune, but there is issue with the feel quality. nice quality wood. pretty and feels good. I plan to go over it with a super high grit sand paper and a finish oil.

Just received it. This kit is very well done. About all you have to do is sand it, finish the wood and assemble the pieces. There is an assembly booklet. The steps are very easy. I checked the pick guard and neck for fit - good. Checked the jack for fit -- had to rotate the connector and bend a lug. The neck and body are smooth. I will sand the neck and body with 400 then 800 grit. I don't plan on changing the shape of the head, I think it looks fine. There is a Fender Stratocaster template if you want to change it. The neck will be coated with Tung Oil or Gun Stock Oil. Not sure about the fret board protection. The body will be stained a transparent blue with a solid blue, same tint, on the side and back. I may use a tiny bit of black stain around the front and sides, rubbing most off, but not sure yet. The body is roasted pine. The grain on mine is very nice, not super bold. The back has more bold grain but that is fine. Very satisfied so far. Will report back when the build is complete. Update: it is working. I don't believe the instruction booklet shows how to add the copper shielding. I lined the voids where the pickup goes. It has conducting adhesive. I used 9 coats of Tru Oil on the neck and fret board. Very thin layered. Looks and feels great. I applied two coats of Howard Feed-N-Wax to the neck and body. I used a water based blue stain, putting it on so it streaked. It shows the grain through under the streaks. Looks unique. It sounds good to me. Setup: the nut was very high. Fret the 3rd it should be 0.2mm at the 2nd - was way over, like 1mm. I filed it with cheap $7 round nut files - get a $25 file set as you cannot hold on to the small round files. The top needs to be filed so the strings are 1/3 in the slot (verify). It needs to be angled deeper at the head end. The neck truss bar may need adjusting to stop fret buzz. Don't adjust without string tension. Be sure the bridge saddles aren't maxed in either direction - it is a 25.5 inch guitar, inside nut edge to the contact point on the saddle. From there, the saddle needs adjusting for intonation when fretting at the 12th fret - same note as open, just higher frequency. Watch YouTube videos before filing the nut! The nut can be replaced with a bone nut but if the height is wrong, it will have to be filed down or it will hurt to play, particularly the first couple frets.

This is for the AL version! First kit I've ever put together! It was mostly great! Pics of relevant pros and cons. Pros: Went together very quickly. Wood grain is not awful. All holes lined up. Can set the neck or bolt it. Kit came in very protective package. kit has wire connectors, no soldering Cons: 1. Tuners rattled every time a string was played. 2. The ground cable on the spring tensioner broke while installing - just pinned it under the spring - works fine! 3. the nut that came with kit is kinda weak, I stripped one of the bolts the first time tightening it. 4. the nut was to high on fret side and action was so high that fretting the first 3 frets would not play correct pitch. 5. the nut didn't have enough of a break angle to keep the string on the nut in the first place. so when i tightened the locking bolts, it de-tuned the guitar. 6. Floyd Rose bridge was a pain in the pants to setup. this was the first point in the build where i needed instructions. naturally I followed the link provided in the box. the video "instructions" are a very short, shoddy video, kinda putting it together and then doing the hard bits off screen... one second it didn't have the bridge, and boom like magic the Floyd rose was just installed. so for anyone trying to install a Floyd rose for the first time, youtube this "guns and guitars Floyd rose Strat" watch the video and you'll probably be good. Here is what i needed to replace and buy to get this guitar to stay in tune, and to chug. 1 Tuners - I got nice auto trimming locking tuners, but any decent set will do. 2. genuine Floyd rose locking nut, german made, seems better than one sent. 2.a. had to sand down under the nut quite a bit before I could get a low enough action. 3. string retainer bar - to increase break angle, so strings would rest on the nut fully 4. needed to get more springs, the 3 sent with package are good enough for light gage strings, but not for heavier gages, so i got a 3 pack of the black Floyd rose genuine springs and found the perfect balance. TLDR: Great Kit, could use a few modifications, but even with everything i replaced, it was still under 300 including the kit. The pickup is fine, its not great, but its not as bad as i thought, considering a decent emg or seymore are the same price as the whole kit. The single pot is fine, it needs to be cleaned and lubed, has a little noise bleed through when turning the knob. putting the back cover on upside down gives me access to the spring screws, so i can adjust without taking it off. also fist time I've tried to do a paint job, its something... it can chug. RIP Alexi Laiho

Arrived SUPER fast, and was very much as it was advertised. I really can't believe that they can put a quality guitar kit together for a little more than it would cost me to just buy the wood. Yes, the body is made up of three pieces of miss matched mahogany so a natural finish is out of the question. This guitar body is paint grade ready when it arrives. The neck is great, the frets are in very well. There are no gaps between the bottom of the fret and the neck, and they are well dressed. I did have to file a couple of frets down, so just a minor fret level job. Everything works great, but I will be changing out the pickups for a much higher quality pair. There is nothing wrong with the stock ones but they are a little shrill for my taste. All in all this is a GREAT kit at AMAZING price.

Leo, not sure if this is your real name but, Boy , have you got this right! This kit is Amazing, yes, with a capital 'A'. Start with the packaging, each component individually boxed and well protected. A large instruction booklet in colour that details every step in the build process so vividly, I have had tons of kits and have never seen anything like this before. The body really IS made of Poplar and not Chinese Paulownia like so many misrepresented items for sale on line. The neck is top quality Hard Maple and very well made. The hardware kit is all individually wrapped and looks exceptional, even the chrome plating is faultless. I could go on and on but I must say, as a born cynic and Not easily impressed, I am Very Impressed! Value for money, 110%.

The guitar looks good on first inspection. Very nice body. The instruction book is awesome. The frets will need a bit of work as there are some sharp edges. I like how the screws are in small individual sections.

Quality of fabrication is very poor. Neck is not a perfect fit to the body ( lose and has free play All directions). Deep scratches on the body and visible impurity on fret board top wood. Returning the item

“Poplar” body strat kit - Neck appears well made straight and of decent wood. Minimal fret work needed, just a little smoothing of sharp ends. The body is very soft and light, seems more similar to pine than poplar. Wood grain is pleasant and would look ok with an oil finish. I’m going to prime and paint. I have applied a wood hardener to firm up the surface in hopes of reducing dents and dings in the future. I regret not spending the extra $10 for the “mahogany” body option. I have ordered a mahogany SG kit that I am quite happy with the quality of wood. If I had the neck I received along with the body in mahogany I think I’d be very happy. All the routing and drilling appears clean and accurate. The hardware and electronics appear low quality but serviceable. I purchased the kit to see how nice of a guitar I could build out of it. From what I can tell so far it’s going to be a nice foundation to work off of. Update - Fretboard is artificial fiber composite. Very dense and uniform. I tried to remove the plastic nut to upgrade to bone and had tear out of the material on the tuner head side of the nut. Whatever is used to glue the nut in is the most tenacious adhesive I have ever experienced. I was unable to separate the torn out fretboard from the plastic nut even when the joint was heated to the point that the nut was soft and deforming. instead of regluing the torn out material I chose to file out the remainder of the fretboard and glue in an ebony block to reshape.