this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2024
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I saw a headline on some guitar magazine "These are the most over priced guitars currently". Says a lot and it's true.
There's not much point in throwing money at a brand name anymore. Quality control is long gone and they all come straight out of a factory anyway. It's alright though, because factory quality is decent, and with a little know-how you can easily make them play good.
My best guitar is a $100 kit-build. Acknowledging that I'd need to do a full setup on any guitar I figured I might as well paint and assemble it myself, because I'm not going to pay several hundreds just for a paint job and a logo.
Did you like building your own? I have a used PRS SE 24, which I got for a steal due to paint scuffs, but thought about building my own.
Yes absolutely, I enjoyed it and might do it again sometime with a different kit.
I do have a lot of tools already so that wasn't costly, only good practice, but it did take somewhat longer than I expected.
I wouldn't attempt to make the neck and fretboard from scratch, so a kit with a good neck is a good starting point.
Did you find any useful guides online or on YouTube for getting started? I have a decent set of tools, but this would be a new endeavor for me.
Well aware this would be a “me” guitar and not something that would have much of a value to anyone else. Some people seem to think they are building their own K-Line guitar.
It was all pretty straight forward. The kit was made to be assembled with a bolt on neck all predrilled, so it was basically just shaping the body and headstock and then paint and varnish.
I did look up some painting techniques, but I really just wanted to stain the wood, so I did that with a brush and then 2 coats of varnish. I had to sand the wood first to make it more open for staining instead of paint. If you want to paint or spray paint you should probably keep or make a base coat to avoid the wood absorbing the paint.
It was a cheap stratocaster-like kit, so I wasn't too concerned with making mistakes, but I'll admit that putting the saw into a guitar was a little daunting at first.
I used a multi-cutter for most of it to make very precise cuts. And lots and lots of sandpaper by hand with different grit sizes.
It only took a few evenings to do, so it is not difficult at all, but I guess it depends on how much you want to customize it.
Do you know the brand? Sounds like my next winter project.
I want to make one with normal pickups - Out1 and add a piezo bridge with a three way switch for an Out2. Some of the sounds people are getting by blending the two are incredible.
The kit I used was a Harley Benton from Thomann.
Awesome. Thank you.
No problem. Have fun.
I don't know if there's a community for this, but anyway, this is my "surf guitar".:
It's been a few years but it still looks like the day I made it.