Hey Racer X
I was thinking of buying a guitar kit to learn some of the basic of guitar building and to learn what is under the hood of a guitar. do you have any kits to recommend? carvin? saga? wd?
any thoughts and advice would be appreciated.
For an economical guitar that all the parts fit together and a good quality instrument will be the final result, I imagine Carvin would be a pretty good place to start. My favorite is Warmoth neck and body,then all other parts from various sources.
With Carvin, you are basically assembling a guitar that they make as a production model, so there should be no surprises. Get some finish on there and bolt it together,done!
With Warmoth, you are getting exceptional woods, precision fit between parts, and all the holes for bridges and pickups right where they should be.Carvin does that too, but Warmoth offers more variety of shape and style in both necks and bodies. That said, the Warmoth way is the way to build a top shelf instrument, not the cheap way to a decent one.
Allparts and WD both offer imported parts to build your own instruments. Frankly, I feel a finished instrument from either company's parts will just be an import guitar built domestically. Doesn't make it bad, but I would rather put my time into a guitar that flirts with greatness.
Grizzly tool company also has kits to build a PRS style guitar that looks reasonably cool. Check them out too.
racer x
thanks for the advice.
have you heard of this company?
Yes, I'm a WD dealer. If there is something from them that I can get for you cheaper than going through their website, I will.
Which kit? Single cut or double cut?
I haven't seen the neck from these kits. That would be my decision maker.
How much of the work do you want to do?
Do you want to do a finish? Make it as simple as possible? You can really pick any level of assembly to work from. Pre-finished bodies and necks,pre-wired pickup assemblies,neck and body predrilled for hardware. You can have a good guitar that is pretty much a screwdriver job if you want.
Or...
You can create your own design. Your own body shape from a wood that you choose. Any finish you want from none to intense graphic finish by an airbrush artist. Budget and imagination are the only barriers. I'll give any advice I can regarding pickups,hardware,woods,construction style(bolt-on,glued-in,neck-thru) and their effect on sound.
Keep in mind that Carvin sells Neck-thru blanks to build your own guitar. I have used one years ago, and the final product was excellent,and still in use 20-something years later.
Oh wait, that's not it...
Here it is!
Please note that I built this a LONG time ago. I'm a bit better at it now.