Solo TCK-15 DIY Electric Guitar Kit With Alder Body

(9 customer reviews)

$ USD 199.99

Build Challenge Level. Learn more.

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SKU: TCK-15 Category: Electric Guitar Kits Brand:
Frequently Bought Together
Solo Pro Black Conductive Shielding Paint
Container Size

In stock

from $ USD 12.99
$ USD 89.99
$ USD 18.99

Description

This unfinished guitar kit has everything for building your own TC Style Electric Guitar. You will need only some basic tools and finishing supplies. This kit includes all parts and step-by-step instructions to build a complete, playable custom guitar. All challenging wood cutting, drilling and shaping is already done professionally, as well as fret leveling and dressing.

Recommended tools: Solo Guitar Assembly Kit Bolt-on Neck

Kit Includes:

  • Adler body with a poly sealant
  • Unfinished maple neck with maple fingerboard
  • Hex threaded peghead bushings with washers
  • String Retainers
  • Tuning Machines
  • Strings
  • Strap Buttons
  • Pickguard Assembly
  • Bridge Assembly
  • Neck Plate
  • Control Plate Assembly
  • Full size potentiometers
  • Jack plate (2 mounting screws included)
  • Cord
  • Hex wrench for truss-rod adjustment
  • Allen Key for saddle height adjustment
  • All mounting screws are included
IMPORTANT (in addition to our standard return policy): due to their nature kits can be returned only in virtually untouched condition and in original package.

Additional information

DIY Kit Information
Finish

Style

Body Information
Pickguard

Thickness

Body Material

Neck Information
Fretboard

Construction

Frets

Inlays

Scale Length

Thick Nut

Width Nut

Hardware and Electronics
Hardware Color

Selector Type

Bridge

Controls

Electronics

Pickups

Tuners

Additional Information
Weight

11 lbs

9 reviews for Solo TCK-15 DIY Electric Guitar Kit With Alder Body

  1. Jamie Busch (verified owner)

    I am so happy with this guitar. It is well made, solid, and was easy to assemble. I was worried by the low price that it might not have a good sound, so I just sanded it with 600 grit and put it together. It sounds fantastic. Great neck, no noise, and a wonderful tone and sustain. I only put five strings on it and tuned it open G (Keith Richards style).. could not be more pleased.
    I’m gonna buy another one soon.
    Thank you so much for your excellent product!

  2. lloyd46 (verified owner)

    Very happy with this Kit. It arrived on time and I was very surprised at the Quality of this kit. Proceeded with 7 coats of danish oil on body and neck, and rubbed tung oil on fret board prior to assembly. As oil was applied to the body, after 4 coats it was sanded with 1200 gt wet and dry Sandpaper and Danish oil the last 3 coats were sanded with 1500 gt wet and dry using danish oil as the lubricant. The finish was then waxed several times to produce a gloss finish. I am a senior citizen and have not touched a guitar in 20 years – need a lot of practise LOL. Had one tuning peg that had a bad scrape mark on it, as well as a hard spot when tuning, also one string had the retaining ball fall off of it before tuning. All in all nothing serious Thank You Solo I will be ordering more kits.

  3. jeffrey.boothe (verified owner)

    This was my second kit from solo, the first being the SGK-10, and once again solo doesn’t disappoint. The build quality in the TCK-15 is incredible; the fit of the neck and body joint is perfect so I didn’t need any shimming or trimming and when attaching.

    The fretwork on this maple neck is amazing and doesn’t need any done, no filing of the fret ends, leveling, or crowning required. All I’ve ended up doing to the neck, and it really hasn’t been much, is sanding it to remove the sealer it comes with and finish sand it up to 3000 grit to make it perfectly smooth.

    Speaking to the hardware and electronics in the kit I think both are fine and completely usable. Tuners and bridge/saddles are are nothing special but they do hold intonation well and the pickups sound pretty good for being a stock/cheaper set. The volume and tone pots and the selector switch are all quite solid feeling and seem like they be fine to hold up for a lot of use. Overall quality stuff that would compare to entry level gear from some of the name brand makers.

    That said I did upgrade all of the hardware (for a nickel finish) and electronics to premium parts in order to get my ideal setup. Just a note about some specific issues with the upgrades: I installed CTS 250k pots (one of white was a DPDT push/pull to act as a phase switch) and the routed control cavity in guitar was too narrow for them to fit. To remedy this I had to widen the cavity just a bit but that’s easy enough with a router, dremel, or chisel. If Solo were to take this into account to future-proof the body that would be great but it’s not at all a deal-breaker.

    Overall I am, again, wholly impressed with the quality instrument you get out of the box. Assembly using the standard included parts is incredibly easy and the trickiest part is soldering the pickups to the selector switch. I would definitely pick this kit up again for the fit and finish and the alder gives a subtle grain pattern that is rather nice looking on the finished, stained, guitar.

  4. todd-0390 (verified owner)

    TCK-15 with Alder body.

    I’ve always wanted to build a guitar. After researching the Net for reviews on guitar kits, I selected Solo, and I am not disappointed. I play an Ibanez RG and Godin nylon electric. I’ve never had a Telecaster, so I chose Solo’s TCK-15 with the Alder body.

    The Kit arrived fairly quickly, and was well packaged. Most importantly, the neck fit the body perfectly. So, what was the next step? YouTube! I watched about every video on wood finishing and DIY guitars I could find (research is key)— then got to work.

    First I carved out a belly contour, then a forearm rest and also beveled back the lower horn for better upper register access. Alder turned out be an easy wood to work with and did not require any special expensive tools to make the cuts. I used a 4.5 inch $9.00 40-grit flap disc attached to a borrowed angle grinder to cut the contours. I then sanded the contours in stages up to 600-grit finish with an orbital sander (the only woodworking tool I purchased ($45.00.)

    To finish the body, I used Keda dyes mixed with isopropyl alcohol (rather than water.) Dye is the way to go, not stain.
    I dyed the body Black — then wiped the black out with an alcohol-soaked paper towel, leaving the black in the wood grain. Very light sanding -then applied Keda Red. After that dried, I wiped it back just a bit, to get the look I wanted.

    Once the body was dyed (and dried) -it was time to finish it. I don’t like poly— so (again, Youtube) I went with Tru-Oil. It’s a slow process (15 applications, 12 days)—but well worth the time. For the compound polish, I wanted to use Liquid Ice—but it costs $90 a bottle. Crazy price. So, I used Meguiar’s G17220 Ultimate Compound for $12 at Walmart. Lastly, I applied Gun-stock wax ($6.) The resulting finish is show-room mint.

    As for the neck, I applied only 3-coats of Tru-Oil (not to the fret-board) then buffed it back to a satin feel with 0000-steel wool. The neck, BTW – is nicely pre-finished out of the box. It’s straight, fret wires finished with no sharp edges —a really nice job. It mated perfectly with the body.

    The rest of the Tele was then assembled. All the predrilled parts aligned perfectly. Minor soldering. (wiring diagram available online.) I ditched the included string trees for a single tree that captured the G-B-E – leaving the D-string free for better sustain. I plugged it in and— I have a Tele.

    So— now the cons…

    1- The strings shipped in the box are junk. The G-string broke immediately. They are also unidentified. But— that’s okay. I used the strings to set the action and intonation — and replaced them with a good set of 10’s. Perfect.

    2- The Bridge. I don’t like it. Would be better with 6 individual string adjustments rather than 2-stings on 1 adjustment. The action-leveling hex-screws are too long— stick way above and cut into your palm. I’ve replaced them with shorter ones (hardware store)

    3- the tuners —okay it’s a kit. They are not the best -but not the worst. And replacement locking tuners cost half the price of the kit. But, these work and hold tuning.

    4- The pickups— they sound good. Replace them someday if you want— but out of the box— no issues.

    The Pros—
    1 — I have a Tele. Looks like a tele, sounds like a tele and plays like one.

    2 — It was an absolute blast to make. Flat-out fun. And addictive. (I’ve just finished building Solo’s 12-string Strat -and it’s perfect)

    3 — Recommended? Absolutely. 5-STARS. And I’m ready to build a third (but what to choose?)

    So in the end, I have a fantastic Tele and now a fantastic 12-string Strat ( finished in Keda Blue) The only real tool I treated myself to, ($70) was a set of Nut Files. Way pricey— but I’m into this hobby now. And essential. The only way to set action and intonation, starts at the nut. And the only way to do it right is with real nut files. No way around it. With them I have a Tele and 12-string that play beautifully and effortlessly.

    Thanks Solo. These are really great kits.

  5. Philip Willoughby (verified owner)

    Todd-0390’s review mostly matches my experience.

    My main beef with this kit is that it arrives with the scratchplate screwed to the body. This meant I couldn’t build the guitar I wanted to build with a natural wood finish, direct-mounted neck pickup, and no scratchplate – well I could but it will have 8 highly-visible screw holes in it.

    Annoyingly the body carve/scratchplate are not compatible with any normal telecaster so you can’t just buy something more fancy: the included one and the 2 listed on this site are the only options. I went with making a leather one to get closer to the vibe I was after.

    The neck I received needed a lot of work as there were noticeably-abrasive to the hand rough spots near the headstock. The frets needed several hours work with a fret file to be comfortable to play.

    The included string trees and nut are not good and will need to be replaced if you want good tone and tuning stability. The nut is aggressively glued in with something like cyanoacrylate and is difficult to remove without damaging the slot.

  6. Murray J (verified owner)

    The kit is mostly okay and you can end up with a really nice guitar with a little extra work. I agree with most of the comments already posted concerning the hardware shipped with the kit. The neck fit the body nicely but the set angle of the joint had to be changed so that the bridge had some adjustment room. The bridge plate is hefty but is longer than standard so the bridge barrels end up near the end of the adjustment screws when you set up intonation – longer screws would be very nice. Alternatively the hole routed for the bridge pickup could have been made a little larger to allow the plate to be moved a little closer to the neck.

    I hated the pre-drilled holes as none of them lined up correctly after the finishing was done and it was time to assemble. Every hole had to be filled and redrilled. The pickguard had to be trimmed as the allowance for the bridge plate was too small and not centered.

    The neck pickup was wired out of phase as supplied, resulting in a thin sound with the pickup switch in the middle position. I reversed the connections and changed the grounding strap to correct this. I now have a proper blending of the pickups with a humbucker effect in the middle position.

    The end result is a nice guitar that looks and plays like a Telecaster. The supplied pickups are just fine tone-wise, too. The alder body has a nice resonance so it is a joy to play unplugged.

  7. keranent (verified owner)

    Body was nice and the hardware was complete. One fret on the neck was marred from a fretwire indented in wood. Quality control could be improved.

  8. robert berg (verified owner)

    Great kit My first attempt at putting together a guitar kit and I loved it. The kit parts are of good quality and with some youtube assistance even a non handy man like me was able to even solder. Enjoyed finishing the wood with truoil came out beautifully and looks amazing. The guitar sounds better than I thought it would. The people at Solo were fantastic in helping me through the process and helped me out when I got stuck. I highly recommend getting a kit from Solo.

  9. Rob Tysick

    This is my first kit. Kit was ok for the money. Neck has a twist in it. Tech support was no help at all. I had to figure out the wiring myself. I guess that’s what you get by replacing the pickups. I had replaced the pick ups(texas special), Nut (graphtech), pick gaurd, and saddle(fender). And added ferrals. All in all it was a fun build. I want to make another.

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