Description
This DIY guitar kit has everything you need for building your own TC Style Electric Guitar. You will only need 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 has already been professionally done, as well as fret leveling and dressing.
Recommended tools: Solo Guitar Assembly Kit Bolt-on Neck
Kit includes:
- Unfinished Basswood body
- Unfinished maple neck with Rosewood 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)
- Ground Wire
- 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.
jlarf (verified owner) –
This is my second Solo kit. The first was the Spalted Maple TC kit. I am a hobbyist player/builder, and this kit was finished, assembled, and setup in my garage. I used simple tools that would be found in anyone’s home tool box. As with the first kit, this one arrived within 4 days of my order placement. Upon receipt I unboxed and assembled it to test fitment. Compared with Spalted kit the neck to body fit was much better with this kit, as was the cavity routing. The neck to bridge alignment was very good. In general everything went together well. The ash burl veneer was truly beautiful. If it wasn’t book matched you would have to work hard to convince me. The neck was very good and required only a minor tweak of the truss rod. I did find the fret ends to be a little sharp and I a couple that were a bit high. A little bit of dressing took care of those issues. My only complaint was the tool marks on the perimeter of the body. They required more sanding than I experienced with the Spalted kit.
Of course finishing is about individual tastes. Basswood is pretty boring in my opinion, so I finished the back and sides in a hammered copper paint (rattle can). With wood as beautiful as the ash burl I decided to let it speak for itself and used wipe on polyurethane. In combination with black binding, I’m very happy with my choice of finishes.
I setup the guitar with a medium low action and D Addario 9’s. Intonation is tough to dial in. Compensated saddles would be and inexpensive and good upgrade. It sounds good both clean and with some dirt dialed in. The pickups have a clear bell like chime when clean and will growl when you add some distortion. My grandkids are going to love this guitar. Git ya one!
geoff.c.dewar (verified owner) –
This purchase has been a great experience. The product was delivered quickly. There were no missing parts. The neck was a bit wide but, thanks to customer support, I was able to sand down the block for a nice tight fit. The body and neck have been sanded and made ready for the rest of the finishing. The grain is popping out nicely. There are a number of really helpful How-To videos on You Tube. The ones by a Brad Angove I found especially helpful. I am looking forward to finishing this project and starting another one of the products that SOLO offers. Great work, guys.
twgray (verified owner) –
I have built two of the Tele kits. The Burled Ash and a Spalted Maple. Everything was pretty doggone good and I would have given 4 possibly five stars but for a couple of irritating issues;
1. On the burled ash kit, the neck has a “ramp” at the nut and to make it worse, the nut is WAY too tall. Play-ability is not very good and probably going to be a PAIN to fix. I’d be better off tossing this neck and buying another. That’s about my only problem with this one. The pickups are not to shabby but I have plans to replace them already.
2. With the Spalted Maple kit, there are two or three low frets on an otherwise dead straight neck that I should be able to make play like butter. I will have to do a full leveling, re crowning and polishing job. Same kit, the pre-drilled mounting holes for the bridge are incorrect. The bridge sits at an angle with the pickup just barely fitting the cavity on the treble side. I will end up pulling the bridge, filling the three holes toward the treble side and re-drilling. While doing that I may also drill it for string-through stringing and add ferrules.
Overall GREAT… I would like to see a little bit more attention to detail. I will be buying another kit though. Thinking maybe a Fly with a dipped swirl paint job…
lleazenby (verified owner) –
Everything was included in the package and everything seem to fit snug as it should. The problem I had was not knowing that there was a veneer on the back of this guitar also. I was doing some wood-burning decorations and had a problem with the thin veneer on the back blistering. BEWARE of the thin veneer. Not quite sure how to fix it, any suggestions?
talk_to_lb (verified owner) –
no missing parts , fast shipping , fun project!
Michael Bennison (verified owner) –
This was my first attempt at building my own guitar so wasn’t sure what to expect. What I can say is that these guitars offer great value for the money and if you take your time you can create a nice final product. There are lots of good videos out there, I relied heavily on the Brad Angrove videos. Things that could be improved were relatively minor, the bridge did not line up correctly with the pre-drilled holes same for the switch plate and I had to remove a small amount of material from the pick guard to get the switch plate to sit in the hole that was routed. Overall I am quite pleased for my first attempt. Hope to do a Les Paul next
Gregory Bisharat (verified owner) –
There’s a lot of great value in this kit. As much as I would have loved to give this 5 stars, there are some definite flaws I came across in building this.
While the veneer is quite beautiful, mine had a couple minor chips in it, which is just another obstacle to get a consistent sheen to your finish if that’s what you’re after. Anyone wanting to get a consistent sheen will need to grain fill – there are some deep pores in the ash! The basswood back doesn’t require grain filling in my opinion, but up to you. On the sides of the body I received, one side had some of the most beautiful basswood figuring I’ve ever seen, the other side had far from seamless, mismatched colour tones, unfortunately. If that bothers someone, you may need to consider painting to cover up. When sanding the body (by hand), I found it best to use sandpaper on a level beam so you sand the entire face in a pass, to ensure the body is perfectly level (as mine wasn’t perfectly level) – particularly helpful so you don’t have breaks in your finish sheen (especially for a wipe-on finish). The veneer is fairly thin so don’t go too crazy with the sanding, but at the same time this is one of the most important steps to the finishing process. Personally I would sand to a higher grit than recommended in the manual, until the raw wood starts reflecting light. The neck itself shouldn’t require nearly as much sanding.
Some of the holes for the control plate and bridge plate weren’t pre-drilled perfectly, so I had to fill those, re-align, and re-drill.
My neck fit perfectly into the body. The neck did require some fretwork. My neck did not come to me perfectly straight, so I used a notched straight edge to get it perfectly flat prior to level filing the frets. The truss rod adjustment at the headstock is a plus for me (compared to vintage style at heel). The nut sat a bit high (in my opinion) so you may want to pop that out and sand the bottom down if you prefer a lower action. Just note the nut is glued in so maybe best to watch a tutorial on how to successfully pop it out without damage, but it’s fairly simple and should come out clean. The nut seems to be plastic, so one may want to upgrade the material here.
As for the hardware, does the job if you’re wanting to keep it stock, and the stock is fairly decent. However, if you’re wanting to upgrade your electrical or pickups, the kit hardware may not work for you. Bourns/CTS pots will not fit thru the stock control plate. These pots are also a tight fit into the control cavity, one may need to dremel to make them fit. Also you’ll likely need new knobs and switch tip if upgrading the electrical – so check your pot type and dimensions (i.e. split shaft vs solid shaft). My aftermarket pickups did not fit thru the bridge plate, so I had to get a new bridge plate. Just note most tele bridge plates are mounted with 4 screws, while the kit bridge plate is a 3 hole mount. There are 3 hole mount aftermarket bridges, but most are intended for string-thru bodies – this kit is a top loader with no drill holes for string thru. Compensated saddles would be a good upgrade for anyone doing this kit for intonation purposes (if keeping it traditional with the 3 saddle style) – the saddle material also has tone implications, so keep that into consideration if wanting to upgrade here. I found the gotoh compensated brass saddles to fit compatibly with the stock bridge plate.
Despite the above, the folks at Solo were super helpful, answered all my inquiries in a timely manner, and were really great to deal with. You really learn the ins and outs of a guitar with these kits, and now I can proudly say I have an awesome guitar!
Keith Hicks (verified owner) –
The veneer is simply, much too thin. It does not allow for any of the steps one needs to complete for a very customized finish. The binding was, well, it was there…but had many gaps which were caused by chipping of the veneer edges during manufacturing process. However, having said that, everything else was machined correctly and accurately. I could not give an accurate review concerning hardware and electronics, because I never intended to use them. I put a bone nut, Seymore Duncan p/u dual rail humbuckers both bridge & neck, upgraded to 500k push pull pots to split the p/u’s, I used gotoh brass saddles, and a set of locking tuners. I had to dress the frets a bit, but I do that with most any guitar I buy. All said and done, it will play and sound as good as any of my guitars, and sound better than most of my high end Fender guitars. I also purchased an lp style 3 p/u style, and a jazz style bass…so we will see how they turn out, I haven’t started them yet. However, during the initial test fit, the lp style is going to need some attention immediately as the set joint is cut 7° off square. But, overall, the veneer is the only real issue I have with the kit. It was so thin, the adhesive wicked thru to the surface.
All in all, I’ll give it 4.5 stars and will enter it in the guitar of the month through SOLO.
carroltonaudio1 (verified owner) –
I’ll dispose of the one negative first. The ash burl top, although perfectly matched, has screw holes for a pickguard. I can only hope that this kit, in the future, would be available with the holes drilled for a pickguard.
The rest is all positive. I don’t consider the mods I had to do to make my Seymour 59 set fit the guitar or the routing of the control cavity to make room for CTS pots. It’s a great kit to start with. I bought this kit to learn how to apply a finish. The neck fit perfectly. The frets did not have any spurring but did need a wee bit of filing. I was expecting such. Other than the above things (that were expected), I have no complaints with this instrument. I’m more than likely going to purchase a few more kits to continue my finishing experiments.
chrisgwallace –
This was my first Solo kit. The Burl ash looks great with an amber dye job. It looked so good, I refused to hide any of it with a pickguard. I filled in the pre-drilled holes by gluing toothpicks in them and trimming them flush the next day. Wood quality was really good and the only modification I made was to drill holes for through-body string routing. The binding was nicely done and I didn’t have a any excess glue to deal with.
I didn’t use the included hardware so I can’t comment on it but the neck adjusted well and aligned with my replacement bridge. The neck feels good as well, beefier than my Mexican Tele neck. Now I want all the Solo Teles.
thefalz (verified owner) –
I ordered an ash burl kit, at the same time, I ordered upgraded hardware and electronics .
The body was a bit uneven at the joint, but finished ok. I used clear polyurethane, polished by hand. Not used to a flat (ish) neck, but I’ll get used to that. 25 k pots, seymour duncan quarter Pounders, some frett levelling, a good set up, and I have a beautiful new guitar, that I’d put up against high end Telecasters anytime.
strummerfan –
I found the fit of the parts to be good on the example I purchased. The frets needed some leveling, and the nut required some filing as it was too high for comfort. I replaced the tone pot with a Fender TBX, and the switch with a four way switch, which required enlarging the route in those areas, and enlarging the hole for the tone control on the control plate. I replaced the bridge inserts with Wilkinson compensated brass ones which fit perfectly. I originally planned on putting in a set of Fender pickups, but I actually really liked the sound of the ceramic single coils that came with the kit, especially with the four way mod, so I’ve kept them. I’ve been playing it for a year now, and everything remains stable. I used Saman cherry stain and wipe on clearcoat to finish the body, and it still looks as good as the day I buffed it out. Great product.
bluesfan (verified owner) –
This is my 16th kit from Solo and again it was a very well packaged fast shipment.
The body was well cut and routed. The neck pocket also was perfect. The Ash burl Top
has just a great grain with no glue spots and nicely done black binding. The neck is straight
with levelled frets that only needed light polish, no dressing to do. Also purchased Wilkinson
Vintage bridge, tuners, Solo string ferrules and custom cut neck plate. I wanted to make a
Nashville Tele so I bought a pickguard routed for 2 single coils.
Body Mods:
I did plug the screw holes for the pickguard and bridge then redrilled. Drilled new holes for
the string ferrules. Routed the body for the middle pickup. Carved a belly cut and trimmend the
neck pocket to fit the custom cut neck plate.
Electronic mods:
Changed the pickup switch for a 5 way blade. Changed the volume pot a A250K brass sleeve push /push type so
I can add the bridge pickup at any time and get the Neck and Bridge together for the classic Tele tone. and the
standard Strat tones plus all 3 pickups at once. Very versatile.
Also changed the tone pot for a B250K with brass sleeve. Did a vintage wiring to the tone pot.
Pickups:
Neck and Middle are Lipstick tubes 5 and 6 K alnico II and the bridge is a Standard 7 K alnico V.
Finish:
After sanding the Poly Sealant with a lot of care I applied Saman Water Based Emerald Green stain.
Note that I thinned the stain with 30% water for the top to make it more translucent and reveal the
Ash Burl grain. Then I applied 4 thin coats of Samans Wated based Flat varnish. Always buffing the
grey Scotch Bright pads between each coat.
The final set up was no issue. Lower the nut slots a bit check the neck relief (was at .002” perfect)
and set the intonation and low action. I have no buzz or choking notes.
She look stunning and plays fantastic. Can’t ask for more. A very fun build.
Thanks again Solo.
Michel