Description
This DIY guitar kit has everything you need for building your own Semi-Hollow 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 – Set Neck
Kit includes:
- Maple body with a poly sealant
- Unfinished mahogany neck with Rosewood fingerboard
- Threaded hex bushings (flat washers included)
- Tuning machines
- Truss Rod Cover
- Strings
- Top Pickguard
- Strap Buttons
- Neck Pickup on a mounting ring
- Bridge Pickup on a mounting ring
- Tune-O-Matic style bridge & saddles
- Pickguard
- 3-Way Pickup Toggle Switch (includes knurled mounting nut, flat washer, and plastic Rhythm/Treble Ring-switchwasher)
- Control Knobs
- Jack (mounting nut and washer included)
- Cord
- Hex Wrench
- Full size potentiometers (capacitors included for Tone Pots)
- All mounting screws are included
- Wires
thorp (verified owner) –
Great quality. Tight neck fit. I haven’t wired it yet, but very happy with the quality so far. The neck feels nice and the fret trimming is very good. I will definitely do another one.
Doug
Rory Mathisen (verified owner) –
Overall really pleased with my experience with this build kit. There were some initial issues with the neck fit, there was a very jagged cut with a piece of the binding chipped away but I was able to make it look decent with some aggressive sanding and some wood filler. The kit was mostly complete…I had to buy a few washers from the store that were left out and I received a random bag of knobs that did not go with my guitar. Instructions were pretty good; this was my first kit and I was able to complete it without too many hiccups. Electronics are good but are not great. The output jack is a little loose and the pots shafts are way too long. The volume pots are all or nothing. I also ended up replacing the pickups, the originals were not bad but I had some nicer ones lying around. Once the guitar was put together the setup was a breeze. The neck was perfectly straight and no truss rod adjustments were needed. The bridge seems pretty high quality and intonation was fairly simple. The guitar plays very well and I have not found any issues with the frets so far, I just polished them up before the strings went on. Again, really enjoyed the experience…not as cheap as some kits but the quality is there.
evan.jones699 (verified owner) –
Just completed my third Solo Kit. After doing 2 LPs, I built this one for a friend who had always wanted a 335 style hollow body. This one was a dream The neck took minimal detailing, and the quality of the body was fantastic. The only work I had to do was on the neck pocket, of which the floor was inconsistently routed out. A few minutes with a sharp chisel and a steady hand fixed that right up, and I was ready to start staining.
I started off with a dark brownish black Keda water based stain to accentuate the flame maple, and sanded that back to reveal the bright maple. Then went with a deep red color followed by a bit of black around the perimeter. When that was blended in, and the clear coat went on, I was thrilled at the way the color popped on this one. Used Watco wipe-on gloss poly, and after about 4 coats with fine sanding in between, I finally got the hang of it, and got it done with a nice mirror finish.
Scraping the binding took some time, as it’s on both top and bottom of the body, as well as in the F-holes, but the result is a beautiful guitar.
For electronics, I went ground-up with new CTS pots and capacitors, and needed to drill out the 4 pot holes to 3/8. No big deal there. it did take some time to solder everything up outside the guitar and then fish all the pots, switch and jack through the slot on the front. But once in, I tightened everything up and plugged it in to a clean amp channel. All I can say is “Wow!”
Thanks to the Solo team for another awesome build experience.
Paul Fooks (verified owner) –
Received in good condition, it was packed and shipped well. Initial inspection everything looks good. Nice flame maple, fingerboard and frets were dressed well. No sharp edges or sharp ends. Checked neck for straightness and looks good. Neck joint could be tighter but not a setback. Next steps are checking neck angle and bridge location for intonation. So this is where I have to stop review because this will take months to build. Not because its difficult but its a week end project for daughters fiancée. They don’t get over very much right now… Am I happy with what I got for the price? Yes very happy. Do I think it will turn into a playable guitar? Yes as well. Go for it, don’t wait to get one. Cheers
Jean-Michel Pranno –
My first kit was the ESK-35T and the kit was beautiful complete and went together great.
I then ordered this kit and unfortunately, it wasn’t as good. The flame maple top is beautiful, but I had issues with the neck fit/length, the pick-guard didn’t have countersunk holes for the screws and finally, the required hole to ground the pick-up wires to the bridge post was not drilled.
The bigger issue was the neck. Their assembly instructions don’t say anything about checking the scale length, so I realized after gluing it that it was a good 1/4 too short. This prevented the neck pick-up to be installed. When I contacted them, they told me that the pick-up hole wasn’t drilled in the proper location, but this didn’t turn out to be right as the pick-guard would’ve fit nicely if the neck wouldn’t have been too short. Otherwise, the pick-guard wouldn’t have fit if the pick-up location was drilled lower. Fact is that it was wrong and once contacted, they didn’t take any ownership in the issue whatsoever. They actually stopped replying to my emails.
Finally, I had to purchase a mini-humbucker pick-up on the side to fit the smaller pocket and dial back the bridge screws so that the scale length. Worked out in the end, but the biggest disappointment is their lack of accountability regarding the issues encountered.
bobplemel (verified owner) –
The kit is OK in terms of finish, but do not follow the instructions that Solo provides. They say to glue the neck to the body then start refinishing. This will result in a disaster. I trial fitted the neck to the body and found the neck was cut about 1/4 inch too short. Would never get correct intonation without adding a spacer to move the neck back. Also the neck height and angle in the pocket is wrong. The strings would have been over 1/2 inch high at 12th fret without a 2.5deg shim. Please Solo, update your instructions to have buyers check these items before gluing the neck, and get your manufacturer to perform much better quality control.
MARC ST PIERRE (verified owner) –
This is my first attempt at a hollow body electric. I’d built a nice strat years ago, but I only used sealer for the finish and was straightforward in assembly.
The neck installation was as expected. It aligned well for me and apart from trying to get glue on everything it was straightforward.
The body on the other hand. First, I am a novice at finishes. I admit that. But after sanding the body as required and applying the red dye colour, I found a flaw near the binding where someone had gouged a cut into the front face below the controls and patched it with glue. The dye would not stick there. So I aggressively sanded the offending spot until I had gone too far into the veneer. So, I’m kinda stuck continuing the build with this funky blemish on the front of the guitar. The only solution would be to go to a solid colour to hide the beautiful flametop grain/blemish, or just say screw it and continue the assembly as-is and call it a lesson learned. It’s not like I’m selling it, I just want to play it.
I also found excessive glue around the f-holes, but I managed to hide those by carefully spot pre-staining. Same thing with some of the binding, but not excessively so.
The hardware is good enough quality. I opted to purchase some Seymour Duncan pickups, however. My choice, I’m not complaining about the ones in the kit. I like the chrome tuners and bridge, though I’ll probably install a roller bridge in place of the kit version. Again, my taste. The electrics were partly wired and assembled. A nice touch for a novice who’s afraid of the electrical components. I have years of experience in wiring and I will probably rewire the setup to better shield and conceal the wires. My personal choice once again; no offense to Solo on that.
So, other than Solo giving me a slightly damaged body that I made worse (but not unuseably so) I find the kit reasonably well made and equipped. I will proceed with the rest of the build with my blemished guitar and at future jam sessions with buddies I will try to distract the other guys with my mediocre playing abilities to keep their eyes off that scar.
mbbrewerca (verified owner) –
I chose this as my first ever guitar build, and I haven’t looked back. It was a great experience building this. Taking my time, reading the manual on the Solo website, and watching lots of videos, I was able to successfully build this kit. All the parts feel to be great quality, and no parts were missing. While it was a bit confusing to figure out what parts fit where (screws, etc.), I was eventually able to figure it out. I did find that the neck felt a little loose, but after talking to the incredible Solo support crew, we were able to get it figured out – being a new builder, I was being quite cautious.
If you have any hesitation to getting this kit (or any Solo kit), don’t hesitate. The kits are great, the quality is wonderful, and the support staff are amazing, who want to help you succeed.
Calvin Gehlen (verified owner) –
Received the kit and dry fit the neck to the body. Scale length and alignment were close to perfect. The body wood was excellent and only took some careful sanding and finishing. Overall you can’t beat the quality for this price. I upgraded tuners, nut, pickups and pots, but you don’t have to
alphadog123 (verified owner) –
Learned a lot with this kit. The frets were level once I adjusted the truss rod. The body was good. Neck fit the body perfectly.
harpies_leaf.0r –
This was my first Solo kit, but I had previously built three guitars. Two of my builds were from a well established company based on Washington State that provides high quality bodies and necks that they make, the other was from a budget parts supplier based in Florida. I found the quality of this kit to be in between those two, but overall quite good. I did start out by doing a fret level and crowning, which I did not have to do on the necks from the Washington company. This wasn’t my first experience doing that, and while it’s not necessarily a process I enjoy, it is good to have more experience with that process. I will also say I pretty much expected that would be necessary when I ordered the kit.
Overall the build went very well. It was my first set neck, so I was a little nervous about that, but it went well. But I did stray from the normal process here. I don’t like gloss finish on my necks, so I actually waited until after finishing both the body and the neck until I glued them…had to be careful not to damage the finish, but it worked out, and I have a nice satin finish on the neck and gloss finish on the body.
I would also highly recommend upgrading the nut. With the original nut, the strings were way to high coming off the nut…fretting on the first few frets caused the notes to go noticeably sharp…it was pretty bad. So I had to buy a set of nut files (got the Nomad set, which I’ve been really happy with). Originally I lowered all the slots, which fixed the notes going sharp, and it played pretty well. But the slots were so deep, I was having tuning issues. So I found the Tusq XL nut from GraphTech, model # PQL-6050-00. The string spacing is about perfect, though it is just a bit too wide…you’ll need to sand down each side a bit. And I sanded quite a bit off the bottom, then just tweaked a few of the slots. It’s a different guitar now…tunes so smoothly, no pinging on the G or D strings…the replacement nut is very much worth it! And while I was a bit nervous about the replacement process, it was no big deal.
I also upgraded the tuners to Grovers, put in DiMarzio pickups, and upgraded to CTS pots, which also meant buying new knobs as the metric ones with the kit would not fit.
The other big challenge…installing the electronics. I knew that installing the electronics on a semi-hollow was more challenging, but I had no idea! Not in a hurry to do that anytime again soon.
But I am quite pleased with the guitar in the end!
harpies_leaf.0r –
Correction to review just left…the GraphTech nut I used is actually the PQL-6060-00.