Description
Building a Solo DIY guitar kit can be a rewarding experience. You’ll not only create a custom guitar but also gain valuable skills throughout the process which can be applied to other guitars. Since all the challenging parts such as drilling, shaping, fret leveling and dressing are already taken care of, you’ll just need some basic tools and finishing supplies to complete it.
Manuals: Assembly / Wiring
Recommended tools: Set Neck Assembly Kit
Finishing Options: Nitro, Stain, Oil, Dyes, etc
Kit includes:
- Unfinished Mahogany body with Quilted Maple Veneer top
- Unfinished Mahogany neck with with 2-way truss rod
- Rosewood fingerboard
- Machine heads
- Tune-o-matic bridge
- Stop bar tailpiece
- Bridge & neck pickups
- Pre-wired wiring harness
- Full size potentiometers
- Chrome plated hardware
- Black speed knobs
- Jack, truss rod & cavity covers
- Strings
- Strap buttons
- Setup adjustment wrenches
- Guitar cable
- All mounting screws
: Solo PRK-10 DIY Electric Guitar Kit With Quilted Maple Top
: PRK-10
Disclaimer: Kits can only be returned in virtually untouched condition and in original packaging
michael.t.bradley (verified buyer) –
I just finished my kit. The quilted maple makes all the difference…with dye, the contrast is amazing and you can get a style like some much more expensive guitars. One friend said it looked like a PRS; I take that as a compliment. 🙂
I did upgrade the tuners and pickups. Would love to see an option to have those as part of the kits, but the components are good in the current.
Overall, it turned out great. I will do one again from solo for sure!
elleryfwong (verified buyer) –
This was my 2nd DIY Guitar build and my 1st from SoloMusicGear. I wanted to try a set neck and a quilted maple top so I picked this PRK-10 kit. Based on Brad Angove’s YT videos the kits from Solo seemed of good quality so I gave it a shot. For the most part I was pretty happy with the kit and customer service addressing a couple of kit issues I had with the pickups that were sent and positioning the neck to match the scale length. The only caution I would say about these veneer maple tops is that they are very very thin so be careful sanding on the edges.
Other than that it came out pretty good after getting it setup. I had to level a few frets and may have to replace the nut since I may have filed the lowE a bit too far to get the first fret to tune to an F but now buzzes slightly since the truss rod was already as loose as I’d like. Also just throw the strings that come with it out since they don’t tension the neck well to do setup well.
I will definitely get another kit from SMG in the future but may stick with a bolt on neck kit instead.
jfaassen (verified buyer) –
This was my 8th guitar kit (Strats, Teles, LPs, etc.) But my first PRS and this is my nicest guitar yet. Used a yellow dye from StewMac for the color, with StewMac nitrocellulous lacquer over that – came out gorgeous – I would definitely make another!
timq2000 –
This was my first guitar kit and I couldn’t be happier. The veneer was thin but beautiful. The neck fit the pocket perfectly and didn’t need any modifications. I was expecting to have to do fret work on the neck but it didn’t need it. Even the ends of the frets weren’t sharp like some cheap guitars. I didn’t use any of the hardware or pickups so I can’t say anything other than it was cheap stuff and I wish I could have upgraded it. But this has become one of my favorite guitars. It plays beautifully and sounds great too.
My only complaint and it wasn’t a big deal, was where the veneer was book matched. The glue came through right down the center and didn’t take dye. So I had a line running down the middle with no color. Not a big deal just got creative and painted a racing stripe down it and I like even better than if it took the dye.
I recommend this kit highly.
Jeffrey Baswell (verified buyer) –
I am very impressed with the quality of this kit overall and the price they sell it at. I did upgrade the pickups/electronics and the tuners, but even with the stock equipment, it’s a great deal.
It was also a lot of fun to build and was not difficult at all. I’m already planning my next kit and giving the wife subtle hints. Lol.
Alaa Rostom (verified buyer) –
This is my second Solo Kit. It is a great kit. I wanted to try my own flame dye stain top. The body and neck looked great. The quilted maple veneer was really beautiful and looked awesome with a flame dye.
As the other reviewers have stated the veneer is super thin. I cones with a light coating of sealer that you need to sand off to stain. I used 800-1000 grit and it was super stressful not to burn through. Solo support was awesome as always and instructed me to use drops of water to tell if sealer was sanded off enough (if water beads – need to sand more). The video instructions on dye staining typically state to use a dark stain first, and sand it off. I was too apprehensive to do that – so I just when through several back and forth dye from edge to centre and bus versa until I got a nice transition. I will say I got over confident at how nice it looked and very lightly sanded with 1000 grit and then did another round of staining. That was a mistake. The edges as everyone said is more than super thin. So a fine line at the edge ended up sanding into the wood glue which would then not take stain. So my advice only sand off the sealer checking often with water beads and do no further sanding
The neck joint was very slightly loose to allow a bit of rotation so to glue it on, I recommend installing bridge and low and high E strings (loosely) to allow you to perfectly line up the neck. Clamping and gluing was super easy (my first glue on neck)
I had no issues with scale length
I replaced the hardware except for the very back tail piece. But I knew I would do this before getting the kit.
Overall this is a great kit it turned out beautifully. It plays great and I was able to set it up to my liking. I highly recommended it.
Honestly though I would have definitely paid solo an appropriate kit price if they produced a thicker maple would top. It would have taken a lot of my stress around sanding / staining and levelling the top. Having said that, knowing what I know, I still would have bought this kit as it really came out beautifully
carroltonaudio1 (verified buyer) –
Very easy to assemble. The top had a few minor glue which were easy to remove. This is probably, to date, the most beautiful piece of wood I’ve purchased. It had very few quirks (less than I would’ve expected from any kit. of course I’ll be back for some other products in the future.
Jacob M Toohey (verified buyer) –
This is the second kit I’ve purchased from Solo, and it turned into probably the nicest guitar I’ve built or bought. After a quick sanding job, I applied a black stain on the top to accent the grain, and after sanding that back and adding some colours, the top really popped. Definitely worth the few extra dollars to get the quilted maple top. The neck did need some attention to get the angle corrected, but know it plays like a dream!
10/10 would buy this again
devincote19 (verified buyer) –
Looks great with dye stain and nitro lacquer finish, however the kit isn’t the best and doesn’t compare to a PRS, the cutout doesn’t allow you to get down to the 21-22 fret as comfortably as you would be able to on a real PRS or Les Paul, so the dimensions are slightly different than a real PRS however solos Les Paul kit seems to be basically identical to a real Les Paul shape wise so I assumed this would be the same as a PRS with minor differences like headstock because of patents and licensing and what not, overall not a bad kit, but seems a bit cheap, would like to see the kits be the same price but come with just the wood rather than including a bunch of cheap hardware and pickups and be a bit better quality, then people can add their own parts afterwards like pickups, bridge, tuners etc…since i buy all that stuff and don’t use the included stuff anyway, then the money can go towards wood quality and craftsmanship rather than mediocre hardware.