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: Bolt-on Assembly Kit
Finishing Options: Nitro, Stain, Oil, Dyes, etc
Kit includes:
- Unfinished Alder body with poly sealant
- Unfinished Maple neck with 2-way truss rod
- Maple fingerboard
- Machine heads
- Tremolo bridge
- Pre-wired pickguard assembly with pickups
- Full size potentiometers
- Jack, neck & back plates
- Spring claw with springs
- Strings
- String retainers
- Strap buttons
- Setup adjustment wrenches
- Guitar cable
- All mounting screws
: Solo STK-15 DIY Electric Guitar Kit With Alder Body
: STK-15
Disclaimer: Kits can only be returned in virtually untouched condition and in original packaging
David F Calello –
I got this kit and gotta say it’s the quickest guitar you’ll ever build. If you think you can’t…your wrong, if you say it’s too expensive…it’s not. The grain on the body is fantastic and stained up nice with beautiful colors. It comes to you quick, well packed, and with pre-drilled holes and wiring instructions. The price is right and it’s the closest thing to an assembled guitar that you’ll ever see. I spent weeks on the finish and 1 hour to build. Pick guard had 3 solder joints and worked great. These kits are great for a beginner or a pro and I’d advise anyone to try it cause of the simplicity of assembly. The body is a canvas for anyone to paint, stain, carve, inlay, or even to personalize to whatever you want. You can do sports teams, cars, names, rock band logo’s, or anything in your imagination! The kit is awesome and the staff at Solo Music is outstanding! Whenever I’ve called, a real person answers, not a machine or canned music, someone you can talk to. Someone who’s knowledgeable about the product. How often do you see that?? If I had more cash now, I’d get the same kit again cause it looks and works great. You’ll need to make tweaks here and there for the string tension and the neck will need adjusting, but follow instructions and you’ll be close. If there’s a question, answers are a phone call away. Get one….build it and see…..by the way, I’m a 62 year old drummer with arthritis, and I don’t play a note??? Matt and the staff at Solo Music helped me to set and tune the guitars I’ve built and guitarist’s even say that they play great. You won’t be sorry! I will shop here again and I urge you to do the same if your thinking about a kit.
A.c. –
First of all , thank you Matt for the great service !
I love this kit, the wood pattern is amazing and everything fits the way it is supposed to .
You could finish it in a few evening.
It is really fun to build, so I am taking my time do it perfectly .
I am sure I will get another one, I have to choose from a lot of great models !
I will post pictures as soon as I am done.
Thanks again !
Graham Mowbray (verified owner) –
I didn’t understand how much the pickguard/electronics were assembled for this kit – so I put the guitar together much more quickly than I had imagined would be the case. I really like my guitar now that it is together it has a much wider range of “voice” than my Les Paul Jr. and it just feels nice to have “my” guitar in my hands to play.
There were a couple of things that the manual could have spelled out better – but if you think (or ask support) these are easy to resolve. If I had to do it again, I would have made more of a mock-up of the body finish before I got going. I used wood stain and tung oil and the result while quite pretty is a tad too red given that the pickguard I was delivered was a sort of reddish brown.
It was lots of fun to do it and I am sure there is another Solo in my future …. I just have to wait until my wife buys a new pair of shoes.
Peter (verified owner) –
this is my first experience and I don’t have real complains, Service was very good, Matt is a gentlemen, he respond every questions, the quality of the kit no bad, I just do 3 modification, I change the pickups to Wilkinson 60 that I have available from an upgrade that I do a year go, steel tremolo block and the Machine tuners, the one on that came in the kit have lot of play, and even solo was so nicely and offer replacing it if I have problems, I decided to use Wilkinson staggered locking tuners to avoid the trees and it only cost me $28.00. in my guitar the only issue was two holes on the tuner area totally on level so I ended re-drilled. The Neck is the most amazing part of the guitar the grain and the look is just beautiful and the fret work not bad at all, don’t take me wrong you still required to do some work on the fret and the nut but not as much I have to do in my $500.00 guitars. The electronic honestly look very chip very tinny pots, but for my surprise they work really!, really! good, so I have no plan to upgrade. I complete all the setup and the guitar sound incredible, is just crazy how good a guitar with this cost could ended sounding with only 3 simple modification. I am very happy with the outcome. The guitar sound better that two of my favorite $500 guitar, but painting is not 100% perfect and as a Novice a do some mistakes in the clear painting and buffing. if you ask me if I do this project again?, well I don’t know; the reason, I don’t have yet the space and the build and painting equipment to ended with a very profesional work but, if next time I decided to stain rather than paint for sure I will buy other Alder strat.
Overall I was planning to give 4 star review due a few of minor issues on the kit, I am giving it 5 star because, when I compare the service, solo help support, the quality of this guitar compared with other similar DYI models no one can bit Solo guitar. I have a $295.00 and I am including building and painting materials that sound as good of my $700 branded guitar so in my case, this was a wining project.
Thanks solo
kanonlaw (verified owner) –
I am being a little harsh with a 4. It is better than that. A 4.4 maybe.
Here are the pros:
Great shipping, nice package.
Neck and body are rough but in good shape. Sanding out, painting or staining and finishing are left to the buyer. This is great. Pieces feel like they are a little larger so you have room to sand and resand if needed.
The fret board is smooth and in great shape. And the frets are in really good condition. (I am not yet up to fretfiling so I have only done a very simple inspection. The edges are very smooth and frets appear to have been leveled.)
The electronics are good. While I haven’t finished this project I did install the guts and trem into another guitar and I like the sound. Impedance was about 5 ohms on the pickups. I don’t know what that means but Fenders are about 6 ohms impedance.
The pots and switch are stiff, which I prefer, and basic Chinese-made stuff like the pickups. Capacitors are installed on both tone pots. Wiring is clean and no frills. Like I said, it is a sound that I like and is hard to be judgemental about. It is your basic rock n roll guitar.
But here is where I get picky.
The pickguard was pre-installed. That normally would not be a problem. But I am using a different pickguard with American standard 11 hole spacing. Which is different from the pickguard in the kit. It is a nice pickguard. It needed a tiny bit of filing but came out nicely.
So I filled those pickguard mounting holes in the body since my layout is slightly different. While doing this I noticed that some holes were a lot deaper than needed, like a full inch and a half deep.
The trem. So it looks like a standard Fender trem but there are no holes dedicated to springs so I had to use the string holes. This can make pulling strings out and reinstalling a bit tricky with the extra metal. The trem and the saddles do what they are supposed to so that’s not a complaint. Maybe an fyi. And I took off the saddle springs. I think they are always too big.
This is a 6-hole trem. I looked very close and ended up measuring the pre-drilled mounting holes very carefully. The low E side was about 1-2 mm off from the high e side. I filled those holes too. However, this could be a slight error in the trem location, which will require an mm or two of routing. Still, just a heads up. I think the screw holes were off rather than the trem slot. Either way the fix is really straight forward.
The neck did not quite fit the shape of the pocket. So I shimmed the pocket with StewMac shims (1 or 2 mm thick maple) and dremeled the heel a bit. The pocket is super snug now and straight too. From measuring and comparing, the angle from fretboard to bridge is spot on, right out of the box.
The neck has a tiny tiny twist to the nut on the high e side which is so small I expect it will disappear with strings installed. And I think the plastic nut would work but the string slots needed a better angle filed to acommodate the angle from nut to the tuning machines. I replaced the nut with a Fender metal roller nut.
Cosmetically, the headstock needed some trimming and the fret board needed to be rounded off. But that’s personal preference. And of course the sanding…
The body is heavy, cleanly routed and if my goals were different I probably would just sand and finish the neck and body and reassemble (though those tiny screw holes need a lot of protection from paint or gloss buildup…). The grain in the wood is nice too. There are a couple of very small natural voids in the wood but that will get fixed with a filler coat after sanding.
As of today, I am at the sanding phase. I expect that to go well and after that I will dye and finish. Then electronics will go in. So far, the neck looks great and I am eager to see the finished product.
euclou (verified owner) –
This is my third guitar kit from Solo. This one was the easiest to put together. Everything was received in perfect condition. I still cannot believe how beautiful this guitar is. The neck is one of the best I have ever seen. The frets are perfect, I did not have to touch anything on that neck. I left it as is, no varnish. I sanded the body and applied a poly finish. You cannot go wrong with this kit, I am very happy. Thank you Solo.
vothsc (verified owner) –
My initial impressions of the kit are that the body and neck are very nicely finished and fit well. I will have to wait for warmer weather to do the finishing as I need to spray the lacquer outside. Everything was well packed to avoid shipping damage. This is my second Solo kit. My first was a Les Paul that i decided to put off until I got my feet wet with a simpler Strat. That kit also looks well prepared however the curly maple veneer is very thin and the reason I’m waiting on working on that kit. The only thing I would wish would be if you could either buy a kit without hardware or be able to select your hardware as I will most likely replace all my hardware with Fender hardware as I build this kit.
Daniel Deluca (verified owner) –
This was my second build from Solo Guitars. Solo provided me with a junior LP kit for my first build. Never having done a build before I need a quite a bit of help with figuring out the soldering. They were extremely helpful and extremely patient. Essentially I have nothing but good things to say about Solo and the two products I’ve purchased from them. A Junior LP kit as well as this Strat alder body kit. The quality of the product is absolutely incredible. Everything fit like a glove. Customer service, friendliness, helpfulness, knowledge and overall satisfaction with the team is comparable to none. if I’m buying a kit it is from this place or any parts. I can’t say enough about the integrity of the product and the company. Also I’m located in North Toronto so it’s very convenient for pick up as they’re located in this area. As a personal touch. I literally ordered and picked it up the next day. Last thing for anyone reading this, is that I cannot stress how good the quality of product is. Everything was mailed to Percision and in all honesty I own a Gibson Les Paul and a fender Stratocaster and the two bad boys that I built can go toe to toe with each of them. It’s not my building skills but the quality of the product provided!
Jeff Wasinger (verified owner) –
This was my second kit and it was as good as the first. I was surprised how good this guitar plays and sounds. I was afraid it would not stay in tune with the tremolo but so far no issues. Had a blast and no issues building the kit. I have since ordered my third and fourth kit.
todanielson (verified owner) –
It arrived promptly. Haven’t completed its finish yet, too humid in South Carolina have some blush eraser arriving today. All the parts fit a test fit nicely and I expect it to go together well. I’m going to replace the kit pickups which have a resistance of about 4 with a set that has a resistance a little over 6 measured with my multimeter. I may be more excited for this guitar than a 66 year old should be.