Description
This DIY guitar kit has everything you need for building your own custom ST Style Electric Guitar. You will need only some basic tools and finishing supplies. All challenging wood cutting, drilling and shaping is already done professionally, as well as fret leveling and dressing. A detailed manual is included with step by step instructions.
Recommended tools: Solo Guitar Assembly Kit Bolt-on Neck
Kit includes:
- Alder body with Relic finish
- Roasted Maple neck
- Press-fit peghead bushings
- String Retainers
- Tuning Machines
- Strings
- Strap Buttons
- Pickguard Assembly
- Tremolo bridge
- Jack plate
- Neck Plate
- Back Plate
- Spring Claw
- Springs
- Ground Wire
- Cord
- Truss rod Allen key
- Bridge saddles Allen key
- 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.
rick.mcisaac (verified owner) –
This was the sixth kit I have ordered from Solo and although the first five were great this one was amazing. When I opened the box and checked all the parts I couldn’t believe the quality of the relic. The fret work was the best I have seen and the neck only required a minor tweak. There was one small problem. Upon opening the box I noticed the pick guard was attached to the body with one screw which I removed so I could shield the pickup cavities. When I went to re-install the pick guard only two of the pre-drilled holes lined up. Luckily the pre-drilled holes were hidden by the pick guard.
This guitar looks great, sounds great and I could not be happier with it. Solo staff are the best and I highly recommend this kit and Solo services and products. I would especially like to thank Padraig Boggis for all his help in previous kits.
JEFF MCCLURE (verified owner) –
This is a decent kit and the relic job has a bit more detail than I was expecting. The neck I received is really dark – closer to a full rosewood neck than a roasted maple neck – as a result the black grey inlays are basically invisible. So if you’re a player that needs to see the fret markers this may not be the kit for you – otherwise, this is a nice kit and couldn’t be simpler to assemble and get up and running.
fjellhund (verified owner) –
The good: The relic finish on the body and hardware looks great. The fretwork is what I would have expected on a guitar costing 3x as much. The pickups sound much better than expected. This is my first kit build. So, after hours (due to my own inexperienced) fiddling with it to get it dialed in, it holds tuning well and is really fun to play.
The meh: Only 4 of the 11 pre-drilled holes in the body matched up with the holes in the pickguard. Fortunately, the others were far enough from where they needed to be that they didn’t need to be filled before drilling the holes in the right places. The neck that came with my kit had the wrong spacing for the tuners. Customer service was great in getting the correct neck sent out to me quickly, and they let me keep the other one, so I’m counting that as a plus. I had to do a bit of whittling on the pickguard around the neck and the bridge to get it to fit. A little annoying, but not a big deal.
The bad: The nut was poorly cut, such that the 2 high strings (B & E) made a muted, buzzing, sitar-like sound when plucked in the open position. The tremolo bar is wobbly unless it’s threaded in fully – even after installing a tension spring and wrapping the threads in plumber’s tape, it will move about 8mm up and down without moving the bridge at all. After getting the neck straight, two of the stock saddles couldn’t be raised high enough to get the strings off the frets. On one of them (D), the hex screws just popped out the bottom of the saddle. On the other (B), the screws wouldn’t turn even with no tension on the strings, and the heads stripped out. The saddle spacing was a bit wide as well. Only the two in the center (D & G) aligned directly over the holes where the strings come out of the block. At the high and low Es, the strings were rubbing against the inside edges of the holes. I measured them and they were 10.3mm wide. I replaced them with 10mm wide saddles and everything lines up perfectly now.
The whole process was fun and educational. I feel like I got a good guitar for the money. Would definitely buy again.
trev mcnaughton (verified owner) –
These kits are a great starting point, but needs a lot more attention to detail and some parts swapped to make it a keeper. The biggest dislike is the finish and the way it the relic was done. The paint has a lot of orange peel and makes it hard to sand down smooth because of the other wear they added to the body. I opted not to put a nitro finish over it (with the idea of speeding up some weather checking to it) since it would be hard to look authentic.
The aging on the hardware is pretty disappointing and honestly, just redo it properly with some muriatic acid. The way it’s done looks like it’s had dirt or filth was just smeared on it.. so looks dirty, not aged.
You’ll want to replace the tremolo bridge with even just a cheap fender one with a larger block. The stock one was thin and tinny sounding. You’ll also want to make a bone/brass/tusq nut which I’d say is minimum for any cheaper instrument. Just be aware that it’s a 15″ radius.
The wiring and pots I found to be acceptable. I haven’t changed them yet since they seem to be okay for now. the pots are mini pots. The switch could definitely be upgraded, which I will probably do in the future.
The pickups should be upgraded. There’s a few canadian pickup winders that are a good option for an inexpensive upgrade. I put some pre-cbs style Vineham pickups in mine and it sounds like a fender custom shop.
The neck is just a treat. The picture on here is much darker than in hand, it’s actually got a bit of a latte or cappuccino colour to it which I really enjoy.
Overall it’s turned into my daily driver right now. I get excited to play it (have 9 other guitars) and I feel like I paid old world prices for something comparable to a custom shop strat…. tho I probably put in the extra labour to make up the difference.
felipearodrigues (verified owner) –
J’ai mis du temps à faire cette analyse car j’essayais de résoudre certains problèmes lors du montage de ce kit que j’ai acheté en janvier 2024.
Malheureusement, mon expérience a été difficile et a en même temps donné un très mauvais résultat.
Lorsque j’ai reçu le kit, je n’ai pas fait deux vérifications que j’aurais dû faire et qui changeraient certainement mon expérience avec ce produit, l’ajustement du manche au corps et la distance de la touche au chevalet. Ces deux éléments sont fondamentaux pour avoir une guitare basse réglable et jouable.
Au début du montage, je me suis rendu compte que le bras ne rentrait pas bien dans le corps, j’ai dû le poncer pour le mettre en place et même alors, la base de montage dans le corps était inégale. J’ai pensé à le poncer pour le niveler, mais si je le faisais, je me retrouverais avec un bras tordu.
J’ai décidé de simplement fixer les vis et de garder le bras « torsadé ». Jusque-là il y avait un problème qui pouvait être résolu avec une cale que je fabriquais et plaçais entre le bras et le corps.
Le principal problème à mon avis était le pont. En utilisant les trous existants et en assemblant la guitare, je me suis rendu compte que le réglage de l’octave ne fonctionnait pas. Même en plaçant les “selles” loin en arrière, l’octave ne frapperait tout simplement pas. Comme il s’agissait d’un achat non remboursable (comme le dit le site), j’ai décidé de corriger le problème en bouchant les trous et en refaisant le perçage. Mais j’ai d’abord essayé d’utiliser le pont fourni dans le kit et testé sa convivialité avec le levier. À ma grande surprise, les trous n’ont pas résisté et ont commencé à s’effilocher (augmenter en taille). Comme j’avais déjà ces problèmes, j’ai décidé de refaire les trous en recouvrant les anciens. J’ai réussi à régler la distance et les octaves, mais le résultat ne m’a pas satisfait, car j’ai dû laisser le chevalet fixe car même si j’utilisais du bois plus dur pour couvrir les trous, le reste du bois ne le supporterait pas. Cela ne me donne pas confiance pour utiliser le levier.
Le manche est arrivé bien fini, mis à part quelques frettes inégales normales pour ce type de kit.
Pour le prix et étant une guitare semi-finie, je pensais recevoir quelque chose de mieux construit. Parce que pour 400 dollars, on peut trouver quelque chose de mieux, déjà assemblé et qui permet de faire des mises à niveau.
MIchael Froelich (verified owner) –
Bought this on kind of a whim. Thought it would be useful to learn get better with setups, light tech work and wiring. Figured if it was any good after that, I’d dress it up as a partscaster. I was surprised to find a nice neck, good fretwork, and a prewired pick guard. The machine heads are fine. The bridge has the smallest, thinnest block I’ve ever seen and is ripe for an upgrade. My biggest complaint is that the nut was filed poorly, which led to a terrible sitar-like buzz on the B and high E. The wiring was also pretty messed up with odd pickup selections (one position is all three pickups, the bridge position activates middle/bridge, etc). Having said that, I enjoyed the build, find the finished guitar to be very playable and would definitely recommend a solo build to anyone interested in a DIY guitar or partscaster.