General
Model Number
TCK-1M
Series
TC Style
Body Information
Body Material
Basswood
Body Shape
TC Style
Body Finish
Sealed Unfinished
Neck Information
Neck Material
Maple
Neck Shape
Modern C
Neck Finish
Unfinished
Scale Length
25.5" / 648mm
Fingerboard Material
Maple
Fingerboard Radius
12"
Number of Frets
22
Frets
Medium Jumbo, Nickel Silver
Nut Material
Plastic
Nut Width
42mm
Position Inlays
Acrylic Dot
Truss Rod
2-Way-Action
Truss Rod Nut
4 mm Hex
Hardware & Electronics
Finish
Chrome
Pickup Configuration
S-S
Pickups
Ceramic Pickups
Pickguard
3-Ply Black
Controls
1V, 1T, 3-Way Toggle
Bridge
Top Loading TC Bridge
Tuning Machines
Schaller Type
Potentiometers
Full Sized Pots
Misc
Includes all mounting screws, strap buttons, and plates
Accessories
Includes
Hex Adjustment Keys & Instrument Cable
Neil –
Haven’t begun assembly just yet, but here are some pre-build observations. Kit seems to be essentially as advertised with a few minor flaws.
1. At least 6 high frets along the neck which warrants a full fret level. (At least one is very high) Since the frets seem to have been sprayed with sealer along with the rest of the body, there’s some sanding involved anyway. Also some have not been crowned so well.
2. The fret markers on the board itself are out of alignment at three or four different positions, ranging from slight to “way off”. They appear to be just ink so I’m hoping to be able to remove them entirely?
3. I understand the function of the poly sealer but it has been allowed to pool more thickly in spots, and I’m anticipating some difficulty in removing it all effectively.
Some positive notes:
-routing seems flawless.
-neck fit is good and snug
-bridge is nice and thick and should not need replacing for sake of quality.
Some neutral observations:
-electronics are what you’d expect for the price but pots and switches are easily upgraded with little expense.
-existing solder joints seem good
-tuners again are what you might expect and will be good enough to get things up and running.
Overall i think this kit is absolutely worth the cost and should be an interesting project. HOWEVER… i would like to see more care taken with the neck specifically as it represents the most work to correct.
Expect to spend a little more in addition to the cost of the kit for tools to correct the issues. I give it four stars because it’s still a good price and likely to be better than most other inexpensive kits. It will be some work.
Still going to be a lot of fun… i hope.
????
fabfolleys (verified buyer) –
I’m extremely pleased with this kit. After the sanding and finishing, everything went together very well. I used 3 coats of tung oil on the neck and body. The quality of the neck really surprised me (and, hence, the playability) and it needed very little adjustment at all. The actual assembly went smoothly (pretty good instructions) and was done in an evening. Plays and sounds great. Worth every penny!
danbell.org (verified buyer) –
I watched every one of Brad Angove’s videos on the TC kit and it’s time well spent. It’s what finally convinced me to make the purchase. Sorry about not buying through https://kit.com/bradangove I was…distracted.
I’m nearly finished with my kit and have run into the first snag. I lined the body cavities with copper tape as best I could to limit buzz, but in doing so I’ve also made it so the bridge pickup and the switch/knob plate don’t fit quite right – one layer of tape. A little extra convincing made the bridge seat well enough, but clearance is a concern and there is a small gap between the bridge and the body. Hopefully time will settle everything in. The switch/knob plate however didn’t want to line up quite right and the two drilled holes didn’t agree with the holes in the plate – this has nothing to do with my copper tape. A minor glitch, and after removing the scratch plate (which was also in the way) I was able to screw it down well enough though I’m sure I’ll need bigger screws if I ever remove it. My workmanship isn’t going to be graded. The scratch plate needed a bit of carving to seat around the switch/knob plate, but that’s no big deal, it’s just plastic.
I’m just now getting to the neck, which seems well refined, and I’m a bit anxious about the tuners. In my limited experience I’ve found that a straight-6 set of tuners is not always a sextuplet. Some are intended for higher or lower positions. The set that shipped has 4 letters on each tuner, in sets of 3, 2, and 1: (3)ИH RD, (2)ИH RB, (1)ИH RC. Yes, that’s a backwards ‘N’, as in the Cyrillic letter. What does this mean, and does it matter WRT position?
Otherwise, an excellent kit, and this neck definitely seems the perfect fit for this body. The box contained no instructions, and although I’m somewhat internet savvy I’d rather have something printed that Quality Control has approved of before taping up the box.
As for a finish, all I did was scrub vigorously with a Brillow pad and then rub in some olive oil because YOLO. I like it. It’s a bit unrefined, but smells great. Like me!
I can’t wait to plug it in to my ancient Gibson tube amp and wake the neighbors with my virtuoso caterwauling.
rickydupuis1979 (verified buyer) –
Over all it’s a great kit.
Positives:
The neck fit without need shims
The pickup cavity was routed so it could take a humbucker if you wanted.
All the parts were in the kit. Nothing missing or broken
Negatives:
The fret wire were quickly done and where sharp so i needed to do a whole fret job.
The pick guard does not fit snug with the bridge. There is a large gap.
There were no instructions on where to install the string trees.
Over all i loved this kit and i will be buying more in the future
marty.roberts1955 (verified buyer) –
This was my first kit. I decided to finish it in natural wood. After sanding I applied 20+ coats of Wipe-on Poly to the body and 5 or 6 to the neck. I am pleased with the outcome, but being on natural wood every little imperfection shows. Next time I think I will paint. The neck fit perfectly and no shims were needed. The neck is also very straight, right out of the box. The frets have sharp edges and needed some sanding down. I have been periodically applying lemon oil to the fret board and it seems to help for a while.
I decided to reverse the control plate so my wild strumming would not keep switching the pick-ups. I had to also flip the switch control so it conveniently points in the direction of the pick-up being used. I left the volume in the centre and it seems to be working out just fine.
Setting the intonation and pick-up height was easy and painless. I surprisingly got the string height down to 3/64 which seems to be the recommendation for this guitar.
The string tree locations are not marked but it was a non-issue finding the right spot for them. After initial set up and playing for a short while the only thing I changed was to get a new set of good strings. Everything else on this guitar is as received in the kit. It plays beautifully and holds it’s tune just great.
I am very happy with this guitar and look forward to starting another one soon.
brian.donaldson (verified buyer) –
I’m new to the guitar world so have limited experience behind my review of my first DIY kit (of many).
Pro’s:
Kit arrived quickly as expected and was packaged well
Everything was in the kit except instructions … but they are online
Very little was needed to sand the body and neck for finish. Imperfections were few and poly sealer was consistent on this TCK 1.
I had questions and my phone calls were answered quickly and I enjoyed excellent customer service
The neck and body were meant for each other and fit quite well
Assembly was easier than expected
Frets feel good to this rookie. I’ll have to do some very slight fret work on the ?top? or thumb side as they’re slightly sharp, but it is playable now and this is what I was expecting … to build and refine a DIY project. ( if I wanted it finished with no needs, I would have bought a finished guitar!!)
Con’s:
Email questions were slow with response (2 weeks +) so it seems better to call if urgent.
Selector switch arrived bent (bent it back and was told it would be replaced if it fails in the near future)
One machine head (tuner) binds (haven’t heard back on replacing)
Neck holes are slightly to one side causing concern of cracking but Matt assured it wouldn’t be an issue. (neck is straight and fitment is good)
Screw holes for the machine heads were slightly off giving them an angled look
Observations:
I had to adjust the truss rod … had a slight back bow but have adjusted to straight now
The cons were not enough to stop my progress and the screw holes could have been fixed with some woodworking skills
The cons were also “luck of the draw” as I suspect testing each piece of hardware for working order and fitment would be too consuming.
I was hoping to get the machine head and selector switch replaced for peace of mind
No holes or template for the string retainers, so a little research on placement was required.
I’ll have to do some very slight fret work, but it is playable now and this is what I was expecting … to build and refine a DIY project. ( if I wanted it finished with no needs, I would have bought a finished guitar!!)
I have yet to develop an ear and playing ability to comment on the quality of the hardware, but it feels substantial and sounds good so far!
My expectations were low at first (mostly so I wouldn’t be disappointed!). In the end they were exceeded. I am happy with the outcome, learned some new things about electric guitars and how they work. I will purchase another kit in the future and don’t see a need to try any other supplier. I don’t think (given all the reviews I have seen) that I will find better quality for the price.
Karandeep J –
Nice folks at the store helped me out a lot. I wanted a dirt cheap beater guitar for Jazz school. This fit the bill. Strung with flat wounds it plays beautifully now.
Wasn’t too hard to put together. One flaw, was the bridge was missing one hole for a string through. Had to drill one in.
Quote: “The jazziest chunk of plywood I’ve ever played”
rob.black (verified buyer) –
I’m in mid-build and I like the kit so far, but had a problem when tried to upgrade the pick-ups to a Fender Tele Tex-Mex pick-up set. Neck pick-up didn’t fit in the pick-guard and the bridge pick-up hardware was not compatible. I got an OEM Fender pickguard that will work, but it had to be modified to fit… pickguard mounting holes are pretty close, but not perfect. I need to find some different mounting screws for the bridge pick-up. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
rpascal151 (verified buyer) –
Never been a guitar player, but have a thing for old audio equipment and tube radios. I acquired an early 1950’s Gibson Kalamazoo tube amp from my neighbors trash and brought it back to working order, so figured I might as well build a guitar to go with it. After reading lots of reviews and videos, I decided on the solo kit based largely on price, but also because it is one of the few with a pre-formed headstock (and I don’t have a wood router). It arrived promptly (a couple days faster than the initial delivery date given at checkout). I wanted to keep it pretty simple, so I just all i did was a little bit of hand sanding and then rubbed on some Watco teak oil with a cloth (Tung oil may have been better choice, but I had the teak oil around from doing some outdoor furniture, and it turned out nicely). Everything fit together nicely and I was up and playing in a couple days (1 day for the teak oil to dry, and a couple hours the next day to assemble and solder. The only reason I’m giving 4 stars is that the b-string that came with the kit does not pickup on the amp. this caused a lot of wasted time trying to figure out what I might have done wrong until I finally decided to get a magnet out and check if the string was attracted. Sure enough, magnet didn’t attract that string (which explains why it didn’t pickup). I know the reviews say the strings that come with this are cheap, but I wasn’t expecting to get a nylon b-string in an electric kit!
Anyway, great kit for a beginner… just add a good set of strings to your order from the start.
Nicholas Fuentes (verified buyer) –
I just finished building this kit today – took me about 5 weeks, but most of that was trying to decide on color and what exactly I wanted to do with a finish. While I have done woodworking and furniture finishing in the past, this was my first attempt at building an instrument. I have to say, the assembly was very straightforward and intuitive. The fit and finish of the parts was excellent, no trouble at all. The neck and body were a numbered set! The neck is a nice piece of maple and the body, despite being (usually boring) basswood and made up of 3 or 4 pieces of wood had some nice grain lines and looks great. For the body, I ended up doing a green transparent stain with a wipe on gloss polyurethane finish. A lot of sanding to get the finish smooth – but I am very pleased with how it came out. For the neck, fretboard and headstock I applied many layers of tung oil – probably 15 or 16 coats. It is nice and smooth to the touch and has taken on a really nice amber color. I decided I wanted to put the stings through the body. The bridge in the kit is built for it, but the body is not drilled for this. As I don’t have a drill press, I improvised and came up with a way to make the holes with a hand drill, they are straight if you don’t look too hard! I bought some string ferrules to hold them in the back of the guitar. I decided with the green color that I wanted a white pick-guard so I spent the $10 on e-bay and got a 3 ply, white pearlescent one that looks really good to me. Oh, I got a set of Ernie Ball strings as well.
Overall I have ZERO complaints. The kit arrived quickly, the wooden parts are excellent and the electronics are OK for a novice level kit. I have to say, building the guitar, doing the wood staining, finishing, soldering the electronics and setting up the neck, the action, the intonation – it was all a huge, fascinating educational experience for me that resulted in a beautiful product that I am proud of. Now for the big issue – I think I am hooked. I want to build another one – but which one??? The Explorer? The Jazzmaster? The Vee? The Les Paul???
Thank you Solo Music for making this past 5 weeks of COVID 19 stay at home time MUCH more bearable!
rpascal151 (verified buyer) –
Update to my earlier review. Today, I was surprised to receive in the mail a box from Solo with a replacement bridge pickup. I didn’t ask for this, but presume they sent it thinking I might have gotten a bad pickup. Even though that’s not the case… the original kit pickups were fine, it was the b-string that was bad/non-magnetic (confirmed after putting on a new set of Ernie Ball slinky strings), it certainly demonstrates that Solo is committed to customer service. I don’t think anyone is expecting perfection from a $120 guitar kit, but this company certainly seems to be willing to go the extra mile to satisfy whatever expectations their customers may have.
Gabriel Thibault (verified buyer) –
I loved the Solo TCK-1M mounting kit, completed the project in two weeks and am happy with the results. I installed copper in the locations of the pickups and controls to eliminate the hum. I watched Brad Angove’s videos on Youtube and it really helped me. The result is great, the kit is complete, but a key was defective, I wrote to SOLO Guitar and received the replacement part two days later. The service is excellent.
I recommend SOLO products. I plan to get another kit soon. PS, this is a good activity during the pandemic. You can see the result:
https://www.facebook.com/SoloMusicGear/posts/3670140236400522?comment_id=3687667294647816¬if_id=1612998532005311¬if_t=feed_comment&ref=notif
rick.mcisaac (verified buyer) –
This was my first guitar build and this kit far exceeded my expectations. Everything fit and for the price I thought it was excellent value. Any problems and defects were of my creation and mostly all were corrected. Solo was great to deal with and I think a lot of other businesses could take a lesson. The guitar looks great and plays great and I have already order a bass kit
Ian Robbins (verified buyer) –
TCK-1M Kit. – This kit came ready to rock! The fit and finish is great, a bit of body sanding and ready to prime/paint. The neck is perfectly shaped. My only complaint is the headstock was already shaped and very smooth. lol. Will be assembling it later today and all that’s left is the strings and intonation. Can’t wait to play!
stef.caron (verified buyer) –
S. Caron #354068
First of all I’m new to the guitar world and do not really
know how to play well yet!
But i liked the concept of mounting my own electric guitar so i ordered a SoloTCK-1M
in early December and it was at my doorstep 4 days later.
I planned about 4 to 5 days to assembled it but was done in 24 hours…
Nothing was missing in the kit and in good condition.
I just did a light sanding and oiled it with some natural tung oil and it looks cool to me anyway.
I followed the electric plan to solder the pickups and the videos at Solo web site were also helpful
for that task,the rest was easy to figure out.
As expected with a new guitar you have to tune it in the first days after that it
seems to need less frequent tuning afterwards.
I’m very satisfied with this kit and would not hesitate to order another one.
Shawn Flemming (verified buyer) –
Overall the kit is a great value for $130. Factor in another $40 for some sort of stain or paint, shielding paint, and a finishing coat and you’re left with a sub $200* (more on this later) guitar that you can finish however you’d like. Assembly is super easy as long as you’re okay with a minimal amount of soldering. The overall feel of the guitar is much higher than its price point will suggest and I don’t have to seem any significant tuning issues with the factory hardware. That being said, there are a few negative things to note:
– Frets were far from level which introduced a lot of buzzing. I had no experience in fret leveling before this, and and still an amateur with the process, but expect to spend time and money on files if you don’t have them and a radius block or some other means to level the frets. I also had to get a string height tool that acts as a fret rocker as my original one didn’t have this functionality. This cost me an additional $50 however it can all be used in the future
– The nut wasn’t cut deep enough at all. Legitimate fret files are $80 dollars and up, so I went the cheap route and bought ones that cost about $10 on Amazon. They didn’t work well and it took two hours to get the nut low enough to fix the action on the first few frets.
– The included bridge doesn’t intonate well, but it does work for height adjustment. Those who are used to old-school non compensated tele bridges might not mind this, but I decided to purchase one of Solo’s 6 saddle bridges ($32) so the guitar can be properly intonated.
All in all I’ve ended up spending much more than I anticipated (around $300 or so), but I’m still a fan of the guitar. I still have to do a little bit of fret polishing to smooth out some bends, but otherwise it feels great and has a nice clean tele sound.
hans.loic (verified buyer) –
The quality is really outstanding. The fret work is really good, almost as good as on my Fender Stratocaster. However, I have to remove 1 star for some flaws:
– There is a black plastic binding that creates gaps you can see under a paint finish.
– The screw holes on the jack plate were a bit off, which makes the plate a bit crooked.
– The screw holes of some tuner is slightly off and will need to be filled and drilled again correctly, unless you can accept having slightly crooked tuners (it is purely
a visual flaw).
– The pickguard I received had plenty of micro scratches even though it was very well packaged.
– I wish the nut slots would be deeper.
In the end, I am very satisfied of the guitar and if you make a good finish and take care of those little flaws, it will probably play as good as a 1k$+ Fender Telecaster.
warman.m55 (verified buyer) –
My first kit build.
The price was right and it was easy to build for someone who just watched a few videos and has little woodworking experience.
I would have given 5 stars but the holes for the control plate where off so I had to fill and re-drill them.
I gave the fret ends a little extra love with some needle files and then polished them off and I must say the guitar plays really nice. Intonation was a breeze!
I enjoyed the build and finished result so much I just ordered an LP kit for myself for Christmas.
Thanks Solo
Richard Tourville (verified buyer) –
Just finished putting my new TC kit together to check fit and function. I am amazed. This is my first Solo kit and it won’t be the last. Assembled the guitar completely without any of the final finishing and it looks great and sounds great. At least it is playable right now, but until I disassemble it , do the final finishing and reassemble it, I haven’t done any of the fret polishing or action setup yet. There’s not a doubt in my mind that this will be a superb addition to my collection and even without the final steps, it sounds great – just like the old 68 Tele I played on stage for a couple of years. This one will be better to play since I’ve added an upgraded bridge and can intonate each string individually. The only thing that made me hesitate about 4 stars vs 5 stars is the maple neck profile isn’t the same as the original and there’s no “skunk stripe” on the back of the neck; and I had to carefully drill the string holes through the body to set string ferrules and allow it to be strung through the body. Absolutely no complaints about this kit at all. Don’t hesitate to buy one and try out your workmanship. If you’re not comfortable about painting, staining or polishing it to get a perfect finish, you might wish to consider a kit with a prefinshed body. I may try one of the sunburst ones next. Looking forward to building a Strat and a Les Paul from Solo. Thanks, guys – Great Job.
kurtbarger –
Overall it was good for the price. The frets were done well on the edges. I had to level and crown them because they were finished a little wavy. Nothing too difficult. The neck fit well. The wood was mostly good. I did have to sand the sealer down quite a bit. There were a couple of low spots on the back of the guitar. The tuners were adequate. I did put in brass saddles from a Wilkinson bridge that were compensated for better intonation. I planned on changing the bridge but the Wilkinson was slightly different dimensions than the kit bridge which would have had the pickup not quite fitting in the routed spot. I wanted the bridge mainly for the saddles anyway so it didn’t matter. It was a tight fit for the bridge pickup. It is a little difficult to adjust the bridge pickup because it seems the pickup is too close to the routed hole and and tends to stick requiring one to physically push or pull the pickup. The only difficulty was figuring out the polarity of the pickups and wires to the jack. The colors did not match the diagram that is on the website. I figured it out by looking at how the wires were prewired and where they connected. The diagram seems to refer to older models that used to have wires that were wrapped by an outer jacket. The actual wires colors differ from what the chart says. I did very the wiring by asking for technical assistance from Solo. It plays and sounds good. I expected much worse for what the cost was.
I did not do well with the finish. That is due to my inexperience. This is my second kit guitar. I used spray paint and spray gloss clear coat. I could never get the clear coat glossy with sanding and polishing. I would either sand through the clear or have a non glossy finish. I ended up with more of a matte to satin finish. My prior kit I did I used nitrocellulose and had no problems.
Overall, I recommend the kit. It is easy and fun to do. I will definitely try another kit from Solo in the future.
Jeremy Smith (verified buyer) –
I am so happy with this kit and how it turned out. It was my first kit and after watching a lot of Youtube videos and RTFM, have got it all setup and it look s great and plays beautifully.
I finished it with Rust-oleum 2x mint green for the body and the face of the headstock and protected it with Rustoleum 2x glossy clear. I used Boiled Linseed oil to treat the fretboard and the back of the neck/headstock.
The finish is actually more Satin that gloss but it looks amazing and I’m very happy with it. Will definitely be buying another kit soon.
Nicholas Whynot (verified buyer) –
I loved building this kit! I got it on a Friday, started it on a Saturday and Sunday I’m playing it and it sounds great! It looks nice and feels nice too. I was a little overwhelmed when I first got it and was thinking of returning it since it’s my first kit, but I’m really glad I didn’t. I tried to do some upgrades but they didn’t work: Fender pickups were too big for the guitar to fit properly and the control plate that I got to replace the one it comes with was a dud. But that’s okay because if you set it up right the pickups and control plate it comes with work fine. I did upgrade the tuners. I used tru-oil to finish and was satisfied with two coats, just letting it fully dry now that it’s tested and working. I did need a shim of 1 degree that I had handy, that was pure luck that I needed it and had it.
I highly recommend this kit to anyone starting out to build guitars, it’s a great starting point and you really enjoy what you’re doing and what you end up with. Thanks SOLO!