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
Recommended Tools: Bolt-on Assembly Kit
Finishing Options: Nitro, Stain, Oil, Dyes, etc
Kit includes:
- Unfinished Basswood body with poly sealant
- Unfinished Maple neck with 2-way truss rod
- Maple fingerboard
- Solderless wiring
- Machine heads
- Fixed bridge
- Bridge & neck pickups
- Pickguard
- Pre-wired control plate assembly
- Full size potentiometers
- Chrome plated hardware
- Chrome knobs
- Jack & neck plates
- Strings
- String retainers
- Strap buttons
- Setup adjustment wrenches
- Guitar cable
- All mounting screws
: Solo TCK-12-SD DIY 12 String Electric Guitar Kit With Solderless Electronics
: TCK-12-SD
Disclaimer: Kits can only be returned in virtually untouched condition and in original packaging
smarks (verified buyer) –
Ordered the solderless model TCK 12 string and received the solder model. A call to Solo and Padraig sent me the proper harness after a couple of reminders from me. Completed the guitar just need to do set-up and intonation. A couple of notes for Solo going forward first: screws etc were packed tightly in a plastic bag that the screw points had broken through the bag and screws were loose in box, thankfully no damage to guitar body or neck, second: strings were not packaged they were loose and wound together, maybe not a problem for a 6 string but for a 12 string it would easier if strings were packaged by guage for easier identification. I gave 3 stars because of aforementioned issues. Might look around at other suppliers if I decide to do another diy guitar.
Charles Daum (verified buyer) –
Good:
-The kit came just as described. The neck was already quite smooth, and the body sanded up quite easily. The fretboard also looked good and I did not have any fret sprout or exceptionally uneven frets. Some leveling may be required, but that’s true of big name guitars, too.
-Once finished the guitar does look quite nice. I have almost no experience working with wood, but was still able to get a pretty nice finish by following some basic online instruction.
-The guitar stays in tune very well.
-It was fun
Bad:
-Like smarks, I also had problems with the plastic bags–they were super thin and a bunch of hardware was rattling around in the box. I needed to mock up the entire guitar to figure out that I was missing the screws for the input jack. Not that big a deal but some better bags could have saved a big hassle.
-The plugs for the solderless electronics are not very strong. I had two wires pull out of the tabs. Luckily I had ordered the solderless kit by mistake and had the equipment and knowledge to be able to solder them properly, but other people may not be so lucky.
-The biggest problem I had was that almost every pre-drilled hole was misaligned and/or crooked. Only two of the bridge screw holes matched up, one of the control plate screw holes, one of the string pass-throughs, and none of the input jack plate holes. But the worst thing was that the holes for the neck screws were crooked. I didn’t want to try to redrill them because I feared it would make the neck wobble, so I just had to live with them being crooked and have the screw heads not seat properly. There were no holes drilled for the string tree so I had to guess at where to put it.
-As noted in the other review here the strings were not marked and trying to distinguish them all was a real hassle. I had less luck or skill in doing so than others and ended up breaking three strings.
Suggestions to Solo:
1. Please take an extra couple minutes per guitar to make sure the jig is straight and/or the holes are drilled straight. Mine probably should not have made it through QC.
2. Add a stringing guide to the instructions. Even if you keep the same strings in the kit you could at least mention which gauges are paired together to give us a fighting chance of getting it right. Also, showing how they go through the bridge would be helpful. I was able to track down an image or two of a 12-string telecast bridge but honestly I don’t think I should have had to.
Overall, putting together a guitar kit was a rewarding experience and now I have the 12-string electric I always wanted for pennies on the dollar. That said, there were problems with the kit that there should not have been. I’m willing accept everything except the misdrilled holes. I get that this is DIY, but if you’re going to do something for me (pre-drill the holes) they should be done right. Like smarks I’m not sure I want to stick with Solo for the LP kit I want to build next.