JonnyPM

Ok, the rundown... First off I already replaced the bridge p/u with the Fred and moved the original bridge p/u to the neck position. Now it's a least playable from a listening standpoint. The fine-tuners on the tremolo are not the greatest, the E's bind up a bit. The neck was surprisingly good right from the start except for one fault which could have turned out much worse. That was that the 12th fret had about 1/4" of bent tang on the end and they went ahead and pressed it in anyway. So I pulled it out, tried to bend the tang back but it broke off, so I just put the fret back on the neck with the little end piece missing. The little dent that was left on the face of the FB was covered by it so it's not noticeable. The frets themselves need dressing. I did the best I could with the minimal tools I have, it could be better, but it's working with no dead spots or buzzing. The action itself is nice and low and the overall playability is pretty good. I'll probably replace the pot and the 3-way next. The 3-way is super hard to switch and the pot doesn't really drop off any sound until about 3 or lower. Any suggestions on the "k" to replace it with? I play mostly classic/hard rock. How do you guys get the "smooth as butter" neck? I used T.O. but it's not quite butter yet. Thanks, Jonny

Yeah, that is awesome, turned out great! Jonny

Thanks for the comments! I got the bridge p/u switched out, sounds MUCH better now. I couldn't even play it before, those p/u's were so bad. New strings too, so now it's totally playable and fun. Important note that I forgot to mention to any who might purchase this kit: The p/u screws provided are too long! Guess how I found out!? Glad the hole will be covered by the tremolo spring cover. Jonny

Yep, they usually get backordered then when they arrive they go quickly. I bought this in March. You can contact them and ask if they are getting more in and they will ask if you want a "heads up" notice when they arrive. They had 5 or 6 more different kits than they are showing now. You'll most likely have to replace the p/u's, they're pretty bad. Jonny

Yeah, I have pretty much no woodworking experience. The only thing that I really had to do was fill in 90% of the screw holes with toothpicks and dowel rods and drill new holes since not a single piece matched up. Also had to fill and redrill the mounting holes in the neck. I had a buddy redrill them with his drill press so I knew they were straight. About the only other thing was shaving about a 32nd off the heel (is that the right word?) of the neck because it was sitting too proud of the body. Jonny

I bought this kit from BYOGuitar.com. It took a lot of work to make everything fit together, but I knew that going into it so it was kinda fun. I'd definitely buy another one from them. I plan on replacing the p/u's, plus I don't really dig the white instead of cream. Seamrog is Celtic for shamrock and the serial number is "The plug-in date" so I got pretty lucky with this one since I actually got it done on Sunday. Thanks to Mender for helping with the wiring or I'd be a liar, lol. I put that on there over a month ago anticipating the curing time and a couple days of scratching my head when it didn't work. I named the the Custom 360 degrees because it's a copy of the EVH Ernie Ball Axis or something like that. A circle or ball is 360 degrees so I thought what the heck, that'll work. The knob is from Q-Parts. Jonny

Woohoo! Thanks Mender, now I have a new geetar! Pics coming to the finished projects area later. Jonny

Cool, thanks for the input, I'll give it a try! Jonny

Hi, I bought this kit guitar and have wired it up according to the instructions (or lack thereof), and I don't have any power at all, no clicking or anything. I'm thinking the jack might not be wired right. I looked at another guitar I have and it isn't wired like this one, but this one has one more wire than my other one. Here are pics of the current wiring, and I'm wondering if the blue wire with the bare and shielded wires needs to be split or something. The white wire is soldered on the back of the volume pot as instructed. The pics aren't great, but the blue wire on the jack has both of it's wires (bare and shielded) soldered to the same tab, which might not even be the right tab. Any help in getting this sorted out is greatly appreciated! Thanks, Jonny

Hi, I've done a search and see that a few people have bought necks from Guitar Parts USA, what are your thoughts? Any problems with them? I don't want to save $20-50 just to turn around and have the fixed so it's playable. Thanks, Jonny

Thanks for the info. KPcrash - Interesting topic on the plywood guitar too. Jonny

Hi, So are there any particular woods that you absolutely shouldn't use for a guitar body build? Balsa comes to mind, lol, but I think that's a bit obvious. I read over at TDPRI about the $100 tele builds and all sorts of stuff were used there. In the vein of that idea, I'd like to build something relatively cheap for the first one and I have scraps laying around that might or might not work. I want to see if I can get through it without botching it up before I try it with some nicer stuff. Also, how do you know if a wood is a Hardwood? Thanks, Jonny

That's some nice looking wood. Good luck in the contest! Jonny

Looks great so far. I'm always interested in seeing first builds. Amazed at how good they turn out from people with not a lot of woodworking experience. JonnyPM

I've got the tape from doing it to the original strat donor, but these pick-ups are not going to be mounted to the pickguard, they're going to be mounted from the bottom through the top so there really isn't a real cavity besides the "hollow" part of the semi hollowbody. Good point about the grounding, I replaced the originals with EMGs so I forgot about the grounding issue with the regular strat p/ups. Lots to learn yet. JonnyPM