TL Style Spalted Maple Build Your Own Guitar Kit

This was my first kit, and it was relatively straightforward to build. Sam was amazing for support, especially for the wiring. (Which really was not difficult and I haven’t soldered for almost 40 years). Finishing the Spalted maple didn’t go as I envisioned but it still turned out nice IMO.

The neck is straight and well made. It’s real nice after some minor work- had some sharp fret ends but they sanded down fine. It doesn’t have rolled edges but it’s still pretty comfortable. The neck/body join is amazingly tight and solid. They were numbered as a pair, so a very nice touch.

The neck pickup is a little muddy but sounds just fine for cords and backup if you keep the gain down. I really like the twang of the bridge pickup, and middle position softens it nicely when the neck is added in. Sounds quite nice when run clean, but has some real nice body to it with some gain as well. The pickups are definitely on the hot side. Turn the gain way up and it would fit right into a metal band 😝 I’ve never played a Tele before so can’t really compare these pups to “better quality” ones. I feel no need to swap them out at this time however.

The controls are quite robust and quiet, and the switch works well. Definitely not “cheap” in a lightweight aluminum wobbly kinda way. Or painted plastic …. The tuners are “OK”. They don’t feel like crap, but they don’t feel amazing either. Tuning stability seems ok so far, so good enough for the $.

I got the action down quite low. Surprisingly low, actually. I had to sand down some frets but it’s very playable now. It does fret out on big bends at the 14th on B and G, but at least it doesn’t die right out completely. I’ll do something about it in the future if I find it affects my playing too much.

The nut is (was) absolute shit however. I’m talking twice as high as it should be. Luckily I had an old nut that I popped in and it was like day and night for playability.

The intonation is a bit frustrating because it remains a bit sharp and I can’t get the saddles any further back because the string wraps would be on them. This could be solved if I had a drill press and could get the “through the body” holes drilled for the strings- would free up at least another cm of travel. Even so, the intonation is pretty close and a person would likely find it difficult to spot when listening.

So overall, I’m happy with it. Definitely needed some work, but nothing major. In my mind this is more a feature than a detriment because I wanted to learn about building and setting up a guitar, but only to the point where I didn’t need specialized tools or having to spend additional $. If it didn’t have the issues it did, it would be worth a fair bit more. If it needed professional help to fix the frets, etc it would not have been worth it, since you can buy a Squire for this amount and any major issues should be taken care of by the store. Just wish it came with the through-body string holes pre drilled.

The body had a lot of wood filler which led me to paint black around the edge.Also a hole was drilled from the neck pocket to the neck pickup. It would also help to have a wiring diagram.

The build was rough, but this is the first time I’ve built a guitar and I don’t even play. It’s a gift…and he better like it. Thankfully, I purchased equipment for wood burning which I was able to use for soldering (which I didn’t know I would need to do, and had never done prior to this). The slot for the switch/knob plate was a bit too long which affected the way the pick guard and the 2nd pickup fit together, but meh…I don’t know if it plays because I don’t have an amp, but I’m pretty happy with my soldering job so fingers crossed.

I think it looks pretty good, but if I’m experienced with anything, it’s wood finishing, and the grain of the spalted maple veneer came out pretty sweet.

Biggest takeaway, PLEASE provide more instruction and advise soldering is required. I’ve watched more middle aged white guys build electric guitar kits in the last two days to last several lifetimes.

On the upside, I may have found a new side hustle when it comes to the finishing side.

TL;DR: build is 3 out of 10 difficulty, need to solder, parts fit together a little weird but not too bad, instructions are basically nonexistent and wiring diagram is basically useless.