Electric Guitar Kit T-Style : Just get it! Quality for the money!

Firstly, I am not a gigging guitarist. I play mainly in the bedroom and occasionally at local Jams. I use a Boss Katana amp with an ME-80 and a few other pedals.

I’ve wanted to do a self build for a while now, but was sceptical about a) whether I would be able to do a half decent job, & b) more importantly, whether the materials supplied would be any good.

When it arrived I was immediately impressed that the body was (externally) very smooth and had a nice grain. ( The workmanship on the pickup pocket routing and the control switch routing was pretty poor really, but at least is out of sight). The neck looked really good and the fret edge finish was way smoother than I was expecting for the price.

First off, I checked the neck for straightness and found that it was convex in shape by quite a bit. Easy enough to adjust with the supplied truss rod adjuster. The frets themselves were actually quite smooth at the edges, but after checking with fret rockers, seven or eight of them needed to be filed down a bit.

Now I’m no woodworker or electronic wizard so this area really concerned me. The headstock shape I chose to cut with a jig saw. On reflection a hand saw with a fine blade may have been more useful. That said, after about 3 hours hand sanding with 5 different grades of sandpaper made it nice and smooth.

The electrics were easy to connect with the supplied connectors but I first lined all the cavity’s with copper self adhesive tape.

One major flaw is that the tone pot does not work. Or, if it does, it really isn’t noticeable. (This is something I have seen in other reviews). For me it isn’t a big issue, I have plenty of pedals and effects that can overcome this.

From the outset, I wanted the finish to remain a natural (ish) wood Finish. So I was really happy that the grain on the guitar body was looking very good out of the box. I applied four coats of mid oak wood wax. This deepened the colour somewhat and I am really pleased with the finish.

The tuners seem to be of a pretty good standard, but a couple of the pre drilled holes were slightly off. The string trees look and feel a bit cheap. Most of the supplied screws and holes were ok. The neck fitted the body really well and the strings, when put on, were aligned straight down the neck. The nut is plastic I think, but experience has told me to file the back edge of the slots, just a little bit and apply some lead pencil to the slots. Once the strings had stretched a little and bedded in, it holds its tune really well.

My biggest and best surprise, was when I plugged it in. I think the sound of this build is superb for the money. I have owned far worse guitars that have cost me hundreds of pounds. The pick ups needed a small tweak to get the volume balance right, but other than that, I am really pleased with the volume and general tone of the guitar.

For £75 (from my experience) I doubt if you will find much better. Really chuffed!