Electric Guitar Kit T-Style : Brilliant value and an exciting project

After seeing countless projects being done on youtube, I was very keen to give a try on a DIY kit. Tempted by the Les Paul initially, I went for the T-Guitar, not only because I don't have one, but also because the shapes from Harley Benton have changed a bit, and it would always be a tough act to follow the Gibsons I own anyway.

So far, I have put together the kit and have not yet gone through the staining/oiling process, so I cannot comment on that yet, but I am expecting a fair bit of sanding to do given the nice sealing already performed on the body.

Other than that, it is all mainly positive:

- The neck is very smooth, and well finished. The frets are fine, nothing sharp or uneven. The fingerboard is possibly a bit dry, and will get some lemon oil or similar.

- The body is made of two pieces from what I can see, and while nowhere neer flamed the wood is nice enough that I will want to keep a transparent finish. On the back there are traces of glue I think which will come off with the sanding.

- Neck and body fitted well together. Same for the rest of the pre-drilled holes, with one exception for the volume/tone selector where I redrilled slightly to get a better fit on the screw which is very visible.

- A couple of screws were not properly in factory.

- While it may require a proper set-up, with taking the pick-ups a bit higher, and fiddling with the neck, the intonation seems pretty good out of the box. Definitely playable as is, if anything action is a bit too high on the high notes.

- I damaged the E string when I untangled it from the others. This means it broke after a few minutes of playing. Not the end of the world since I was going to dismantle everything for the finish, but a shame still.

- Connections are extremely simple with just two cables to connect.

Overall, I am very impressed. I am not a big T-guitar enthusiast (or the F brand of guitars), so cannot compare like for like, but it feels to me very good soundwise, playability wise, and it was very easy to put together. Looking forward to the next step now, but at this price, it's a no brainer to recommend getting "your own" guitar.