Electric Guitar Kit DC Style : Nice kit with suprsingly good results

I purchased this kit for a bit of a project, with no real intent to keep it after I completed it. I have too many guitars already! So I chose an SG style kit as I'd never played an SG as I'm not keen on the looks of them. That may seem an odd reason to choose a kit, but again this was because I did not want to feel attached to the guitar and so feel no remorse when selling it after completion.

I've had a fair amount of experience with setting up, wiring and fret dressing. So my experience in the build maybe different from someone who has no previous guitar maintenance skills.

The kit went together fairly easily overall.

The electrics were a bit of a fiddle as the diagrams were not particularly clear as to which volume/tone pots were connected to which pickups. So a 50/50 chance to get it correct first guess. (yes, I got it wrong on first attempt, so had to take it apart and redo)

The neck fitted the body well and didn't require any shims to get the correct angle. There were two slightly high frets which I spot leveled and re crowned. The overall wasn't too bad so didn't require a complete fret leveling job. To be fair the two high frets were not terribly bad and the guitar would have probably have been adequately playable as it was, but as I have the tools and the skills for it I did them anyway. The overall fret finish wasn't very good though, they were scratched and rough in places. So they did all require a good fret polishing job. Also of note the light satin finish that the neck comes pre finished with make the neck very smooth and playable.

The body was made of three parts but not too badly matched so a tru oil finish was acceptable after some thorough sanding and finishing.

The tuners seem adequate, they hold their tune and function smoothly enough. I see no reason why they should need replacing.

The finished product.

I was very surprised with how playable the finished guitar was after a full set up. The neck is smooth and fast and I have managed to get a very low action at both the nut and 12th fret. The intonation is also acceptable after I finished setting it up.

Sound wise, I think considering the cheap pickups that you get in guitar kits they sound not too bad at all. I have no complaints about them. Obviously side by side with an expensive set of pickups you will notice a difference though.

Overall for the money with the correct tools and some guitar setup skills you can achieve a very playable instrument. I'm still going to sell the guitar on though as I have too many other guitars and only made this kit for the enjoyment of working on it.