Electric Guitar Kit DC Style : Great kit, if you’re willing to put some work into it

I love doing mods on guitars, and decided to try out one of these kits to build from the ground up. After a bit of work, I love the results.

No complaints about manufacturing or machining. All predrilled holes lined up as they should, and the neck fit snugly into its pocket. Even with shipping/taxes/fees, still less expensive than most kits. I would say that if you’re planning on tuner or electronics upgrades, you will probably be best served by installing them to begin with. That said, I wanted to see what the initial quality level and sound were like out of the box. Most hardware was good, though I had issues with the smallest screws in the tuners - but they were the only hardware I had a complaint about. And I found that I was happier with tuning stability after installing locking tuners - that’s where the hardware issue bit me, but I resolved it with a little work. The prewired plug-in electronics harness was well put together, but the bridge pickup was wildly microphonic. I’d planned on upgrading that anyway, so no big loss. The neck pickup was fine, so I decided to save myself some upgrade funds and kept it. Switching was solid, and pots were relatively noise-free. The wood finish needed relatively little prep for painting, and I found only a couple of smaller rough spots inside the cutaways. Binding on the fretboard was clean and very smooth, and frets were smooth and even. A little work on the slots in the nut was necessary, as I found the cuts a bit shallow. No big thing. After a few minor tweaks and upgrades to the bridge pickup and tuners (which, as I said, I’d planned on anyway), I’m very happy with the way it plays, feels and sounds. I’ve spent more “fixing” guitars at 2-3x the price, and I even got the opportunity to put my own artistic stamp on the finish. As with other HB offerings, you really can’t go wrong for the money - I’m just trying to decide on which kit I want to build next!