Goddamn YouTubers…
I keep seeing amature YouTubers post kit-guitar videos and then lure their viewers to some shady website with some 15 percent off coupon. If you’re thinking about it please READ THIS FIRST!
Ok first and foremost, if you’re buying one of these trendy chinese guitar Kits for any reason other than ‘fun’ and I use the term ‘fun’ rather LOOSELY please consider the following…
You haven’t discovered the ‘Ultimate Money Saving’ hack, NO MONEY WILL BE SAVED!
You’ll spend hours fixing issues with the kit (bad routes, wrong measurements etc.) before you even start to build.
Assuming you finish it, you’ll realize it plays like shit and decide to take it to your tech and don’t be surprised to pay up, I tell people around $500 but mind you I don’t cut corners.
No, they aren’t reliable backup guitars
Im making an assumption here but from what I’ve seen in online photos, some of these companies seem to be building out of chicken coops. The working conditions look fucking terrible!
Lastly, They’ll always look cheap and fake.
So last week I decided to take on these two Les Paul Jr’s. They weren’t terrible but still required lots of modification along the way and lots of part replacement.
Putting lipstick on the pigs
Not so straight
I’ve noticed that alot of these cheapo guitars have really bad necks. These are not the exception, somewhat straight but both definitely still required fret leveling. Also, they charged my client extra to have the necks glued in at the factory.
I almost guarantee that you’ll be p(r)aying for fret work…
Frets were not seated properly, had to glue some back in and dress the frets. Dressing isn’t uncommon but when you have to remove this much material thats not a good sign.
B stands for bad???
Fuck! Ok I have to admit that these GFS pickups are actually pretty good and for $35 bucks I was intrigued. Mind you, take that with a grain of salt as I haven’t tried too many. Also, B stands for bridge, thanks china!
Remember kids, kinda measure once and cut thrice
Lets not forget that these are being cranked out from China with awful working conditions, no regulations and god knows where they’re sourcing their woods.
I dont want your best, I wanna pay you for half your best.
Ok I get that it doesn’t have to be this perfect and I could of charged the dude way less and kinda half ass it but why? I take lots of pride in what I do and most well known luthiers/techs do as well. It’s like going to a tattoo artist thats dope as fuck and telling him/her to ‘not do their best’ so you don’t have to pay what they regularly charge. I like electronic work, Im really good at it and super proud of it. I also like this picture a lot.
Work Done
1. Reglue loose frets
2. Cavity Correction (pickups didn’t quite fit)
3. Reaming of all holes for wider pot diameter
4. Tuner install
5. Pickup Install
6. Full Wire Up
7. Hardware Install
8. Properly Install Nuts (they were glued in but at an angle)
9. Fret Level
10. Full Setups
Ok i don’t want to discourage anyone from building or getting into this type of stuff but please just be careful when going down this path. If you still decide to give one of these a shot I’d recommend buying a kit from stewmac (I have no affiliation to them) or some other reputable company that offer some kind of warranty. I’d also recommend maybe getting some guidance along the way from a professional luthier or tech. Pay them for their time and expect to pay for some work as well.
Surprisingly enough these actually turned out alright and it only cost him a pissed-off wife and $1000 over his original budget. So Remember kids, you can put lipstick on a pig but it’ll still be a pig.
-Luis M.