The FretWire DIY Electric Guitar Kit - DIY Build Your Own Guitar, Guitar Setup Kit, DIY guitar Kit for Beginners and Professionals (6 String)

First inspection of materials showed frets that are nicely crowned and leveled without polish. Only 1 fret required additional leveling. The fretboard is made of multiple pieces of rosewood glued together with noticeable cracks, glue stains, and gouged sanding marks that do not follow the grain. I am disappointed in the fretboard itself, but the overall neck feels nice. Once the cracks are filled there will be a noticeable glue line that cannot be hidden. I have never seen such a line on any guitar I have ever seen or played, but upon assembly it is not that noticeable. The body of the neck is 3 different pieces glued together with one of the joints at an awkward location that is difficult to hide from the rear. The truss rod works perfectly. The neck itself feels better than the $200 Ibanez 7 string. The tuners are a bit cheap. One tuner did not work properly, but the seller was very accommodating to replace it. Additionally, they provided me with plenty of help on how to dress the fretboard appropriately and took care of me for the cracks in the fretboard. I was extremely pleased with their customer service and willingness to make things right. I will certainly buy from them on my next kit build.The body of the guitar is as pictured. Smooth and only needing a light sand. Good contour and the neck pocket fits snug. The body is the quality I expected from the description and the picture. The pickups and wiring were fairly simple to complete using the diagram on thefretwire.com. They are 2-wire pickups so no coil taps unless you want to tear them open. They also provided solder, but you will need to know how to solder and ground things properly. The covers and cavities are not lined with foil tape so I added that myself. The instructions are not a perfect step by step, but youtube videos are simple to follow and easy to find. The pickups sound fantastic and with a little lubrication the bridge is working perfectly. I am quite satisfied at this point. I would have given 3/5 stars if the seller hadn't made things right. Now 5/5 because they have made significant effort to rectify things. Project is nearly complete as pictured!

A very nice kit. The body appears to be laminated basswood with a solid basswood core block. The construction should be strong enough to handle the extra tension of a 12 string. And still make a guitar that is light weight. The flame maple veneer top is very pretty. I'd use a stain or transparent finish so that the tiger striping stays visible. And the body binding look very well done. The body and neck feel like they have been sanded to about 180 grit. No grain filler or seal coat has been applied. Use of a light colored grain filler is required. There are lots of very tiny holes and voids that need to be filled, particularly where end grains were cut for the binding rabbit.The hardware looks to be typical entry level guitar stuff. Probably made by Grover or someone similar. Nothing special but perfectly acceptable. And it can be upgraded if you want to spend the extra money.The online instructions are a bit sparse. For example: it tells you to glue the neck into the joint pocket, but gives no advise on checking the alignment of the neck first. Something that absolutely needs to be done. I've built about 12 kit guitars, so I know what I'm doing. But the instructions with this kit are inadequate for a true beginning builder.All the parts needed for the wiring are provided, but you need to do the actually soldering yourself.The neck is assembled with the truss rod, rosewood fretboard and the fret wire already installed, The fret wire ends need dressing to get rid of rough edges and several frets were not fully seated. This can be fixed with a rubber mallet, but using a fret press would be a whole lot safer and less likely to damage the neck. The fretboard is ready for some wood conditioner and it's done. Like the body, the neck is pre-sanded to about 180 grit. Mine hardly accepted any grain filler at all. Be sure to tape off the fretboard before finishing the neck. DO NOT apply a finish to the rosewood fretboard. Use a conditioner only.Overall I'm happy with the kit and I expect I'll buy others in the product line.If you need a case to protect your custom made guitar the "Crossrock Cases CRW600SA Hardshell Arch Top Wooden Case", sold by Amazon is reasonably priced and fits well. Though it is a little loose, so some extra padding would be a good idea.