Alston Guitars - DIY Electric Guitar Kit | Bolt On | Solid Mahogany Body & Neck Flamed Maple Veneer

the flame maple is so thin you cant properly sand. so you stain it, but you will allways be slightly disapointed. the 3 pickups are poor quality. and realy bunched close together. The OUTPUT JACK IS TO BIG FOR THE WHOLE THEY CUT. Witch sucks because I just got the thing looking good and Im terified to widen out the hole for the output. like Im afraid i will pull Half the Maple off. I simply would not buy again. witch is a shame because It does posess a lot of potential.

Before I begin, I'd like to put out that I've played guitar for around 6-8 years, and have experience in replacing and upgrading parts. I decided to try my hand at building one since I was already in the market for a new one, and this kit would allow to build one far cheaper than buying one, and looked pretty impressive.Upon opening the kit, the first thing I noticed was the neck and body wrapped in foam, inside a box, inside a thicker box, INSIDE the Amazon shipping box. No parts were damaged in shipment. The abalone dragon inlay looks amazing, and even has pearl accents; however, there was a small crack in the rosewood at the 22nd fret, not a big deal. Next thing I noticed was the ends of the frets where they were cut were very sharp, left a nasty cut on my thumb when I picked it up, but they can be fixed. However, my neck has an extreme backbow past the 14th fret and warped to the left. I am currently attempting to fix it, but it looks like I may have to take it to a repair tech. I'm really hoping it won't have to be junked, because it looks great.Next up is the body: the veneer is excellent, albeit quite thin (maybe just a few millimeters). When finishing, remember to use light grit sandpaper, or you could easily take the veneer off in a few good strokes. The mahogany looks good in the back, there is a small knot, gives it some character. Both the neck and the body have their fair share of roughness out of the box, so be prepared for some sanding action pre-finishing your guitar. Remember to do a dry fit of ALL of your hardware before finishing your guitar so that you have a chance to fix any goofs, otherwise you risk marring a finish that you get looking just the way you like it. I decided to give it a sunburst stain in the front, leave the back unstained, and do a light oil-finish on it, and it came out looking excellent.Electronics appear to be of average quality, but I can't actually try them out due to my strings laying across my frets due to the backbow. Hardware isn't bad, if the tuners have any give, the locking nut is keeping them in check just fine.Overall, I did like this kit, but it did have quite a few small problems. The neck turned out to be a pain, but overall the guitar looks excellent.

Craftsmanship is shoddy at best. The price is good, but be prepared to spend a lot of time fixing many small problems and blemishes. The hardware and the electronics are poor, but you get what you pay for. The rout for the neck was too big and the neck had to be shimmed. Many dings, dents and blemishes in the wood that had to be sanded or worked out. If you are only looking for an inexpensive kit to learn to assemble and finish a guitar on, this kit is okay. But when you are ready to assemble and finish a nice instrument, I recommend you look elsewhere.

This is the other guitar kit I've bought from here. I also purchased the Ibanez JEM kit from this company. Overall, it's a quality kit, but there are several issues. Here's the breakdown: 3 piece mahogany body, maple veneer, cremeish binding on body and neck. Dragon inlay on 24-fret neck, neck looks like mahogany as well. 6 inline headstock. HSH pickup configuration, "Liscensed Under Floyd Rose Patents" bridge.Body: Seems pretty solid. Routing is good, holes for the bridge posts are good, neck screw holes are good, as are the holes for the pots and the blade switch. No other holes drilled. Maple cap is actually surprisingly figured, on mine there were two semi bad looking knots on either side of the bridge pickup rout. The hole for the jack is also not big enough for the jack they provide, so I've had to purchase a replacement jack from Musician'sFriend that looks like it will fit. There are several scratches in the top, between this and the knots in the top, I decided to reveneer it. The neck pocket is really close, pretty well routed.Neck: Well, here's the thing. I'm reviewing the second one of these kits I've gotten. The first one, I opened it, looked it over, and found the headstock had snapped off during shipment because the headstock hadn't been finished, so it was too long for the box. First time the box had a jolt, boom, snap. I sent it back that day. This kit didn't break during shipment, although the neck was unfinished as the last one was. So I have to carve my own headstock, which won't be too terrible. The rest of the page, though, looks fantastic. The holes for the tuners are good, the fretwork is really solid, the dragon inlay is BEAUTIFUL, though more Asian styled than European, if you can't see the picture clearly or care. The neck is straight, the FR nut is installed correctly, and it fits solidly in the neck pocket.Hardware: The bridge is a copy of a Floyd Rose Original. You can find out what features that has elsewhere. The only thing is the tone block. It's tiny, and probably pot metal or something. I'll be replacing it. Tuners look pretty good. Humbuckers are single-conductor, basic pickups, as is the single coil. Comes with a 5 way switch (I bought a Fender Super Switch for more options) Pots are some off brand mini pot variety (I'm also replacing these, but they feel solid enough.) Comes with all the wire and a wiring diagram, but IT DOES NOT COME PREWIRED like any of the Strat/JEM style kits with a pickguard. You have to do it all yourself. So, you'll need a soldering iron and probably some more solder, but it comes with about 6 inches.Bring it all together:3 stars for kit build (Would have been except for the jack hole being too small, scratches on the top, and the headstock being unfinished.-1 for cheap parts+1 for the dragon inlay

Just as I expected, no surprises.

For the money, this is a good kit. Word of advice, you'll need to have some background in building a guitar before attempting this one. The neck fits well into it's pocket, and this is a huge plus. The inlay seems to be of very good quality, it sits flat with the fretboard as it should. The electronics are pretty standard for an inexpensive kit made in China. The locking nut is not the standard piece that would usually accompany a Floyd Rose bridge. It appears to be made of plastic. All in all, not a bad kit.