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

The neck and body were flawless. No sanding or wood putty needed. The top has a flamed maple pattern. The neck fits the body perfectly. All of the parts are included. This is a great kit. You can make a custom violin bass and save $200 to $400.One more point, both the body and the neck accepted the wood stain very well. I would be the first to purchase a club bass kit if you sold it. This is a great kit.

Painted, assembled, and tested in about 3 days. And already debating which will be my next kit. This was a BLAST to put together. And, surprisingly enough, it sounds good too!Not sure about the pickup source, I was initially planning on swapping them for something else later on as many reviews comment on a lack of quality. I was very pleasantly surprised by their clarity. Only catch on the pups is the bridge pickup sits pretty low. Without a higher mounting ring, I just can't get much sound out of it. Good thing the neck pup works well. That said, plan on upgrading the pickups if you plan on getting any serious use out of it.After reading countless reviews about MANY of these DIY kits, I just figured the veneer would be junk. This was most definitely not the case here. Good veneer with no sand-through spots. Stained wonderfully (for the most part, see below). The clear coat looks great as well.And now for the bad. And by bad, I mean the explanation for the -1 star. There were three spots where glue either soaked through the veneer or were the result of a careless drip during assembly. So that created a few spots where the stain did not absorb well. Fortunately, two of the three are under the pick guard. And the other looks ok after hitting it with a cotton swab dipped in stain. I also received too many of one type of screw and not enough of another. But a quick trip to the local home improvement store and $1.29 later, I was good to go. One screw for the tuning machines snapped off when screwing it in. I'll have to replace that one later on. But it will require drilling it out, filling the larger hole with woodglue/sawdust putty, and re-drilling a pilot hole. So I'll wait a while on that one. The instructions were not terribly helpful except for the solder points on the controller board. Those were dead on. Oh and plan on replacing the strings before you get serious about playing it. Just like buying a new ax from a big box store, the strings that come with it are junk. And see above for the pickup comment.All in all, it's not a perfect kit. But it still makes me smile looking at it and playing it. And I have zero regrets about buying it.

Look at the pictures. Quality a big issue.

I’ve built many musical instruments from scratch but got lazy this time. Glad I did. This kit is so affordable and easy to assemble. Best of all you have a great sounding instrument when you’re through.

The Good: Kit arrived quickly (Ut to SoCal) & well packed in its box. All parts inside (wood & metal) showed no damage & no parts missing. Very nice fit & finish on both body & neck. Very nice basswood & maple body with set-in maple neck. Nice rosewood fingerboard with 22 frets on a 34" scale length. Body is arch-top style (to be expected) with very nice book-matched, figured maple veneer (should stain very nicely). Body has a nice resonance even in its raw wood condition. Finish on wood components is of quality & won't take much work to get where they're ready to take stain/finish. Circuit board seems to be of quality & same for controls/switches. Nice sturdy, chromed tailpiece. Can't wait to get it completed & hear how it sounds! Will do a follow up review then.The Less-Than-Nice: If you are a middle school/high school student thinking you're going to build your own bass & then teach yourself to play, this is probably not the kit for you (unless you have someone with experience planning to help you). Only minimal instructions & not anything about the placement of the neck when gluing in place, or suggestions for the adjustable bridge. The included wiring diagram does not give the wiring colors for the neck & bridge pickups (but I was able to figure it out from the diagram, & they do have a support number). The pickups themselves do not look to be of the best quality (but what do you expect for the price). An experienced eye can tell there has been a change to the circuit board components (capacitors) from the included photograph (wonder why?). Since the banding is already in place it will take a lot of patience to mask it off properly for staining/painting & the numerous layers of clear coat. Also, the listing says the neck has "20" frets. Mine had 22 (as could be expected), so not sure if the "20" is a typo, or what, but doesn't give a potential customer much confidence that the vendor knows what they're selling.Bottom Line: Not regretting buying it at all (at this point). Even if I have to replace the pickups and/or rework the circuit board, I still think the fit, finish and construction of the wood parts make this a steal for adding a unique "Beatle Bass" to your collection. I'd readily recommend it to a friend.

Great loved it building a guitar is like a rideing bike experience all sould at lease learn kit was flawless only thing that was harry was glueing the nec cus i had no clamp came out fine though painted it red and white i ment to post it but ive already sold it upon finshing it to a good profit just as good as orginal hoff...i dont recommend painting it 2 much as it had a more hollow thrumming sound pryor to painting it or maybe just a tan finish or something to perserve woods hollow tone like i said agen the neck glueing part and the neck pick up placement area can be tricky otherwise smoothly build kit