# Albatross DIY guitar kits



## Petey D

Thinking of picking a couple of these up. Anybody have any experience with them?

https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/AlbatrossGuitars?

Planning to use upgraded tuners, pots, caps, and pickups.

I'm interested in two of the kits, the maple topped LP type and the Explorer. They'd be my first builds, I have solid electrical skills, can solder and read wiring diagrams (tech school trained aircraft mechanic,) but very little experience working with wood.

Thoughts?


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## Electraglide

I might do a first, for me, and buy online.....maybe. The Tele style thin line with the single coils looks kinda interesting. I wonder if I could put a gold foil single coil in the bridge. Or depending on how it sounds, just leave it the way it is. I know my way around a skill saw, jack plane and claw hammer so the wood working should be ok and the blow torch heated soldering iron should work for the electrical. Lead solder of course. I have some partial spray cans of flat black that should do for the body.


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## Steadfastly

Well, you can't beat the price. Likely not the greatest kit at that price but for a first time DIY you can't go wrong at that price.


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## Petey D

Yeah the price is really attractive. I think I'm going to take the plunge on one of these in the next couple of months...


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## bscott

I think all here would be VERY interested how the build goes. How good is the wood and all the electronic bits and the neck (does it come fretted, stuff like that). The price is reallycheap for All that mahogany.
right now I am falling into the "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" camp.


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## Electraglide

It says that the one I'm thinking of is $148 Canadian which might change a bit depending on the exchange rate at the time it goes thru my credit card. Ummm, I just did a check, the shipping to Canada brings it up to $285.48 Canadian. Toss in duties, taxes etc. and it is now more than the kits the music store in town has. I think for now this kit will go on the back burner.


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## Steadfastly

Electraglide said:


> It says that the one I'm thinking of is $148 Canadian which might change a bit depending on the exchange rate at the time it goes thru my credit card. Ummm, I just did a check, the shipping to Canada brings it up to $285.48 Canadian. Toss in _*duties*_, taxes etc. and it is now more than the kits the music store in town has. I think for now this kit will go on the back burner.


There are no duties. If they ship it via USPS there might not even be any taxes. I have found that to often be the case, especially on small dollar items like this.

You can pretty well leave the word _*duties*_ out of any purchasing discussion these days if it comes from the USA or Mexico. The same is true for many other countries.


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## Rudder Bug

If you live in New York, it will be around $25. There is a catch


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## epis

I would like to share with you guys my experience with these chinese unfinished guitars. Do not have high hopes, it's far from high quality.
I don't know about this seller's guitars, but it looks to me built same way as guitar (unfinished body and neck) I bought 4 -5 years ago.
It was Lp copy, set neck. Body was 5 pieces "mahogany" with "maple" top, actually paper thin veneer over laminated whitish wood stripes 1" wide.
Neck -body joint looked firm, but after careful measuring of heel height and neck pocket depth, I have discovered an uneven gap 1/8 to 1/4".
So I had to shim it before assembling. Also neck angle was wrong, it needed some work to correct it. Definitely not a project for beginners.
If you really have to get one, buy bolt on neck guitar.
Cheers, Damir

P.S.

Hardware on these guitars is crap, so count on it as well.

P.S.'

I forgot about the fretwork, it was so poor, I had to remove all the frets, clean the grooves properly and refret it. Frets were made from some really soft material btw.


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## epis

I got my guitar before I found this page :

http://notrightinthehead.net/tag/diy-guitars/

There is review at the bottom, ebay les paul guitar kit. I wouldn't agree 100%, because I was able to make a decent playable guitar out of it.


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## Petey D

Did some web searching and found an abundance of posts stating that these kits very commonly are delivered with improperly routed neck joints resulting in unplayable guitars or guitars that need a lot more work to make playable than a beginner will be able to handle i.e. re-routing and shimming of the neck pocket. Looks like I'll be taking a pass on these kits.


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## Rudder Bug

I had two good experiences with the SOLO kits; a Telecaster style double-neck and a Jazz bass. The electronics and wiring instructions were crap with the double-neck but the kit was pretty neat, everything fitted perfectly well. 

The Jazz bass was even better, we used everything that was in the box and it turned out to be a pretty decent bass. Shipping was hardly 20 bucks and I received them the next day both times. This is about two years ago.

You can easily find a local dealer on Ebay.

Gilles


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## Steadfastly

These kits are a little more but if there is a problem they will fix it and the parts will be of better quality.

http://www.guitarfetish.com/Guitar-And-Bass-Kits_c_74.html

http://www.rondomusic.com/partsbodies.html


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## copperhead

Any wood with pores these days + Business man /Guitar oriented product = Mahogany
I don't think there was an original burst or SG that color before the finish was applied .


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## Chito

I'm curious about these kits. The review that was posted was from 4 years ago and shipped directly from China and definitely from a different supplier. The Albatross kits from what I've read ships from the US. So I'm thinking there would at least be some sort of quality control when it gets to the US before it gets shipped out. Reviews have been good too, also mentioned by Gilles.


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## Rudder Bug

Chito said:


> I'm curious about these kits. The review that was posted was from 4 years ago and shipped directly from China and definitely from a different supplier. The Albatross kits from what I've read ships from the US. So I'm thinking there would at least be some sort of quality control when it gets to the US before it gets shipped out. Reviews have been good too, also mentioned by Gilles.


Solo had a wearhouse in Toronto; that's why I received the kits within 24 hours, both time. The double-neck Tele was around 300 + 25 for shipping and the Jazz Bass was under 200. The craftmanship was more than acceptable on both kits but as I mentioned above, the double-neck had crap electronic, no sound wiring instructions but I was satisfied with it. I had a good double-neck guitar for less than 500. Their fret jobs are good as well, I didn't need any fret levelling in both cases. I will also add that the guys are great, they reply to all your questions in a timely manner. Gees, I'm working against myself now...supporting the Asian cheap labor!!! Damn!

Gilles

Gilles


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