Well I haven't done a setup on it yet other than a rough adjustment of the saddle hieghts, but I can report that as of last night (technically early this morning I guess...) the 12 string kit is playable.
Tru-oil neck finish. Duplicolor Arctic white body with Deft gloss clear that I didn't let set up long enough before polishing/assembling. Ready to be strung up and tuned. The fun begins!
About two hours later it looked more like this:
Did I mention I REALLY like locking tuners, like on my Warmoth Strat? And I don't so much like old school tuners, like on this eBay build?
I suppose I should wait until Ihave it more dialed in to comment, but I'm bored at work so here's the deal so far. Various details, in no certain order.
No instructions with the kit. Not a big deal but it would have been nice to have a wiring diagram for the switch and some guidance on which string goes where. The strings aren't marked it's guess your best for those with no way to measure them. The ebay shop did e-mail directions for a different (six string) kit and a picture to go by when wiring it, but the picture was pretty much worthless. I broke out the ohm meter and figured it out myself. Not difficult but for someone not too familiar with electrickery (me) it wasn't straight forward.
The kit only had 11 strings with it. I had a spare of the missing size so no biggie, but still.
The screws for the bridge are too small for the holes in the body. I bought bigger ones. Also, the middle rear mounting hole on teh body was in the wrong spot. Had to fill/redrill it.
The pick guard is hacked, the edges are rough and the neck cut out seems to be for a strat while the neck and neck pocket are both more Tele shaped. In the second photo if you look at the heel of the neck you can see the gap. I sense a GFS guard in my future.
It needs string trees but they're not included in the kit. Just for yucks I tuned it up to standard EADGBE tuning and still the G string pops out of the nut easily. I sense a Floyd-style string retainer in my future. I know eBay has the stock Fender part but it's ~$20 compared to a GFS retainer for more like $5.
As for how it all works...
I can't adjust the saddle heights as low as I'd like - either the neck needs to be adjusted (I haven't even checked how flat it is yet) or maybe shimmed? I dunno. Action isn't horrible but it's higher than I like.
Sounds decent unplugged. I didn't get to play it through an amp, but trying to record it to Garage Band it sounded pretty bad. I think that has more to do with my recording set up and the fact I haven't adjusted the pick up hieghts yet than it does the pickups themselves. According to a guy on the Tele forum, the pickups are actually decent, considering.
The tuners are pretty rough. They work, but smooth isn't a word I'd use to describe them. (It's a $139 kit for cripesakes, I expect to have more than that in just tuners if I do a 12 string Warmoth build!)
The neck seems to work much better than I expected. The nut seems decent as is. The only string I noticed that doesn't seem to ring out that well is one of the G strings, and that may well be improved with the addition of a string tree.
With the little bit of time I've had with it so far I'd have to say it was a success. My main purpose was to get something cheap to see if I liked playing a 12 string. This should be more than good enough for that, and I'm into it for under $200 so far. :icon_thumright:
I do reserve the right to modify my opinions once I'm further into the set-up though...
EDIT: I just noticed the second picture makes it look like it has binding on the front and back of the body. It only has it on the top. What looks like binding on the back is actually just a shadow.
Tru-oil neck finish. Duplicolor Arctic white body with Deft gloss clear that I didn't let set up long enough before polishing/assembling. Ready to be strung up and tuned. The fun begins!
About two hours later it looked more like this:
Did I mention I REALLY like locking tuners, like on my Warmoth Strat? And I don't so much like old school tuners, like on this eBay build?
I suppose I should wait until Ihave it more dialed in to comment, but I'm bored at work so here's the deal so far. Various details, in no certain order.
No instructions with the kit. Not a big deal but it would have been nice to have a wiring diagram for the switch and some guidance on which string goes where. The strings aren't marked it's guess your best for those with no way to measure them. The ebay shop did e-mail directions for a different (six string) kit and a picture to go by when wiring it, but the picture was pretty much worthless. I broke out the ohm meter and figured it out myself. Not difficult but for someone not too familiar with electrickery (me) it wasn't straight forward.
The kit only had 11 strings with it. I had a spare of the missing size so no biggie, but still.
The screws for the bridge are too small for the holes in the body. I bought bigger ones. Also, the middle rear mounting hole on teh body was in the wrong spot. Had to fill/redrill it.
The pick guard is hacked, the edges are rough and the neck cut out seems to be for a strat while the neck and neck pocket are both more Tele shaped. In the second photo if you look at the heel of the neck you can see the gap. I sense a GFS guard in my future.
It needs string trees but they're not included in the kit. Just for yucks I tuned it up to standard EADGBE tuning and still the G string pops out of the nut easily. I sense a Floyd-style string retainer in my future. I know eBay has the stock Fender part but it's ~$20 compared to a GFS retainer for more like $5.
As for how it all works...
I can't adjust the saddle heights as low as I'd like - either the neck needs to be adjusted (I haven't even checked how flat it is yet) or maybe shimmed? I dunno. Action isn't horrible but it's higher than I like.
Sounds decent unplugged. I didn't get to play it through an amp, but trying to record it to Garage Band it sounded pretty bad. I think that has more to do with my recording set up and the fact I haven't adjusted the pick up hieghts yet than it does the pickups themselves. According to a guy on the Tele forum, the pickups are actually decent, considering.
The tuners are pretty rough. They work, but smooth isn't a word I'd use to describe them. (It's a $139 kit for cripesakes, I expect to have more than that in just tuners if I do a 12 string Warmoth build!)
The neck seems to work much better than I expected. The nut seems decent as is. The only string I noticed that doesn't seem to ring out that well is one of the G strings, and that may well be improved with the addition of a string tree.
With the little bit of time I've had with it so far I'd have to say it was a success. My main purpose was to get something cheap to see if I liked playing a 12 string. This should be more than good enough for that, and I'm into it for under $200 so far. :icon_thumright:
I do reserve the right to modify my opinions once I'm further into the set-up though...
EDIT: I just noticed the second picture makes it look like it has binding on the front and back of the body. It only has it on the top. What looks like binding on the back is actually just a shadow.
ccasion14:
