Post by yakkmeister on Apr 19, 2012 5:46:07 GMT -5
Hello Nutz!
I just unpacked my shiny(?) new tele kit from BYO Guitars and I wanted to share with you all my impressions of this little devil ...
First off, this isn't the standard kit - it's a 'custom shop' jobbie;
www.byoguitar.com/Guitars/BYO-Custom-Shop-Tele__BYO-CS-T-KIT.aspx
I configured mine with a licensed by fender neck (mighty mite brand) with rosewood fretboard, 1pce swamp-ash body, black scratchplate and the graphtech tusque nut in black.
I also ordered the Tonerider Hot Classic pickups.
Of note are the differences I am applying to this tele over the kit - I decided that the hardware sold by BYO looked less-than-brilliant so I purchased a deluxe wiring kit from realtone:
www.guitarparts.co.nz/cart/Details.cfm?ProdID=1815&category=55
Plus I got the pretty, solid metal knobs from these guys as well.
In addition, I decided to use staggered machine heads to avoid string trees (you know, just cos).
So, onto the kit ...
The whole thing was pretty well packed (a good sign since I live in Brisbane, Australia) and all the specified parts were there and in good condition.
Body and Neck:
The first part I examined was the body. This is the 1pce swamp-ash body from their 'custom shop.' The grain is pretty crazy but interesting and, for my purposes, fine. I found several patches that were quite rough and some places where the wood had chipped away slightly. Holes were not cleanly dressed but seemed to be uniform in size and accurate. Notably absent are the holes for mounting the scratchplate. That is rather annoying as I lack the equipment to drill anything with any accuracy at all (I have 1 18V hand drill ... ) so I will be taking this to the local luthier for drilling.
The next part I looked at was the neck. Beautiful. Everything about this neck just looks right. It's been sanded smooth as and everything just looks and feels totally pro. Worlds away from the body. I think the neck is still in need of a finish, however, and I will be following Cynical's advice on that.
Oh ... there are no mounting holes in the neck! Argh!
Whilst on the subject of neck holes... the supplied (extra-cheap!) machine heads do not fit snugly into the holes in the head. Though it's possible to mount them (they have the screw-in type fastener on top and a single, small screw on the back), I find that this arrangement will, over time, tend to weaken and allow the machine heads to rotate slightly. I have seen this in many cheap guitars (the fit and machine-head style was identical to this setup). I found that to be a little poor but not unexpected. The staggered, gotoh vintage-style units I purchased have too small a bushing to fit to this neck. Here's hoping I can get some appropriate conversion bushes; the holes are about 1/2" instead of 11/32".
The scratchplate has no mounting holes for the tele neck pickup either ... that is also a bummer.
The Tusque nut I ordered? No idea what kind of guitar it's for, but it's about 1/8" too wide for the tele neck and the string spacing (confusingly) is more narrow. Weird. Also, I wasted $7 on that "upgrade."
Electronics and Hardware:
Straight up, the electronics on this are a million, billion times worse than anything I could do even if I was drunk and someone had dared me to wire a tele up as horribly as humanly possible.
All the joints are clearly cold and the tone cap was shorting over the back of the tone pot. The supplied pots are alpha-branded mini-pots and have a smaller diameter thread than the CTS units I intend to install. That also means more drilling - since I am adding a switch and using different pots than supplied, this is hardly a fault on BYO's side but it does translate to more work. Had they used standard-sized pots, this would be even less of an issue.
The 3-way switch supplied is definitely an el-cheapo unit. Fortunately, the dimensions are perfectly normal and the (much) better-quality unit I have will go in without drama.
Conclusion:
For the money, this was not a waste of dosh. This is a cheap unit for what we pay here in Oz and if I payed the same amount for a working guitar (assuming I did not add extra parts), I could have ended up with something far, far less quality. I probably won't be buying from these guys again simply because I have to change too many parts out of the kit because I want to use the very best components for my projects. if, however, I was asked to build a cheap guitar for someone who wanted something a little interesting but without the massive budget, I would buy one of these guy's kits and work within those constraints.
I just unpacked my shiny(?) new tele kit from BYO Guitars and I wanted to share with you all my impressions of this little devil ...
First off, this isn't the standard kit - it's a 'custom shop' jobbie;
www.byoguitar.com/Guitars/BYO-Custom-Shop-Tele__BYO-CS-T-KIT.aspx
I configured mine with a licensed by fender neck (mighty mite brand) with rosewood fretboard, 1pce swamp-ash body, black scratchplate and the graphtech tusque nut in black.
I also ordered the Tonerider Hot Classic pickups.
Of note are the differences I am applying to this tele over the kit - I decided that the hardware sold by BYO looked less-than-brilliant so I purchased a deluxe wiring kit from realtone:
www.guitarparts.co.nz/cart/Details.cfm?ProdID=1815&category=55
Plus I got the pretty, solid metal knobs from these guys as well.
In addition, I decided to use staggered machine heads to avoid string trees (you know, just cos).
So, onto the kit ...
The whole thing was pretty well packed (a good sign since I live in Brisbane, Australia) and all the specified parts were there and in good condition.
Body and Neck:
The first part I examined was the body. This is the 1pce swamp-ash body from their 'custom shop.' The grain is pretty crazy but interesting and, for my purposes, fine. I found several patches that were quite rough and some places where the wood had chipped away slightly. Holes were not cleanly dressed but seemed to be uniform in size and accurate. Notably absent are the holes for mounting the scratchplate. That is rather annoying as I lack the equipment to drill anything with any accuracy at all (I have 1 18V hand drill ... ) so I will be taking this to the local luthier for drilling.
The next part I looked at was the neck. Beautiful. Everything about this neck just looks right. It's been sanded smooth as and everything just looks and feels totally pro. Worlds away from the body. I think the neck is still in need of a finish, however, and I will be following Cynical's advice on that.
Oh ... there are no mounting holes in the neck! Argh!
Whilst on the subject of neck holes... the supplied (extra-cheap!) machine heads do not fit snugly into the holes in the head. Though it's possible to mount them (they have the screw-in type fastener on top and a single, small screw on the back), I find that this arrangement will, over time, tend to weaken and allow the machine heads to rotate slightly. I have seen this in many cheap guitars (the fit and machine-head style was identical to this setup). I found that to be a little poor but not unexpected. The staggered, gotoh vintage-style units I purchased have too small a bushing to fit to this neck. Here's hoping I can get some appropriate conversion bushes; the holes are about 1/2" instead of 11/32".
The scratchplate has no mounting holes for the tele neck pickup either ... that is also a bummer.
The Tusque nut I ordered? No idea what kind of guitar it's for, but it's about 1/8" too wide for the tele neck and the string spacing (confusingly) is more narrow. Weird. Also, I wasted $7 on that "upgrade."
Electronics and Hardware:
Straight up, the electronics on this are a million, billion times worse than anything I could do even if I was drunk and someone had dared me to wire a tele up as horribly as humanly possible.
All the joints are clearly cold and the tone cap was shorting over the back of the tone pot. The supplied pots are alpha-branded mini-pots and have a smaller diameter thread than the CTS units I intend to install. That also means more drilling - since I am adding a switch and using different pots than supplied, this is hardly a fault on BYO's side but it does translate to more work. Had they used standard-sized pots, this would be even less of an issue.
The 3-way switch supplied is definitely an el-cheapo unit. Fortunately, the dimensions are perfectly normal and the (much) better-quality unit I have will go in without drama.
Conclusion:
For the money, this was not a waste of dosh. This is a cheap unit for what we pay here in Oz and if I payed the same amount for a working guitar (assuming I did not add extra parts), I could have ended up with something far, far less quality. I probably won't be buying from these guys again simply because I have to change too many parts out of the kit because I want to use the very best components for my projects. if, however, I was asked to build a cheap guitar for someone who wanted something a little interesting but without the massive budget, I would buy one of these guy's kits and work within those constraints.
