Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit Square

I ordered this kit to build with my son, who has taken up guitar over the last two years. The build itself is mostly straightforward, but will require some tools and knowhow to get the desired shape. I personally was able to cut to shape using a coping saw for some angles cuts, regular saw for straight cuts, a bore drill bit to remove wood on some curved edges (my son drew quite a complicated design) and a rotary sander to smooth out edges. I have since bought a router, which would have made the process so much easier.

I love the fact that the kit contains absolutely every part you need to build the guitar and get it working on an amp. For the money, this is great value. The neck is double action, so you can find your desired action. It plays much better than I was expecting it to, and sounds pretty good through an amp. There was some buzzing, which could be eliminated through some decent grounding and potentially some additional shielding on the wires.

The instructions were not good for wiring the switches and pickups. There seemed to be a colour coding, with multiple connections being the same colour. After only being able to get sound out of one pickup, I used trial and error until both pickups gave an output. The colour on the connections didn't match, so I think some work could be done to make this more straightforward.

Overall, I highly recommend if you have some ability in DIY, some tools and problem solving ability. The possibilities to design a guitar to suit your personality and playing style are almost endless.