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Most guitarists come to a point in their career where they start to think “wouldn’t it be fun to build my own guitar?”
With high hopes of installing custom pickups and a custom paint job (just like their heroes), they set out on a journey to figure out the building process, only to come away feeling completely discouraged.
As it turns out, building a guitar isn’t a walk in the park. But there are options. And one of the best options for those who’ve never done any woodworking or wiring is a DIY guitar kit for electric or acoustic guitars.
In this guide, we’ll answer your top questions about DIY guitar kits and show you several great kits you can purchase.
In a rush? Here's the best acoustic guitar kit: DIY Unfinished Acoustic Guitar Kit.
And here's the best electric guitar kit: Unfinished DIY PRS Electric Guitar Kit.
Table of Contents
How To Use A DIY Guitar Kit To Build Your Own Guitar
Ever thought about building your own guitar?
You’re certainly not alone. There are some legendary guitarists who built their own guitars, with rather stunning results.
Think of Brian May’s Red Special, or Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstein (also known as the “Frankenstrat”). Even the late Les Paul built guitars, and these days, he might be better known for the guitar model than for his own considerable body of work.
The challenge?
Well, building an electric guitar is a combination of woodworking and electric / wire work that can make your head spin.
An acoustic guitar doesn’t give you much of a break either, with its various requirements or options like bracing, binding, sound holes, and so forth. If anything, it’s probably more challenging to make an acoustic guitar than an electric guitar, because electric guitar bodies and necks tend to be solid pieces of wood (not separate pieces like acoustic guitars).
That’s where guitar kits come in. They come with all (or most of) the parts you need to put together a guitar – electric or acoustic. You’ll need to assemble all the parts, wiring (if applicable), apply the sanding and finish, and so on. But you won’t have to start from scratch carving a body out of a block of wood, and that’s a big deal.
And if you purchase a guitar kit, you can swap parts out as the spirit moves. If you want better pickups than the kit comes with, you can purchase them separately. If you want a different neck, you can purchase one separately.
This comes with the important side note that if there are parts you want to install other than the ones provided with the kit, you may need to make additional modifications to the guitar (pickup size, neck screw holes vs. fitted neck, etc.).
Are there any other advantages to getting a DIY guitar kit? Well, you might save some money. That’s not a promise, but it’s fair to say the cost of labor is included in all major brand models, and when you subtract that cost from the instrument and build the guitar yourself, you can end up saving some money.
With this established, we’re ready to look at…
An Overview Of The Guitar Kit Setup Process
Here’s what the step-by-step guitar kit setup process looks like:
- Read the instructions. Not all kits are the same. That means even if you’ve built a kit before, it’s worth going through the instructions so you’re aware of any nuances accompanying the specific kit you’re building.
- Check to ensure all the pieces fit together. Before building anything, it’s good to check whether screw holes match up, the neck fits snugly with the body, there’s enough clearance for the pickups, etc. If the kit requires bridge and tailpiece installment, measurements often need to be exact, so pencil in your markings now.
- Finish the guitar. After you’ve test fitted everything, it’s time to take everything apart and finish the guitar (nothing should have been screwed in or assembled at this point). And yes, it is best to test fit before finishing. All woodworking finishes can work. Most of the time, finish is not applied to the fretboard (lemon oil works great), so if you need to tape it up (mask it) before applying the finish, do so. It can’t hurt to do some light sanding before applying finish as well.
- Install the hardware. It’s time to install the hardware. Follow instructions for best results. Screw in the bridge, install the neckplate, mount the pickups (if applicable), set up the pickguard, etc.
- String up the guitar. If you’re not familiar with this process, refer to our guide on how often to change guitar strings. At this point, you can finally tune up your guitar and test it out. Be sure to stretch out those strings until your guitar keeps tune!
Obviously, there can be some differences between acoustic and electric guitars (the above applies more to electric guitars), but generally, the process is as described above.
And now we’re ready to look at the best DIY Guitar kits!
Best DIY Guitar Kits For Electric Guitar
Looking to build and electric guitar? Then here are a few DIY kits worth a look.
Unfinished DIY PRS Electric Guitar Kit
If you like PRS style guitars (and we do stress PRS style here), then this might be the kit for you. The Unfinished DIY PRS Electric Guitar Kit isn’t cheap, but it would prove cheaper than buying most PRS models.
This kit comes with everything you need – solid basswood body with white binding (nice wood, so use nice finish), set in / bolt on maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, as well as pickups, whammy bar, tuners, tailpiece, and all the other doodads.
You should be able to build a real solid electric guitar with this kit, and of course, the best part is you can customize the finish and any other parts you might want to.
Item weight: 9.92 lbs.
Package dimensions: 23.62 x 17.72 x 7.87 inches
Unfinished DIY ST Electric Guitar Kit
Obviously, there are going to be those who want to build a classic Strat style guitar, and that’s where the Unfinished DIY ST Electric Guitar Kit comes in. The price for the kit is a little up there, but what you get in exchange could be worth it.
This kit comes with a solid ash body, maple neck and ebony fingerboard, chrome die-cast tuning machines, and all the other pieces you need to end up with a smooth looking, versatile axe.
This kit should prove a ton of fun to build.
Item weight: 8.82 lbs.
Package dimensions: 23.62 x 17.72 x 7.87 inches
XLAHD Semi Hollow Body Electric Guitar Kit
Hollow body electrics offer another delightful flavor, especially if you like blues and jazz, and any genre straddling those lines (sometimes great for other genres too!). The XLAHD Semi Hollow Body Electric Guitar Kit presents you with the opportunity to build your very own Gretsch style electric, and who wouldn’t want that?
Item weight: Unknown
Package dimensions: Unknown
BexGears DIY Electric Guitar Kit – LP Style
The BexGears DIY Electric Guitar Kit is obviously intended as a Les Paul style body guitar. It managed to score a high ranking with users, so while it is kind of on the budget end of things, we thought it would be worth including on this list.
The kit comes with an Okoume body, maple neck, composite ebony fingerboard, pickguard, two humbucking pickups, and all other required parts.
Like I said, you’re not going to end up with the fanciest of guitars. But you are going to get something real decent for the price, and that’s worth commenting on.
Item weight: Unknown
Package dimensions: 30 x 19 x 3 inches
BexGears DIY Electric Guitar Kit – SG Style
BexGears obviously likes to play off a guitarist’s love of Gibson guitars, because here we have an SG style BexGeras DIY Electric Guitar Kit.
All the goodies are here, and the kit comes with an instruction manual too.
Most users thought it was a good kit, even if they found it a little harder to assemble.
Item weight: Unknown
Package dimensions: 30 x 19 x 3 inches
DIY Electric Guitar Kit – ST Style
Here’s another popular and affordable Strat style guitar kit – the DIY Electric Guitar Kit – ST Style. It comes with everything you need – a basswood body, bridge, hardware, single coil pickups, neck, and so on.
Most reviewers thought it was a great kit for the price, and we suspect your experience of it will also be similar.
Item weight: 9.63 lbs.
Package dimensions: 28.31 x 19.21 x 2.72 inches
Best DIY Guitar Kits For Acoustic Guitar
Looking to build an acoustic guitar? Then you should check out these value DIY kits:
DIY Unfinished Acoustic Guitar Kit
The DIY Unfinished Acoustic Guitar Kit looks like a solid option for an intermediate to advanced level product. The exact details are a little unclear from the product description, but this is effectively a jumbo acoustic style body with solid khaya back and sides, solid spruce top, khaya neck, ebony bridge, and ebony fingerboard.
They’ve even thrown in a pack of strings for you, so it’s not a bad deal overall.
Item weight: 7.05 lbs.
Package dimensions: 27.56 x 19.69 x 7.87 inches
StewMac Build Your Own Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar Kit
When it comes to acoustic guitars, dreadnoughts are a standby, so there’s no way we couldn’t include the StewMac Build Your Own Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar Kit on this list.
This DIY kit reportedly comes with “AAA-grade tonewoods,” with a carved mahogany neck, a classic spruce top, slotted fingerboard, as well as all the odds and ends – bridge pins, end pin, frets, pickguard, binding, rosette, trim, truss rod, precut cardboard molds, blueprint and bracing template, instruction book, and even a step-by-step DVD.
Buyers loved the quality of the kit and had a lot of fun building the guitar.
Item weight: Unknown
Package dimensions: Unknown
KLKL 1 Set DIY Unfinished Acoustic Guitar Kit
The KLKL 1 Set DIY Unfinished Acoustic Guitar Kit promises to be a beginner friendly kit with quality parts (something the product description doesn’t say a whole lot about – they even refer to this as an electric guitar kit, which it isn’t).
Once you’re done building it, though, you should end up with a solid intermediate level dreadnought style guitar.
Item weight: 7.05 lbs.
Package dimensions: 27.56 x 19.69 x 7.87 inches
Top DIY Guitar Kits, Final Thoughts
If you don’t mind taking the time to read instructions, take the necessary steps, and put all the pieces together, then building your own guitar kit can be a ton of fun. It isn’t always straightforward, and some parts may not come easily, but if you stick with the process, it can be quite rewarding.
If you don’t have the patience, or you can’t see yourself doing all the work, we suggest working with a friend or hiring a guitar tech / builder to help you create a custom creation you’ll be thrilled to play with.
Good luck in your custom guitar building efforts!
Side note, do you want to learn to play guitar songs the easy way? Learn how here – results are guaranteed!