Carvin BK4A

34" 4 string, active electronics, solid alder body, maple neck, string through the body; gun stock oil finish [with supplies from the luthiers mercantile international inc (www.lmii.com)]
dual single coil p/u's

Sounds are widely varied because of the active / passive package. Will follow up with a more detailed review on this later.

Normally I'd wait at least a few months to review a guitar, but I just finished putting this together, so I wanted to comment on that before I lose some of the detail. This kit took me less than 8 hrs to put together spread out over 3 days. Saturday I opened everything up, read through the instructions, and then whent to get the specific finishing supplies I didn't have on hand.
Sanding came first, and this was really a minor event. The instructions recommend you get a t least 6 sheets of sandpaper, but I only used 2. 1 specifically designed for raw wood, and one to use between coats of the finish. The neck was almost 100% ready, but i went over it anyway. The body, for the most part, was in pretty good shape. A couple of pieces sticking up out of drilled holes, but it only took a few minutes to get it ready for finish. I then tack cloth'd both pieces and was ready to finish.
The sanding filler was more like a semi-gloss polyurethane than I expected, but I've never done this type of finish before. Anyway, brush it on, let it dry, sand it down. I did 2 coats of this and then on to the oil. I hand rubbed it on and the buffed it out with 0000 steel wool. Did this twice as well.
The actual assembly really couldn't have been any easier. All the parts fit together perfectly, all the holes lined up correctly, and the instructions were clear. I did re-order some of the steps to an order that made more sense to me. There was a seperate sheet with instruction for the active electronics installation. The soldering was a piece of cake. 8 solders to the PCB into eyelets and 2 ground wire tacks onto the copper shielding material. Once it was all together and strung up, a few tweaks to the bridge assembly for string height as well as pick up height adjustment and it was playable. I set the intonation in all of about 5 minutes and then took it out to the studio to test it out. Plugged it in and 'voila' it sounded like a bass!
Next went on the sanding sealer

don't know yet

Not the best here. I've had hit or miss results from Carvin over the years. This was more of a miss. I ordered it on-line, so all I received was an email saying my order had been 'entered'. Their catalog states 4 weeks average for a completed guitar, so I'm figuring 2 or 3 weeks for a kit, right? I call after 2 weeks and the guy tells me 5 to 6 weeks. OK, I can hang with that. After 6 weeks I call back and the guy tells me he'll track it down and call me back in 2 or 3 days. A week later I call back and get the same story, and never did get a call back. A week later my kit arrived at my house.
Not a bad experience, but not real good either.

Too soon to tell. Will comment again in a couple of months