Carvin Bolt Kit

Finish: Tung oiled neck, water-based laquer brushed on body (self-applied) then level sanded
Strat type, w/tummy tuck and forearm cut, though less deeply done than on the Strat
Bridge: hardtail narrow spaced Strat-type string-thru body
Carvin tuners
Neck: All maple, 25.5", ~1-11/16" wide at nut, 22 jumbo frets w/good height for bending.
Bought kit 2004, assembled 2006, played 6 months now.
Controls: 5-way, w/additional bridge switch for '7 sounds'. Vol. and Tone pots: 500 ohm
Pickups: S/S/S Carvin AP11, passive
Wood: All maple neck, swamp ash body
I rate as 8 as this goes beyond the usual Strat; all parts are competent and well executed, though not revolutionary

Suits my rock/folk/blues styles well (60's-70's-80's). (Hendrix, Eagles, Pretenders, etc)
Mainly played through a 60's Fender Vibrolux Reverb, w/reverb on and with some preamp saturation.
It is quiet except at the highest volumes, which I avoid due to neighbors, and that noise could be the cable anyway as the guitar is shielded.
The sounds are the big surprise. Due to the 500k pots it can be brighter than my Strat (Tele territory?), but roll the pots down and it can duplicate many Strat sounds, and roll down more and you can get somewhat dark. The voume knob full up pushes the amp harder than my Strat for a bit more edge and bite, but roll it off and it is cleans up well. Combining the neck and bridge pickup is fun and is my favorite selection (a full thicker sound).
I give this a rating of 9. More more variety than I initially expected or encountered. It has made me a believer in using the tone and volume controls, which wer pretty much useless on other guitars. Here they are part of the tone arsenal, not tone suckers. Certainly it can not do everything, but does much more than I had expected so is not a copy guitar -- it is it's own animal.

I'm very pleased at the way the kit came. The amount of adjustment to set action, intonation, etc, was well within my ability and really was all I had to do in that respect. Assembly took little time. 99% of the time was consumed on finish. Since the swamp ash has open pores, and since I had read it is hard to finish with tung oil, I elected to used a water-based lacquer over a wood pore filler. Keeping the finish level, thin, and not sanding through the layers was a big task, and I, in the end, had to settle for less than factory-perfect results, given my less than state-of-the-art work area. Nevertheless, I am happy with the results, or overlook the blems, which would come with age anyway! Tung oil on the neck, by contrast, was a piece of cake and I took my time and followed the clear instructions.
Rating: 9 as the finish was my deal....If you choose alder, you can simplify your life -- a lot.

I would use this guitar in a live setting (assuming I was invited!) I might want to change out to strap locks just for the extra security

Well, Carvin did not call me and it languished for a while-- until I bugged them only to find out it had been ready some time already. They were cool about it and by way of apology gave me a case for free, so I can't complain.
All the parts were per my instructions. No mistakes

Hm... playing far too long for the level I'm at, or maybe not playing near enough for all the years I've owned guitars (since 1975)!
No regrets on this guitar; more versitile and fun to play than I expected. Besides the great sounds, the neck is really nice, and has good width (not too narrow like many Strats) and string bending, pull-offs, etc, are a pleasure. It's almost a shock to go back to the Strat as this neck has totally spoiled me.
I wanted a kit guitar to improve my luthier skills and knowlege of what goes on 'under the hood'. The ideas was to do further modifications including series/parallel. I'm pleased enough that I don't feel the need for more changes, though I am curious if I could squeeze more happy surprises out of this guitar -- and I think I could.

Hard to rate this since obviously you choose the features you get at Carvin and as for other stuff like finish that is up to you. This one specifically has three single coils and a fixed bridge though you can get a bridge humbucker and a tremolo.

Holy crap dude, this thing is awesome. I have been playing off and on for about 10 years now. My first guitar was a Fender Standard Tele made in Mexico and my second was a Fender Stratocaster Deluxe Hum - Hum. I replaced the pickups in both of those guitars with USA pickups from Fender and EMG respecitively, and originally I assumed I would replace the pickups in this one when I got it put together. I was wrong. This guitar's pickups are great. I have never played a guitar that is more versatile [and I will admit I certainly haven't played a lot of high end guitars] this thing can go from hard rock to Jazz with just the twist of the volume and tone knobs. Seriously, I love this guitar. I ended up spraying mine with a nitrocellulose paint job in surf green and really it is my only regret about this project. If I had it to do all over again I would just have rubbed some tung oil on the body like I did with the neck, that was really easy and worked very well. In any case, get the Carvin bolt kit, it is a sweet guitar that is affordable and has a lot of good sounds.

The setup is of course up to you as is the finish. As for things like the frets they are installed nice.

Hopefully I sprayed enough nitrocellulose lacquer on this thing that it will last a while but if not I will just make it look like a relic or else I will re-spray it.

Sent them an email once when I was finishing it and they responded promptly so I guess they deserve a 10.

If you want a quality guitar for under $500 get this and finish it with tung oil, it is so easy to put together and you won't believe how good it sounds considering you built it yourself. My brother played it and liked it more then his USA made G&L Legacy. Trust me, it really can stand toe to toe with the best out there. In the interest of full disclosure I have to admit I was actually skeptical when I ordered it, I really just wanted to see what finishing a guitar myself was like. I mean Carvin's add's remind me of Amway for some reason, but I ordered it anyway. I am happy I did. If you are looking for a quality axe you should too.

The standard features you get with the Bolt Kit are quite impressive. I purchased mine with significant upgrades. I added a Swamp Ash Body, C22B Humbucker in the bridge position, Birds Eye Maple fret board, Black Chrome Hardware, Sperzel Locking Tuners, and a White Pearloid Multi-Layered Pickguard. The guitar comes standard with a switch to allow between single coil and humbucker modes on the bridge pickup, as well as a standard "strat" style 5-way pickup selector switch, and one volume and one tone pot.

Building the guitar was a simple as Carvin says it is. I did a Tung Oil finish on the body and the back of the neck. The key is to be patient and apply at least 6 coats of Tung Oil to the body and no more than three coats to the back of the neck. This will take approximately 6 - 7 days. You can only apply one coat of Tung Oil per day. You need to do very light sanding between the last 3 coats on the body and after the first coat on the neck. Once the finish is complete the assembly is very easy. It takes less than an hour to assemble. The guitar was actually quite playable before I even took it to my local music store for a professional set up.

The guitar is capable of covering many styles....Rock, Blues, Country Twang to Jazz. The AP-11 single coils are slightly hotter than standard Strat pickups and also appear to be much quieter. The C22B Humbucker reminds me of a Gibson PAF. Very warm and yet can scream at higher distortion/verdrive settings. It cleans up nicely when you roll back the volume pot.

The guitar was a kit. The only issue I had was the pickups came wired out of phase but my local technician was able to correct the wiring. Other than this one isse there were no flaws.

This is a top notch professional guitar. I would play this guitar in a live setting without hesitation. The playability is very good. I have no complaints at all. The overal quality of this guitar is much greater than the price paid.

I have no isses with Carvin and I have purchased other products from them as well. I find them well informed about their products and quitehelpful.

Awesome guitar. I plan on buying another one to build. For the money I paid compared to the many other guitars I own it is the best guitar I have ever owned.

This guitar was assembled by its original owner and I had bought it from him off of Ebay. It has a walnut body instead of the usual alder. Fixed bridge. It came with Rio Grandes in the neck and middle positions and an Evolution in the bridge. I replaced the Evolution with a Duncan Alnico pro 2 and wired it for series/parallel/split. The rest is your standard bolt kit. With the 3 pickups and the 3 options at the bridge, this thing is very versitile. Has a wide/thin neck, similar to the Ibanez wizard.

I play mostly rock to hard rock and this thing works great for that style. I tried many different Duncans in the bridge before I settles on the AP2. The guitar sounds great. It seems to accentuate the lower midrange. Sometimes I wish it had more upper midrange but I'm just being extremely picky when I say that. I like to play old stuff like Aerosmith and Rush. It can do the 70's sounds great with the vintage pickups I have in it. I'm sure it could do modern too when loaded with the right pickups.

The guy who assembled it did a great job. I've had the guitar apart many times, had the neck off it many times and it goes together nice and tight. Adjusted the truss rod once 2 years ago. Stays in tune great. Very solid and giggable feeling. I don't baby it.

Very solid. Some people complain about the quality of the switches and pots. I have replaced all of mine. It doesn;t cost that much if you do it yourself.

Haven't used them but I've heard good and bad.

Been playing for 30 years. I have had Explorers, flying vees, sg's, Strats, Schecters, a Martin solidbody electric (rare) and various others I can't remember. No Les Pauls, sorry, they never felt comfortable to me. This is the one I've liked the most and its the only electric I own anymore. I keep going into music stores and trying all kinds of Fenders and everything else out there. I'm sure I could find something that sounds better for about $3000 but I have yet to find something that I can play better. The necks on these things just blow Fender and Gibson to hell!

Finish was done by me, so N/A on that. Strat body style, slightly scaled down. Hardtail bridge. Carvin standard tuners. Beefy neck, but shaped for shredding...very friendly to the hand. Built it in 1997. 22 frets. Volume, tone, 5-way selector, and toggle switch for bridge pickup always on (yields 7 different pickup configurations). Originally bought it with HSS configuration, but preferred SSS configuration. Alder w/ maple neck & ebony fretboard. I've toyed with the idea of making the toggle switch into a series switch for the bridge and middle pickups, but haven't tried this yet.

Great sounding guitar. I play through a Marshall JCM800 or a Peavey Classic 50, depending on my mood, and I boost the gain with a TS9. I originally got the guitar with the C22T in the bridge. Sounded kinda blah with that particular bridge PU, so I later bought a 3-single-coil PU pickguard and stuck one of the AP11 single-coils in the bridge and the bridge pickup sound improved dramatically. I also tried one of their M22SD's in the bridge, but it was too "metal" for my taste and the guitar lost too much of its shimmer. The three AP11's are by far the best-sounding "stock" configuration for this guitar, IMO. It's like a strat on steroids...it retains much of the strat character, except it has BIG BALLS. Roll off the tone knob slightly, and you can get a nice EVH scream out of it, even though it's a single-coil in the bridge. It leaves me asking the question "Who needs humbuckes?" Very versatile guitar, although I'd recommend a bridge 'bucker for brootal distortion if that's your bag...otherwise I highly recommend the 3-single PU version, even if you're not a single-coil fan. It has a little of the single-coil buzz, but nowhere near as much as a Strat's. I play old-school heavy guitar rock, and it's perfect for that. I also got the hardtail version and this thing SUSTAINS like no other strat-style guitar I've ever played.

Guitar plays great. I bought the guitar in 1997 when they first came out, so it's got the older shredder-style neck. Factory setup is kinda N/A because I had to build the thing, but once I got it set up it played great. One beef, though...the "D" string slot in the nut was cut too deep and sometimes I get a bad open D buzz. This is the second Carvin guitar I've owned and this is also the second time I've had this problem. Get it right, Carvin! I did the tung oil finish, and if I can do it, anyone can. I am no woodworker. Neck fits perfectly in the neck pocket. I have yet to see another bolt-on that fits that well.

I've dropped this thing on concrete by accident, and while it scuffed the finish (easily fixed...it's tung oil) it didn't even go out of tune. By far, the most solid guitar I've owned. Holds a tune for weeks. I've had it for nine years and played numerous gigs with it and it has never let me down.

Carvin customer support is kinda weak. I've emailed them several times asking various questions and never ever got a response.

Overall a huge, huge bang for your buck. While based on the strat design, this guitar is its own animal. It will do the strat thing, but don't expect to get the exact same tone, because it's a much beefier sounding guitar than a strat, even with the three single-coils. I've been playing for 25 years, and it's easily the best strat-style guitar I've owned. I might prefer if it had a full-size body (it's slightly scaled down from a strat), but other than that it's superb. If I had the $$$, I'd buy a second one just to have one to grab if I break a string at a gig.

I built this in the Spring of 2005. It has a humbucker with coil tap in bridge position and two single coils. Hardtail bridge, no whammy bar. Got the cheaper form fitted case with it for half price. Pretty much the same features as a fat strat, plus the coil tap. As electric guitars go, you can't get much more versatile than this.

Sound is awesome. I use it with various distortion pedal and through a Roland Micro-Cube (best investment I ever made) and a Fender tube amp. I really like these pickups and don't find them a lot different from Fenders. I think its great for blues, rock, rockabilly etc...Same things that a USA Strat would be good for.

You can build this guitar. It was really almost too easy. I found myself wishing for more of a challenge when I was done. I did the tung oil finish and I highly recommend you do too. Action and setup were great. This is the best playing guitar I have ever owned, including pre-CBS Fenders. One thing to keep in mind though. Be sure this is what you want before you buy, because regardless of how good it comes out, the resale value (for instance on ebay) is very poor.

It is very solid and will last a very long time.

It took a really long time to get this, like about 6 weeks! And they charged my credit card as soon as I ordered which I thought was kind of dink. They were nice, just slow.

Fun to do, almost too easy and you will have an excellent guitar if you do your part. No resale value. I recommend that you buy this kit.

2004 Carvin Bolt Kit Made in MY SHED, USA, parts, made in USA

construction/scale bolt-on neck, 25 1/2" scale
body Alder
neck Hardrock Maple, graphite reinforced
neck width 1.69" wide @ nut, 2.22" wide @ 22nd fret
fingerboard ebony - 12" radius
inlays standard dot
hardware Chrome
bridge FT6 feed through body fixed
frets 22 medium jumbo .103" wide X .048" tall
pickups 2 - Ap11 single coil 1- Bridge C22 Humbucker
electronics master volume and tone, 5 way selector + mini switch
tuners- I added Schaller non-locking tuners
color black stain, clear gloss fast drying urethane
guitar dimensions 38.75" long, 12.5" wide body, 1.75" thick body
weight 7.25 lbs

Inculded truss wrench, strings (9-42), and 2 picks

Play mostly Clasic Rock, Rock, Blues, and Alternative. Suits some of my styles, mainly Classic running distortion. Pickups don't sound like strat, louder and more defined. Guitar is NOT noisy at all, I also soldered (tacked) control cavity copper foil shielding together in 5 places. Pick ups are bright and clear. A fair variety between the Hum and singles. I'll probably change pickups, as I always change them on any guitar I own. I felt the Hum lacked "punch".

I set it up and did finish work (DON'T TRY ANY FINISH EXCEPT TUNG OIL!), so depending on your set up skill level, the guitar will play accordingly. Carvin does do a "pre-setup" that could be close. I had to raise bridge saddles on mine to eliminate fret buzz, and a slight truss rod tweak. Wood quality was excellent, controls good, neck was EXCELLENT. Action was low, as I set it up, the laser straight neck made low action possible.

One note: DO NOT attempt a non TUNG OIL FINISH unless you're an auto painter, or have equal experience. My embassing story took 4 tries, and a half baked job, complete with runs, sags, and orange peal is the result. Does not "hurt" anything except my pride.

Very well built- would gig, if I played live.

Called them a few times, better them some large companies, try actually TALKING to Fender or Gibson. Kit, so parts only warranty.

I've played for 2 years, I run this thru a Fender Bules Jr, with a SansAmp GT2, sounds good with stock pickups, but I'll change the Bridge at least. More precise than a Fender strat, fret work EXCELLENT, the neck is my favorite part, plays great, pups most least fav part. Great price/preformance value here. Best under $500.00 guitar that I can think of, period. If you're a little handy, and have the time, buy it and build it. Just use the TUNG Oil finish method, otherwise, you may be sorry.

This is a follow up to a previous submission. I've replaced the Carvin pickups (C22B in bridge and TBH60s in the neck and middle) with a set of Lace Hot Gold sensors (6k, 6k, and 13k). I use a 250k volume pot and no tone controls. I've also installed a mini-switch allowing me to select the bridge and middle pickups in series and the brdige and neck pickups in series.

The tone is a LOT more vintage than before. The Carvin pickups were great for very fat overdriven tones, but didn't really do the trick for bluesier, classic rock sounds. The Lace sensors are great in that capacity. You will find that the tone is much brighter than the one provided by the Carvin pickups, but there's not much loss in bass, if any. Thus, you will probably lower the treble control on your amp and/or pedal(s). The series wiring option allows me to get heavier tones (more mids) when needed. I recommend this modification to you bolt owners.

Alder body, maple neck, ebony fretboard, standard tuners, graphite/teflon nut, white pearl pickguard, twin-blade humbuckers (single-coil size) in neck and middle positions, C22B full-size humbucker in bridge position, hardtail bridge, custom wiring (installed 2 mini-switches to have neck and middle pickups in series and/or out-of-phase with each other). The "10" rating is given becuase this guitar has all the features that suit my needs.

I play jazz-rock/fusion and blues. This guitar seems very well suited to these styles. I can get VERY heavy sounds as well as more elegant clean tones.

The twinblade humbuckers sound true to Carvin's description of them, meaning they offer nice and crisp clean tones, albeit with more mids than your typical single-coil pickup. This makes for a "fuller" sound that still retains some of the crispness of single-coils. With heaps of overdrive, these pickups offer powerful and crisp sounds that one wouldn't easily produce with standard single coils.

The neck and middle pickups wired in series provides a very rich and powerful sound with very littel treble - great for situations when the guitar is the dominant instrument and you don't want the screach of the brdige humbucker to cut your audience's heads off. These same two pickups in series but out-of-phase produce a hollow/piercing yet powerful sound (Brian May used this sound for the first solo in Bohemian Rhapsody).

Selecting the bridge and middle pickups together automatically shuts off one of the bridge humbucker's coils, making for great "quack." The bridge humbucker, when selected alone, offers great saturated sounds that have more pronounced highs than my Les Paul (of course, this could be attributable to many different factors).

So far, I've played this guitar through a Tech 21 Trademark 10 practice amp and through my live rig (Vintage Rat into a Fender all-tube Concert II head driving 2 celestion-loaded 2x12 cabs) at high volume. Sounds good in both setups.

The action and finish are largely determined by the customer since it's a kit guitar. The instructions are very easy to follow. If you take your time following the wood finishing instructions, you can get a very elegant looking guitar.

The fit is the only area in which I have a complaint. All components fit perfectly together (including the fret work, which is done at the factory), except for the neck joint. This may sound like a big deal, but in my case it really wasn't. Essentially, the neck seems to be ever so slightly misaligned relative to the body, although it has no impact on the sound nor on the playability fo the guitar. I could always put a tiny shim in the neck pocket, but I wouldn't want to alter the guitar's sound.

Carvin should be regarded as one of the most csutomer-friendly guitar companies out there.

I've been playing for over 14 years. I've owned Ibanez "super strat" guitars, Fender American strats, a Gibson Les Paul Standard, a Godin Acousticaster, and a Yamaha electro-classical. This guitar is unique and can clearly "hold its own" in the company of my other guitars. If it were lsot or stolen, I'd get another one for sure! The aspect I probably love the most about it right now is that I put it together myself and it plays very well. Gotta be proud of myself.

2004 Bolt Kit
Alder body
Maple fingerboard
2 AP11 single coil in neck and middle
1 C22B humbucker in bridge
Gold hardware
Sperzel tuners
Wilkinson bridge

Carvin does offer many features on their kits that are not listed on their site. So if you don't see something listed, call them they may be able to accomodate you. Just for the variety of features offered, I'll give them a high mark

These pickups are utter crap. Very easily the WORST SOUNDING pickups I have ever used. And believe me that is saying something because I'm generally not that fussy. The C22B especially, is essentially garbage. The sound is extremely thin, no balls at all. The single coils are also very thin.

The neck is awesome. Its the best thing about the guitar. Its a very fast neck. The rest of the guitar, well.... lets just say I bought the kit to get some experience in building guitars. So in that case I suppose I got my moneys worth because I'm getting a lot of experience and practice trying to set up this thing properly. However I never expected to have this many problems with it. The neck joint seemed a little loose, tuners rattling, strings buzzing, action REALLY high, bridge saddles needing major adjustment,etc etc etc etc . Again its a good learning experience, but don't think for a minute you're just going to slap this thing together and be ready to play. It will need A LOT of adjustments.

As durable as any other guitar I've owned I suppose. It hasn't fallen apart yet.

The WORST. First off it took 12 WEEKS FOR A FREAKING BOLT KIT. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! Their site says 2 to 4 weeks for kits. I called them every week after week 4 and was always told "uh......it will be shipped next week" TWELVE WEEKS LATER IT FINALLY ARRIVES. Oh correction there were a couple times where the rep said "Uh....I don't know, the guy in charge of that is not here right now. We'll have to call you back next week, and let you know whats happening" What a JOKE!!! The service reps are basically useless. Waiting 12 weeks for a freaking bolt KIT. If I could give less than 1 I would. The worst company I've ever had to deal with, BY FAR. And what really pisses me off was that about 6 weeks after I ordered the kit they cut prices for the kits by 50$ or so. When I called to complain that since I've been waiting 12 weeks for it I should get a 50$ refund. They never did get back to me about that complaint.

Been playing 14 years. Own 5 other guitars. The only thing I love about this guitar is the neck.

I just can not get a decent sound out of this guitar regardless of how much adjusting I do. I've tried different amps, different setups, I've tried everything. It just sounds so freaking thin.

I am learning a lot about setting up and repairing guitars from this though, so I suppose that is the one bright side of this whole ordeal. Because of the absolute piss poor customer service I've received at Carvin, I will never use them again. I intend on building more guitars in the future and will definately go elsewhere for the parts, without question. I will never shop at Carvin again, ever

2004. Hard tail with black matte finish. Had the neck tung oiled also. Had all humbuckers installed (2 minis and the standard bridge bucker. It also has a coil splitter switch on the bridge bucker. The usual features for a strat style axe. Purchased with case.

Its hard to talk about guitar tone in absence of incudinng you whole tone chain in the discussion. I'm running this guitar into a Fender Deville with the usual suspects for distortion (Rat, Drivetrain, ettc.) This guitar has great tone and sustain. It almost plays itself. I have a Paul, but was looking to get a less bassy/muddy sound, yet I'm not into single coils per se. This guitar equipped with humbuckers fits the bill. I offed a deluxe strat to get this, though the Strat was twice as much money. Why? I didn't like how the tremolo bridge killed the sustain. This guitar gives me alot of warmth, but more note separation and punch than the Paul. But, as always - there is a compromise - you don't get quite the fat notes on the low strings as the Paul. Not bad, just different. The best way to describe this is a middle ground tone between a Strat and a Paul with it being a bit closer to the Paul tonal spectrum. I think it cuts thhrough the mix a little better than the Paul. I'm very happy with this guitar - it truly is a great value.

Like I said, with the sustain and resonance of this guitar, you barely have to apply picking pressure to the strings. Liewise, the fretting hand gets a break as well. A blast to play and not too heavy. As far as the neck feel - on the thinner side of the spectrum - BUT - recently they thickened the wood a touch on the neck, so its easier to play than earlier versions (one of which I had, but got rid of because neck was to thin!!). I'd still like the neck a touch thicker, but this is not a major issue. Frework? Outstanding - very clean - no fret buzzes - read other reviews on this topic - no one doubts Carvin's ability on neck and fretwork.

Can't say - too soon. My last Carvin guitar held up. What goes wrong with guitars anyway if you don't drop them?

Good - responsive to questions

See Sound Quality/Fit and Finish. I would buy this guitar again if losst/stolen. For cover band stuff, its now my number one!

Mine is a 2003 model Bolt Kit.
New compound neck radius.
Two AP11s in the neck and middle and the M22SD in the bridge.
Alder Body.
Fixed Bridge.
Sperzel Locking Tuners.
Black Hardware.

The AP11s are like standard strat pickups on speed. The neck has a very jazzy sound when the amp is dialed clean. It also has a great blues tone when you add some grit and distortion. The M22SD in the bridge is Carvin's pickup with the highest output. It is great for a hard rock tone and it absolutley shreds. I am playing through a Carvin MTS tube amp (Yea, I'm a Carvinite) and I can get some very nice, useful tones from this kit.

The finish is up to you.

I first chose to do the tung oil finish. I rushed through the process and a few months later I wasn't very proud of the results. Some words of advice, TAKE YOUR TIME WITH THE FINISH. Right now I am in the process of staining it with red analine dye. I am then going to use some Nitrocellulose lacquer to make a nice, durable finish.

The guitar was a snap to set up. The neck and saddles needed almost no adjustment. All the components went together smoothly. You can be brain-dead and still have a playable guitar.

The reliability depends on the finish you put on it. The tung oil doesn't protect from scratches or dents well so I would suggest a more durable finish.

The hardware is top notch. Everything seems sturdy. I would gig without a backup.

All of my experiences with Carvin were excellent. The salesmen were very helpful and patient when it came to picking out all the options. I called a few weeks later in need of some extra screws and a few days later I found some spares in my mailbox, no questions asked!

I have been playing for about 5 years. I've owned and played many guitars but this is by far my favorite. Building these kits give you a wonderful sense of pride and accomplishment. Not only that, but they are tough and they sound great. I have no complaints at all. Good job Carvin!

I built one of these with a Ash body, and twinblade humbucker neck pickup, and a full sized (C22B) humbucker at the bridge.

Let me say that there are several things good about the features on this kit, and Carvin guitars in general. Most notably, that they have hardtails as the default bridge type (I'm not a fan of guitars with trems). Also, the ebony fretboard is a major plus (Ebony is many times more expensive than rosewood or maple, which is why you rarely see it on factory guitars), IMHO ebony is one of the very best fingerboard woods.

I have always felt that the second tone knob on a strat was excessive, and it's good to find a company that does something else with that spot on the pickguard (In this case, a coil tap).

With the tappable bridge humbucker, neck humbucker, and 5 way switch, you can get any sound you would reasonably expect from a strat/superstrat type guitar.

This guitar gets a great "in between" , "quack" type strat sound. It has a very lively tone, and is very strat like (of all the strats I have had, it sounds the most like a '62 reissue) when using the middle single coil.

When using the bridge humbucker, the standard humbucking tones are there, and this guitar sounds quite good. The

In retrospect, I would not have added the twinblade humbucker in the neck, not that it sounds bad, just that I haven't ended up using the neck pickup soloed much. Also, the lack of a neck coilsplitter eliminates the mid/neck single coil combo, which might be useful. Of course, this is no fault of carvin, as the guitar comes with a single in the neck by default!

I'm using it with a Peavey Prowler, and through a Sans Amp GK into a bass AMP!

Since this is a kit, a lot of this section doesn't apply.

I will say that for their part, Carvin did a great job. All the components are well made.

This seems like a fairly sturdy guitar, as are most bolt on neck strat types. The headstock is a tilt back, which I feel are a little more fragile than the standard Fender shape. I doubt I will ever break it though, and if I do, replacements are available from Carvin.

The hardware is quite good!

I finished this guitar with a light nitro finish. The body doesn't have that much finish on it at all. I doubt the finish is durable, but this is no fault of Carvins!

The strap buttons that were provided with the guitar I didn't even bother to put in. The were the standard cheap kind that I always replace with strap locks.

I would never gig without a backup, but this guitar is as dependable as the get.

When I ordered this guitar, I used the internet form, and ordered an extra twinblade pickup (for another guitar). When it arrived, it had the extra twinblade installed in the middle position (I had selected a twinblade in the neck with the guitar as a $10 option). This wasn't what I wanted, and I was missing the middle pickup, which provides many useful sounds.

I called up carvin, and after a bit of confusion about which department would address this issue (I was ping ponged between sales and service a few times each), I eventually got a helpful guy who listened, and shipped out the missing single coil at no charge. I got it a few days later, no problem.

I think the problem was they were being TOO helpful by installing the extra pickup for me!

In addition, I have bought from Carvin before, and they were very helpful. They seem pretty good to deal with.

I have been playing for 21 years. I have owned over 100 guitars and basses (not at one time!). I can honestly say that this guitar is one of the best I have ever had. If it was lost or stolen, I would order another without hesitation.

A couple of points/observations:

1) If you are even the least bit capable with the assembly and set up of this guitar, you will get a finished product equal to guitars 2 and 3 times the cost IMHO. It just walks all over guitars in the $350-$400 price range. Also, unless I am mistaken, the neck and body (and probably the pickups) are made in the USA.

2) If you finish a Ash body, grain filler might be a good idea. I didn't use it, and I had to work extra. I used nitrocellous finish from Home Depot ( a gallon for $13 or so), and brushed it on. In retrospect, a spray finish might have been easier, or even the ultra easy tung oil. I think one of the advantages of doing it yourself is that you can avoid thick finishes that may hurt the guitars sound.

3) This guitar is easy to assemble. Seriously. Not hard at all.
You can do it. I did break out the soldering iron instead of using the wirenut they provided, and I recommend you do as well.

4) As someone else mentioned (either here or on Carvin's discussion board) the copper shielding foil is very sharp. Be careful, or it will cut you!

This is a Strat-style kit. It comes in a box with everything needed to assemble the guitar except for sandpaper, tung oil (or whatever you decide to use to finish the wood), and basic hand tools.

The body for this kit was Swamp Ash (a $30 upgrade from the standard Alder). The neck is Maple.

The pickups are Carvin...I opted for the two single coils for the neck and middle with a humbucker in the bridge position.

The finish is up to the builder. I chose to stain the body and the headstock with a dark red stain, then applied several coats of Tung Oil.

Bridge is fixed (Tremolo is an option), with each string full adjustable for height and intonation.

Tuners are standard Carvin (Sperzel optional).

The neck is VERY thin, with wide frets.

I purchased the optional case. The case has the "Carvin" logo, but appears to be built by SKB. The case was only $44.00 when purchased with the guitar kit.

With this combination of pickups, it is a very versatile guitar. I play everything from very clean jazz/country to old Van Halen. This guitar does well on the full range...much better than my other guitar (a '66 Jazzmaster).

This pickup combination also includes a coil splitter switch for the Humbucker.

I have a Behringer 2X12 Combo amp with a Digitech RP300A effects box. I leave the amp set very clean and use the box to control all the effects.

This guitar sounds good and lively even when it isn't plugged in. The sustain is much better than I expected and the sound quality and versatility vastly exceeded my expectations.

I've heard others gripe about Carvin pickups, but I think these sound terrific.

Not really applicable since I did all of this work. It was very enjoyable to do the finish work and set up the guitar myself. The intonation was only off a little and was easy to correct.

I lowered the strings nearly down to the fingerboard and raised the pickups to within about 1/8" or so of the strings. There's no significant buzzing (with 9-42 Elixers), and the neck is extremely fast and the intonation is spot-on.

The only problems I had with the build were self-inflicted. My decision to stain the body and the headstock before the Tung Oil added a couple of days to the build process. I discovered that wood finishing is not as easy as it looks, but you can always break out the sandpaper and start over (as I did, twice).

Most of the hardware seems to be of high quality. I'm not too sure about the electronics...the switchgear seems a bit suspect and the volume/tone pots don't have very good modulation...they behave more like switches than pots.

If I were gigging, I'd not be afraid to go without a backup.

Not applicable. The ordering process was painless.

I've been playing for over 25 years. I primarly play acoustic (I have a Taylor 414CE and a 710CE). My only other electric is a '66 Fender Jazzmaster. It's a very nice vintage guitar, but the electronics don't really produce the sounds I wanted. I'll use this guitar just for fun and some recording work.

I enjoyed building this guitar very much...I feel like I have a better understanding of how solid-body guitars actually work and I understand how to set one up.

I expected this guitar to sound decent and be serviceable, kind of like a Squier or Japanese Strat. However, it's much more than that. It plays and sounds as good as any electric I've ever played.

If it were stolen, I'd definitely build another one. I may build another one anyway!

If you like to build things, I highly recommend it. If you take your time and do it right, you'll end up with a GREAT guitar for well under $500.

2001 USA 22 medium frets on ebony (nice!) fretboard, great maple neck (same dimensions as Ibanez Wizard), abalone dot inlays (look like little planets, ash body (originally stained walnut, then blue bursted the whole thing), red tortoise pickguard with three twinblade humbuckers, vol., tone, coil tap for bridge ( switched to Fender single coils on black pearloid, will be going to L-280s on black abalone), gold hardware, Sperzels (they don't really lock), Wilkinson tremelo (better than vintage or Floyd Rose type), straplocks (nice), case (nice) & tools.

I have a Pignose G40V w/ 1x12 (using 10 w/split), crate MX120, Carvin SX300 full stack. Heavy acid blues/metal/rock. The original twinblades were OK, but not as good a range as I wanted and had a drainpipe sound I could not stand (cheaper humbuckers do), switched to fender singles but then too glassy and bell like (told it was not the swamp ash, but still suspect it), going to Bill Lawrence L-280 set. I'll see. I've always been able to rock out with it, the neck is fast. I think the sound I want for this guitar will come with the L-280s. The sustain is great and the whammy is the best. It does go out of tune with the Sperzels as much as any other tuning machines.

Action fantastic. Everything went together well except one trem post had to be glued in because the hole was a little big and it wouldn't stick. One Sperzel mounting peg broke and had to be glued in the hole. Ash looked good, but walnut (alcohol and powder) was a mistake because it didn't variate like real walnut or walnut stain on pine. After 6 mos. I blue bursted it (I loved the ones in the catalog), came out OK, but shouldn't have done the neck (now I have to wax it every time I play). I'm only rating the action.

It has and will withstand live playing without backup (with Fender super bullet 250s 10-46), hardware and straplocks will last. If I can, I do like to bring more guitars for a wider variety of sound.

They originally didn't send the gold pickguard screws, so I used brass from the hardware store until the requested screws came in a week and a half. Supportive with all questions and purchases.

I've been playing 28yrs. Have got 10 other guitars of all types. I had heard Carvin is great quality and price, and they are compared to the other out of whack American greed companies. I wanted a reverse headstock and all the fancy stuff for my dream guitar, but really all of them are. I built a Saga kit from ebay for $91 total added Ping Tuners instead for $22 and have a convincing Stratocaster. I wish I would have known, but did not have a computer and ebay back then. I would not get out what I put in the Carvin if sold. I would track down and kill anyone who stole it, but wouldn't replace it. I've got others. I would consider one of their factory built thru neck other models with Wilkinson.

2003 Carvin Bolt Kit, American Made Parts. I upgraded to sperzel locking tuners, black hardware, red tortoise shell pickguard, and went
with the HSS pickup configuration. The body is Alder, Maple neck/Ebony
fingerboard.

I play mostly blues and classic/modern rock. The Carvin is very versatile and I am pleased with the overall sound quality of this instrument. I am currently playing thru my 4x10 Fender Deville. I am not big on effects. The clean tone of this guitar is outstanding. The controls are responsive, although I have noticed the single coils seem
to lose a little brightness at lower volume levels. The guitar is noticeably quieter than my strat.

The guitar went together VERY easily. I opted for the tung oil finish and it turned out really nice. I did have one complaint... The headstock came drilled for standard tuners,not sperzels. I called Carvin and they told me to ship the neck back and they would send me another one. I decided it was more trouble than it was worth. I redrilled the neck and filled the original holes. Looks fine, the action is great. Carvin makes great necks. Overall workmanship great.

I have had the Bolt since Jan. 2003. No problems with anything on the guitar. It still looks new except for the scratches on the pickguard. The tung oil finish is holdind up better than I expected. I dont really play out any more, but this guitar is more than adequate to gig
with without a backup. The guitar is rock solid, stays in tune, and has fairly quiet electronics.

Carvin has a good reputation as far as I know. They are going to lose
a couple of points for the tuner hole issue. They could have offered to pay for shipping, but didn't. They were however, very helpful during the ordering process.

I have been playing 25 years and have had 7 or 8 electrics. Gibsons,Charvels,Takamines,B.C. richs, Fenders. The Carvin holds it's own. My other primary guitar is a Mexican Strat I hot rodded with all american hardware and a set of Texas Specials. The carvin has a faster
neck and really sounds better, especially when playing clean. If it were stolen I would consider buying a new one. These kits are a great
value. You would have a hard time finding anything close for $400...

Custom order for ebony fretboard, black chrome hardware, including locking Sperzel tuners, black pearliod scratchplate and bridge humbucker (holdsworth model).
Finished in Tung oil, as recommended, and it's still in really good form almost exactly a year after I put it together. Only thing I have issue with is the Wilkinson trem arm, which is held in by a grub screw and eventually "unwinds" out of the arm socket. It also gets loose pretty quickly, which I can't remember happening in the Patrick Eggle I owned a few years ago with the same model bridge. I would get standard chrome hardware next time round.

Currently goes through a POD and a Crate 2 by 12 combo (looking to try a Carvin Legacy half-stack soon...). Holdsworth pickup sounds great for me (I don't sound like Holdsworth, I just like that tasty mid with bite), very responsive and doesn't crush the tone of the guitar. Good variety of the usual superstrat tones, with the added joy of a coil-tap. Good versatile axe.

I put it together and set it up, but Carvin made the job super-easy. This guitar goes together like a dream. The wood was plain grained bit looked cool when I got the tung oil on. A couple of drippy bits, my bad (couldn't be bothered to wet'n dry them off... wanted to get this baby together and PLAY!). Been playing, custom rodding and setting up guitars for 20-odd years, so I have a pretty good set up
regarding pick ups and string action. Best action of ANY guitar I have ever owned, including my old Les Paul, which was very sweet to play.

Never gigged this guitar, but it's built like a Strat (ie. brick s**thouse), and I reckon it would last the pace of some intensive live work. The black chrome will wear off eventually, but that's black chrome...
If I knew my srings were fresh, I'd definitely gig this axe with no back-up (I play 10's and pick heavy).

Carvin are great to deal with, no hassle, no fuss and the stuff arrives in short order. Multo happy to deal with them again in the future...

Been playing for 20-odd years, owned Fender Strats (5 or 6) Ibanez (5) Charvel (2) Yamaha (1) PRS (1) Pattrick Eggle (1) Gibson Les Paul (1)
Washburn (1) Aria (2) Blah, blah blah. Have 2 Strats (one with hot rails) and the Carvin at the moment. Ya can't play 12 guitars! I would replace this guitar if it went missing. As soon as I put it together, it was one of the most comfortable necks I had ever played. Great tone, great playability, and I wish I had a single-coil version! Only gripe is the black-chrome finish, but I play the damn thing, it isn't an ornament... overall, great guitar, and I put her together!

I bought this a little over a year ago direct from Carvin, made in 2002. It is an alder body, maple neck with EBONY fretboard. Carvin doesn't even offer rosewood, so some of you reviewers really need to get your facts straight. This is the cream of the crop as far as fingerboards go. Standard Carvin tuners, very nice. I got it with a black pearl pickgaurd, which isn't as nice as some of the Fender one's I've seen, but that may just be the only thing that Fender can make better these days. Pickups are two twinblade humbuckers and a C22 bridge humbucker. The C22 is the only thing I'm taking a point off for, although this is probably personal preference. More on that later.

Anyone who dislikes these twinblade pickups has got to be deaf. Sound is bell-clear and balanced in the neck and middle, with the neck being exceptionally beefy clean. Together they quack just like any guitar of this type, but this sound is a little more refined on this guitar, usefull even for jazz. Single notes have almost a piano-like attack-ther're that clear. Turn up the gain and they deliver. Definately a lot of output, but there is quite a difference between the two even through a Marshall stack which usually can make any pickup sound the same. The sound is actually somewhere between that of a single coil and a humbucker. I can cop a lot of Fenderish tones, and I can do it under any conditions without worrying about hum. My only gripe is the bridge humbucker. Some others might like this, but it's just not to my taste. If I had it to do over I'd either get three twinblades or the M22sd(super ditortion). The whole point, for me, in having a humbucker at the bridge was more gain than the other pickups. I like making my Fender Champ sound like a 60's Marshall! This pickup, however, isn't very satisfying until the gain is WAY up, and even then my SG sounds way thicker at the bridge. I've played a guitar with the M22 and thre just isn't any comparison. I'm pretty sure this would sound good in a good country picker's hands, though. I'm not taking off any points, though, because like I said this is just my opinion, and otherwise this is a superior sounding instrument.

I set this guitar up, not Carvin. If you expect to buy a kit and have the action and intonation right on as soon as it's strung up, you don't understand guitars. After I gave it a good set up, and after a couple months of settling in, this is a very fine playing instrument. Yes, the neck moved after the initial setup, but ALL NECKS DO. Period. After the second month I had it, the action has never changed again in over a year. Every hole was drilled right on, frets were as close to perfect as anything has a right to be,and speeking of frets, these are much bigger(and more playable)than Fender. The tilted headstock makes a big difference, too.

A few gripes. The twinblades bobbins stick out on either side, so if you play hard, the high E can actually get caught on your pickups. Because of the way they're made, this exerts some pressure between the bobbins and the baseplate, which can be enough to break the connection to the coil wires. This actually happened to me twice, on both pickups, within two weeks of each other, causing my pickups to go completely DEAD. Got new ones under warranty without any hassles. The solution is to file down the edge of the bobbin on the treble side until it's even with the tape over the coils. After doing this, this has been my main gigging guitar with NO problems. These guitars are actually almost indesructible otherwise. I stopped bringing a backup a while ago.

No problems with their service except that if something does break, you have to cover the cost of shipping it back in order to get replacements under their warranty. THIS IS NOT SMART. It could really suck if it happened to be a big, heavy item. Their warranty is rock solid, though.

If you know a little about guitars or have access to a good luthier, by all means go for it. This one will never be parted from me. Sounds great through my Bassman, Champ, Marshall, Music Man, and Carvin amps. Will probably do it again.

kit, standard strat w/ bridge humbucker

sounds like a strat, good tones all the way, neck humbucker is not especially crunchy, but very detailed and crisp.

I built it, I set it up. Strung with 11's, good action. I know what I like, and the Carvin neck is a bit on the thin side, but good technique can deal with anything.

Tone pot stopped working after one week. Pickguard was prewired at the factory, so it it their flaw...
otherwise, seems reasonably sturdy. I got it to be a cheap backup to my PRS, so I'm not really that concerned.

In my long career as a musician, I have dealt with carvin on a few occasions. They seem to have bored, rude, and whiny people running their phones. The actual tech guys are cool though.

For 375, it's a fantastic guitar. ridiculuously easy to build. So easy that I was actually disappointed. Anyway, I enjoy playing it a lot. Took it to my last gig as a backup, decided to start with it and never put it down.
As all experienced pros know, the player makes the guitar, not the other way around. A very different guitar than my PRS, certainly a lot cheaper. Just as usable, just as effective, just effective for different things.
If you want a strat and aren't worried about fancy tops or colors, I say go for it. It does what I tell it to.

I bought this kit for myself about two years ago. It was "made" in my basement from good ol' USA based Carvin parts. The features are pretty much up to you, but Carvin certainly offers a pretty wide selection. The thing I've always lovee about Carvins is the neck, and this beauty is no exception. I also have an American Standard Strat - a very nice guitar that I bought over 10 years ago for about twice as much money - and I will hold this Carvin up against the Strat any time in just about any category... The one drawback is that unless you are a pro painter, you're stuck with a wood finish - personally, I like the way the swamp ash wood looks a LOT, so I'm not complaining. I would also add that I would've liked to see a P-90 pickup option. Not a complaint, just a suggestion for Carvin. Some earlier posts weren't happy with what they got (probably the main reason I posted) - I couldn't be happier...

I play mainly blues, rockabily, 70s Rock, and country through Marshall tubes with minimal effects. This guitar has a very bright sound - twangy when it needs to be, but pretty full in the neck position. It cuts through the mix nicely.

Putting this together myself made me pretty nervous, but I figured there were enough people out there that went for it that were as klutzy as me, so I gave it a shot. After I got it together I took it to a guitar store to have someone with a little more experience set it up. Best $35 I've ever spent. The tech who did the work was just gushing over the guitar when I went to pick it up. That was about two years ago, and it's been a phenominal guitar ever since. The neck really does it for me... Again, if there are unsatisfied customers out there, try to get it tweeked a little by your local luthier - that may be all it needs.

So far (two years) it's held up very well. Seems like it should last long enough for me to go from rock-n-roll to rock-n-chair.

I've bought a few things from Carvin over the years, and my experience with the people at Carvin has been excellent. There was a problem with the kit when I received it. One phone call and a couple of days later, and the problem was gone. What else can you ask for?

I've been playing longer than I care to admit - mostly for fun, but I've played out enough to know what I like, and I really like this guitar. Absolutely NOT a "cheapo beater". Extremely good tone, and a wonderfully playable neck - at about 1/10th the cost of a premium guitar. Restores my faith in mankind!

I purchased from Carvin an unfinished Alder body, hardtail bridge, standard tuners, two mini-toggle switches and a gibson style 3-way, volume and tone pots, a tone capacitor, an output jack, string ferrules, and two string trees. For the money, they had really cheap parts, and I just wanted to build a beater guitar using some spare humbuckers and a neck I had laying around. I also had Warmoth make me a pickguard for it.

Well, it's a cheapy beater guitar. The Dimarzio Super Distortion in the bridge spot really drives my Marshall JCM 800 head for a very full sound at low volumes. I can't say how much Carvin's parts have to do with this, so no opinion here. The tone pot is useless due to the bad sound of the capacitor, though.

I agree wholeheartedly with Gary H's review on Nov. 7th, 2002. These parts are seconds, no question.

The guitar body stopped just short of having a huge knot in the upper horn. It wasn't not easy to see until I started the finishing process, but the wood grain is all kinds of UGLY. I finished it with Minwax ebony stain and several coats of high-gloss tung oil.

The bridge and tuners have rough edges most of the way around. One of the tuners is really difficult to turn - I feel like I'm going to break it when tuning.

The volume AND tone pots are scratchy right out of the box and intermittently cut out on me. No matter how hard I tighten down the knob on the volume pot, it seems to fall off eventually.

One of the mini-toggles fell apart when I was bolting it to the pickguard.

Installing the output jack, I couldn't plug in a cable without chiseling extra wood out of the machine routed hole in the body.

The tone capacitor rolls off all kinds of extra frequencies, just doesn't sound good at all. I'm not sure what value they include with their kits, but I'd recommend anything else.

Overall, the quality of these parts is way below par. I didn't return anything because this guitar is a beater like I said before, just a sponge to sop up alot of spare parts I had laying around.

This guitar sits out in the living room. I play it when I have a free five minutes and want to strum a few chords. I used it for two gigs, a brief side project some friends of mine and I put together. I strung it up with 12's and tuned it differently and it did okay, but I was nervous about it falling apart or cutting out.

No direct contact - I ordered online and they shipped it to me, end of story.

Around the same time, I ordered and assembled a Warmoth Jazzmaster. I guess that's my basis of comparison. I've never had a problem with the pots or hardware I got from Warmoth, and everything fit together as it was supposed to (even with me doing all the aligning and drilling myself). The Carvin parts are no comparison. They're crap.

Overall: "1- What a hunk of junk!"

Save your money and buy a Carvin kit. It is an excellent guitar and blows away any Fender or equivalent higher priced piece of garbage. You can't touch a quality guitar like this for under $900. I got the Florida SwamAsh wood for the body. Try buying that at a guitar store. The guitar is so light compared to Basswood and Alder. Very sweet on tone. Recommend Carvin very highly. In fact, it's my second Carvin guitar.

Bright Sounding with Swampash body.

Difficult to polyurethane and tint with a smooth high gloss unless done professionally.

Hardware pretty well made. No complaints. Can't touch it for the money.

Never had to use them.

Owned other Carvin and Gibson and Kramer.

just finished my 2002 bolt kit.
I ordered it with the alder body,maple neck,ebony finger board,
gold hardware,red tortise pickguard,and 3 twin blade hummers.
Let say that Carvin necks are AWESOME!!!The only thing that I can be slightly critical about are the tuners,A little to much slack in them for my tastes...oh well should ordered the locking tuners.

the sound you say? well lets just say that Fender has the right to be jealous....the bolt out shines a strat by a mile,so many pickup combinations.Very good clean sounds,but if you crank the gain it will
scream.Also very good harmonics.

absolutley no flaws,the finish I did myself,which came out pretty nice seeing as how this was the first time I had ever stained any type of wood,gave it 3 coats of Minwax "cherry" polyurathane.
the neck was easy to do 4 coats of tung oil,steel wool it between coats then finish with a good coat of old english lemon oil.....do as Carvin says take you time...........be patient because at this point you will be wanting to get together and jammin on it.

I dont play professionally,but if I did I would use my 97 gold Wolfgang as my main axe,and the carvin bolt for a backup.

only talked to them to make the order.

The way I see it why big $$ for a "name brand" strat.
The Carvin will play circles around any strat that I have ever played.
The only strat you will get for the cost of the Carvin is the one from across the border....and thank you no I will pass on that one.
These are 100% made in the USA.

I ordered the Bolt kit with the strat body, Wilkinson tremelo and Sperzel tuners. The pickups are a Carvin M22 on the bridge, a Twin Blade humbucker in the center and a AP-11 at the neck. The guitar is made of Alder wood. I put 4 coats of tung oil on with a brush and the final 2 coats with a rag. Next, I ragged on a light coat of satin polyurethane. The guitar works and looks great. I couldn't be happier.

The sound is awesome. I play rock, blues, praise and worship, heavy metal-you name it and because of the pickups that I chose this guitar can do it all. The AP-11 in the neck is warm and the M22 has a nice heavy crunch to it, particularly when you activate all 3 pickups with the switch. Twin Humbucker is a nice comprimise between the two. I would say that its sound actually has some of the best qualities of a telecaster and strat.

The kit fits together great and I was able to get the action incredibly low. The rosewood finger board is actually beautiful. I was not expecting to be so impressed with the neck and have gotten several compliments on it. It is a very fast neck and feels good. I wish that they had the option of no fret markers.

I have only had this for a week now but it seems very durable.

Among my many guitars I have a Fender Strat, a '71 Les Paul Standard and a great Jackson DK-II. This guitar is now my favorite. I love it and would recommend it to anyone. I've seen comparisons to the Fender Strat but this is a totally different guitar. It feels different and sounds different. Plus-it's just better.

I purchased a bolt kit - alder body, maple neck with ebony fingerboard, 3 single coils, hardtail, black hardware, pearloid pickguard, and finished it as they recommend with tung oil.

it is as good as any strat type guitar I've played. The pickups are bright without being thin and give a wide range of harmonic content. The center pickup is reverse wound so it is hum free in positions 2&5 and when you add in the bridge to get all 3 pickups. The pickups alone are as quiet as any single coils I've encountered.

all of the parts fit together perfectly and all of the holes were pre-drilled. It couldn't be easier to put together

the finish... well, that is up to you.

it seems made for hard use

unknown

I've played over 35 years and have owned dozens of guitars including pre CBS teles and strats. This ranks with the best of them at being a good sounding, good playing, sturdy guitar... nothing fancy but it does the job.