Kavanagh Customs Strat Body

Jimi Hendrix Woodstock Tribute Stratocaster Body

Olympic White with a nitro finish

This was supposed to be a lightweight strat body like the one Hendrix used at Woodstock but turned out to be one of the biggest disappointments of my life.

I don't know. I was going to use it to build my own strat but the only place this thing belongs is in the garbage can.

I did not know guitar bodies could be made this bad. This was supposed to be to build my dream guitar so you can imagine my disappointment. i was literally in shock when i opened the box. I could not believe my eyes. This was far from the picture on their website. The paint job was a joke. It was very thin and looked like someone used a krylon spraypaint can. There were defects all over the place. A pretty big dent among some small ones. A nice paint drip. And the paint-job was so thin you could see the wood grain.

I think this guitar could withstand live playing but the person playing it should destroy it at the end of their show.

The finish feels like it could rub off if i rubbed it with my fingers.

Their customer support was absolutely the worst. I sent them an email describing how bad the workmanship was and that i wanted a refund. I got a reply right away. They pointed out in their disclaimer that there are no returns/refunds on custom orders. I wrote them and asked "does that include defective guitar bodies?" They were basically telling me to go jump in a lake. Since I live in the USA and they are over in the UK I cannot do anything. And the whole time they said that John was ill and in the hospital so he could not answer emails. Thanks guys.

I've been playing for twelve years now and this is the worst piece of **** I have ever laid eyes on. If you are reading this please listen to me and the other reviews. Steer clear of this guy. He takes your money and then makes you wait three months for a piece of garbage. No matter what I asked him I would've gotten the same outcome- a nightmare. I HATE EVERY LITTLE ITTY BITTY THING ABOUT THIS GUITAR BODY. I wish it looked like the one in the picture. And I also wish I had read the reviews before I gave him my hard earned money. I threw away $375 bucks. Learn from my mistake.

Sonic blue Nitro Stratbody.

Yeah right !

Pull the other one.

John Kavanagh from www.kavanaghcustoms.co.uk FAIL !

A Complete rip off. This isn't about bad quality, this is a scam. Cheap Chinese parts masquerading as UK hand made. Hand made by children in a sweat shop more like. You get no money back no guarantee.

No nitro, no alder body was cheapo chip board covered in plastic.

Plain and simple John Kavanagh from www.kavanaghcustoms.co.uk is a crook.

A total and utter scammer. No return address . . .hmm I wonder if he pays rates on that workshop - I very much doubt it Oldham Burrough Council !!

Yes it burnt very well at the local tip.

Are you kidding? Non existent. Bunch of mind games.

Seems eBay got wise to him and stopped him trading. Ebay stopped Kavanagh Customs trading. Kavanagh Customs review - yes they're a heap of firewood.

Don't touch with a barge pole - you might as well just burn your money.

This is a '60s style, Alder Strat body made in 2009 by Kavanagh Customs 267 Banbury Rd. Oxford, Oxfordshire OX2 7HT, United Kingdom As soon as I called the phone number under the return address and left a message,they had the number disconected the next day.

no opinion

The body does not have an acceptable finish. It looks like a 15 year old boy painted it with a spray can. The routing looks good.

Kavanagh Customs (John) was good at replying to emails until they received the money. I can't get a response from them at all now. You can not imagine the disapointment I experienced when I opened the shipping box.

I hope that anyone considering using Kavanagh Customs for a build reads this and reconsiders. The implied finish that is shown on their website must have been done by someone else. The finish I have could be the finish they give to Americans. John sanded off the referance number that he put in the neck pocket so I would not be able to prove it was one theirs. I wouldn't say it was a finish, but rather the begining of one. I am an accomplish painter and finisher and I will be able to fix this. I wanted to have a nitro finished body done by a pro and the finishes they show on their site are pro finishes. When I attempted to contact them about fixing this, Stephanie (Johns girlfriend I think) emailed back and quoted from the disclaimer on their order sheet. I think that the glowing reviews of some of their guitars are either from themselves posing as customers or people from england that they like. The extremely long wait, compounded with no comunication drove me to buy my own raw wood body and my own nitrocellulose laquer. The finish I produced was lightyears ahead of their finish. This is not a good company.

Black (Blackie) replacement body for Fender Strat style guitars.
Described as solid american alder with nitro finish.

I purchased this to replace the basswood body on a late 80's jap strat. In the end I did not use the Kavanagh body and rebuilt the guitar with the original jap body.

The body arrived with a small chip from the upper horn. I repaired that myself. Later I discover the neck pocket was 18.6 mm deep. Fender standard is usually considered to be 5/8" (15.9 mm). This pocket would IMO require a large shim to position the neck correctly. This is the main reason I did not use the body.
The overall finish could have been better. Paint work had a number of small marks. Profile was not as well blended as you would expect and the trem route through the body was poorly formed with too much material left in one corner. Also, the top corner of the neck pocket was square not radiused as a standard fender body profile.

The nitro finish, which I tested with acetone, will not wear as well as a modern finish but the idea of the finish is to let the body move so durability is put aside for tone.

I advised Kananagh of my problem. As I had already mark out the body for drilling, they would not offer a replacement, refund or part refund.

Kavangh can only be contacted by email and are slow to reply. They do not give out their phone number. I also advise you to take a look at their ebay feedback.

I would not buy from this company again. I was dissapointed by the quality of the product and I was disappointed by the customer service.