You are about to build a double-cutaway, contoured solid-body electric guitar, and you do not need any prior building experience to do it. This is one of the most comfortable and versatile shapes to play, which makes it a great first project. This guide takes you through every stage, from opening the box to the final setup, so you finish with a real, playable instrument.
Difficulty: Beginner
Build time: A weekend of work, plus finish cure time
Kit: Double-Cutaway Contoured Guitar Kits
Deep-dive modules (universal references that go deeper than any single manual):
Finishing and painting · Neck installation · Wiring and soldering · Final setup
Section 1: Initial Inspection and Preparation
Follow along on video: inspection and prep
Before you start sanding or painting, make sure your kit is complete and the wood is in good condition. This pre-flight check saves hours of frustration later.
- The inventory checklist: Open every bag and lay out all components. Match them against the manual’s part list to ensure no screws, tuners, or bridge components are missing.
- Body and neck inspection: Closely examine the wood for any deep scratches, machine marks (swirls from factory tools), or dents.
- Beginner tip: If you find a small dent, you can often steam it out by placing a damp cloth over the spot and touching it briefly with a warm iron.
- Dry fitting the neck: Slide the neck into the body pocket before doing anything else. It should be a snug, stable fit. If it is too loose, you will need to account for that before finishing. If it is too tight, you will know where to sand.
- Scale length verification: Measure the distance from the nut (the white strip at the top of the neck) to the 12th fret. Double that measurement, and it should be exactly 25.5 inches (650 mm). This confirms the bridge is positioned correctly for the guitar to stay in tune.
- Raising the grain: Lightly wipe the entire body and neck with a damp (not soaking) cloth. This makes loose wood fibers stand up. Once it is dry, you will sand them off so the finish stays perfectly smooth and does not fuzz up when you paint.
- Protect yourself: Sanding and finishing both throw off fine dust and fumes. Wear eye protection and a dust mask (N95 or better) while you sand, and once you move on to spraying finish, work in a well-ventilated space with proper respiratory protection.
- Initial prep sanding: Use 180-grit sandpaper to remove factory marks, then move to 240-grit. Finish with 320 or 400-grit for a smooth surface.
- Pro tip: Always sand with the grain. Sanding across the grain leaves permanent scratches that show up under paint.
- Filling open grain (if needed): If your body is an open-grain wood, fill the pores before finishing so the surface comes out glass-smooth. Work a little grain filler in with the grain and then across it, wipe the excess after about ten minutes, and once it is fully dry, sand it back level with 120 to 240-grit. You can skip this step on tight-grained bodies.
- Masking: Use painter’s tape to cover the front of the neck (where the frets are). This protects the playable surface from oils, dust, and accidental paint splashes during the finishing stage. Before you spray, also mask the neck pocket, the control and pickup cavities, the tuner holes, the bridge holes, and the truss rod opening, so those areas stay bare wood for a tight hardware fit later.
Beginner watch-outs
| What to look for | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Missing screws | It is much easier to contact support now than when you are mid-assembly. |
| Loose neck pocket | A wobbly neck leads to poor tuning and a thin sound. |
| Hidden glue spots | Factory glue residue looks like shiny spots. Paint will not stick to them, so sand until they are gone. |
| Oversanding | Do not sand past 400-grit before painting. If the wood is too smooth, the primer cannot grip the surface. |
Section 2: Post-Paint Polishing and Hardware Installation
Follow along on video: polishing and hardware
This section assumes you have finished priming, painting, and clear-coating, and that the body is completely dry.
- The steel wool method (post-clear-coat): Use super-fine steel wool in a gentle, circular motion to flatten and smooth the dried clear coat. Follow up by buffing with automotive cutting compounds to bring out a mirror-like, glossy finish.
- Installing the neck: Place the neck into the pocket, guiding the heel in gently so you do not chip the edges of the neck or the pocket, then flip the guitar over. Position the metal neck plate and drive the four long screws through the body and into the neck.
- Beginner tip: Tighten these in a cross pattern (like lug nuts on a car wheel) so the neck sits perfectly flat.
- Installing the tuners: Slide the tuning pegs into the holes on the headstock. Use a straight edge (like a ruler) to line up the back of the tuners so they are perfectly straight before securing them.
- Installing the bridge (floating tremolo): Drop the bridge into the large cutout on the front of the body. Line up the six screw holes.
- Expert move: Tighten only the two outer screws first to check the alignment. The bridge should be able to tilt forward and back freely without catching on the wood.
- Installing strap buttons: Measure and mark the exact center point for the bottom button so your guitar does not hang crooked. Pre-drill and install the buttons on the bottom and on the top horn of the guitar.
Beginner watch-outs
| Common issue | How to prevent it |
|---|---|
| Snapping tuner screws | Always drill a pilot hole. Rub a little candle wax or soap on the screw threads to help them glide into the dense headstock wood. |
| Wobbly neck | Make sure the screws pass through the body holes freely, so the threads only bite into the neck wood, not the body. |
| Bridge not moving | Check that the six mounting screws are not screwed down too tight. They should be just low enough to hold the bridge, but not pinning it to the body. |
Section 3: Electronics, Wiring and Pickguard
Follow along on video: electronics and wiring
This is the stage where you connect the electronics and close up the body. Take your time with the soldering to keep the signal clean.
- The ground wire route: Find the long black wire coming from the pickguard. Thread it through the small hole inside the main cavity until it reaches the rear tremolo cavity.
- Wire color coding: Identify and route your wires using the standard color guide:
- Black: the ground wire throughout the circuit (connecting the backs of the pots, the pickup selector ground, the input jack ground, and the main bridge ground).
- Red: the active (hot) wire for the neck pickup. This color matches the wire coming from the neck position on the pickup selector.
- White: the active (hot) wire for the bridge pickup. This color matches the wire coming from the bridge position on the pickup selector.
- Soldering the input jack: You will see two wires (typically white and black) and two tabs on the jack:
- White (hot): solder to the shorter tab.
- Black (ground): solder to the longer tab (the sleeve).
- Beginner tip: Use a helping-hand tool or a piece of tape to hold the jack steady while you solder so you do not burn your fingers.
- Clean solder joints: Tin the iron with a little fresh solder, then heat the metal tab itself for a second before touching the solder to it. When the tab is hot enough, the solder flows onto the joint and grips, instead of sitting on the iron in a cold blob. Rest the iron in its stand whenever it is not in your hand, because the tip stays hot enough to burn instantly.
- Mounting the jack plate: Screw the jack into the metal plate, drill tiny pilot holes, and screw the plate into the side of the guitar.
- Installing the tremolo claw: Screw the claw into the wood of the rear cavity using the two long screws provided. Leave some space so you can adjust the tension later.
- Grounding the tremolo claw: Solder the black wire you threaded earlier directly to the metal tremolo claw. This is the single most important step for preventing loud hum. If the claw has a shiny wax or lacquer coating, scrape a small bare spot first so the solder can bond to clean metal.
- Adding tremolo springs: Hook the springs from the bridge block to the claw. Three springs in a straight or arrow pattern is the standard starting point for a stable bridge.
- Securing the pickguard: Carefully lay the pickguard onto the body. Mark the holes, remove the pickguard, and drill shallow 2mm pilot holes before driving the screws in.
- Installing string trees: Place these small metal guides on the headstock between the tuners for the E/B and G/D strings.
Beginner watch-outs
| Common issue | How to prevent it |
|---|---|
| No sound | Check the input jack. If the white and black wires are touching each other, the signal shorts out. |
| Loud buzzing or hum | Make sure the ground wire is soldered securely to the tremolo claw in the back cavity. |
| Bridge standing up | If the bridge pulls too far away from the body once the strings are on, tighten the two screws on the tremolo claw to increase spring tension. |
Section 4: Final Setup and Playability
Follow along on video: final setup
Now that your guitar is assembled, these steps make it comfortable to play and keep it in tune.
- The initial tune-up: Tune your strings to concert pitch (E-A-D-G-B-E). Gently pull each string away from the fretboard several times to stretch it, then re-tune until the strings hold their pitch. Keep the guitar at concert pitch for the rest of the setup, since the string tension is what the neck and bridge are adjusted against.
- Setting up the floating tremolo: Adjust the two long screws on the tremolo claw in the back cavity until the bridge plate on the front of the guitar sits level (parallel) with the body under full string tension. As a rough feel check, a well-floated bridge lets you drop the pitch about one semitone when you press the bar down toward the body, and raise it when you pull the bar up.
- Adjusting neck relief (truss rod): Hold down the 1st fret and the last fret on the low E string at the same time. Check the gap between the string and the 8th fret. It should be roughly the thickness of a business card. If there is no gap, use the large Allen key to loosen the truss rod slightly, an eighth to a quarter turn at a time. Re-check the gap after each small turn rather than forcing one big adjustment, and give the neck a moment to settle.
- Setting the action (string height): Use the tiny Allen key provided to raise or lower the individual bridge saddles. A good starting point, measured at the 12th fret from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string, is about 2.4 mm on the low E side and 1.6 mm on the high E side, with the strings in between stepping evenly between those two heights.
- Pro tip: Lower action makes the guitar easier to play, but if you go too low, the strings will buzz against the frets.
- Intonating the guitar: Tune the open string, then compare the fretted note at the 12th fret to the 12th-fret harmonic on the same string. They should read the same on a digital tuner.
- If the 12th fret note is sharp (too high), move the bridge saddle back, away from the neck.
- If it is flat (too low), move the saddle forward, toward the neck.
- Adjusting pickup height: Use a screwdriver to raise or lower the pickups. Aim for about a 3mm gap between the top of the pickup magnet and the string when it is pressed at the highest fret.
- The final play test: Plug it in and test every pickup position on the switch. Play notes up and down every string to check for any dead spots.
Beginner watch-outs
| Common issue | How to fix it |
|---|---|
| Strings keep going flat | Keep stretching the strings. It usually takes 3 to 4 rounds of stretching and re-tuning for new strings to fully settle. |
| Fret buzzing | Your action is likely too low. Raise the bridge saddles slightly until the buzz disappears. |
| Notes sound off higher up | Your intonation is off. Re-adjust the saddle lengths using a digital tuner at the 12th fret. |
Pro tips
- Dry fit first: Always test-fit the neck before painting to make sure the pocket has not become too tight from paint build-up.
- Heat your spray cans: Dip your aerosol paint cans in warm water before use for a finer, more even spray pattern.
- Beware of steel wool fibers: Magnets (pickups) love steel wool fibers. If you used steel wool to polish your clear coat, clean the body meticulously before installing your electronics to prevent fuzzy pickups or short circuits.
- The pilot hole rule: Kit screws are fragile. Never skip drilling a pilot hole, whether you are installing a tiny pickguard screw or a heavy-duty strap button. As a rough guide, pick a bit about two-thirds the thickness of the screw and drill to about two-thirds its depth, and go shallower still in soft woods like basswood so the threads keep their grip.
When you get stuck
Take your time, and do not force anything. Questions about a step? Comment below and we will help you right here. If a part looks wrong, is missing, or arrived damaged, email our support team at [email protected] with the email address you used for your purchase, your order number, and a photo, and the team will get you sorted out quickly. When your build is done, share it in the DIY Guitars category so the community can see what you made.
Full build video: https://youtu.be/NiuoUScdbr0 · Kit: Double-Cutaway Contoured Electric Guitar Kit