This kit builds an angular solid-body electric guitar, a bold shape with sharp, offset lines and a solid alder body that needs no binding or veneer work. If you have a build or two behind you, it is a satisfying next step, with your real focus going into a clean neck set, tidy wiring, and a careful setup.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Build time: A few weekends, plus finish cure time
Kit: Angular Solid-Body Guitar Kits
Deep-dive modules (universal references that go deeper than any single manual):
Finishing and painting · Neck installation · Wiring and soldering · Final setup
What’s in the box
Before you start, unbox everything and check that every part is there. If a part looks wrong or is missing, email [email protected] before you go any further.
- Body and neck
- Two strap buttons
- A set of 6-in-line tuners
- Stud-mounted Tune-O-Matic bridge with tailpiece
- Neck and bridge humbuckers
- Two volume pots, one tone pot, one capacitor, one 3-way pickup selector, and an input jack
- Truss rod cover, pickguard, and electronics cavity cover
- Cable and hex wrench for the truss rod
- Tone and volume knobs
- Assorted screws and washers
- A loose black ground wire, plus four long wires for the pickup selector
Tools you’ll need
You do not need a full workshop for this. A handful of tools makes the whole build easier, so gather these first:
- Two clamps (you glue and clamp the neck on this build)
- A steel ruler at least 40 cm long, which doubles as a straightedge for the neck
- A hard sanding block
- Sandpaper in a range of grits, roughly 120 up to 1500 depending on your finish
- 0000 fine grade steel wool
- A center punch, or another sharp tool for marking hole locations
- An electric drill with an assortment of bits, including a countersink bit
- Large and small screwdrivers, both Phillips and flat head
- Needle nose pliers
- A soldering iron and solder, plus a damp sponge for cleaning the tip
- Painters masking tape and a pen (a pencil will not mark tape cleanly)
- Clean rags and paper towel
- Denatured alcohol, or another cleaner with a degreasing agent
- Disposable gloves
- PVA or similar wood glue for the neck, and a small paintbrush to spread it
Section 1: Pre-assembly and inspection
Because this kit features a solid alder body without binding or veneer, surface preparation is relatively straightforward but still important.
- Inspect the body and headstock under good light for any deep scratches or dents, and deal with them before you finish.
- Sand out scratches sequentially. Start with 120-grit, move to 180-grit, and finish with 320-grit.
- Use a hard block when sanding flat surfaces (like the headstock) so the sandpaper does not conform to bumps and round off crisp edges.
- Raise the grain once sanding is done. Wipe a little denatured alcohol or water over the bare wood, let it dry, then sand it flat again. This lifts the fine grain so your finish sits smooth, and it usually only needs doing once.
Section 2: Setting the neck
The angular body shape has a uniquely thin edge on one side of the neck cavity that is highly prone to chipping. This is a glued neck, so get the dry fit right before any glue goes on.
- Dry fit the neck by inserting the heel first, then gently pivoting the neck down into the pocket to avoid chipping the fragile cavity edges.
- Check the alignment while it is dry fitted. There should be very little sideways movement. If there is, mark the center of the neck heel and line it up with the center of the pickup cavities. A small gap on either side can be filled before finishing, but a large gap means you should shim the neck.
- Check the neck angle by running the steel ruler along the fretboard and over the bridge. With the bridge sitting flat on the body, the ruler should sit just above the saddles.
- Verify the scale length is 628 mm (24.75 inches). The easy way is to measure from the nut to the middle of the 12th fret and double it. If it is out by a millimeter or two, do not worry, the bridge saddles have enough travel to compensate when you intonate.
- Apply a nice, even layer of PVA wood glue to both the bottom of the neck pocket and the neck heel.
- Clamp the neck securely into the body, using scrap wood to protect the surface, and allow the glue to fully cure before moving on. Leaving it overnight is usually enough.
Section 3: Prepping and finishing
This guide uses a combination of natural oil finishes for the body and neck, and primer for the headstock. Work in a well ventilated space, wear eye protection and a dust mask while sanding, and step up to a particle mask and gloves when you spray primer or rub in oils. Finish fumes and sanding dust are not something you want to breathe.
- Apply buffing oil (a tung oil and wax blend) to the body with a clean, folded rag. Work it into the grain, wait 20 minutes, and wipe away the excess. Apply multiple coats, waiting 5 hours between each.
- Seal the fretboard, because maple fretboards (unlike rosewood) easily absorb oils and dirt from your hands. Wipe on a light coat of fretboard oil, let it sit for 10 minutes, and wipe off the excess.
- Prime the headstock by masking the fretboard and truss rod hole, spraying light coats of acrylic enamel primer, and sanding it dead flat with a 400-grit block until the entire surface is uniformly dull.
Section 4: Hardware installation
Accurate measurement and protective steps are essential before drilling into the body.
- Mark strap buttons using painters’ tape. For balance on the angular body, place one button about 1/3 of the way down the bottom wing, and the other dead center on the edge of the top horn. Indent your mark with a sharp tool before drilling.
- Drill pilot holes for every screw using a drill bit that is roughly 2/3 the thickness of the screw’s threads.
- Install the tuners from the back of the headstock, with the mounting holes facing the body. Fit the washers and bushings on the front, hand-tighten the tuners, then line them up. Lay the steel ruler across all of them, or fit the first and last tuner and mark a straight line between them on masking tape to place the ones in between. Mark and drill the pilot holes, fit the small screws, then peel off any protective film by pressing masking tape onto it and lifting both away together.
- Center the truss rod cover on the headstock. The nut is 42 mm wide, so draw a line 21 mm in from the edge, running from the nut to the tip of the headstock, and line the cover up with it before you drill.
- Route the ground wire through the pre-drilled channel from the electronics cavity to the bridge post hole. Strip a few mm of insulation so the bare wire is exposed, and bend a small hook in the top so it stays at the top of the post hole while you work. The wire colors are listed under Wire color coding in Section 5.
- Press-fit the bridge bushings so the metal bushing traps and makes physical contact with the bare ground wire. Take the post out of the bushing first, press it home (or gently tap it with a mallet over a wood block), then screw the posts back in.
Section 5: Electronics and pickups
The angular body features long internal routing channels, so wiring order matters here.
- Route wires first. Run your long 3-way toggle switch wires through the body cavities before you install the pickups, because the pickups will block the channels once installed. Mount the selector on the pickguard, and note which color you use for each connection.
- Bind the wires together with tape so they fit easily into the wire holes.
- Install pickups by loosely stringing the two outer E strings to ensure the pickup pole pieces align beneath the strings before drilling their mounting holes. The pickup ring with the taller profile goes in the bridge position.
- Practice on scrap first if soldering is new to you. Solder melts at about 185°C (365°F) and the iron runs far hotter, so keep it in its stand and let each joint cool before you touch it.
- Tin components by applying a tiny puddle of solder to the tip of your iron, the wire tips, and the pot lugs before making the final connections.
- Wire the selector so its two outer lugs feed the neck and bridge volume pots, each going to that pot’s middle output lug, while the two joined center lugs carry the output wire.
- Fit the capacitor between the tone pot’s middle lug and the back of the tone pot casing.
- Wire the input jack with the output (hot) wire on the tip lug and the ground on the inner sleeve.
- Ground the circuit by ensuring a bare wire connects the backs of all potentiometer casings and runs to the bridge ground.
Wire color coding. Identify and route your wires using the standard color guide:
| Wire | Function | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Black | Ground | The ground wire throughout the circuit. It connects the backs of the pots, the pickup selector ground, the input jack ground, and the main bridge ground. |
| Green | Output | The main output wire, running from the pickup selector switch to the active (hot) lug of the input jack. |
| Red | Neck pickup (hot) | The active (hot) wire for the neck pickup. It coordinates with the wire coming from the neck position on the pickup selector. |
| White | Bridge pickup (hot) | The active (hot) wire for the bridge pickup. It coordinates with the wire coming from the bridge position on the pickup selector. |
Section 6: Final setup
Perform these adjustments in order, keeping the guitar tuned to concert pitch throughout the process.
- Adjust neck relief with the truss rod. Fret the 1st and last frets, then tap the string at the 12th fret. If the string lies dead flat on the fret, loosen the truss rod (counter-clockwise, 1/8th turn at a time) to add relief. If it sits well above the fret, there is too much relief, so tighten the rod clockwise a little to flatten the neck.
- Set the action by adjusting the Tune-O-Matic bridge posts. Loosen the posts to raise the action, tighten them to lower it. Aim for 2.4 mm on the low E string and 1.6 mm on the high E string at the 12th fret.
- Intonate the bridge saddles. Compare the open string to the fretted 12th-fret note. If the 12th fret is sharp, turn the saddle screw counter-clockwise to move the saddle back and lengthen the string. If it is flat, turn the screw clockwise to move the saddle forward and shorten the string.
- Adjust pickup height by pressing down the highest fret and measuring from the string to the pole pieces. Set to roughly 2.4 mm on the bass side and 2.0 mm on the treble side.
Beginner watch-outs
| Issue | Common cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Chipped neck pocket | Forcing the neck straight down into the cavity. | Always insert the heel first, then gently pivot the neck downward. |
| Blocked wire channels | Installing pickups before routing switch wires. | Fish the long toggle switch wires through the body before dropping pickups in. |
| Drilling too deep | Guessing the depth of pilot holes. | Wrap tape around your drill bit as a depth stop. Note: Only measure against the portion of the screw that actually goes into the wood. |
| Chipped paint (hardware) | Driving screws into cured, painted finishes. | Lightly chamfer (bevel) the edges of your pilot holes with a larger bit by hand so the screw threads do not crack the paint. |
| Fret buzz or dead notes | Too little neck relief, or the action set too low. | Add a touch of relief, or raise the action slightly at the bridge, until the buzz clears. |
Pro tips
- Sanding flat surfaces: Never just use your hand or fingers to sand a flat headstock. Your fingers will press into the soft spots of the wood and round over the crisp edges. Always use a hard sanding block.
- Tinning is not gluing: You cannot simply drop melted solder onto a cold wire and expect it to stick. Use the iron to heat the lug or wire itself for a second or two, then feed the solder into the heated component, not just onto the iron.
- Testing the circuit safely: Once wired, turn your guitar volume to 10 and take your hands completely off the instrument. If it hums loudly, your ground circuit (likely the wire touching the bridge bushing) is faulty.
Hardware and screw identification
- Strap button screws: The longest, thickest screws. Keep in mind that roughly half of each screw passes through the metal button and rubber washer before it ever touches the wood.
- Tuner screws: The tiniest, most fragile screws in the kit. Used to lock the 6-in-line tuners to the back of the headstock. Pilot holes are absolutely mandatory to prevent snapping the heads off.
- Pickup ring screws: Medium-length screws with deeper threads. You will use eight of these to secure the plastic humbucker rings to the guitar top.
- Cavity cover screws: Short, small screws used solely to fasten the plastic electronics cover plates to the back of the body.
- Bridge and tailpiece bushings: These are not screws. They are thick metal cups with splined, textured sides that you must press (or carefully hammer with a protective wood block) into the body to hold the bridge posts.
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.
For the full walkthrough, watch the complete build playlist, and you can find the kit here: Angular Solid-Body Electric Guitar Kit.