Albatross Guitars GK041 Solid Body 7 String Electric Guitar

Overall, this was a fun project and turned out pretty well. Let me start off by going through the bad...The box came and it looked to have been chewed on by a dinosaur. Surprisingly, everything was alright. I knew this was a DIY project but I was kind of expecting SOME instructions or paperwork but it was just the body, neck and a big bag of parts. No big deal as 5 minutes on google gave me the diagram I needed since I haven't build a guitar in some time. I noticed that when I pushed and tapped the tremolo arm stud into the body, it was rather tight. I should have reamed the hole out a little and it ended up slightly cracking the wood. I figured that this hole would have been drilled to spec but apparently, it was too tight. partly my fault for not going with my gut and drilling it out but still a little disappointing. The fret board seems really dry. I treated it with some wood polish and it seems a lot better now but even the color looked very "dry." The pickups came with a clear tape like covering but as soon as I removed this, the pickups have a massive amount of scratches on the face. I would almost venture to say that they were used they looked so bad. The strings cover them up ok so it's not the end of the world. Both round plastic covers in the back did not fit without having to trim and sand down the plastic edges. The pickups were also a snug fit requiring a little tweaking. Just about any DIY job is going to have cheap hardware and I knew this going in. My biggest battle was the fret buzz I was getting around the 2 and 3rd fret on every string. The neck looks pretty straight and I knew that I could spend hours fret leveling but instead of all that work, I just raised the action a little and it's hardly noticeable. I ended up putting the strap locks in the traditional spots, at the bottom and on the left wing tip which was a little odd because the tip is a bit sharp but it works. Lastly, the volume knob is a cheap slide on thing.The good and how I did mine;I prefer a rounder edge on my guitars and so the first thing I did was some serious reshaping with some 40 grit sandpaper rounding all the edges and making both tips much smoother. I didn't want a typical head stock tip and I get a little nervous with the Jackson style pointy tips so I made a compromise but kept it simple. I got all the imperfections out and then finally, I went over it by hand sanding it with 400 grit till it was super smooth all over. Next I took some "weathered grey" stain from home depot and mixed it with some ebony stain for a dark grey and rubbed it in with the grain of the wood. I let that penetrate for a bit and then I took some ebony on the tip of a q-tip and drew some small vertical black lines and let them sit for just a bit and then I rubbed those out going with the grain. The result is a "grained" look reminiscent of Zebra and Limba wood that almost has a purplish hue to it at times but mostly shows black, grey and a little bit of the natural wood color. I did this finish to the neck and head stock as well. I made sure there were no rough edges after the stain dried and knocked off any spots by had with the 400 grit. Then I took a can of satin clear coat and did about 15 light coats. I almost think that semi gloss or glossy would have been better but it still came out pretty good. After everything was dry, I did all the wiring and pilot holes for all the screws. The spring plate is at a slightly funny angle to drill into and so I didn't screw those in super deep. I ended up using 4 springs. I took a lot of time making sure the neck was nice and snug and went super slow on the holes for the neck. I have nightmares about going too tight and snapping something but it went together nice and snug with no gap. I got the strings on and had to take quite a bit of time adjusting the action to just the right spot. The intonation seems pretty good as it is but I may mess with it more later down the line. I have it tuned standard with the 7th sting @ b1 but I can tell that at least with these stings, a drop tuning is going to rattle. I have yet to plug it into my full stack but from a practice amp, it sounds much better than I expected. A tone knob would have been cool but for the price, I am pretty happy with this. If you have a little bit of skill and patience, I would recommend this kit.

This turned out to be a great guitar! That being said there was some challenges during the build. One thing was the studs for the tremblo. The holes was really tight (giggity). I know they suppose to be snug but this was really tight. I hammered on them for 2 hours using different techniques. I didn't want to drill and make the holes too big but I didn't want to crack the wood either. Luckily I got them in with no damage. The other big obstacle was the neck. It had a backwards bend to it with the strings on. I adjusted the truss rod all the way just to get it perfectly strait with no relief. So getting the string height right without fret buzz was a bitch. I had to keep the a little high but its still comfortable to play. But every build I've done has challenges though. Everything else was a breeze. Neck fit perfectly, electronics was easy, and the pups fit fairly well. I used orange guitar stain from Crimson Guitar with a dash of red mahogany and black to get the color I wanted. Used Tru Oil for tue finish. Topped it off with some inlay decals and a sweet skull nob and it turned out to be my fav guitar. If you have some know how this will be a fun build with good results!

It's my son's, he loved it, it's basic, he's swaped out some parts and wants a Floyd Rose but nothig that breaks the bank, so it's a.great starter kit and affordable enough to add or swap parts. My son's words here "it has a metal Sound to it, it barks 😀 shipping is excellent and quick.

I bought the kit to support two itches. First was to have a 7 string. The second was to carve a guitar. The variety of mahogany was challenging to transition between but the kit is sound and totally worth the price.

Great guitar.you will need a fret leveling kit, some wood files, and at least a 60 watt soldering iron.also need sanding blocks from 120 - 300.I finished mine with red mahogany stain, shellac, and wipe on Poly.

I love this guitar. Easy to build. This is my first 7 string. It plays so amazing. I was able to get the strings so low to the flawless fretboard that you barely have to push down on them with zero fret buzz

Not a very quality project. Everything required revisions. Neck wobbles in body before mounting so make sure you have it straight. The tremolo cavity is ill-fitting to say the least. Not the best quality of mahogany on the solid body and fret board is close to playable but truss rods is far from playable in original condition. The frets are not all level so require slight sanding. Those are just a few of the issues with the kit. All in all its an expensive project that doesn't work as well as expected.

I purchased this as a Christmas gift for my son. He wanted to stain it, but bass wood does not hold the stain well. So, spay painted it and used polyurethane for the finish. He's enjoyed the process and we plan on sharing a picture of the final project when it's done. It takes several layers of finish to give it the polished look.