https://youtu.be/3T0-4I1KJDYShort review: worth it, especially for the price. Not standard peg hole position on headstock portion (too close to the top to fit vintage tuners like 60s and 70s Fender-Schallers, Wilkinsons, etc... can accommodate the Gotoh GB-1s (with some thicker ferrules, of course), Classic Vibe or Ping tuners, Grover open-back tuners, or the Hipshot equivalents (HB-1, HB-5, etc) etc...
Long review: (copied from my YT description)
-- PLEASE READ THESE COMMENTS BEFORE ASKING QUESTIONS---
Hi folks. Shifting gears a little here, and finally got around to making this review of a bass kit I bought and built over the past summer to mostly great success.
It's a typical split-coil P-bass that one finds very easily when right-handed. Well, us lefties sometimes have to resort to getting these kits to fulfill our GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome).
This one, all told (minus the flatwound strings) set me back around 220 dollars CND (at the time, then the Loonie took a serious dive since then, so the components I bought for it would probably push this beyond 270 dollars - still not a bad total).
I did use a few components from the kit, but the pickup that came with it seemed to be missing a lead. Plus, it's your typical cheapo ceramic one can find in el-crappo bottom basement P-basses. Among with the tuners and the string tree thingy (cheap white metal grooved that messes up your string silks and can snap your strings if you continuously switch them out).
Here are the specs of the components and parts I did keep for this build. You can find this kit for sale at this website, or on eBay:
http://diyguitarkits.net/Body: 3 piece basswood (very well matched, thanks to the vendor who sold this kit)
Neck: Maple with a rosewood fretboard (very nicely banding) with plastic inlays, decent plastic nut, nickel frets (the frets seem finished, and I haven't had to do any leveling or trimming... yet)
-- Peg holes on the head stock are standard 11/16" (or 18 mm) in diameter. The overhead from the peg holes is only 1 cm (typical Fender-ish is more like 1.75~1.8 cm to accommodate the more classic open-back tuners, like the Gotohs, vintage Fenders, Wilkinsons, or 70s era Schallers)
Bridge: Typical bent metal plate with adjustable intonation saddles (and height and radius adjustment) the bottom plate is more elongated than a typical Squier/Fender bridge, with two extra screws to hold the bridge to the body. No reason to change it, really)
The Chrome volume and tone knobs: Very solid chrome metal with a hard plastic insert to fasten to the potentiometers' shaft.
1/4" output jack. Most of the included wiring was fine, and the stock potentiometers were fine, but not suited for high output pickups (I explain briefly in the video)
These are the components I added/upgraded, including the links to purchase such things:
Pickup: Guitar Fetish GFS Pro Series HOT P-bass pickup
http://www.guitarfetish.com/GFS-Pro-Ser ... 10978.htmlMachine head tuners: Fender/Squier Classic Vibe (manufactured by Ping-Well) RM-1279C. There are many places on the internet you can find them, especially e-bay. Here's a place that sells them for a good price:
http://www.angela.com/fenderclassicvibe ... ffour.aspxBass string tree: Fender classic string tree (no grooves, low angle, it's all you need. Maybe get two of them to include your D string. You can go to your local guitar store to find this, or on eBay. or here:
http://www.angela.com/vintagebassstringguide.aspx1Meg Linear and 500k Audio (logarithmic) Ohms potentiometers (Alpha brand): Some will insist to use CTS or Bourns pots, but really, Alphas work perfectly fine (and they're cheaper in price). They're pretty easy to find, your local guitar shop might even sell these, or the aforementioned brands too.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alpha-B1000k-1M ... xyrxZR0I2Whttp://www.ebay.com/itm/TOG-A500K-AUDIO ... XQlrxRaGi0Tortoise shell pickguard: From an eBay vendort guitars_electric. They have reasonably-priced, great looking tortoise shell pickguards. Highly recommended:
http://www.ebay.ca/usr/guitars_electric ... 2749.l2754Lots of shielding copper tape, lining the cavities, the pick-guard, solder points ensuring continuity. Split P-bass pickups are naturally hum-bucking, but shielding usually helps keep RF signals and Electromagnetic interference to a minimum.
Much of the finishing products I used are Minwax polyurethane tints, and I also used water-based Varnathane polyurethane clear coat (easy as pie to work with). You can find this at your local Wal-Mart, Ace, Home Depot, Canadian Tire, etc...
Very important to have a wide assortment of sandpapers of various grits (240 for the rough stuff, all the way up to 1500 or even 2000 grit for the finishing). I shaped the headstock with a coping saw to get things started, then smoothed out with a dremel and sandpaper. Using typical car wax, car polishing compound, a few polishing foams and pads, chamois rags for the final polishing makes a huge difference in the look and durability of the body and neck (and headstock).
