Product Description

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Artist STDIY Do It Yourself Electric Guitar Kit

Get behind the invention of a famous guitar and build your very OWN version with this ready-to-go kit. The bodies and necks are unfinished and don't have any base coat which allows you to spray the body whatever paint type and colour you choose.

The kit includes a ready-to-spray unbound bolt-on-neck, an unfinished body, three single-coil ceramic pickups loaded on to a white scratchplate, three pots, white coloured knobs, chrome-plated tremolo bridge, strings.

These kits are full size.

The Tech Features

Brand: Artist

Model: STDIY

Fingerboard Radius: 305 mm / 12”

Features:

  • 1x Roasted Poplar Body
  • 1x Maple Neck
  • Eco-Rosewood Fretboard 

Scale Length: 648mm / 2512

Nut: 42mm / 158

Pickups: 3 x Ceramic, Single Coil Pickups that are preloaded onto the scratchplate (all screws supplied)

Neckplate: Stainless Steel (screws supplied)

Bridge: Stainless Steel

Saddles: Individual stainless steel

Tremolo Block: 5 spring, 2 bolt claw

Strings: ELST1046

(16602)


Reviews (23)

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Indigenous Trainee

By: on 14 December 2023
I bought this guitar kit for an aboriginal lady who asked me to give her training to be a guitar technician and electric guitar builder

Artist Guitars Response
Thanks for your review! We are always here if you have any questions.

What I expected

By: on 12 November 2023
I have owned one of these kits before this current one I bought and the necks fretboard looked like a child’s toy BUT was extremely happy with the fret board on this new kit I got , the tuners were terrible so I didn’t fit them but the whole idea was to use the body scratch plate and neck and upgrade everything else it’s the cheapest way to get a fully custom guitar it only had one high fret that I have now rectified all the others were perfectly fine :) will definitely be getting the Tele for a future project

Artist Guitars Response
Thank you very much for sharing your feedback and review about the DIY kit.

Artist STDIY Do It Yourself Electric Guitar Kit

By: on 18 July 2023
This is my 2nd artist diy kit If you’re interested in a diy kit this is ideal and excellent value. I would really like to see some quilted maple diy kits in a tele, strat , LP

Artist Guitars Response
Thanks for the review! Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions.

Great value

By: on 5 May 2023
Firstly, I was amazed at how well finished the body and neck were. A few years ago you would have paid more than this for just a body or neck like what you are getting in these kits. I gave them a light rub over with 220 grit but really they didn’t even need that. The fret work was at least as good as my old Fender Strat standard. There were no sprouting fret ends and in fact the ends were decently finished. I saw another review with someone complaining of scratchy frets. Mine were fine. I polished them up a bit with steel wool but they didn’t really need it. To finish my neck, I mixed a capful of 50/50 Feast Watson maple proof tint and metho and rubbed it on with a rag. After that dried I gave it 4 coats of Tru Oil letting it dry between each coat and giving it a light rub with steel wool each time. To finish the body, I gave it 4 or 5 coats of Dulux Duramax Go Go blue rattle can paint. After about a week drying, I wet sanded and gave it 4 or 5 light coats of Dulux Duramax high gloss clear. I let this dry for a week (but probably should have given it a few more weeks to harden up as the neck plate sunk into the paint when I screwed it in). After that week drying I wet sanded with 1000 grit then, 1500 and then 2500. After this, I used some cheap ebay foam polishing pads with my cordless drill and the excellent Menzerna 400 polish to polish it up, and finished it with some cheap finishing polish. Came up quite nice, colour is a bit like Fender’s current Miami blue, very pretty! Next I put the guitar together and found the screw holes generally lined up quite well. There was no screw holes in the neck so I carefully put some pilot holes in. Also mine only came with 3 neck bolts but I emailed Artist and the missing bolt arrived a couple of days later. I had to solder an earthing wire onto the volume pot to the claw but I think they normally come with it. The guitar went together well and looks great. Mostly the hardware is okay and you certainly cannot expect anything more for this kind of money. The tuners are not the best in the world obviously, but they do work. They bridge is probably my least favorite bit. I attempted to set it up as a floating bridge, but just wasn’t happy with the way that was working out. There is an awful lot of slop in the vibrato arm. If you set it up floating, the arm ends up too close to the body (you can bend it easily of course). I elected to set it up semi floating, but aren’t bothering with the bar really. The strings it came with didn’t look too impressive, so I put some others on there. I also realized that mine only had one string tree in the packet. I’m sure Artist would have sent me another one but I didn’t bother and just put the one for the B and E (like my Fender Strat) strings on and it seems to be working fine. Mine was easy to set up, didn't require any neck relief and once I adjusted the string heights, intonated easily. Now I was not expecting much from the pick ups and have read that some people buy these kits for the body and neck and just put their own gear in, but I was actually blown away. They are actually quite nice sounding pups. The 5 way pickup selector switch is stiff and works great and between those 5 settings and the tone and volume knobs, you can get a huge range of tones out of it (more than my real Strat!). I see no reason to change the pickups, sounds great to me! So in a nutshell, outstanding value for money. This is not a toy, it’s a real guitar. I spent more than 100 bucks on paints etc to finish it, but you could just put it together as is and you would have a perfectly useable guitar for $150! The kicker is that the service from Artist guitars is second to none. They go out of their way to help or sort any issues out. Well done Artist guitars! Now, when can we have an offset kit, and maybe some boutique kits with a bit better hardware etc. Also, you should make it so people can upload photos to reviews.

Artist Guitars Response
We are glad to hear that you are happy with our products and service. Thank you for sharing this feedback with us and for the support!

Good quality

By: on 5 May 2023
Easy to follow instructions but could be a bit more detailed about which screws go where. Sound great, now all I have to do is learn to play it. Customer service is second to none, have bought other things from them since the guitar purchase.

Artist Guitars Response
Thanks for your honest feedback. We really appreciate it. Cheers!

Really fun and interesting

By: on 5 April 2023
I have learned about setting pickup height, intonation adjustment with the action height, adjusting the bridge and the scariest bit, truss rod adjustment. All this secret wizardry stuff, BUT it's really simple and totally easy to do, I've been practising on my other guitar and I've made it sound so much better, so good. I've pulled the kit apart again to give the timber a gloss finish. I'm loving this. For the price, this is a brilliant bit of gear.

Artist Guitars Response
Thanks for your review. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions.

STDIY GUITAR KIT

By: on 10 September 2022
I have to say these kits are quaility. This is my fourth Kit i have made and i was very impressed with the quality. Although the Input jack comes with a Pin connector i have never had a problem with connections or quality out of the pickups. The body's are roughly sawn and great to create with, The necks are great quality and nice to play on. Anyone wanting to give it a go, I highly recommend these kits !!!! Just wish they had some extra options for Looks purpose, like different colour scratch plates, Volume and tone knobs.

Artist Guitars Response
Hi! Thank you so much for the review. We truly appreciate it. We're always here if you need anything. Cheers!

Excellent purchase

By: on 6 September 2022
So very happy with this kit and after sales service and advice from Artist. I learnt a lot through the painting experience but it came up superb. I didn't seal the body well enough before primer. Wet sanding any finish needs care as moisture in screw holes can raise the grain. Can place some wax in screw holes. Painting was the biggest hurdle in putting this kit together because everything else went to plan. As stated in the reviews below, install the pick guard first. I had to trim it slightly so neck could fit but no biggie. The neck fit is absolutely precise! I am a novice guitarist but am quite happy with the pups, running through a Fender GDEC modelling amp so they might sound even better through a high quality amp. I did level the frets slightly and I mean ever so slightly then crown and polish. That was me being super fussy. They may not have buzzed out. Every screw hole was perfectly placed with even a painting hole to suspend the body in the neck pocket! The intonation was very good but the nut might be slightly high placing first position chords out a little but an easy fix. The tuners feel excellent to operate. I set the bridge to floating tremolo mode and so far the guitar stays in tune nicely. Playing the guitar feels solid. I mean, it really feels great to play. I can't really fault this product and would not hesitate to buy through Artist again. Maybe a Tele or LP next time :)

Artist Guitars Response
Thank you for the detailed feedback on the guitar. We really appreciate the time you have taken to write them.

Awesome Project

By: on 30 August 2022
Bought this kit as a project to build and paint and it is worth it 100%. Although the electronics are not the greatest, they do what they're supposed to and are a good quality considering the price. Must recommend this kit to anyone wanting to start out modding a guitar.

Artist Guitars Response
We are glad to hear that you are happy with our product. Thank you for sharing this feedback with us and for the support!

Do it yourself guitar kit

By: on 23 August 2022
I bought this as a birthday present for my son who is a very able guitarist and a clever artist. He is over the moon about it. He badly wants to put it together ( said he's always been a bit concerned about pulling his guitars apart but now realises he can learn all of that by putting one together. The art side of it is very appealing as well and he rushed out and got everything the very next day. He's already saying he'd like to build one of the other models too. Thanks to Artist Guitars for supplying a great product.

Artist Guitars Response
It is our pleasure and thank you so much for leaving us this feedback. We really appreciate the support!

STDIY Do It Yourself Guitar Kit

By: on 4 August 2022
What a cool gift! I got this for my Husband and he enjoyed the whole process! From finding the perfect tint, painting, building and playing. Sounds great and a cool experience for the novice guitar builder!

Artist Guitars Response
Thanks for your positive feedback on the DIY kit. We are so glad to know your husband loves the gift. We really appreciate your support. Cheers!

Great fun kit and excellent customer service

By: on 1 August 2022
I had a lot of fun building this kit and it turned out looking way better than what I could have imagined. 1. Artist’s customer service is second to none. When I received the kit, the body had a small crack near the neck pocket (ironically, when I sent Artist the picture, the quality control sticker was in the shot!) Artist got a new one out to me in no time. 2. The neck is finished so so well and the headstock doesn’t need any sort of routing or shaping. It comes already with a decent shape. (Which can’t be said for a lot of other kits out there costing twice as much). The grain in the neck looks awesome as well. I used some Scandinavian oil on it and then rubbed it back. Looks great. 3. The body took to the gloss polyurethane really well and it looks a million dollars. (Only a small amount of finish sanding required). 4. The parts themselves are okay…nothing to write home about, but I’m not complaining at this price. 5. The pickups aren’t great. Again, this isn’t a complaint, as they work absolutely fine, they just don’t sound that good. I’m going to buy the Artist Wrangler pickups and swap them out. 6. My only small gripe is that you have to spend a little bit of time working out what screws go where and the instructions tell you to put the neck on and then the pickguard. I actually found it nearly impossible to fit the pickguard on after the neck had been installed, so I ended up taking the neck off to fit the pickguard. This did mean that when I put the neck back on, the screws didn’t tighten the neck fully and kept turning. All in all, this is a great kit and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it or buy one again. I would just swap out the pickups and put the neck on AFTER the pickguard.

Artist Guitars Response
Thank you very much for your honest and detailed review. We truly appreciate the feedback you have left with the review and we will be raising this with our team. We truly appreciate it.

Kit..

By: on 8 July 2022
Good fun DIY project ST guitar.. got the dam. item(no neck/tuners). but i got spares parts.. A/G's kits are great value.. Thanks A/G's..

Artist Guitars Response
Thank you for letting us know and for leaving a review for the product. We are sorry about what happened with some missing tuners. If you email or call us about such concerns, our team is always more than happy to help.

Guitar kit

By: on 10 May 2022
Very happy with the build quality, all hardware is of very good quality. Had fun building it. Now i have to learn to play it

Artist Guitars Response
Thank you so much for taking the time to share this feedback. We really appreciate the support!

DIY Strat-type guitar

By: on 12 April 2022
I bit the bullet and bought this with afterpay. Everything was well packaged and quick delivery. Impressive instruction booklet made everything easy. I stained the body with Walnut stain and put a few layers of clearcoat on top. Finished with a waxing. Next I lightly coated the neck with a boiled, linseed oil product which has a drying agent in it. Finished the neck with a 2000 grit w/d sandpaper wetted with the boiled linseed oil. Assembly was pretty easy with the great instruction booklet. The 11-52 strings I bought as an extra tuned in well as did intonating the strings' pitch. A slight height adjustment of the pickups and away I went. Good saddle/ bridge design. Tremolo is fun to play. This is the 2nd guitar from Artist that I've bought. But the first DIY'er. The first was an LP60 'customer returned' guitar. Both are awesome guitars. My amp is an Artist GA10X. I only play at home in a unit so I've never needed more than 1/4 volume on it.

Artist Guitars Response
We are glad to hear that you are happy with our product. Thank you for sharing this feedback with us and for the support!

DIY strat

By: on 6 April 2022
I originally purchased the diy kit as something to put together over a few days off but instead ended up staining it hot pink and donating it to the hotel I work at for project pink, the kit was just so easy to assemble, body and headstock took the stain really well with minimal prep before and between applications. Straight forward wiring, and the kicker is it sounds amazing( even with the minimal set up I did on it) I have a 2nd strat kit to build so I’ll gift this 1 to my father in law when it’s done.

Artist Guitars Response
Thank you so much for the review. We really appreciate it.

Great kit

By: on 3 February 2022
Fun to put together whilst getting over covid. Everything went as planned . After much deliberation I stained and polished the body with bees wax. Now sometime after I curiously go back to this guitar to practice on. It's the only ST type guitar I own and it sounds like the real thing, especially when playing in position 4 (middle and bridge pick ups). I like many others was thinking about 'pimping' it with Alnico V pups etc. but I really can't be bothered, it sounds great.

Artist Guitars Response
We are happy to hear that you enjoyed putting together the guitar and that you are having a blast in playing it. Thank you for leaving a review.

DIY Strat Kit

By: on 8 November 2021
Great Product for DIY project. I have done 5 DIY kits in the past. This is my second Strat DIY. After an inspection to make sure all the parts were there. I got straight into my pre -made plans for this guitar. Scalloping the neck. I have never scalloped a neck before but always wanted to do one. I have never been game to try it on one of my branded guitars. These DIY kits are perfect for experimenting and customizing. The scalloped neck turned out perfect. I am so happy. I am also planning to go with gold hardware, brass nut, brass saddles and brass sustain block. These kits help in teaching you to understand and how to do a complete setup on any guitar. I highly recommend DIY Guitar Kits. I am so addicted. Wonderful Product. Thank You Artist Guitars.

Artist Guitars Response
Hi there, thank you so much for your great feedback on our DIY kit. This really helps a lot of customers who are planning to buy this as well. Cheers!

Awesome kit

By: on 28 October 2021
Got a one during the lockdown love it, had fun putting it together. Sounds great in my opinion and looks great with a Jarrah stain

Artist Guitars Response
Thank you so much for taking the time to share this feedback. We really appreciate the support!

Great kits

By: on 12 October 2021
I've built two of these kits now and have no complaints. They came well packaged and everything fits together great. With a bit of care you can really finish these guitars off well so they look and feel much better than they should for the price. I'm ready for my next kit now and will look at upgrading the electronics and hardware.

Artist Guitars Response
Thank you so much for taking the time to share this feedback. We really appreciate the support!

Fantastic idea!

By: on 24 September 2021
I wanted to learn more about how guitars worked, what went into them and I was eager to do a craft project in lockdown, what a way to do it! I’ve learnt a lot about painting, and how a guitar goes together. I’m very happy with my purchase and how the guitar sounds and performs A1 customer service and delivery as always. Highly recommend!

Artist Guitars Response
Thanks for taking the time to leave this review. We are so glad you're happy, and we'd love to help with any questions you have in the future!

DIY kit for ST

By: on 21 September 2021
This is my first DIY guitar kit. Delivery was so fast. Body and hardware were complete, no missing parts. I have been preparing for this kit. I watched a lot of videos on guitar body stains, polishing and hardware assembly. This kit was just perfect. I love the construction of the fretboard and fret wires. In the final assembly, I had to make a tiny adjustment at the neck to align with the bridge. Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase. You can't go wrong with the price. My finished product is a walnut stratocaster. I'm planning to buy another DIY kit in the future, maybe the LP flametop version and color it ocean blue.

Artist Guitars Response
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave feedback. We really appreciate the support!

Great kit

By: on 20 June 2021
Got this as a present from my son. Great guitar and super easy to build. Went a bit overboard and painted with Nitrocellulose metallic (lake placid blue), lot of effort but worth it in the end. Also bought a loaded pickguard from Seymour Duncan. But these kits by themselves are such great value, would highly recommend. Have learnt so much by putting together, will now be able to setup my own guitars in the future. Well done Artist guitars

Artist Guitars Response
Thank you so much for this feedback and we are glad to know you are happy with our product and service.

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