I don't think I gave enough credit to the satisfaction you get from playing an instrument that you made.

I think there could be a bit of a debate as to whether you save money building or not. Some years ago I purchased a really cheap Jazz bass clone. It was OK out of the box. Certainly the equal of a lot of name-brand import basses. But it took a fair amount of work to get it to sound and play as well as I wanted it to. It also took a bit of investment to get replacement parts that I liked.

From a cost standpoint, I think I generally pay a bit less for the parts than I would for upgrades...but when I add in the cost of sandpaper, paint, stain, etc., I am not sure there is a real savings.

However, the kit build has a couple of advantages that are hard to quantify. One of them is that I don't have to buy everything at once. Also, I don't have to buy parts until I know what parts I want. There is probably some cost savings in shopping for deals.

Another advantage is in pretty much every case, I got something that I would not have been able to get from my local music shop. And something I could not have afforded going anywhere else. All my builds have something hard to get about them. Sometimes it's lighter woods, different necks, weird pickup configurations. I can also "invest" in high quality parts when I think it makes a difference, and avoid paying for premium parts when I think it doesn't.

I keep working on them until they sound and play well...and they are all unique in some way...which leads me back to point number one. I get a ton of satisfaction out of playing them. I have pretty much retired my name brand electric guitars and basses as a result.