Over these days off I have finished the neck....feels great...finger board done with 4 coats of Fine Buffing Oil and then three coats of cabinetmakers wax...then a run over of Carnauba Polish. It feels really smooth...yet not glossy and wet and sticky.

I put her together this evening and put the kit strings on her....as usual tremolos are a pain to get strings on.

I have a WVP6 Wilkinson bridge....fitted straight in....the 5 + 1 staggered screw holes helped with that.

McCreed...the pickups are really chimey when played clean. I have a cheapie 30 watt Joyo Modelling Amp with models from JC Clean to Heavy metal. I love the sustain of the pickups.....amazing. My personal belief is that they are magic on the Tube Screamer and Blues and even a Crunch Amp model.

I love how Strats just bark out the sound on a low overdrive setting on the fat E string.....made me smile.

They are amazingly quiet. I have also copper taped and sealed everything you can....to the point that I had to tape and heat shrink the tip connector of the jack socket....as it was touching the copper tape....and no sound was coming out.

I am going to let her sit now....under tension....then a setup including fret levelling.

The claw screws on the back must have had their holes drilled on an angle....the claw edge and the the springs touch the white back plate. Bamboo skewers and redrill I think.

The pickups are really quiet....better than the Blues set of Tone Riders I have....and way better than the cheap ones in a Chinese cheapie I have. But they seem a little more like a Tele on a clean setting....very tinny and country/rockabilly. I have to dial in a little more low end than normal....and then they are away.

The Blues, Tube Screamer and Crunch is magic....I don't really play metal.....but may have to give it a run.

No routing required. Smart use of zip ties, tape was all that was needed to guide the wires to the controls......oooh.....the highest TONE knob does not seem to do anything.....the bottom one does drop the tone of the middle pickup...not the bridge one.

The push pull pot works great....but is also not showing an effect from the top tone pot.

I really don't move them much.....but the swipe of A style pot is smooth and the Oil in Paper Capacitor is smooth with the treble drop.

I have rambled a little hear.

In summary, lots of this kit is great, and is a step up from the base models....but overall it is still a cheap kit. I have put in better electronics, Grover tuners, Bone nut, Wilkinson Tremolo.....and will put the Ernie Balls on after the setup hold tune. It is has been some time since I did a six string......these are more race horse...to my Bass kits which are more work horse.

Loved the experience.