It may be a bit premature to start a build thread before I've even gotten the kits, but after snagging both the sunday night specials, I figured I'd have a wee bit of extra cash to look at some upgrades.
So.... I've got a basic TL-1 and ES-3 on order and before they ship I'm looking for some feedback on what might be money better spent for upgrades.
The tele looks to be a straight forward build, so it'll be up first. For those who have played the stock pickups, do you feel they are worth upgrading right away? My thinking is maybe not - for a couple reasons - 1) I'm still (re)learning guitar and a better pickup would be lost due to my lack of skill, and 2) the pickups are much easier to get at on a tele (compared to the ES-3) and could be upgraded fairly easy later on. If not pickups, what about tuners? Are the kit ones decent enough? Again, it looks like they could be upgraded easily down the road, but the upgrade price when buying with a kit is much better than buying them later.
The ES-3 will be second and much more challenging so I've got a bit of time on this one, but I'd like it to be a better build, so I'm looking at reasonably priced humbucker upgrades for this one. No audio clips from anyone for this kit yet so I'm not sure what the stock pups are like but since it's much tougher to work with the electronics on a hollow body, I'd like to only have to do it once. So, if anyone can make some recommendations I'd appreciate it.
Let the fun begin!
Peter.