Premium Quality Kits

[WeirdBits]

Beer and pizza meeting = success.

[OldLummox]

If the nut was NOT plastic, much better bridge, pup's, pots, TUNERS, etc and the necks and bodies were significantly better I would certainly be willing to pay that cost. I have built five other guitars from other kits and two from clearance bodies and necks in the USA, my Pit Bull is the best quality thus far.

[wazkelly]

Maybe we just need better QC from current Chinese Factory? Price point is about right and any higher makes ready made guitars look a more attractive proposition.

Possibly include these under custom orders for folks seeking something more exotic or high end.

[zeromick]

for around $800 bucks you're in the area of being able to buy a second hand, top quality/mint condition Fujigen built Fender from the 80's or 90's
I know it's not the same as building something yourself thats the sort of area a kit like these would sit in.
Interested to see what you get for $800ish it'd be something special I'm guessing.

[corsair]

I like the current range and the price point it's at; buyers of basic kits can - and do - customise the daylights out their kits with upgraded or premium hardware and still be well within a realistic budget, especially if the disposable income must be eked out due to family or business commitments.

$800 for a kit and then having to put good hardware into such a kit to make it worthwhile takes the whole kit ethos into new territory....

[dave.king1]

Interesting concept and will follow with much interest.

FWIW my current Tuff Dog build has run to around $600 which is far more than an Alliexpress copy but one of them and the Toneriders falls close to the same ballpark.

By comparison there are two genuine Custom Shop Tuff Dogs currently available in Oz and they are so close to $10K it doesn't matter and Merle's Tuff Dog had the Texas Specials replaced by Redd Volkaert with Hot Rails so even more expense if you buy the "real" thing and want exactly what Merle had.

Makes me happy with my $600 for now and Hot Rails later if I feel the urge ( and I can say with pride I made this )

[Simon Barden]

Is it worth thinking of supplying the kits with the basic PBG pups, and talking to a pickup manufacturer like Seymour Duncan and see if you could supply a choice of their pickups at special upgrade prices, like with the Grover machine heads? I know you already offer the Bensons, but they are very much an unknown quantity for me and probably many others (certainly there's no UK distributor). It's probably not viable, but it's just a thought.

[wazkelly]

Is it worth thinking of supplying the kits with the basic PBG pups, and talking to a pickup manufacturer like Seymour Duncan and see if you could supply a choice of their pickups at special upgrade prices, like with the Grover machine heads? I know you already offer the Bensons, but they are very much an unknown quantity for me and probably many others (certainly there's no UK distributor). It's probably not viable, but it's just a thought.

Hey Simon, looks like PBG already has a connection with Tonerider and they are much cheaper than SD's and the difference in sound to justify the extra spend is negligible. A pair of SD Humbuckers would cost more than most kits and the same can be said for Custom Bensons as the ones for my EX-5 were USD $220.

[Simon Barden]

Whist Toneriders (and the like) are very good indeed for the money, I do think that a lot of the SDs (not all) do sound a bit better - plus you do get a lot more variety in what SD offer - important if you are making an expensive custom guitar. Yes, you are paying a lot more for maybe a 10% better sound, but that is always the way with things.

Upgrading to Toneriders doesn't cost much and they are probably the ideal match for the standard PBG kits, but I'm talking about the $700-$800 high-end kits so there's not the cost imbalance. Plus it only works if there's significant discount available, so they don't cost $300+ for a set of humbuckers.

[dave.king1]

Serious question here that I'd really like to understand.

Assume that we have a two pickups from different manufacturers that have alnico V polepieces and the same number of turns of the same gauge as each other and come in at say 7K ohms, what would make say a Seymour Duncan or Fender better (much more expensive) than say a Tonerider.

I do wonder because the magnets and copper don't know what brand is on them.

ps. If anyone has the exact specs for the Harmonic Design pickups in Redd Volkaert's Tomkins Tele please let me know so I can get some wound