BexGearsDIY Electric Guitar Kits For JASS Style bass Guitar.Okoume Body

This is my second DIY guitar kit from this company and I can wholeheartedly recommend this one. All the pieces were present in the kit and no parts were damaged. It assembled easily.Caveat 1: there were a handful of misaligned screw holes on the pickguard and one on the bridge. I glued toothpicks in those few holes, cut them off and sanded the end smooth, then drilled new pilot holes for those screws. This is a common issue with DIY guitar kits, from what I've read online, and this is the common method for addressing the issue.Caveat 2: the tunnel for the wiring from the bridge pickup was not wide enough to accommodate the quick-connector on that wiring. I used a 3/8 inch paddle bit to drill the channel wider, slowly and carefully, which worked like a charm.

I have never touched a bass guitar before in my entire life and only fiddled with friends' acoustics once every few years. So I figured this would be a great one to learn on.I had no idea what to expect, and looking at most of the reviews here I confirmed them by what I received on the doorstep.It lacked instructions, with a message from the seller that I'd be "emailed them through Amazon messages." In the 15 years I've been using Amazon, I never knew there was a messaging function! Regardless, I received no such message, email or otherwise, but took the advice of everyone else here and found a Google Drive repository of this and other guitar models. Yet, the instructions were very unclear, and after a while, I ended up just piecing everything together in a logical manner. I quickly assembled it up the first evening I had it, strung it with the pre-cut strings provided, and managed to tune it and learn a bit of sheet music in the first week.Again, having no experience directly with a bass guitar, I thought it sounded fine, save for the strings hitting the frets and discovering the requirement for the tension rod, bridge, and nut adjustments. I have successfully performed the first two but will need a set of needle files to finish the nut. Was a bit put off by the tension rod adjustment which seems to loosen up not in the counter-clockwise direction, but somewhere in the middle where I get the correct 0.015" spacing, and whose accompanying hex driver (4mm, btw) keeps jamming against the wood of the headstock when trying to remove it.The most fun I had with this project, however, was dreaming up and attempting a half-decent paint job which I looked up numerous tutorials for and came up with what I think is a nice color scheme. I ended up rushing the first iteration of clear coat and had to do it over along with a bit of touch-up, but I decided after sanding and polishing in the second round that I was done, despite the finishing not being perfect or completely glossy.In all, from what I see as far as pricing of name brand equivalents, this is worth the low price tag, though one could wonder how worth it when factoring in replacement hardware, tools, paint, and repair costs. Overall, I'm happy though! I'll probably fiddle a bit with adjusting some of the annoyances that I haven't already (see below), but in the end, I'm excited to begin teaching myself this thing.Parts list issues: Two pickguard/electrical plate screws (#4x1/4" oval head) were missing as well as half of the pickup screws (1-1/4" button head). Other than that, all hardware was accounted for, and the missing stuff I found at the local hardware store.Wood issues:- Seems like whoever pre-cuts the wood parts should run their stuff through calibration periodically and check their cad drawings. Half of the pickguard screw holes were misaligned as well as the neck mounting screw holes in the body and most of the mounting holes for the tuning pegs on the headstock.- Two of the upper pickup holes were completely missing, and the same pocket had a mess of dried wood glue preventing me from seating the pickups without chiseling it out first.- 3 of the main tuning peg holes were okay, but one was tilted just slightly so that now the collar continually tries to wiggle out during tuning.- There was no pilot hole for the string guide so I had to eyeball it.- Both pockets for the pickups provided are severely deep. I am measuring anywhere from 3/8" to 7/16" between the strings and the tops of the magnets which, as an electrical engineer, I know is detrimental for good magnetic coupling. Confirmed this from the extremely low output signal I received through an old USB amplifier I had. There was nothing provided, nor any adjustments to elevate these, so I will need to come up with something (spacers around the screws or a wooden shim or something).Electrical issues:- Wires are extremely long, especially the grounding jumpers between pots, and needed to be shortened to avoid pinching against the body. In the end I just replaced all wiring that I could (connectors for the pickups were not serviceable so I only cut, shortened, and added new heat shrink tubing to those).- The tone pot was wired backward according to all diagrams found everywhere (cap and signal wire were on the wrong pins, which would have reversed the direction of the knob).- 1/4" jack is super cheap and the tip contact is positioned in such a way that the plug will not seat fully and wiggles around. I replaced it with a good Neutrik connector and it works fine, though its threading was also a bit larger, so I had to drill out the hole in the plate.- Can confirm that the pots are scratchy. I anticipate no issues replacing them when I'm feeling up to it.- Pickups seem very cheap, but I can't tell due to lack of experience combined with the string-to-pickup spacing issue detailed above.

This was a great kit to start with and create something very nice indeed. I did lots of customizing, but was able to do so only because a decent bass was lurking within the kit to begin with. Nice instrument even utilizing just what the kit includes.

pros: neck fit is good, frets were filed and there were no sharp edges, all holes were pre-drilled, all routing is already done, electronics were decent, decent wood grain, and the two piece body was glued very nicelycons: did not ship with all necessary hardware (bridge mounting screws and other miscellaneous screws), the holes pre-drilled for the tuning machines were misaligned so the tuners were crooked, string tree hole did not come pre-drilled, the route for wiring to the bridge pickup was not the correct diameter to accommodate the easy connect wiring joint, pickups were not labelled as to which one was the bridge and which one is the neck, did not come with any instructions.

I don't know what "sheerness" means in this context, but this is a fun kit. The wood looks great and took a nice finish. I'm not super handy and I put it together without issue. It definitely sounds good for the price range, but I did need to have it set up before it reached it's full potential. I love the solder-free electronics.

Plays great

Okay, to be sure, there are finished and ready-to-play name brand bass guitars in this price range. And some off-brands are HALF this price, with nearly identical parts. So this is more like buying a puzzle that will teach you all about how your new J bass is built.You will be challenged with your choice of finishes for the unfinished body. How is your skill applying paint? What kind will you use? It's your call.There are tons of online videos that will help with the details. Which is good because no instructions accompany this kit.You will need to not only assemble every last screw, and there are no spares, but you will need to adjust the neck, the string height, the frets, the intonation and the pickup height. To name a few things.For the money, I expected better components. Should you pay more for a puzzle of the Mona Lisa than a proper oil painting? Or is painting your own version worth the extra cost? This is a paint-by-numbers bass.Ultimately, I went with Tung Oil on mine. Overall the grain is fantastic. There's an iridescent quality to it. But there's a "biscuit" of wood on the bottom horn leftover from the mate up, It's the size of a half-dollar, and a totally different shade, with a white glue border. Weird.

Great product, great fit body to neck. The okuome wood is beautiful and solid. This is not the lightweight paulownia in many kits.