eBay Chinese ES335 guitar kit question

Chiguete

Chiguete

Experienced
I was bored the other day and this kit caught my eye on eBay because it says that both the body and neck are of maple https://www.ebay.com/itm/1251233155...+i5lD7XzY76xMV7nsziJchIA==|tkp:Bk9SR7DV45K-Yw I would like to get a ES335 option with the maple neck but they are hard to find because those came like that in the mid/late 70s and that is the specs that I want it to have. So my question is, how much work would you imagine this kit needs to actually make it a good player guitar? I've had good luck buying necks and bodies from different sellers in eBay to latter build myself a guitar before but never a set neck guitar. Any thoughts?
 
Chiguete said:
I was bored the other day and this kit caught my eye on eBay because it says that both the body and neck are of maple https://www.ebay.com/itm/125123315594?itmmeta=01HQRJRXAGWA9YBNEX9PFP86EX&hash=item1d21ee478a:g:Tm0AAOSwUlJh9GxI&itmprp=enc:AQAIAAAA8P+45zr82RckXO/Z3O4RUZBr2UKVWmJJgjhyNkcJ2D/2BEfDSyPrw8FA94PIyAPuP5lWqBFHNwSVs0vraJxaFu2p/Zw2TsjvUJClLESfnPJZjYiwz0PNhU4zeTAlw5f2/F/IfnSzuMOOTWbdkruxTFhwQAaJAEAR/JswY/OeWqls2scWZkQ82bUieDCfeaTP9AlOTEpLvPtxAt3CE06XKRiL6Wd14KjAjJDpZdyYG8IoJcEwnKqfHAQ5N33u7je0AgoMJpdWGNzBvcIWm0JOyH2NoFdtvl9hfNwiJGv6dW+i5lD7XzY76xMV7nsziJchIA==|tkp:Bk9SR7DV45K-Yw I would like to get a ES335 option with the maple neck but they are hard to find because those came like that in the mid/late 70s and that is the specs that I want it to have. So my question is, how much work would you imagine this kit needs to actually make it a good player guitar? I've had good luck buying necks and bodies from different sellers in eBay to latter build myself a guitar before but never a set neck guitar. Any thoughts?
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I watched a luthier do a review a few years back on one of these cheap es335 style kits. There was so much that was off that it was neigh unplayable.
 
Chiguete said:
I was bored the other day and this kit caught my eye on eBay because it says that both the body and neck are of maple https://www.ebay.com/itm/125123315594?itmmeta=01HQRJRXAGWA9YBNEX9PFP86EX&hash=item1d21ee478a:g:Tm0AAOSwUlJh9GxI&itmprp=enc:AQAIAAAA8P+45zr82RckXO/Z3O4RUZBr2UKVWmJJgjhyNkcJ2D/2BEfDSyPrw8FA94PIyAPuP5lWqBFHNwSVs0vraJxaFu2p/Zw2TsjvUJClLESfnPJZjYiwz0PNhU4zeTAlw5f2/F/IfnSzuMOOTWbdkruxTFhwQAaJAEAR/JswY/OeWqls2scWZkQ82bUieDCfeaTP9AlOTEpLvPtxAt3CE06XKRiL6Wd14KjAjJDpZdyYG8IoJcEwnKqfHAQ5N33u7je0AgoMJpdWGNzBvcIWm0JOyH2NoFdtvl9hfNwiJGv6dW+i5lD7XzY76xMV7nsziJchIA==|tkp:Bk9SR7DV45K-Yw I would like to get a ES335 option with the maple neck but they are hard to find because those came like that in the mid/late 70s and that is the specs that I want it to have. So my question is, how much work would you imagine this kit needs to actually make it a good player guitar? I've had good luck buying necks and bodies from different sellers in eBay to latter build myself a guitar before but never a set neck guitar. Any thoughts?
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It would probably take a skilled repair tech a large amount of work to get it up to the standard of an Epiphone .
 
Yeha that's what I thought, I wish I could find a good option to buy set neck guitar kits or separate body/necks just like you can find for bolt on guitars.
 
Chiguete said:
I was bored the other day and this kit caught my eye on eBay because it says that both the body and neck are of maple...
Click to expand...
Does it need to be a 335 style specifically or just in that family? If you want something close with a maple neck, then maybe consider a Squier Starcaster. You can pick up an Affinity model in the $200 range and mod it. You'd have to add one volume and one tone control for a 335-style setup. It'd probably be less expensive in the long haul and you'd have a really great playing and looking guitar. I use one for my daily practice guitar and the neck is very nice. There's a Classic Vibe line which is a little more expensive but that neck is glossy; the Affinity has a satin neck. Also the CV is harder to mod b/c the HBs are oversized but it does come with dual controls already installed.

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Funnily enough I always found maple necked Gibsons sound a bit off to me for no immediately discernible reason. Gibson only used maple for a period in the seventies because according to them the couldn't get mahogany of a satisfactory quality (oddly enough Martin, Guild, Ovation, Ibanez and probably a couple of hundred other guitar makers of varying levels of quality weren't suffering the same issues, so I suspect it was a Norlin bean counter issue), so they were doing five piece laminated maple necks. It could be just my imagination or prejudice, but these Gibsons all seem to have some weird harshness and out of tune-ness to their tone that I can't get around.

Anyway, that's a very long winded way of saying that the genuinely valuable vintage/collectible ES335s from 1958 through to about 1967 all have mahogany necks and they all sound pretty darn good! Stewmac do a kit for not huge bucks - it's still obviously China sourced, but at least with Stewmac they will both perform some kind of QA on the product, and seem happy to replace with no quibbles items that customers aren't happy with:

https://www.stewmac.com/kits-and-pr...ric-guitar-kits/335-style-electric-guitar-kit

has a mahogany neck, but don't necessarily let that put you off ...... :D
 
David McCarroll said:
Funnily enough I always found maple necked Gibsons sound a bit off to me for no immediately discernible reason. Gibson only used maple for a period in the seventies because according to them the couldn't get mahogany of a satisfactory quality (oddly enough Martin, Guild, Ovation, Ibanez and probably a couple of hundred other guitar makers of varying levels of quality weren't suffering the same issues, so I suspect it was a Norlin bean counter issue), so they were doing five piece laminated maple necks. It could be just my imagination or prejudice, but these Gibsons all seem to have some weird harshness and out of tune-ness to their tone that I can't get around.

Anyway, that's a very long winded way of saying that the genuinely valuable vintage/collectible ES335s from 1958 through to about 1967 all have mahogany necks and they all sound pretty darn good! Stewmac do a kit for not huge bucks - it's still obviously China sourced, but at least with Stewmac they will both perform some kind of QA on the product, and seem happy to replace with no quibbles items that customers aren't happy with:

https://www.stewmac.com/kits-and-pr...ric-guitar-kits/335-style-electric-guitar-kit

has a mahogany neck, but don't necessarily let that put you off ...... :D
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Yeha I've seen those kits before and if they had an option for maple necks I've would of jump on them right away :) BTW I'm not saying that the normal mahogany neck are bad by any means just that in this case I would like to build one with that particular spec.
 
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