What should I say?
I think maybe I aspected just some “toy”/hobby thing with this kit. It was way over my expectations.
I made a burst on mine with water based stain. A bit stressful first time but rewarding. On top nitrocellulose laquer.
One thing I bring with me though. I will be better cleaning body before finishing. Had some spots with something that didn´t take the laquer (silicone, glue??).
If you take your time and don´t rush it. Afterall it´s the way that is the journey?
You will be be rewarded with an awesome sounding guitar and everytime I pick it up I think there´s some improvements. Almost like the wood starts to understand the job of being a guitar.

I bought this kit and I was hoping for the best. The specs seems quite fine.
The kit arrived and it appeared to be even better than my expectations!

Really fine veneer. It’s a thin layer so don’t start sanding.
I gave a careful staining and then a fair share of lacquer.

The neck fitted perfectly to the body.
I used Titebond 3 for gluing.
REMEMBER to make some proper measurements and test with a few strings and the bridge in place BEFORE gluing.

The result as a very fine resonance. A little knock on the head and the sound jumps out fine from the sound holes.
No doubt that ebony fretboard, bone nut and good wood gives this great result.
Also the scale and intonation is perfect.

Visually I’m almost in love. Of course I like my satin lacquer. I chose it myself.
I think the looks of veneer is just so beautiful.

I’ve never tried a set-in neck kit before, but a few Telecasters.
I am so amazed by the result. Really great value for the money.

Some of my other guitars:
Fender US Elite Stratocaster,
Fender Limited Edition swamp ash Telecaster,
Gibson Les Paul Standard and
Gibson ES Les Paul VOS P-90.

Review of GDES235:

It’s a Beauty

I bought this kit and I was hoping for the best. The specs seems quite fine.
The kit arrived and it appeared to be even better than my expectations!

Really fine veneer. It’s a thin layer so don’t start sanding.
I gave a careful staining and then a fair share of lacquer.

The neck fitted perfectly to the body.
I used Titebond 3 for gluing.
REMEMBER to make some proper measurements and test with a few strings and the bridge in place BEFORE gluing.

The result as a very fine resonance. A little knock on the head and the sound jumps out fine from the sound holes.
No doubt that ebony fretboard, bone nut and good wood gives this great result.
Also the scale and intonation is perfect.

Visually I’m almost in love. Of course I like my satin lacquer. I chose it myself.
I think the looks of veneer is just so beautiful.

I’ve never tried a set-in neck kit before, but a few Telecasters.
I am so amazed by the result. Really great value for the money.

Some of my other guitars:
Fender US Elite Stratocaster,
Fender Limited Edition swamp ash Telecaster,
Gibson Les Paul Standard and
Gibson ES Les Paul VOS P-90.


Jacob

The GD790 came in very high quality packaging, more than I expected for the price. It was very easy to build, with no problems in putting it together, although the wiring guide wasn’t clear enough, but the youtube channel was more than enough help.
I had a problem with the fretboard, with some of the frets being too high. After raising the issue with UKMS, they offered to repair it for me, and are now in the process of sending me a new neck.
Very good customer service to go along with the high quality and very well priced guitar, and I will definitely be purchasing from here again.

The kit GDLPSS arrived very quickly. Full marks for that. All of the components were present.
I did notice that the pickups consisted of two bridge pickups rather than a bridge and neck.
The neck is a good tight fit in the body. Tight enough to ease a minute alignment error without introducing slop.
The wood for the neck and body is sound and well finished.
The spalted veneer is verinearlingly not there. It is so thin that there is a bare patch near the ‘tailpiece’
This limits options for finishing. I settled for a very thin red dye wash. A thicker veneer would have stood a light rub down and a wash of yellow to give orange/yellow highlights to the spalting.
Not on this one. I am considering sanding the veneer off and going with bare mahogany,
But still, the basic construction looks strong and should do what guitars do.
So a reserved ‘thumbs up’