RDKit

Replica 'Kit' Guitar

When we talk about a 'Kit', we mean any guitar assembled using a ready made body and neck. Complete guitar kits are available, but to build a Quo replica you're best buying the required parts separately.

The easiest (and cheapest!) of the two guitars to recreate is Rick's, and with a bit of careful shopping around you should be able to gather in all of the required parts for around £200.

Bodies, necks, pick-ups, etc can be regularly seen on the Internet auction web site. Any parts you can't find here can be bought from most good guitar shops.

The guitar shown above is a 'kit', finished to look like the main guitar used by Rick.

All parts were purchased separately from various sources, and no specialist tools or paints were used in its construction. It took me about 6 months to complete - a Saturday afternoon 'garage project'!

The idea to build my own guitar came about when I was given an old guitar body by my brother, and with encouragement from Tony I decided to give it a go.

Most regular kit bodies come sealed and ready to paint, however mine turned out to be an old body that someone had sanded (badly!) down. So I had a bit more work to do to seal it before painting could begin.

The neck is a typical kit neck, and unfortunately is not quite right for an exact copy of Rick's guitar - it has a slab finger board (the back of the finger board is flat but it should be curved) and the position markers are not correctly spaced and are white instead of 'mother-of-pearl'.

Kit necks come ready fretted, and this one even had the nut already in place. However, cutting and shaping the headstock was a real challenge. I didn't use the one shown here, but it gives you an idea of what a kit neck looks like when you get it....

At least having to cut out and shape the headstock makes you feel as though you have actually MADE part of the guitar!

Correct necks with a curved finger board can be bought, but are fairly expensive since they normally have to be specially made to order. I believe Tony charges around about £200-£250 for a hand built neck.

Every last mark on the original guitar has been duplicated, even down to the tiniest chip.

Total cost for the project was under £200, it was great fun, and relatively easy to make. If I can make a kit guitar like this, anyone can! You really don't need any special skills or tools. (I confess, I had to get Tony to fit the small adjustment screws in the back of the tailpiece - you can see them on some of the close-up photos below - but absolutely everything else I managed myself!)

All you need is a bit of basic knowledge about intonation, action etc (basic stuff in most guitar books) and lots and lots of patience! I was also very lucky to have access to some great photographs of Rick's guitar.