One day I came across Hosco branded guitar kits from Japan. Like Wilkinson, Hosco is supposed to be a low budget brand with decent quality, and it is rumored that is is actually same company as Gotoh. I have used some Hosco hardware (bridges and tuners) before, and I have been happy with them, so I decided to order a Hosco LP Special kit from Sweden. The cost was around 260 € with the shipping. Not as cheap as a Harley Benton kit (around 150 €), but this kit has full Les Paul specs including a set mahogany neck, mahogany body, a rosewood fretboard and Japanese made P90 pickups.
So, I got the kit today and opened the box carefully. First impressions were good, everything was neatly packed, and there were some Japanese newspaper tolls to fill the empty space inside the main box. Harware came in three plastic bags, and the neck and the body were both packed in separate cardboard boxes. There is an instruction manual of a few pages included, and I ordered a flask of Titebond glue with the kit.
The overall impression of the wood parts is good. The woodwork is mostly neat, there are sopme chips visible, I found one in the body and one in the neck, but overall the impression is really good. The neck joint looks and feels perfect to me, and the neck angle seems to be right. The neck seems straight and with quick inspection with a credit card, the frets seem level. The frets seem to be of medium size, not vitage or jumbo. The neck is also of medium depth, closer to a 59 than a slim taper. There is a scarf joint in the neck and there is some additional wood glued to the heel, so the neck is actually a three-piece construction. Same goes with the body, it seems to be constructed of three pieces of mahogany. Both of them look nice and feel realively light in my hands.
The harware quality remains to be seen. Everything seems to be in place, there are modern style tuners (of heavier side), and P90 pickups. Also, a wiring harness is included. It was a nice surprize that the plastic parts seemed to fit properly, and the tuss rod cover and scratchplate were three-ply instead of being the cheapest kind of one-ply black.
Some observations:
- The neck and body have been somehow matched. There is same number in the heel and in the pocket.
- There are some rough spots in the sanding that need to be ironed out.
- The fret ends do not seem too sharp.
- Bridge pickup cavity seems really shallow, meaning that the pickup stays high in the lowest possible position. It remains to be seen if this causes problems. It will be relatively easy to deepen the cavity with a drill, so I'm not too worried. However, I need to test this before installing the shielding tape.
- The manual starts with the instructions how to cut the fretboard to the right length, and how to prepare a place for the nut. That is a good way to fuck up the whole guitar. After taking the measures I noticed that this had been done already. Phew!
The next step it to shape the headstock, it is now a big paddle. I'm thinking about going for the traditional open book style. That will be the topic of the next post.
Also, I originally thought of painting this black. However, the wood seems so beautiful that it would be a shame to cover it, so now I'm thinking about dark brown oil finish. I need to go tomorrow to a hardware store and get myself at least a saw and some wood finishing oil.
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