So I have a 10 string Krappy that I bought as a starter to see if I could manage a touch instrument.
At the time I bought it (about 3-4 years ago) Kevin Seibold (the luthier behind Krappy) I think he had built somewhere north of a 150+ instruments. So I assumed that he'd had some mistakes, learned some lessons, and had improved as a builder, etc. I spent a lot of time looking for reviews and such, didn't find alot, one really bad one from 2008. Because of the above I decided it was worth a shot.
I paid $800 including shipping for a 10 string. Kevin was very attentive during the design and build process asking questions, etc. to ensure that I was going to get an instrument that was as close to what I wanted. So what did I get? I got a very affordable, playable instrument to try to learn touchstyle playing. Now I've never touched a stick or a warr or any other touchstyle instrument. If I ever do I imagine that the switch will be similar to moving from an acoustic guitar to electric. lower strings, "easier to play", etc.
First I'll say that the build and fit of the instrument are great. the fretboard was nicely finished and uniformly playable (no high frets, no sharp fret edges, etc.). Where Kevin saves most of the money is on the finish. the instruments are sanded fine and then sealed with layers of oil. So essentially it is a raw wood instrument, it does require some re-oiling from time to time. He also saves on components. The pickups are cheap but serviceable humbuckers, the pots actually seem pretty good, smooth operation and not noisy. the tuners are again on the cheap side but again work just fine. The control cavity and trussrod covers are a simple black plastic that's textured on one side.
Now it's important to note that you can send components to Kevin for your build and he will use those. So if you want particular tuners or pickups it generally should not be a problem to have them on your instrument.
There are some things I didn't like about the build but overall it was well worth the $800 that I paid for it. And Kevin is great to work with.
Things I didn't/don't like:
1. The headstock is a little small and this makes the tuning gears cramped.
2. Uses a traditional nut so you're stuck with the tuning you choose during the build.
I fixed this by adding a zero fret and a "nut" that is just a guide to keep the the
strings spaced correctly. I also added some sting trees for spacing and increasing pressure over the zero fret.
3. control knobs for volume/tone were really cheap (easy and cheap to fix).
By this point Kevin has built many more instruments so I'm sure his builds are even better than when I bought mine. I'd say if you're on the fence you should at least talk to Kevin.
Here's a pic of mine:
