Leo JaymzDIY Electric Guitar Kits with Mahogany Body and Maple Neck - Laurel Wood Fingerboard and All Components Included (BC)

This is a wood finishing and assembly kit. There's one glue joint to do, neck to body. After a basic sanding, on the body I used spray on/wipe off Rustoleum cognac stain and many coats of Rustoleum rattle can lacquer. I wet sanded it up to 2000 grit and then used bowling ball polish to shine it up. On the neck I took a lot of time deburring and then polishing the frets. Then I used Tru-Oil gunstock wipe on finish, one coat on the fingerboard and a number on the rest of the neck. I sanded with 400 grit between coats up to the last one. I upgrade to Guyker locking tuners and Slinky strings. After all of the adjustments and tweaks it plays very well.Take your time. Watch a bunch of luthier videos. Follow the incredibly basic instructions and you'll have a nice playing instrument.The kit is as easy as most Ikea furniture, maybe even easier. Next for me is a double-neck, I think.I

Got the LP kit and it's not bad. Neck is straight and frets are level. The truss rod pocket will not allow for a 2 hole cover. The shape is not exact but really close. The neck heal is WAY off and needs a ton of shaping to make it comfortable for doing solos up high. The biggest issue is the control pocket and knob placement. If you want to change the back covers, good luck. The shape is way off stock. All the hardware is too cheap to use but I knew that and bought quality stuff and pickups. All in all, well worth the price but you aren't going to fool anyone with this kit.

I have been building one of a kind guitars for last 4 years as extension to my 40 plus years of woodworking. I decided to buy and try out this kit. It came a few days later almost no damage to shipping box. Everything was neatly packaged and the assembly manual was best I have seen for any type of kit build. The description on Amazon said kit was poplar body but box label said basswood which it was. One could easily build this guitar from instructions. I modified the body for better playability adding a back horn scallop and heavily tapered neck attachment. I also increased the size of the perimeter radius. I decided to spray paint the body using duplicator metallic blue paint as a first for me. Because I’m not too familiar with their products I contacted their customer service and they recommended if I was to clear coat the paint I should use their match color acrylic lacquer. Back to build. I found the basswood not the easiest wood to sand. It took 2 times the amount of sanding I do typically do for dyed figured maple and walnut or genuine mahogany. The wood is prone to grain rise and feathering lacking it difficult to get a really smooth finish. You have to use scrapers and go up to 600/ 1000 grit sand paper. Spraying the duplicity primer and sealer with sanding and the metallic blue took again more time to do than I wood have thought. Once done I had very good results. My big issue came with the clear coat. I would not recommend using the clear coat I got per customer service. The first can even after mixing for 1-2 minutes like directions sputtered finish on the body which caused small darkened circles in the paint. I would spray one pass then have to dry the nozzle. I ended up using 2 of the 3 cans and during wet sanding and buffing experienced some issues with the durability of the finish. The neck has an artificial ebony fretboard which you may or may not like. The frets were close to being level but needed a fret leveling job which inexperienced guitar builders might be a problem. After leveling and polishing and sanding the neck I applied a light yellow dye to give it a bit of aged look. I cut the head stock to one of my designs and sanded it and finished it in polyurethane. I have to say the info said it was a maple neck but it looks more like birch. The neck was well carved almost a perfect Fender C shape. Frets finished like they are stainless and are at least medium jumbo. Assembling the guitar was easy as all holes are predrilled no real soldering is necessary as electronics are plug in type. The only item s I changed were nut to bone and bridge to a new one I had which is heavier and saddles more block like. The included bridge is adequate. A pleasant surprise was they included copper foil tape for lining the pickup , input jack cavity and back of pick guard. The finished guitar with stock pickups and small pots sounds very good. I did use Daddarrio 9/42 strings. I did add the bridge to the middle pickup tone control. The tone pots with green capacitors have a good tone sweep. Except for the clear coat issues the guitar came out very good. With my set up at 1.25- 1.5 mm at 12 fret the guitar easily plays and sounds like a medium priced guitar. I can recommend this kit to someone wanting to build a guitar with minimal tools. I can’t recommend painting and clear coating with the dupli color match clear coat.

PROS:The kit was perfect for building an attractive guitar. The grain of the wood was very nice, all pre-drilled holes lined up well, and the instruction booklet was very easy to follow. The pre-wired electronics are extremely easy to assemble, and the neck fit perfectly into the body. The frets were filed and perfectly leveled. No rough ends.CONS: Pickups aren’t great, but aren’t horrible either. There are a few noticeable glue spots that I could not get sanded out. The binding was cut about 1/4 inch too high near the neck pocket. There is a fairly noticeable seam where the top was glued together.I’ve never built a DIY kit before, so finding this one fairly cheap and with plug-in electronics gave me the confidence to go ahead and try it out. I’ve seen videos from numerous people about buying kits like this and them being garbage. Holes not drilled properly, things not lining up, wood veneers being 1/16 of an inch thick and not glued properly, etc. Needless to say, I was pretty nervous going into this. I’m glad to say the kit arrived well-packaged, safe, and in perfect condition. The body and neck seem very well-made and fit together flawlessly. The grain on my kit was exactly what I wanted. An attractive flame maple that was at least 1/2 an inch thick. I started the coloring/finishing process using Angelus leather dyes and Tru-Oil to finish. The wood took to both products extremely well. I went too dark with the blue that I wanted but, my fault. Live and learn. Glued the neck in place, followed the instruction booklet, strung it up, and tested it out. The sound quality isn’t the best. It is also by no means terrible. It’s on par with every other sub $200 guitar you’ll find anywhere. Upgrade your pickups and you’ll have a guitar just as good as any Fender or Gibson you’d ever play. I would absolutely buy this again if I build another kit in the future. Exceptional value for the price!