Leo Jaymz DIY TL Lefthand Style Electric Guitar Kits with Mahogany Body and Maple Neck - Maple Fingerboard and All Components Included (TL Lefthand)

Ok, so this review is probably gonna be a little on the long side lol. I got this guitar with the plan to just paint it, and put it together using everything that came with the kit. MAYBE swap tuners. Buuuuuut I kinda got carried away. For finishing the body, I used automotive products. Firstly, one 11oz. can of gray Duplicolor filler primer, then two 8oz. cans of Duplicolor Inferno Red Metallic paint, then one 11.8 oz. can of Spraymax 2k high-gloss clearcoat. I used the entirety of each can on the guitar, I could probably have made do with less, but I wanted the finish to be nice and thick. (Which it is.) I wet-sanded and buffed the last layer of clearcoat. The only thing I would do different, is next time I'd start by filling the grain with a dedicated grain-filling product, as after a few months of curing it shows through a little. But not bad. I finished the neck with Stew Mac vintage amber lacquer, with a few coats of Minwax clear lacquer on top of that. It looked really nice, BUT because the color was in the lacquer itself, every time it got a little ding you'd see the bright white wood through it. If I was to do it again, I would STAIN the neck, then put clear lacquer on it. I ended up getting a neck with a rosewood fretboard off the web, and I'll use this neck in a future project after re-doing it. I will say, I was able to shape the headboard on the neck that came with the kit to a pretty fair imitation of a real Tele, I'll put that in the pictures. For pickups, it got a set of Boostrap Palo Duros. They are hand-wound, high quality, and very affordable. They sound really really nice, and they cover the exact same ground as the Fender Pure Vintage '64s at a fraction of the price! And the Fender's aren't even hand wound. For other hardware, it got Wilkinson Deluxe split shaft tuners, the string trees that came with the kit, CTS 250k pots, Oak Grigsby 3-way switch, Pure Tone full contact output jack, cloth wiring, the bridge that came with the kit, Guyker compensated saddles, no-name decorated switch plate (that turned out really nice!), Kaish pickguard and Elixir strings. (Highly recommend those strings, best I've ever played!) Then I leveled and polished the frets, set the nut height, and did an overall setup and now it plays and sounds like a dream! And, best of all, there's no other guitar in the world like it. It's undeniably, 100% no-doubt-about-it mine, through and through. The whole build was a very rewarding process, I recommend it to anyone with the patience lol. I hope this helps someone out there, and good luck with your build!

This is for the ST kit in Paulownia wood. The kit is complete, with working electronics and straight wood. The instructions are minimal, but workable if you know how guitars go together or have a good book to help you (Dan Erlewine or Paul Balmer's books are my favorites). If you do your own repairs and adjustments, you won't have any major challenges here. The materials are basic, but well made. They've thoughtfully put connectors on the wires so there's no soldering. Make sure you've gotten any glue off the body and fretboard. If I do another one, I will sand the body down a little more than I did, and use some wood grain filler before I stain it. I also put a smooth finish on the back of the neck, but that's a matter of personal preference. You don't even have to stain/paint it -- the unfinished wood is attractive enough. It plays and sounds like an SSS strat. I might upgrade the pickups, but these will be fine for a while. I didn't like the too-tall plastic nut; I replaced it with one made of bone. If you don't have experience installing a floating bridge/trem, try a kit with a hardtail. Is it fancy? No. But the kit is fun and easy to build and, for me at least, has resulted in a pretty good instrument that is enjoyable to play.

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.

Leo, not sure if this is your real name but, Boy , have you got this right! This kit is Amazing, yes, with a capital 'A'. Start with the packaging, each component individually boxed and well protected. A large instruction booklet in colour that details every step in the build process so vividly, I have had tons of kits and have never seen anything like this before. The body really IS made of Poplar and not Chinese Paulownia like so many misrepresented items for sale on line. The neck is top quality Hard Maple and very well made. The hardware kit is all individually wrapped and looks exceptional, even the chrome plating is faultless. I could go on and on but I must say, as a born cynic and Not easily impressed, I am Very Impressed! Value for money, 110%.

The guitar looks good on first inspection. Very nice body. The instruction book is awesome. The frets will need a bit of work as there are some sharp edges. I like how the screws are in small individual sections.

Just finished the build on the 7V and am totally satisfied. Packaging was great, sturdy boxing, hardware clearly packaged and labeled. Neck is straight, well fitted to body with matching numbers, frets were perfect, no work needed, I set action at 2.5 mm and no buzzing anywhere, inlay on fingerboard excellent, used beeswax furniture polish on neck back and fingerboard and is silky to play, tuners seem cheap but locking nut will negate any tuning problems. Body well machined, 2 piece construction matched very well in graining, just needed light sanding with 1200 grit and then used beeswax polish to bring out grain and make smooth to the touch. Pickgaurd came preloaded to ease assembly, pickups work good and sound just fine to my ears, pots turn easy with no noise, 5 position switch works as should, no flaws in pearlescent guard, Floyd Rose style bridge was a little tricky to install and setup properly but found a good online site that explained process. After reading reviews I opted to use D'Addario strings instead of ones supplied. They give great resonance and sustain. Was a nice project and for the price I ended up with a fine instrument.

Quality of fabrication is very poor. Neck is not a perfect fit to the body ( lose and has free play All directions). Deep scratches on the body and visible impurity on fret board top wood. Returning the item

This was a pretty fun guitar to build. I always wanted a semi-hollow LP style guitar. I chose this kit because it was reasonably priced, knowing I would upgrade some of the components. Good points: the kit came quickly; all the parts were included and nicely laid out in the packaging; the maple veneer was nicely figured and bit thicker than I expected (though still thin - be careful when sanding); the neck fit the body perfectly; the pre-drilled holes were straight and the bridge pieces fit without adjustments; there were no high frets and no obvious sprout; and the dye I used (Angelus denim) took really well. Less good points: there were no instructions included and none I could find online; there was quite a bit of glue residue on the body that needed to be sanded off; the stock pickups and tuners were just terrible, but I expected that and got replacements I am happy with; what I didn't expect was how poor the so-called solderless wiring was: the pots were wired backwards (the audio taper pots were wired as tone, and vice-versa) and the wires were badly insulated, causing plenty of short circuits. So plan to use your own pots and wires and to do some basic soldering. Overall I am very happy with the result and would recommend this kit as a project, but go in with your eyes open. If this is your first build, it may be a bit frustrating.