Chinese LP kit review and eventual build

WezV

i don't need another project but picked this up cheap from @TimberG ;

I thought it would be a good chance to review a kit, see what issues the kit builder will face, and  eventually follow it through to a finished (and hopefully half decent) guitar.  I will use it to practice some finishing stuff at some point, which is the main reason for buying it

It wont be done for a while, but i am going to start off with loads of pics of the kit first.  Normal expectations for a cheap kit like this are quite low.   I am pleasantly surprised by all of it so far, but there is one bit that would make it quite a challenge for a first time kit builder 

Here is the kit


a closer look shows it to be solid mahogany with a thin maple veneer, but the veneer is well applied without the joint issues or glue smears you often see


the back is three pieces, largely consistent in colour but with joins going at an angle

only issue here is the binding in the cutaway.  It needs refitting here


and trimming here


So a little bit of binding work, but mostly good... just need to be careful with that veneer... i may even add a coat or two of sealer before hand as its nice and clean now and i don't want to be sanding out dents or pencil marks later

joeyowen

I'm following with great interest.

You are able to produce beautiful instruments, so it will be interesting to hear your views 

WezV

The neck:
headstock end is a little untidy, but should clean up well


got the first significant glue smear too, where the splice is


heel is also stacked


and an odd shape quite often seen on Chinese les pauls


i know why they do that, but it always seems rather lazy.

The big issue to solves is neck fit.   Its only going to be 30 mins or so as i am used to fitting necks to bodies, but i could see this being a real issue for most hoping for a good fit out the box.

Its a bit high and doesn't follow the body on the bass side


and a  few issues to sort on the treble side


so first i need to sort the body binding, then trim the whole tenon by about 2mm, slightly angled.  then trim the end grain bit too

thankfully, there is room to push it slightly further into the body


nearly forgot the headstock shape


and very brassy looking frets


they clearly need a good dressing.  the brassy colour cleans off without much effort, the ends are quite sharp

WezV

parts



Often the weakest link in any kit - no exceptions here

bridge and tailpiece are functional.. saddles actually fit the bridge and wouldn't rattle too much.  The studs are all quite short. not going to use any of it


pickups don't look quite as bad as expected.  Bridge is 11k, neck is 10k, covered in wax



zebra under the cover - less wax inside


hiding a ceramic bar and a lot of air




Part of me was tempted to try a magnet swap at that point, but instead i carried on taking it apart


some tape residue on the coil, but no wax anywhere inside.  i can only assume they were only threatened with a wax pot, despite the large amount visible on the base.


Tuners are fairly terrible.   they feel stiff and grindy from the start, so i assume the gears are rough


the nut is hollow plastic


none of this will be used, but will be saved for those times i get asked to fix a dirt cheap guitar

 

WezV

and the weight of all that

vale

thank for creating a thread for this @WezV

there seems to be a gulf between inexpensive/modestly priced kits like this (£100ish for all in) and fancy kits warmoth etc (£300 just for neck and body).

i'm probably like you in that i would rather inexpensive kit makers offered kits without hardware but just a little more attention paid to details like that binding and the glue. or maybe they do but i have just not digged into it enough. but the impression i get from things i see on the usual sites.

but if (highly likely) you can get something nice out of kit (which doesn't look too shabby at all, frankly, mahogany etc) perhaps those details are worth the new learning and fiddle time.

will watch with interest and good luck.

Adam_MD

Awesome love these threads I don’t have the patience, tools or skills to attempt a kit like this.  

WezV

Tbh the hardware is usable, closer to epiphone than rockwood... but I still won’t be using it.  It will allow you to put it together and upgrade later.m, although I will never consciously fit a hollow plastic nut to any guitar.

even with the issues, the kit is great for the money.

i Help people out with kit builds quite often.  They are rarely perfect, but that’s half the fun for me.  It is often a challenge for those that expect things to fit.

my first was a tele kit 20 years ago.  I assumed it was cheap crap because a lot of the hardware was.  What I know now is it was from the tokai factory and would have been a lot more awesome if I had upgraded more parts... the neck was great.

mart

Does @Gassage know that this is what you’ll be making his R6 from?

WezV

mart said:

Does @Gassage know that this is what you’ll be making his R6 from?

It’s practicing on the low level stuff that gets you to work on the high level stuff.  I don’t consider a kit build beneath me just because I happen to have a handful or real Gibson’s from the 50-90’s to work on at the same time.  

Essentially, I have been itching to spray another burst. This gets me there quicker than a complete build with a lot less investment ... I still need to finish the last 2 though, and do a few other projects first.

mart

A lot of wisdom in that. I hope no offence was taken at my lame joke - certainly none was intended.

WezV

No offense taken, even I question my motives sometimes.

Jez6345789

As always WezV an interesting thread. 
Every time I see a kit on Ebay the prices are going down down down.  So this has reassured me that the quality on kits is as I expected and if anyone is looking for a glue together and finish Les Paul style guitar better be prepared to roll their sleeves up and get the tools out.  

Andyjr1515

Great walk through.  I'll be interested how this pans out.

OilCityPickups

This is interesting as I've been thinking of getting a kit and turning it into a LP pickup mule. Was looking at this one ... largely due to its 'ebony' fingerboard and spalted maple veneer. Obviously loosing all the hardware in favor of something a bit nicer.

mart

WezV said:

... 
and an odd shape quite often seen on Chinese les pauls


i know why they do that, but it always seems rather lazy.
...

That shape seems very odd indeed. Can you talk us through what’s going on there?

SteveRobinson

TheGuitarWeasel said: by

This is interesting as I've been thinking of getting a kit and turning it into a LP pickup mule. Was looking at this one ... largely due to its 'ebony' fingerboard and spalted maple veneer. Obviously loosing all the hardware in favor of something a bit nicer.

 And a solid finish of course. 

OilCityPickups

SteveRobinson said:

TheGuitarWeasel said: by

This is interesting as I've been thinking of getting a kit and turning it into a LP pickup mule. Was looking at this one ... largely due to its 'ebony' fingerboard and spalted maple veneer. Obviously loosing all the hardware in favor of something a bit nicer.

 And a solid finish of course. 

Not a huge fan of spalted maple, but the alternative seems to be zebrawood. I'm aware the spalted maple will probably be fairly disgusting and a bitch to finish ... but I was half thinking of a goldtop. 

WezV

if its a spalted maple veneer it won't be too difficult to finish - they got it sliced and glued up without it falling apart.

WezV

mart said:

WezV said:

... 
and an odd shape quite often seen on Chinese les pauls


i know why they do that, but it always seems rather lazy.
...

That shape seems very odd indeed. Can you talk us through what’s going on there?

cutting a tenon with right angled corners on the inside is quite fiddly, the undercut takes away that issue.  Gibson tried similar when they did the CNC neck join in 2008, but they undercut both sides making the functional bit of the tenon very narrow (so close yet so far) 


You can see similar on the kit ash linked to, but its more rounded which will help it slide into the right place easier at the cost of a bit of glue surface, and the tightness of the fit

DannyP

The one I built was actually quite a bit smaller than a standard Les Paul.

The headstock was sort of less elongated at the nut end, meaning a Gibson style TRC extended right up almost between the A and B machine heads. I had to make a smaller one to stop it looking silly. The 'forehead' above the D and G machine heads was not as long either.

The body was slightly under size too, meaning I had to make a little wedge for the strap button area to set the bigsby back a bit, as you can see here.