DIY e-guitar - Part 2 - The kit

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In the first part of this series I told you about my quest for an electric guitar. If you read that post, you've already found that I am searching for a DIY semi-hollow/hollow single-cut guitar kit (with f-holes).

TheFretWire semi-hollow LP kit
Based on the reviews of DIY kits, TheFretWire would be the first resource to check, and there is a kit meeting my requirements. But let's have more requirements to meet, it would be too easy if the first one matched. Les Paul guitars are famous for Mahogany body+Mahogany neck combination, and the tonewood used for a guitar surely influences the sound. The kit from TheFretWire is Basswood/Maple body.





Another point agains TheFretwire was import taxes, due to it being from outside of the EU. So, on to searching something in the EU.

RockTile DIY kit from kirstein.de
After checking several UK resources, and finding nothing matching my requirements, found one kit in DE matching most of my requirements, but is not a LP-style guitar, it is a single-cut, but the upper part also has a cut. Also, the body is lindenwood, and not mahogany. So excluded that one.

Some companies from Australia also sell DIY guitar kits, but some of the well-known are closed/closing down, some simply do not ship to Romania.

So off to searching on ebay, and found a couple of sellers having kits similar to what I would like, in several setups, with different woods, different headstock formats, different coloured hardware, different bridge styles (stop-bar vs bigsby tremolo bridge). Some of the sellers are from Australia, some from China. I already have quite some experience with ordering from China, no experience ordering from Australia, so I chose China.

PLP-523K kit from ebay
Found two sellers from China, one is Pango Music Factory, the other is Afanti music. Note that the links point to made-in-china.com, but found the products and the sellers on ebay too, and I've also used made-in-china to ask some questions whether customization of the guitar would be possible (e.g. other fretboard inlays). They answered no customization for one piece, only in case ordering multiple ones. With all this known, found the item I wanted, PLP-523K (ebay, made-in-china).

Given that ordering from ebay and paying by paypal protects me, I decided to go with ebay, ordered the kit on 6th of September, with estimated delivery between 28th September and 1st November. I'm used to ~30 days shipping from China, so no stress. Item was shipped on 7th September, got a tracking number, and on 20 September the package was ready to be picked up at the local post office with customs. As expected, payed the import taxes at the customs, and received the package. With my heart beating very fast, and my colleague shooting video footage of the unboxing (for additional safety and proof if anything is missing from the package, etc.) I opened the package (very safely), and everything was in there, the kit I received is beautiful, carefully made. The spalted maple is a very thin veneer, as usual, the mahogany looks very good, the guitar is sended, with some rough edges inside (visible through the f-holes). The body and the neck had also an additional wrapping, already removed to be able to shoot the picture below.
The PLP-523K kit I received

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