Leo Jaymz DIY Electric Guitar Kits - Mahogany Body, Mahogany Neck and Ebony Fingerboard - Fully Components Included

OK, this is a sub $100 kit that includes body, neck, tuning machines, pickups, switches, volume and tone control, strings and an amp cord. that is an amazing price. But...... the tuning machines were really cheap. I replaced those with wilkinsons. The nut on the neck was low quality so replaced that..... But remember this is a sub $100 kit. do not expect $100 tuners and $200 pickups.The body wood was a 3 piece wood body. the wood grain and color did not have a great match. If you are painting this is not an issue. I stained and used clear lacquer so you can see it. Not a big deal.The nut was cheap white plastic. I could not find a tusq that would fit. so I bought a blank and made my own bone nut. Pretty easy and much easier to do before the neck is finished.Speaking of finish. This was my first guitar finish job. If it is yours do you research and take your time.The body was fairly smooth out of the box, I sanded the body to 320 grit, did a pore fill. sanded. Pore filled again, sanded, pore filled again. I wish I would have done a 4th pore fill. I then stainedI then sprayed 3 coats of vinyl sealer, sanded, applied another coat of vinyl sealer and, sanded to 400 grit.I then applied about 12 coats of clear lacquer with sanding every 4 coats. My goal was a mirror-like finish. I got close after sanding to 5000grit and then buffing.The neck was pretty much the same. the frets will get coated with lacquer which needs to be removed. So I took the opportunity to do a fret level, recrowning and polishing which removed most of the lacquer. I took a bit of hand sanding to remove the excess on the sides (tape up your lacquer to protect it).the neck to body angle was off a bit, it would still play good, but i added a 1/2 degree shim to angle the neck back a bit.Wiring is plug and play be aware of the exposed pickup ground wires hitting copper shieilding in the cavities, this will kill the sound.After finishing up the setup, truss rod, intonation, string height it was ready to plug in.the cheap single coils hum a bit, but again, this is a sub $100 kit. Most decent pickups are $100-200 for a set. I plugged it into a Marshall amp and it sounds decent. I do not have a Fender Telecaster to compare the sound, but It had a decent tone, maybe not the tone you want, but it sounded good. I added a 4 way switch to be able to run the pu in series and that added some beef to the sound.I used both min-wax lacquer and lacquer from a local woodworking supply. Heated the lacquer up in hot water and it gave a pretty good finish. I probably could have done a few more coats and more sanding and could have had a close to perfect finish, but hey this is a sub $100 kit. Total cost including sand paper, vinyl sealer, stain, pre filler, lacquer, nut blank, new tuners and the 4 way switch is about $220 .Great learning experience on making and setting up a guitar and fret work.

Despite a few hiccups and workarounds I love this guitar. So much so that I have ordered a second kit in plain mahogany. It looks like my complaints about the output jack and three way switch have been addressed in the new revisions of the kit. My kit came with a straight maple neck that has a 50s baseball bat feel which I like. It looks like the new versions include a five piece neck with a more modern profile and extra meat at the first fret to give the feel of traditional guitar with headstock. I’m excited to have a second comfortable guitar with what looks to be a more modern feel.I finished the guitar using water based products, Aquacoat grain filler, General Finishes sanding sealer, General Finishes satin tinted with TransTint dye, Createx Wicked colors for the black back and black parts of the burst, and General Finishes High Performance satin for the topcoat. This is the first satin finish I have tried and I love the look. It also means no finish sanding and polishing which is a big time saver.Pro:The resulting guitar is one of my favorite instruments to play.Once you get used to the bridge, string changes are easy and tuning stability is great.It’s the most comfortable guitar to hold in any position.Because of the zero fret the action can be set ridiculously low.I swapped out the electronics and pickups and it sounds amazing. Despite its lack of mass it does not sound small or lack sustain.Con:The bridge is hard to intonate and set string height accurately. The height adjustment also affects the length of the string so there is a lot of back and forth which ends in “close enough” for both height and intonation. The screws that hold the saddles in place are hard to get at when setting intonation.The output jack is too long for the space allotted so it runs into the side of the control cavity. It also barely fits in the pre-drilled hole and requires too much force to screw into the wood.The neck pocket seems too shallow for the bridge height so the neck needed to be shimmed to get playable string height at the top of the fretboard.Stupid stuff:It came with black hardware with the exception of the chrome three way which looks off. Also the control plate that came with mine had screw holes that are beveled on the wrong side which leaves the screw heads proud of the control cavity plate. I wish they would have recessed the body to accommodate the flat base of the strap buttons. I didn’t notice this until I had completed the finish or I would have done this myself. Something about the headstock hardware can allow the strings to shift across the zero fret when bending below the third fret. It doesn’t happen often, it's just a little off putting and not a deal breaker.Normal stuff:The neck required a fret level and dress to play it’s best, that said high frets were few and it did not require very much material removal to get dead level frets.I just received the second kit and will either review it separately. I’m hoping the revisions make it an even better instrument. This will be the third Leo Jaymz kit I’ve put together. I think they are a great value. Both this kit and the Explorer kit I have already completed were not perfect and required some problem solving to complete but I think this is true of most kits on the market. If you are looking for a way into guitar building these kits are a great place to start. I didn’t use the electronics in either kit because I wanted specific sounds for both instruments. That said I’m sure the included pickups and harness will provide decent usable results.