Just A Few Creases Needing To Be Ironed Out

By: Stephen Kitney on 1 June 2022

Let me start off by saying that overall, for the price range, this is a pretty decent guitar. I went down the more complicated road of dual colour staining to bring out the flame. The guitar needed a fair bit of sanding to get rid of what I can only assume to be glue residue from the factory. This was preventing the stain penetrating the wood. I was quite apprehensive as the Flame Maple veneer is quite thin. After successfully staining and finishing the guitar with Tru Oil and wax, it came time to assemble. First of all, the instruction manual can be a bit vague in some parts especially when it comes to running the earth wire to the bridge post. The manual has the wrong picture showing the hole in a completely different place to where it actually is on the kit. Second, I was supplied with a cream plastic jack hole cover where as the manual and also the Artist Guitars website show a metal one. The plastic cover just looks cheap and nasty in my opinion. The screws supplied all come in one bag with no way to tell which screw is for which plate/cover/pickup etc. My kit was also missing the 3 screws for the truss rod cover plate. Last of all, the cheap strings that are supplied just come wound as one lot with no way to differentiate between each string. On a positive note, the guitar does sound and play quite well for the price range. I just think that these minor speed humps should be ironed out to make the experience a bit better for the novice builder.

Artist Guitars Response
Thank you so much for leaving this feedback. This definitely helps us in improving our products and services.

Very pleasantly surprised

By: Joel Robotham on 8 February 2022

I've never built a guitar before and I did not have high expectations for this project. However, I took my time preparing the timber, sanding, highlighting the flame with leather dye, spraying a cherry sunburst, coating with clear lacquer....more sanding....more sanding....polishing...building the guitar. Easy to put together apart from the lack of a hole leading from the pick up cavity for the ground wire. This could have been a MAJOR issue as I didn't realise until after I had completed all that work on the finish and one slip of the drill could have been a disaster. However, all went well. Then I got to experiment with setting up an electric guitar myself for the first time. I have never been game to do this with my rather expensive Strat, but I had a go and by either skill or luck I managed to come out with a really playable instrument that sounds awesome, sustains beautifully and has a ripping fast action. Love it, love it, love it. Just ordered the hard case from Artists to protect this very cool instrument. Highly recommended. Good fun all round. The only reason I don't give 5 stars is because I had to drill that hole.

Artist Guitars Response
Hi! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a good review! We appreciate it. Cheers!

Great starter kit

By: Martin Archer on 2 October 2021

Bought the kit online, and the order came within a week. The kit was easy to put together, even though there were a few hiccups - the hole for the ground wire to connect to the bridge had not been drilled, but that was an easy fix. There was also some minor imperfections in the top, however I contacted the guys and got immediate support which helped resolve the issue. Once stained and assembled the guitar looks and sounds incredible - I'm so happy with the product and happy with the fact its unique, no other guitar looks quite like mine! Well worth the cost!

Artist Guitars Response
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave this review. We are unable to change the "0" star rating as you requested but we are glad to know that you are happy on how the DIY kit turned out.

Awesome kits

By: Richard Livingston on 3 September 2021

I have just purchased another 6 kits in August. That makes a total of18 kits all up in the last 18 months and the kit quality is very high and consistent. Having such a good quality product makes it a very enjoyable experience making these LP guitars. I totally recommend them.

Artist Guitars Response
Thank you for all your support and we're happy that you are loving our DIY kits

Very good.

By: Anonymous on 1 April 2021

Everything in it's right place and all parts accounted for, Kit went together easily and worked first attempt. Not sure about the small pots, I'm, not a fan of mini pots but they work and that will do. Neck is especially excellent and I have no complaints, The Flame maple veneer is very thin so be careful sanding as you can easily go through the veneer especially near the edges. I'll give it a 9/10, it loses a point for the mini pots and thin veneer but is overall a very good kit, much better than most. Thank you Artist guitars, once again you've Produced a fantastic product.

Artist Guitars Response
We appreciate the information review and thank you for leaving one. If you need any assistance or have a question, please do not hesitate to contact us.

As perfects as it gets.

By: Anonymous on 3 December 2020

Honestly, I'm blown away by the wood work on this kit, literally cannot believe this is apparently a DIY guitar. The neck fit is absolutely perfect to the micron, and the hardware is all perfectly matched to all the routing and drilled holes are where they should be. I Can absolutely vouch for this kit's quality control.

A great guitar kit

By: Anonymous on 24 June 2020

This is a really well put together kit. It is suitable for beginners, as the finish is good, the frets needed little to no work, and the wood is well finished. Contrary to other reviews I have read about similar kits, this did NOT have a paper - thin veneer, but a genuine maple cap over the mahogany body. It also has binding around the top edge, and looks great once finished. All the surfaces needed little priming to finish. The electrical connectors were very simple, and the instructions are easy to follow. Someone building their first guitar would do well to use this as their first project. I managed to complete a sunburst finish, and I am very happy with the result. The pickups are surprisingly good for standard issue with a kit, and have good tone and sustain. Overall this kit exceeded my expectations, and I strongly recommend it to anyone after an LP as a finished and very playable project.

Impressed

By: Gary Thompson on 20 May 2020

I have always wanted a LP Gibson and this is the next best thing to having one, With all the right gear from Artist Guitar i can build one that sounds and plays just as good as the original, The best thing also is that i can do it in the colour i like and also get the sound i want. I would never molest a real Gibson as that would ruin its value Next on the list will be the Fender but would like the hollow body Gibson eventually. The best think is the time and effort you but into building one you appreciate it more and also understand what goes into building one. Thank to the people at Artist guitars for a great product.

Excellent Quality Product

By: Richard Livingston on 1 April 2020

The quality of these products is excellent. I have purchased 6 so far and am very happy. I did have some minor issues with 2 of the kits but Jason replaced these very quickly with 2 new kits which are fantastic. I recommend these kits and will be buying more in the future.

Great value !

By: sam on 6 March 2020

No parts missing & everything went together like it said. Love the the raw finish on guitar especially the front body grain on LP style. Quality of PUPs & electronics are above par for this price range. More importantly, neck required only a minor tweak & intonation close enough to spot on

Nice Quality

By: Hollie on 21 January 2020

This just arrived today and I was very happy with the postage time. As for the kit, the body as some weird glue marks in places there would be no glue, but apart from that the body an neck are very nicely made. The maple veneer is paper thin, so I wouldn't use that as a buying point since dying that runs risk of sanding through. The pots are tiny and I honestly wouldn't use those. Can't comment on the pick ups. Rest of the hardware is about what you'd expect in a kit. The only annoying thing is the 'QC Passed" stickers are placed in spots that are visible when the guitar is put together. These would be better in the neck pocket and on the part of the neck that slides into the pocket, especially since they were irritating to remove and left sticker residue.

First class

By: Stephen Watson on 30 October 2019

This is my second and it won't be my last, all the hard work is done just finish assemble and play, the surprising thing is for a screw on neck LP copy this thing plays like a Gibson.

Beautiful

By: Anonymous on 12 September 2019

I have been playing my completed guitar now for a couple of weeks and it is exceptional. It stained beautifully with minimal finish sanding, using Stewmac guitar stain and finished of to a lustrous shine with TruOil. The flame top is very attractive and perfectly bookmatched. My only criticism would be some of the numbered stickers on the wiring were missing, which took a couple of attempts to get it right. Googling Les Paul wiring diagram solved the issue. Also one solder joint had broken off (probably my rough handling). All in all you will be very happy with the kit and the finished product.

Kit - Not suitable for staining

By: Dominic on 27 July 2019

I bought this to stain the flame maple top to a colour similar to Slash's AFD guitar with a bit of sunburst. However even though the description states it is "the body is Raw wood and does not have any coating giving you the option how you would want to stain or apply the finish on the kit - accessed 27th July 2019" it had a sealer that makes applying a stain near impossible. I sanded the guitar all over and scraped carefully so as not to go through the veneer but I was not able to consistently stain the gain and ended up with patches where the wood would not take the colour stain. As such if you want to stain this guitar don't buy this one it won't. The instructions don't include a wiring diagram, and even though they all plug together it takes a fair bit of trial and error to get it all working properly. I contacted Artist Guitars a number of times and the responses were not helpful - they did state that the sealer was an oil based sealer, but I had bought water stain as once again the "timber was raw and unsealed" All in all a rather frustrating build that should have been straight forward. The resulting guitar sounds good and the pre-drilled holes lined up with the parts, the cavity for the pick ups were tight and I had to file some of the pick up covers that site below the face down to get them to fit properly. I ended up with a plain colour on the top so the flame maple was wasted and was not the outcome I wanted.

Artist Guitars Response
Hello. I am sorry if you have encountered some trouble with the finish on the LPFDIY kit which you have purchased last year. Our old ones were manufactured from our factory and applied with a sealant for better application of oil based finish. However, we have had a lot of complaints and have changed them since then. These new LPFDIY kits no longer have those sealants and thus can be stained or finished by our customers better.