Guitar Kit World Les Paul

I ordered a Les Paul from Guitar Kit World in Australia. The guitar was drop-shipped to me from China. With the options I selected, the kit cost $241 with free shipping. The maple veneer and the mahogany body added $44 to the base price. Being left-handed only cost me $3. Other kit resellers would charge as much as $30. Marty, the owner of Guitar Kit World, was a lefty and was sympathetic to our plight.

The Guitar Kit World kit

The guitar took about six weeks to arrive. During that time the blue left-handed Agile appeared on the Rondo Music website. I immediately ordered one. Within a week the Agile arrived while the kit guitar was still in route.*

The kit was a complete guitar with all hardware, electrical, and strings. Opening the box I found that the body was 1.5 inches thick, as opposed to the two-inch Gibson Les Pauls. I have since noticed that this seems to be standard on the Chinese kits from other vendors.

Small dents in the first fret 

On closer inspection I found a few other anomalies. There were a number of dents in the first fret, there were glue marks on the back of the horn and on the head stock, and wood was jagged where the cutaway meets the neck. I figured that none of these items were deal-breakers and could either be repaired or hidden in the finish.

Marty at Guitar Kit World was eager to offer solutions to the some of the issues, and even sent a coupon for a discount on my next guitar.

It should be noted that shortly after I received my kit, a banner on the Guitar Kit World website stated that they had switched vendors and were offering higher quality kits.

*The Agile looked great, but during inspection I found that the heal of the neck was severely cracked. Rondo accepted the return without question and a second guitar was sent. At that time the left-handed blue flames disappeared from the Rondo website. Perhaps I got the last one.