What Was I Thinking?

If I had really wanted to save some money I would have just spent $500 on a new Epiphone. Spending a couple hundred dollars on a kit guitar may seem like a good way to get an ultra-budget guitar, but unless you already have all the tools and supplies, it is really easy to spend a couple hundred dollars more finishing your guitar. None of this includes any upgrades you may want to make to the guitar's hardware.

AL-3010SE Blue Flame

While the hidden expense was something I already knew in the back of my mind, being cheap was really just an excuse to have a fun project. The real path to building a kit was a bit more selfish than my desire to get an inexpensive instrument.

I knew I wanted a Les Paul copy, as a proper Gibson was out of my budget. Being left-handed, I am limited to dramatically few budget guitars to chose from in any style. The Epiphone Les Paul was a nice guitar but was available in back, cherry-burst, or black. Right-handed models were available in so many colors, several were not even in the visible spectrum.

While searching for something more interesting I found a company called Rondo Music that made the Agile series of guitars. They offered left-handed Les Paul copies in a variety of colors including a great looking blue flame. Folks on guitar forums believed that the Agiles were every bit as good as the Epiphones and often better. The Agile guitars were also much cheaper because Rondo Music only sold direct.

Seafoam Les Paul Classic

I was ready to buy the AL-3010SE Blue Flame (links to right-handed model) but found they were out of stock. I emailed the owner who said he would be having more stock arriving in the coming months but made no promise of what colors or variants would be available.

I then had the idea that if I wanted a blue guitar, why didn't I just build one. I thought that if the blue Agile came back in stock, I would surely buy one as it would be vastly superior to the guitar I intended to build. Since I had really admired the Gibson 2014 Seafoam Les Paul Classic, I thought I would try to copy this guitar rather than the guitar I actually wanted. If I was going to end up with two guitars, why have two guitars that were blue?

In other words, I wanted a blue guitar I could not get so I would build a guitar I did not like as much. Perfect logic.

Let's be honest - I really just wanted to build a kit like I did in junior high and had the bug to do it again. What kind of results could I get with middle-aged life experience and patience?