A friend saw my project guitars and wanted to know if I could help him make a guitar for the other guitarist in his band. I let him know how slow I am at building and said a kit might be a good way for him to get a taste for working on guitars and had a good chance that his band mate had a reasonably decent guitar. He agreed and a few weeks later came over with a big cardboard box with a Les Paul copy kit in it. But he had tried to stain it with tea that had had steel wool soaking in it. And the kit was finished in a hard two pack, so it was a real mess. I cleaned up the top with 1500 grit wet and dry. I spoke to the guy the guitar was for and he said he wanted the guitar to look real natural. I immediately thought of Marc Bolan's Les Paul.
This meant all the guitar needed was a decal, finish over that and the headstock, buffed up and constructed, which we did.
I plugged it in, and played it, great action, the glued in neck was dead straight, the pick ups sounded fantastic, they are Wilkinson humbuckers, the friend was stoked that for $300 he got this cool, retro looking guitar that plays and sounds so good. I couldn't believe it, I thought it would come out OK, but this exceeded my expectations.
Put me in the mood to do a little bit of simple maintenance on my Les Paul copies.
The one on the left is an old Ibanez from the 70's I bought second hand and the one on the right is a Fibson, a gift from a friend of mine.