Thursday 4 September 2014

Les Paul DIY kit (Part VII: Epilogue)

This is the seventh and final part of my DIY Les Paul kit build report. I strung the guitar and tuned it by ear using a guitar sound on my Yamaha MOX digital synthesizer. It appears that the neck is still reacting to the tension caused by the strings, because I needed several tuning cycles until the guitar stayed in tune for a while. To my surprise, the guitar does not appear to need a separate intonation step, as I get a clean octave when comparing the base tone to the 12th fret. What I get, however, is string buzz, especially on the bass E string. I'll wait few more days for the neck tension to settle and then check the correct distance of strings to frets. There are countless YouTube instruction videos on that subject, and I'll consult them all. Or so. Anyway, from various guitar sites I learned that it could also be uneven frets, so I'll check that, too, before I start tweaking the neck curvature by meddling with the truss rod. So far, however, I consider the guitar set up and ready to play.


Far more knowledgeable people than I am say that a DIY guitar is an ongoing project, and it'll need your continuous attention. But this report isn't, and therefore I'll end it here. Despite all the setbacks and problems encountered (or self-inflicted), building a guitar from a kit was a valuable experience, and I might possibly attempt to build another one. In the meantime, however, I'd like to thank all of my regular readers (both of them) for their interest. Perhaps you're going to build your own guitar from a kit, and if you do, please leave a note and a link to your own build log.

1 comment:

  1. Dude, just came across this blog as I am refurbishing my 2nd hand les paul. Great blog and im greatful for the blunt honesty. I have, since seeing this blog, now changed my mind regarding the finish I originally wanted.

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