Best kit guitar ever!

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Best kit guitar ever!

About 23 or 24 yrs ago, I bought a used Epiphone Les Paul Lefty from GC
in Union NJ. It travelled with me to Colorado where I started the
upgrades. All new pots, wiring, and Seymour Duncan pickups. Got it all
set up and it rivaled if not beat most Gibsons. Sadly I had to pawn it
to buy groceries for the family. Years later, my oldest son who plays
bass bought me a brandy new Ibanez RG450 which I cherish and love to
play, but I missed my LP. Enter Leo Jaymz and the overseas knockoff Les
Paul. At $229 US it's a steal, right? Let's start at the beginning shall
we? -Packaging/shipping: Purchased from Amazon (duh) on June 9,
received on June 13. Longest 4 days of my life. It was wrapped in a foam
shroud which was in the gig bag, then was TRIPLE boxed (2 outside boxes
plus the actual guitar box). No damage at all. -Fit/Finish: Super
glossy finish with no blemishes, scratches, or dents. Frets are jumbo
with no sharp edges. It did need the frets polished (fret erasers work
best). The graphic (skull) is flawless and doesn't take away from the
overall finish or look. Think dark, but classy. The chrome is beautiful
as well. Binding is AMAZING! 5 layer binding on front and back plus the
headstock and they did a great job. However there's a little caveat
here. They used a right handed neck for a left handed guitar which
really doesn't mean anything (nut was correct) except the logo is upside
down and being overseas originated, spelled wrong. "Single Cut Dulux"
looks stupid. Should be right side up and say "Single Cut Deluxe". It
bugs me and it's freakin' hilarious at all the same time. The numbers on
the knobs are backwards too. -Electronics/pickups: Pots are the cheap
dime sized and right handed (yes there are left handed pots). Wiring is
kinda crappy and solder joints aren't too good. Pickups are cheap
ceramic magnet and microphonic. Toggle is good though. I'll be gutting
it and putting a good set of pots and caps along with some Alnico
Seymour Duncan pickups and Switchcraft toggle. Pickup pole screws are
WAAAAYYYY off! Some of the screw head bottoms are actually ABOVE the
surface of the pickup. -Setup: Setup was off, but not by a mile. The
strings were slack and the neck arrow straight. When I brought the
strings up to pitch, there was almost no relief. Thankfully this IS
EQUIPPED WITH A TWO-WAY TRUSS ROD. So adjusting was easy. There was a
metric ton of buffing compound in the truss rod well and in the body
cavities. String action was a little high and easily adjusted. The
string gap between the stop tailpiece and bridge is way wide, but the
stop is slammed to the deck so I'll have to live with it. That will make
tuning a bit harder and more frequent. Strings/tuners: Strings are
shite. I think they were 9's which is flat out wrong for LPs. After
initial setup and fret polishing, I slapped a set of Ernie Ball 10's on
it and it made a HUGE difference. Tuners are true Grover licensed
machines and work very well. Goodie bag: Came with a body bag that's
barely padded. In the pocket was a plastic bag with three decent picks, a
4mm hex wrench, and a guitar cable. The cable is junk so throw that
out. OVERALL: I really like this beast. Yes, the electronics and pickups
are utter crap, but the body, neck, headstock, tuners, and fit/finish
are PERFECT for upgrades. Even with garbage electronics, the sustain is
huge so it's a great candidate for upgrades. For beginners, just
restring it, set it up, and run it. For us more grizzled players, better
electronics will win the day. Now if ole Leo would come out with an SG,
I'd buy one in a heartbeat!