General
Model Number
LPK-10TB
Series
LP Style
Body Information
Body Material
Basswood
Body Shape
LP Style
Body Finish
Tobacco Burst
Neck Information
Neck Material
Mahogany
Neck Finish
Unfinished
Scale Length
24.75" / 628mm
Fingerboard Material
Rosewood
Fingerboard Radius
12"
Number of Frets
22
Frets
Medium Jumbo, Nickel Silver
Nut Material
Plastic
Nut Width
42mm
Position Inlays
Crown
Truss Rod
2-Way-Action
Truss Rod Nut
4 mm Hex
Hardware & Electronics
Finish
Chrome
Pickup Configuration
2 x HB
Pickups
Ceramic Pickups
Pickguard
Cream
Controls
2V, 2T, 3-Way Toggle
Bridge
Tune-o-matic, Stop bar
Tuning Machines
Gotoh Style
Potentiometers
Full Sized Pots
Misc
Includes all mounting screws, strap buttons, and plates
Accessories
Includes
Hex Adjustment Keys & Instrument Cable
rjgrbusam (verified buyer) –
Selected this kit for my first kit. A great kit, completely satisfied. The only problem I had was following the online wiring guide. I called Solo and they emailed me a new guide which was fixed the problem.
warren.wakarchuk (verified buyer) –
I selected this for my first build as well – but it has been frustrating. The neck fits the body (bolt on) really well so that went smoothly. I also had issues with the wiring diagrams – which I see are updated now to make sense. I got a defective pickup switch which was promptly replaced. I had some problems with the set up. The bridge saddles don’t move smoothly and I was unable to correctly intonate the B and G strings – with the saddles at full extension they are still out enough to be noticeable. I have ordered a graphtech bridge to replace the stock one – so hopefully that helps. I also put Solo Pro locking tuners on instead of the stock ones – they are pretty good as well. The tone from the guitar is actually pretty good, so no complaints about the pickups (they measure 8.5k neck, and 11K bridge – so lots of oomph. Overall a nice guitar but the instructions need to be upgraded so newbies with no soldering skills can get some guidance.
paulluth (verified buyer) –
First the finish on the body is amazing, as good as some name brand guitars. The neck fit was perfect but it has a plastic nut (so do some of my name brand guitars). Assembly for the most part is easy if you have ever built a guitar or ukulele. The sound is very good and plays very well however the tone pots could be better quality. I had no problem setting the intonation, got it right in short order. I did however put Ernie Ball Super Slinky strings on. Now the things that aren’t not so good and why I didn’t rate it higher. The instructions are not for beginners as they give no details on what screws go where and the wiring diagram didn’t match the wiring harness I received. A quick call to Solo solved the wiring problem. There were not enough screws supplied in my kit and there were no correct screws for the back covers and strap buttons. The pots I received are too tall so the control knobs stick 5mm – 7mm above the guitar body not a good look. The volume pot for the neck pickup has some problem, it cuts out for no apparent reason. I have a support ticket on these issues and hopefully they will all be addressed quickly. If I had received all the correct parts and everything worked as it is supposed to I would give it 4 stars.
paulluth (verified buyer) –
Update: Received all the parts I needed from Solo in a week! Fantastic customer service. The guitar should be working just fine once I get all the new hardware installed. I still love the looks and playability of this kit now it will be near perfect. I would highly recommend it if your body finishing skills are not the best (like mine).
jblackie (verified buyer) –
This is my 3rd kit from Solo Music. I was very happy with the final product. I used flat poly finish on the back of the maple neck and gloss black and clear lacquer on the headstock. Since no one would mistake it for a real Gibson Les Paul I used their decals to finish the headstock. Couldn’t think of anything else to go there. The frets and fret ends were great, just had to be polished. The refinished body was very nice, a lot better than I could do. I would recommend this guitar to anyone who would like to try a kit build.
cruzatnite (verified buyer) –
This was a fairly easy build. Having built a previous DIY kit from another company, this one was a breeze. The body came finished which saved a lot of time and it looked great. The binding was very impressive. The neck was straight and the frets were right on. all they needed was a little bit of polishing with some 0000 steel wool. Tried to stain the neck to match the body but the maple neck wouldn’t have any part of it so I went ahead and just put a high gloss laquer finish on it and sprayed the front of the head stock with some high gloss black laquer. Wiring went fairly easy once I made heads and tails of the wiring diagram. As for the hardware it was what I expected. Thought I did a thorough inventory of all the hardware but when I went to install the machine tuners, I found out I was missing the washers. No biggie. I went to a local guitar shop and they threw them in for free. I was very impressed with the sustain I got out it. This thing sings! If it doesn’t sing, it’s like playing soggy log. So all in all, this ones a keeper! Kudos to Solo Guitars!
MARC ST PIERRE (verified buyer) –
This kit is way above the quality of my previous Solo kit build ESK-35. The finish of the body was superb. The hardware is good quality copies of the Gibson designs. I opted for an upgrade to the pick-ups, but that was my choice. The only cheap aspect to the kit is the pots and wiring, things that could be upgraded easily if desired. They function, the wiring is coax, and partially pre-assembled. Otherwise you essentially get a beautiful reasonable facsimile of a ’59 Les Paul. The tuning keys are incorrect for the period, but functionally very good. They can also be changed for more ‘correct’ designs if desired. I like the more modern ones myself. I opted to paint the neck black to match the back of the body, a straightforward job. A couple of period-type decals on the headstock, and voila! A very cool-looking period guitar! For the money the kit was an excellent value. I highly recommend this one, especially if you are ‘finish-challenged’ like myself. Build tip: wrap the body completely in painter’s masking tape prior to assembling the body to prevent tool damage, bumps, and scrapes.
Hristo Nikolov (verified buyer) –
To start with, I highly recommend this kit! But note – this kit is not for beginners.
I bought this kit because I was interest in exploring an LP-style guitar (and playing of course), and this particular kit comes with completely finished guitar body – I am not capable of painting and finishing it myself. I have some basic knowledge about guitar internals (I set up my guitars myself) and this was my first build.
I agree with others that building a guitar from a kit will not necessary save you money (not at all) but will give you great learning experience.
Below, I share my experience.
Pros
– Guitar body is beautifully and professionally finished in Tobacco burst (but… see below)
– Very good quality neck – came straight and very well levelled (but… see below)
– Nice-looking chrome pick-ups (but… see below)
Findings
– Neck
– 2 frets were not completely pressed to the fretboard (frets 20 and 21)
– Nut was ridiculously high and was firmly glued
– Action at 1st fret 6 string was 1.3mm (or 0.6mm with a capo at 3rd fret)
– Assembly
– Some of the wholes for the bridge and tailpiece were a bit loose
I had to add some tape to tighten them (nothing concerning)
– Mounting the pick-up selector switch was surprisingly difficult to tighten and fix it in position, but nothing concerning
– After connecting the neck to the body, the neck angle was such that the minimum achievable string action was more than 3mm at 12 fret
Basically, very unpleasant and difficult to play – quite a disappointment at this moment
– Wiring
– Based on the reviews I read, I was prepared to re-wire 🙂
– Indeed, the provided wiring did not match the schematic that I downloaded from the Solo website.
Volume and tone pots were swapped (compared to traditional 50’s wiring)
Tone capacitors wire soldered differently (I did not check at all if it would still work).
– I rewired according to 50’s schematic with logarithmic pots as volume pots, and replaced the capacitors with orange drops
– Tailpiece: One of the wholes for the strings was not completely drilled (it was an easy fix)
– Compared to my other guitars, the very well finished guitar body and chrome pick-ups in this kit are very prone to scratches – something to consider and be careful about.
Experience:
So, in addition to the steps in the instructions to build this guitar, the following is what I did extra:
– Shielded and grounded the guitar cavity (probably I could skip this, but nevertheless)
– Completely re-wired the electronics, replaced the tone capacitors with orange drops
– Carefully levelled frets 20 and 21. I am not experienced in this and do not have proper tools, so I had to be creative.
– Pressed them to the fretboard by careful hammering
– Filed them for precise levelling
– Set the nut action
– Removed the glued nut – did not do this perfectly, but there was no visible damage of the neck neither
– Ordered alternative nut, which was too short – no space between strings and 1st fret
– Instead of filing the original nut, I did some shimming of the alternative nut – worked very well
– Drilled one whole in the tailpiece (not a big deal, it was partly drilled already)
– Fixed the neck angle
– Ordered StewMac Neck Shim, surprisingly expensive to my expectation but worked well
One can assume that after all these findings I would remove some stars from the rating. Well, I decided not to do so because, at the end, this is a kit to build a guitar yourself and all these findings I had to fix let me gain additional experience and knowledge about guitar internals.
At the end, my kit turned into a guitar that meets the Gibson factory specifications, which is very satisfying.
Note: the star rating would be very different if I could not fix the issues above.
Now the guitar feels and plays very well, has some very nice tone as well.
Recommendation to Solo:
– Do not glue the nut if possible
mckm72 (verified buyer) –
I chose this for my first ever build. I did have to file the nut to get the first few frets to be in tune. Otherwise the intonation was a snap and easy to figure out. I feel like I learned a lot about the challenges to build a guitar (including not being careless with soldering, as a few burns later taught me. Lol). This was an awesome learning experience, and I wound up with a beautiful looking and sounding guitar.
What put this over the top for me was the customer service. Every single time I called (from the initial questions about purchasing, to questions about the build) the phone rang once and then I was talking to a human being who was very courteous and knowledgeable about the products and building guitars.
ahecko60 –
I bought this kit in January 2022. It’s my first attempt at putting a guitar together.
The build went smoothly. Ran the wiring through the body channels. Had my guitar tech do the soldering. Then added the hardware and completed the body. I stained the neck dark mahogany, polished the frets, treated fingerboard to some lemon oil. The headstock was sanded, then sprayed with Primer. After that it got four coats of Black automotive lacquer and finally 3 coats of clear. I did also add a thin metal Gibson logo beneath the clear coat.
This guitar is for my personal use and will not be sold as an authentic Gibson. Loved the kit. Fit and finish are superb. Will order another kit guitar from this company.
2dm.express (verified buyer) –
LPK-10TB This was not my first kit to build. I enjoyed the process. Never thought I would ever be the owner of a Les Paul.
Built went together well, all fit well. Body came finished nicely with a high gloss finish on tobacco burst. Finished the neck with black on front side of headstock. Used mahogany stain on rest of neck and headstock. Added Gibson logo and Les Paul logo decals along with a Les Paul Custom truss rod cover for an authentic touch. Used Mohawk blend gloss lacquer to finish neck. Easy product to use and turned out great! Added copper foil to the electronic pockets and no interference, nice and quiet. Plays great, happy to have used my time to make it unique!
I recommend Solo kits to anyone who plays guitar.
yoandsticky (verified buyer) –
I decided to try the LPK-10TB kit I am amazed at the quality of it for the price all I can say is I will be doing another kit from SOLO
rspoulin1721 (verified buyer) –
Being my first kit, I was really surprised at how easy it is now to assemble your own guitar. The Solo LP kit with a pre-painted body is really perfect for those who are not painting experts. The parts are adapted very easily so no problem on that side. In addition, the basic parts are correct however Solo offers very interesting upgrades at reasonable costs allowing you to finish your guitar according to your tastes. Thank you Solo for allowing us to have a guitar that really suits our taste with all the possible choices.
charles johnson (verified buyer) –
the Guitar itself was pretty good nice finish and neck fit pretty well two things i would like to see is the ability to order one with much better hardware ie toggles switches better pickups better pots better tuners because lets face the ones you get with the kit itself are crap. i would also like to see thicker tops instead of the paper thin ones that come on them yes i would be willing to pay a little more i think anyone would
harpies_leaf.0r –
After building 4 guitars where I did all the painting/finishing (1 Solo (ESK-35), 3 from other companies), I wanted something that was already finished and really like the tobacco burst on this one. In the end, I’ve got a really nice guitar that I really enjoy playing…but it took a little work to get there.
I will say that I think you get what you pay for finish wise…while the tobacco burst is beautiful there are a couple very small defects (you have to look to find them), and I’m not sure how well the actual finish will hold up over time…it’s probably on par with the finish on import budget guitars.
I did do a full fret job on the neck…levelled, crowned and polished, and really worked on the fret ends…am very happy with how that turned out. I just did a few coats of satin rub-on poly on the back of the neck.
There are a couple reasons I’m giving this 4 stars. One is the plastic nut was pretty bad. However, I found a Tusq XL nut by GraphTech that works very well…model #PQL-6050-00. The string spacing is about perfect, but it’s a bit long…needed to sand the ends down a bit. Also sanded a fair amount off the bottom. I then tweaked the slots a bit. The old nut popped out very easily, and this is a HUGE improvement…very much worth it! I will say I was a bit nervous about replacing the nut. I initially tried getting some bone blanks and doing my own slotting…disaster! But this pre-slotted Tusq nut was so easy to install and such an improvement.
Another reason for 4 starts was the neck angle was off just a bit…had a hard time getting the action as low as I wanted it. But I purchased a set of neck shims from StewMac and one of them was perfect…the action on the guitar is very nice now.
I upgraded electronics, tuners and pickups. I absolutely love Hipshot Grip Lock open gear tuners so put a set of these on…personally like them better than Grovers…with these and the new nut, tuning is a breeze and guitar holds tune very well. I put in a set of CTS pots, including push-pull pots for the Volume pots to split the coils, and then a Seymour Duncan Hot Rodded Humbucker set…Jazz neck, JB Bridge.
It really is a great guitar now…holds tune, plays so nicely, has great tone. While it won’t ever replace my Gibson Les Paul, it definitely holds its own!
tommaso_vitti (verified buyer) –
I did this as build since the body was done and that was a good thing. Really did work out since I wanted to focus on the electronics and how it went together and minor details like frets and setup when done. The quality was very good and they were very helpful in understanding how to deal with minor issue like the one pot already being soldered and needed to unsolder and redo. Plays really good for a kit and I was surprised. All in all great experience and will do this kit again since this was for my son in law and maybe next year when some cash will do this one for myself.
tommaso_vitti (verified buyer) –
Already did a review but just wanted to add and not aware how to that I wish they had more kits like this with the body painted. It really makes it easier to get a finished guitar that looks good and plays good if that stain/paint part is not critical to what you want to get out of it. Just a thought. Thank you.