Kent Les Paul Copy

This Kent LP copy is made in Japan. Most likely, late 60's - mid 70's.
Mine is a nice tobacco sunburst finish with binding around the top & bottom and neck.
The finish is pretty nice.There are some cracks in the neck binding, which i was able to repair.
The headstock is similar to Gibson, but without the v notch in the top or inlay. It has the name Kent in gold print along the top.
It is set up similar to a Gison LP with 2 humbuckers, a 3 way switch, 2 tone & 2 volume controls,and a tonable bridge& stop tailpiece which are a slightly different from a Gibson.
The body appears to be made of laminated mahogany.
I'm not sure about the neck.
Since I bought it used, I can't say for sure what kind of tuners or pickups were installed on it by the previous owner. But they were not origional. Nor was the nut, which was replaced with a bone nut.
I replaced the tuners with Grover Roto-Matics, which are a huge improvement over the ones it came with.
I also had to cut the grooves in the nut quite a bit deeper so the strings would rest on the zero fret.
Then I was able to adjust the truss rod and lower the action so it was playable.
This revealed the buzzy frets, due to many years of playing.Thi was both a + and a -. The- being the guitar really could stand refretting. The + is that crappy guitars don't get played enough to wear down the frets.
I was able to even them out enough to play it a bit then.

I play rock, blues, funk and fusion.
This guitar sounded a bit brighter than you would expect from a LP.
It has a nice ring and a very pleasant overall tone, which should be even nicer when it's refretted.
I've played it throgh a Fender Princeton 65 and a Crate GT80, both with and without a Digitech Genesis1 processer, an Ibanez Tube Screamer, a Dan o Wha, and a Boss CS3 compression/sustainer.
The sound is great for just about evry type of music. Even though the sound was bright with the controls all set at 10,
you can control the tone to your taste without muddying it up.
There was no hum or static from the pots or switch.

As I mentioned before, I bought this used and it needed a lot of tweaking. This was mainly due to some yahoo's attempts to deal with the buzzy frets without actually dealing with the frets.My first electric guitar was a Kent that I bought used in 1970.And I know from experiance that the action was much better than this one was when I first got it.
There are some flaws in the edges, where there appears to be a slightly uneven joint between the laminations of the body that are visibe along a section of the edge.
Overall, though, the finish has held up very well.And you'd never beleive this was as old as it is.
The neck joint is not perfect.But it,s not bad for a Japanese guitar from that era.
There is minor pitting in the tailpeice and bridge.But the chrome is in decent shape for it's age.
Even though it isn't as intricately inlaid as some Kent guitar models, the block inlays on the fingerboard are smooth and most of the binding was still in great shape except for a couple small sections on the neck, which I was able to repair.

Since the pickups and tuners are not origional, I can only comment on what's in there now.
I'm sure the Grover tuners will last as long as I do.
The pickups seem to work well, despite the fact that I don't have any idea what kind they are.
Everything on this guitar seems pretty bulletproof.
The strap buttons do seem on the small side, though. And since the top one is screweds into the back of the neck, I'll be replacing them soon and moving it to the edge of the body, where it would be on a Gibson.
Hell, This thing's been around for at least 30 years.And the finish still looks new!
I'm sure it'll be very dependable. But only a fool would show up for a gig with only 1 guitar.

As far as I know, Kent is no longer around.I think they called it quits around the late 70's - early 80's.
If you can do repairs yourself, there are some parts floating around, but you'll probably end up using a lot of aftermarket stuff.
Do yourself a favor and do it right. These Kent guitars are probably one of the nicest imports from the 60's & 70's era.

I've been playing since 1969. I currently own 2 Fender Strats and a Tele, a Hamer Echotone,a Guild S300D, a Kramer Focus, a Takamine Sante Fe, Ibanez & Sigma acoustics, Fender, Crate and Peavy amps, assorted pedals by Boss, Digitech, Danelectro,and Ibanez.
I bought this guitar because I stumbled on it while looking for another Kent like the one I had years ago.I bought it because I liked the finish and the price was right.
I had a '69 Gibson Les Paul Custum, which I sold a while back. This guitar is no match for that. But it only cost me $125.
It's not a Gibson, so don't expect it to be. It's just a nice, inexpensive guitar that looks eneough like a Les Paul to be pretty, but is different enough to be appreciated for it's own merits.
I love the finish and overall look and sound.
It's easy to work on and a fun project guitar for anyone who's into that sort of thing.

I just bought this guitar, and as a guitar tech, I can say this is a truly work of craftmanship! This is one of the best Les Paul copies I have seen. Except for the headstock it looks the same as a 70's GIBLET Les Paul custom. The construction is the same, and even better! This Kent is probably made in Japan the same time Tokai, Greco, Fernandes, Burny, Orville and other great copies were made.


The body is solid sandwich mahogany (two pieces glued together), and the top is made of two pieces very nice solid carved maple. The front of the body has 7 layer bindings, and the back is semi-contoured.

The neck is made from three maple pieces glued together, and the headstock has a volute at the back. The neck is glued into the body with a long neck tenon. It goes thru just right under the neck pickup. .
The contours of the headstock is identical to a 70's les paul, but without the "open book" at the top. It could be easily cut out.
The neck has a real ebony fretboard with real mother of pearl block inlay. The bindings are glued to the frets just like GIBLET! The neck is a bit narrower than a real LP custom, I think about 2 mm. The neck has a thinkness of a 1960 slim taper neck.
The guitar has all the Les Paul features like two volume knobs and two tone knobs. The bridge has two screws that go directly into the body, unlike other japanese models which often uses studs.
I got the guitar with a stock neck pickup and a Dimarzio at the bridge. I replaced the pickups with real Gibson PAFs for more authentic sound.
The finish is very beautiful tobacco sunburst, front and back. Even the neck and sides has sunburst at some places. The finish is very solid, and still looks like new after all those years.
The tuners are like new Grovers, just like the original GIBLET ones. No holes had to be drilled.

It suits my musical style perfectly. I do play different musicstyles, but it fits every one of them. I can get nice clean tones for jazz, blues, country, funk etc. but also a very crunchy or heavily distorted sound for rock and metal.
I plug the guitar into my Digitech RP-300 preamp, thru a Crate TV-6210 amp.
Because of the maple neck the sounds doesn't get as muddy as a Les Paul with a mahogany neck. There are lots of highs, and the thick mahogany body gives more than enough lows. Perfect combination!

I bought it used, but the previous owner had set it up perfectly.
It came with ernie ball 011's, so that fitted perfectly into my style, which is tuned down to a D.
The top is pretty much perfectly bookmatched, better than my real (read GIBLET) Les Paul goldtop! (I once stripped the goldtop before refinishing, so I saw the topwood).
There are no flaws or whatever... just Perfect!

This guitar will withstand a 3rd World War... It is very solid, and even though I repair guitars which are very good, I will use this guitar as my lead guitar at every gig in the future!
I wouldn't have to use any backup.. but I always bring some with me at gigs, because of different tuning, and because I don't trust the other bandmember's guitar!!

Never dealt with them, and I think I would never have to! Plus, it's a 25 year old guitar. Is Kent still around, as a guitar company???

I've been playing for 10 years, and this is the first guitar that I am stunned at! The first feel and sound were incredible! No more real GIBLETS for me... I shall always play Japanese guitars. If it were stolen, I would search eBay for another one. At this moment there are two for sale. The same ones, for about the same price I guess!
I wish mine had a more of a GIBLET open book headstock and diamond inlay, but that's easily fixed with a nice Gibson headstock veneer!