Film the guitar you built. Share in $500.

One video, 1 to 3 minutes. Up to 5 minutes is fine if the build earns it, and we will not rule anyone out on length.

Show the guitar, then play it. We want to see both, so give yourself time for each. Filmed on a phone is fine: no studio, no editing, one take is fine. Tell us which kit it started as and anything you changed along the way.

Use the entry form on this page. It asks for your video link, which kit it started as, and anything you changed.

If you post on social media: put the video up anywhere you like (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Reddit or Pinterest), tag #GuitarKitWorld so other builders find it, then paste the link to your post into the form.

If you are not on social media, or are not sure how to post a video: upload it to Google Drive, Dropbox or WeTransfer and paste that link instead. We will put it up on our channels for you.

Either way, neither route is judged more favorably. Just make sure the link actually opens for us.

Two things, weighted evenly: the guitar and the playing.

The build. The finish you got right, the wiring, the fretwork, the details you sweated, the parts you upgraded.

The playing. Any style, any level, whoever is holding it. We are not looking for the fastest player.

A clean build played simply beats a rough build played fast.

Entries close Monday, August 31.

$500 in Guitar Kit World gift cards, spread across up to ten builders: $150 for first, $100 for second, $75 for third, and up to seven more at $25 each.

We watch every entry. After the round closes we email everyone with the results, and the best entries get featured across our site, our social channels and our newsletter.

Yes. The Build & Play Challenge is ongoing. We run it in rounds through the year, so if you miss this one, the next is worth building toward. Prizes and dates are set per round and posted on this page.

You keep ownership of your video. Entering gives us permission to use, edit and republish it in our marketing: our website, our email and our social channels.

Editing means the ordinary things: trimming it, cutting a shorter clip, adding captions or our logo. We credit the builder wherever the format allows.

That is the point of the challenge. We want to show these off, and the builders who get featured are the ones other people discover. If you would rather we did not use your video that way, this is not the right thing to enter.

No. Those are two different things.

The Build & Play Challenge is a competition with a deadline and a fixed prize pool. Our build video reward is a separate, always-open program with no deadline that rewards a public video of your build with an individual gift card.

You are welcome to do both.