These are the full rules for the Build & Play Challenge. The short version lives on the challenge page. If the two ever disagree, this page wins.
Who runs this
Maker Kit World LLC, trading as Guitar Kit World, 1021 E Lincolnway, Cheyenne, WY 82001, United States. Questions go to support@guitarkitworld.com.
Who can enter
You need to be 18 or older. The guitar has to have started as a Guitar Kit World kit: the body and the neck have to be ours. You do not have to have bought it. If it was a gift, or you borrowed it, you can still enter. Everything past that is open. Upgraded parts, a finish you did yourself, a guitar you built years ago, all fine.
You do not have to be the player. If you build but do not play, hand it to a friend who does and film that. If anyone in your video is under 18, tell us on the form and confirm that their parent or guardian is happy for us to use the video in our marketing. Without that we will still judge the entry, but we will not use it in any advertising.
Employees of Maker Kit World LLC and their immediate families cannot win a prize. They are welcome to build and to be featured.
Where you can enter from
Anywhere, with two exceptions. The prize is a gift card sent by email, so where we ship does not come into it. We cannot accept entries from Italy, because Italian promotion law requires a filing and a bond that a competition this size cannot justify. We cannot accept entries from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, or the Crimea, Donetsk or Luhansk regions, or from anywhere else US sanctions law prevents us from sending something of value. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.
When it runs
Entries are always open. We judge in rounds, and a round closes on the last day of March, June, September and December. Your entry goes into whichever round is running on the day we receive it, and your confirmation email tells you which one that is.
We also say so by email and on our social channels when a round is about to close, so you do not have to keep an eye on this page.
Each round is a separate competition with its own prize pool. Entries do not carry over between rounds unless we tell you they have.
If we ever stop running the challenge, we will say so on the challenge page before it affects a round, and we will still judge and pay out every round that has already opened.
How to enter
Fill in the form at guitarkitworld.com/pages/build-and-play-challenge. That is the entry. There is no other official route.
Send one video. Aim for 1 to 3 minutes. Up to 5 minutes is fine. We will not rule anyone out on length. Filmed on a phone is fine. Show the guitar, then play it.
Posting the video publicly is optional and does not change your chances. If you do post it, tag #GuitarKitWorldContest so people can see it is a contest entry, and add #ad if you are in the UK. Then paste the link into the form. If you are not on social media, upload the file to Google Drive, Dropbox or WeTransfer, set the link so anyone can open it, and paste that instead. Tick the box on the form if you would like us to put it up on our channels for you.
How many times you can enter
One entry per guitar per round. You can enter as many different builds as you like. Each guitar can win once. A builder can win at most three times in a calendar year.
No entry fee
Entering is free. There is nothing to pay to enter, nothing to pay to win, and buying something does not improve your chances.
You do need a guitar built from one of our kits, because the build is half of what we are judging. Our kits start at 179.99 USD. The kit does not have to be yours and you do not have to have bought it. If someone gave it to you, or you borrowed it, or you built it for somebody else, you can enter.
About the music
Play something you wrote, something out of copyright, or a riff. If you play a full cover of a song someone else owns, we may not be able to republish the audio, and we will usually mute it or put our own music under the picture. That is not a mark against your entry. It is just how music rights work.
What we are judging
Two things, weighted evenly.
- The guitar, 50 percent. Finish, wiring, fretwork, the details. Upgraded parts count.
- The playing, 50 percent. Any style, any level, whoever is holding it. A clean build played simply beats a rough build played fast.
Who judges
A panel of at least two people from the Guitar Kit World team, including someone who builds. We watch every entry. If two entries tie, we score them again on the build alone, and the higher build score wins.
Your chances
This is a competition of skill, not a draw. Winners are picked on merit, not at random. How many entries a round gets varies. We publish each round's result on the challenge page, including how many entries it received, so you can see what you were up against.
The prizes
500 USD in Guitar Kit World gift cards every round, across ten builders.
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1st | 150 USD |
| 2nd | 100 USD |
| 3rd | 75 USD |
| 4th to 10th | 25 USD each |
We award all ten prizes every round. If a round gets fewer than ten entries, everyone who entered wins, starting at 1st place and working down. Prizes we do not award are not carried into the next round.
The prize is store credit for guitarkitworld.com. It works on anything in the store, including shipping, it does not expire, and you can combine cards. We do not set a minimum spend, but our cheapest kit is 179.99 USD, so most winners put the credit towards an order and pay the difference. There is no cash alternative. We may swap a prize for one of equal or greater value if we have to.
Taxes
Whatever tax is owed on a prize is the winner's to pay. In most places a prize this size does not create a reporting duty for either of us.
How you find out
We judge within 14 days of a round closing and email every entrant with the result, whether you won or not. Winners get their gift card by email within 14 days of that. If a winner does not reply within 30 days, we may pass the prize to the next entry down.
One extra step for winners in Canada
Canadian law means we have to ask you a maths question before we can award a prize. We will send it with your winning email. Get it right and the prize is yours.
Winners list
We publish the first names and countries of each round's winners on the challenge page and leave them up for 12 months. If you would rather have them by email, write to support@guitarkitworld.com with "Winners list" and the round you want.
What happens to your video
This is a competition to be featured. That is the whole point of it.
You keep ownership of your video. Entering gives us permission to use, edit and republish it in our marketing and advertising: our website, our email, our social channels, our ads. Editing means the ordinary things, trimming it, cutting a shorter clip, adding captions or our logo, and muting or replacing the audio where the music is not ours to use. We will never edit it to make you look like you said something you did not. We credit the builder wherever the format allows.
The full terms of that permission are section 9 of our Terms of Service, and entering means you agree to them. If you would rather we did not use your video that way, this is not the right thing to enter.
Your name and your face
If you win, or if we feature your entry, we may use your first name, your country, your image and your voice in the same places, to show the build and say who made it. We will not use your full name, your address, your email, or anything else you gave us on the form, in any public material.
Your privacy
Guitar Kit World is the controller of the information you give us. We use your name, email, video and kit details to run the competition, judge it and tell you the result, on the basis of the contract you enter into when you send an entry. We use your video, your first name, your country, your image and your voice in our own marketing on the basis of the consent you give on the entry form. You can withdraw that consent at any time by emailing support@guitarkitworld.com, and we will stop using it in anything new.
Entering does not put you on our mailing list.
We keep entries that do not win for 12 months after the round closes, then delete the entry and the details attached to it. If we have already published something that uses your video, that stays up and our licence to it continues, because we cannot unpublish what is already out in the world. If you would rather we did not use your video in anything new, email support@guitarkitworld.com and we will stop. We keep the record of your permission for 7 years after we last use the video. You can ask us for a copy of what we hold, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, or object to us using it. Email support@guitarkitworld.com. If you are in the EU or the UK you can also complain to your data protection authority. Full details are in our Privacy Policy.
Not our platforms' competition
This competition is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Meta, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube or any other platform. If you enter through a post on any of them, you release that platform completely. Any questions go to us, not to them.
The legal bit
We are not liable for entries that get lost, corrupted or delayed in transit, or for links that stop working. If something outside our control makes it impossible to run a round fairly, we may cancel or amend it, and we will say so on the challenge page. These rules are governed by the law of the State of Wyoming, and that does not take away any rights you have under the consumer law of the country you live in.
Last updated 7 September 2026.