Thanks Wokka,
I'll have a look for that article. thanks for the tip about the level, too.
To be honest, I'm struggling on deciding which kit to go with, for a number of reasons. There are several kits that would do me quite well for jazz and some blues - tele, LP, 335 and most certainly would be more guitar than I can handle given my beginner abilities (starting lessons this week). I have enough power tools (orb sanders, routers, drills, etc.) and lots of hand tools from larger woodworking projects, so I'm just trying to get a handle on guitar specific tools I might need. It's quite likely I might do more than one kit simply because I can't decide. As a forester by training, I love the wonderful maple grains that I'm seeing on the LP kits.... but musically I think the ES-1 or maybe the ES-2 might be more what I'm looking for..... but logically the TL-1 would be a good simple kit to start with.
Dang it all, shipping is cheaper for multiple kits too. I'll just keep over analyzing things for a couple more days i guess.

cheers,
Peter.