Saga Sagas!

Note from GuitarAttack: I love the headstock designs!. From Edsel Menzies A SAGA Tele Saga Hi guys, greetings from the bottom of the world! I finished building a T-Style Saga kit last year and would be honoured if you would add it to your Saga Sagas page. I also would like to extend my sincere thanks to you and the other Saga builders featured on your site for all the advice and ideas that made this build so much easier. Here's my story:
I've been playing guitar since I was twelve and I always wanted a custom built electric. When I came across the Saga kits I realised the opportunity had finally presented itself. As you can see in one of the attached photos it took me a long time to decide on a design for the headstock. That's 3-4 hours worth of sketches on those two pages. I knew I wanted something unique and personal to me and I finally found inspiration in an unusual place. A Bender bobble-head was sitting on my desk and I realised that a design based on one of my all-time favourite shows (Futurama) would be perfect. You could say that inspiration was literally staring me in the face! I didn't want something obvious like Bender's head or a Zoidberg claw, so I eventually settled on a design based on the shape of the Planet Express ship. I think it came out looking pretty good if I do say so myself! I almost managed to ruin everything when I cut out the shape though, because I didn't check the size of the tuning heads and when I went to attach them I found out that they only just fit on the head. I was just a few millimeters from cutting the headstock too short.
Prepping the body for paint was easy, there was no sign of the problematic sealant that other builders have noted and just a couple of small rough spots that were easily sanded out. The painting took place over the course of a six week period, starting with the white layer and using masking tape to create the single cross-section of my family tartan. The fat stripes were created with generic masking tape and left an OK outline but the thin lines were created with Tamiya model masking tape and left perfect edges. I'd definitely recommend using the Tamiya tape to other builders who want a thin mask with nice clean lines. Like a lot of the other builders have done before me I kept adding protective clear coat layers until I ran out. It ended up with a nice matte finish which I prefer to a gloss. Strangely enough the only paint I could find was gloss but I guess I somehow got lucky there. The 'Edselcaster' label was added letter-by-letter using some modeler's transfer paper I had left over from another project.
The actual build was pretty straight forward, the only hiccup I had was when I went to attach the neck pickup. The instructions said to screw the pickup directly to the body but I eventually realised I was supposed to fasten it to the pick guard which would allow me to lower/raise the pickup later. Apparently Saga have updated the actual kit without updating the instructions. The neck also had a massive concave bow in it but that was easily fixed through adjusting the truss rod. It's not the best guitar in the world, it has it's own little niggles and imperfections but I think it sounds pretty good and it's great fun to play. Plus I made my Dad massively jealous and that's always a nice bonus. Thanks for all your help and keep up the great work -Edsel Menzies Christchurch, New Zealand

Great job, Edsel -- great design and execution!