BUILDING A SAGA T-STYLE

A SAGA T-Style "Esquire" Saga

From William S. <fuzzy.lumpkins@verizon.net>

I got the Saga kit intending to build an Esquire. I purchased the pick guard from Amazon, showed my wife, and asked her what color to paint the guitar - she chose light purple (it is sort of in the same family as surf green and daphne blue). I purchased a discontinued Fender ‘62 bridge / pick-up assembly at a bargain close out price. The tuners are Wilkinson Kluson style. The pots are CTS 250K and I used a Fender 3-way switch. The wiring is Elred Esquire (towards bridge: volume only, middle: volume and tone, toward neck quacky funky tone).

I assembled the guitar prior to finishing and the strings were entirely dead from the nut to the fifth fret. I checked the truss rod and it was not even tightened. The neck had significant back-bow and the neck pocket on the body had a lot of sealer in it causing the neck to tilt backwards. I scraped out the neck pocket and then bent the neck by putting a large diameter dowel between the strings and fret board (fifth fret), tightened the strings very tight (well beyond F#), and applied heat with a heating pad for ten hours (checking every two hours). While clearing the neck pocket helped, I still had to insert a shim when I installed the neck to tilt it forward. The dead spots are gone. I put on heavy gauge strings to keep the tension high, hopefully the neck will bend more and I can make a fine adjustment with the truss rod.

I painted the guitar body using Krylon spray paint “gumdrop” color. I intentionally did not shake the can prior to spraying resulting in white flecks in the paint (see photo). I sanded it with 400 grit sandpaper followed by rubbing compound. I finished it off with Krylon clear acrylic. The body shines more than the photos indicate. I cut the headstock to a Telecaster-like shape, masked off the fretboard, and sprayed the neck with clear lacquer.

Thanks

Bill
 

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