BUILDING A SAGA T-STYLE

Note from GuitarAttack.  Steve was an original member of the Kandahar Guitar Society, and we were able to get him hooked on guitar building in Afghanistan.  This is our first posted build by Steve, and it is a super job.  Thanks for the submission, Steve, and keep up the great work.  ATTACK!

Dear GA:

I am happy to report the completion of my Saga Tel-Stylee, aka Jamcaster. Built for my brother for Christmas, it made a huge hit, and I now believe I have been elevated to Guitar Hero status in the family. Attached are some photos and the Saga story. Thanks for your emails and website, its been a great help and inspiration in this and other ongoing guitar projects.
I hope to have my Squier overhaul finished this month and I am making some modifications to the Peavey Raptor to help relieve some anxiety my Fender Strat has been feeling with the Raptor in the same house.

Thanks again,

Steve

While engaged in an overhaul project on a Squier, I decided to take a break and build a guitar for my brother for Christmas.   A skilled bass player and a big fan of acoustic guitars, he hadn’t had an electric guitar in his collection for years.  The project took me just over 30 days, I had a tight timeline but I probably would have taken more time if I had it. 

I started with the stock Saga T-Style kit but based on personal taste and ideas from reading the Saga’s Sagas, I knew I needed to replace a few things in order for it to meet my expectations. 

I followed a combination of steps and techniques taken from GuitarAttack, in particular the steps in the Mattocaster and the T-Style Relic projects.  Although the frets and fretboard were ok, I did go ahead and dress the frets and stain the fretboard.  I had to do something while waiting for the primer to dry on the body!  I did file the nut a little to accommodate the Ernie Ball Regular Slinky strings. I also shimmed the neck with a small plastic US Army Warrior Ethos card (perfect fit!).  As a result the strings had to be raised really high on the bridge to compensate but the action was pretty good.  I did spend a considerable amount of time in the setup of the action and intonation of the guitar so that it would play well. 

The headstock is the shape of a Strat rather than a Tele because I love the Strat look- a classic, curvy and musical shape.  I used decals on the headstock just as described in the Mattocaster project.  I printed the sheet full of logo styles and then sprayed a coat of clear on it; the next day I did some practice runs and learned the technique.  The name, Jamcaster, is derived from those sessions where we should have been rehearsing or practicing (or in some cases performing live!) but instead we just jammed.  The “Custom 76”, represents the year my brother was born.  A critical upgrade was the tuning machines, which I replaced with some from Guitarfetish.com and with a little bit of work were easily installed.

I’ve always loved the sound of a single coil in the neck so I routed the cavity to fit a single coil and used a custom pearl pickguard and an overwound single coil pickup from Guitarfetish.com.  I wanted a warm clean tone in the bridge, but then something that would be full and tight with distortion, so I turned to Seymour Duncan.  I used 250K pots from StewMac and a Fender Tele switch.  If I had more time I would have tried wiring in 500K pots to compare the difference in the output of the SD bridge pickup.  I reversed the pots and the switch placement based on an idea from GuitarAttack.  I shielded the cavities and pickguard with some copper tape and shielding paint.

The finish has some flaws in it which was frustrating and most likely caused by my lack of confidence and talent in painting with spray cans!  Overall the guitar plays well, stays in tune and is a one of a kind- and my brother loves it.  Thanks to GuitarAttack and all of those who have posted their Saga’s sagas.

Steve Wellein, stw146@hotmail.com

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