Note from
GuitarAttack: This is a great story. Lots of great
techniques and a Kill Switch!
From Toan
Chung
Hello,
My name's Toan and I'm now entering my third year of Dental School. I came
across your website about 2 years ago and became really inspired by your
Saga Sagas (especially your S-Style projects). I wanted a new guitar will all the
bells and whistles, but I couldn't go out and buy something expensive. So
began my saga. I used my dental skills to cut and shape many parts of the
guitar with a Dremel tool (an awesome investment for about $35 at Home
Depot. Don't get a dinky wireless one that will not do the job.)
I bought the guitar kit from ebay for $70, because someone started their project
with a terrible paint job and didn't want to finish. I stripped the paint
and started anew. Living in New York, it was hard to find a workspace to
paint, so I used my fire escape. I started with the complete red and used 3m
blue painters tape and some twine for the stripes. The paint I used were
just spray paints that I found at a hardware store.
I came across many frustrations with the paint due to my impatience. There
were points where there were drips and orange peels. I mostly tried to
sandpaper the areas or touched them up. I used a clear gloss aerosol
lacquer. I didn't know about how to shine and buffer at this point so it's
still a matte type of finish. I will eventually add a black paint to current
paint job. Hooray, I have a new Strat!
Since then I've started many guitar projects including hot rodding that
acoustic guitar with a piezo, a P90, and a preamp. I also did some heavy
upgrading for a modest amount of money to my Saga Strat. I added Schaller
tuners, Lace Sensor singles, a Guitar Fetish lil killer humbucker, a push
pull Coil tap, a new 5 way switch, a Floyd Rose bridge, Straplocks, and a kill
switch (due to Buckethead and Tom Morello influence). I also cut the
pickguard out of a piece of red see-through acrylic.
The only original thing left is the guitar body, neck, and output jack. This
whole project cost $450 and I used the other parts to fix other guitar
projects. The tone and playability of the guitar is beautiful.
I will continue with the saga and many new sagas. Thank you Guitar Attack
for kickstarting my new habit!
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