Building a Saga T-Style


From GuitarAttack: -- Very cool color and a Bigsby! Wow! Hello, my name is Nick from central/upstate NY (yes, where all the snow is, hahaha). My Saga Saga started off with a couple of ebay purchases, the first was the saga TC kit and the second was a bigsby-esque tremolo, a pretty good deal at 35 bucks. Once the kit came (which seemed to take forever!!!!), I began by scuffing up the body and spraying a silver Dupli-Color base coat on the body. While that was drying, I stripped the neck with steel wool pads of varying coarseness. I wet sanded the base coat on the body with 1600 grit sandpaper and topped off with 4 coats of Dupli-Color blue metal speck paint. I wet sanded with 1600 grit paper between coats and final wet sanded with 2000. I topped it off with 6 coats of Dupli-Color truck, van and SUV clearcoat and buffed with a drill-mounted buffer from Stew-Mac and turtle wax polishing compound. Once buffed to the desired sheen, I used Eagle One Nanowax to bring out the shine, and it looks fantastic. I stripped the neck completely, and I trimmed the headstock to the traditional T-Style shape. Then, I applied Formsbys tung oil over the whole neck and headstock. I bought a white pearloid pickgaurd blank from Stew-Mac as well and cut and shaped my own pickgaurd. As far as mounting everything, everything lined up like a dream, I barely had to trim the nut down at all to get some great action out of it. I masked off the neck pocket before painting so I wouldn't have to worry about an ill fit after painting. The tremolo went on pretty easily -- just a little lining up and the screws went right into that basswood body. I kept all the wiring and electronics the same for now, but will be changing it all out soon. I'm also waiting for a custom sticker to come in the mail for the headstock but for the most part, its all done. nick_mrozowski@hotmail.com