BUILDING A SAGA PRS-STYLE

From David Collopy

I completed a Saga PRS type kit last year and a picture is attached. This was my first guitar build and a real learning experience/labour of love with many mistakes made along the way.

Build took nearly 4 months in total. Finished the body completely with NC based products. Body colour is Fender Sonic Blue as supplied by Steve at Manchester Guitar Tech. Neck colour is amber as supplied by Tonetech Luthier Supplies. Made my on logo's for front and back of the headstock using the ink-jet decal paper method and acrylic spray.

The key points are that the body is finished in fender sonic blue nitrocellulose coated with clear acrylic. Pickups were swapped for Seymour Duncan P-Rails and wiring changed so that both pickups can be coil split giving various combinations of P-90, single-coil and humbucker tones. A very versatile set-up.

 I also added some Gibson gold control knobs to finish off.

The headstock was cut-out to resemble an ESP type headstock and the neck finished in amber for a ‘relic’ look.

 I made my own decals using inkjet decal paper and sealed these onto the headstock with clear acrylic.

Tuners were swapped from those supplied in the kit (awful) to locking tuners to improve tuning stability.

Overall the build went very well apart from some problems when first painting the body (I tried a cherry red and got many runs in the finish so I ended up taking it all off) and when I fried a pot and capacitor in my original wiring loom build (first time soldering) and in fitting the neck – very tight and some adjustment required.

The finished guitar plays very well through my Fender Deluxe VM combo and the range of tones possible with the P-Rails is excellent. It has received some jealous looks from my guitar playing buddies who still can’t believe I put it together. Now starting a fender thinline type build for my daughter. I’ve gotten the building bug!

Best regards.
Dave Collopy (Warrington, UK).

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