Building a Saga S-Style


From Tucker... Dear GuitarAttack, This is my kit story. Hope it's a good addition to your site. I bought this kit of the web for about $100 flat. I put it together over spring break '06. It is now 14 July and I have just finished making all the important adjustments. This was my first major guitar project and I am now in the process of building a mustang copy from scratch and I will be building a sort of double fat Strat copy next summer. Before I started anything, I put the kit together to check for kinks. the only problem was the neck pocket was too small so I had to shim it. nice tight fit now. I went to a local KC store for paint. My mom really liked this metallic blue stuff, and I had a good idea for a sweet looking guitar wit this met. blue. I could tell just by looking at these pickups that it was very worth it to replace them. I'm only fourteen, so money is quite a problem. I found some pretty unconvincing overwound single coils off the net. Black Pickup covers and I bought the knobs to match. I painted the guitar in our bathroom that we were currently remodeling, but my dad wouldn't be working on it for a while, so it was a paint booth for a week. I sprayed her up with blue and applied the U-POL Clear #1 from the orange can. This stuff is lame, after a week of hardening (can says it will be ready for regular use in 72 hours, it's automotive) it is soft as butter (relative to typical hard poly) I dulled it with 800-600g wet paper and then gave it 8 coats of MinWax Spar Urethane, after which I wet sanded and top coated it. VOILA! beautiful. The neck on this thing is lame. I tried to cut out the headstock in the old CBS fashion (I have a very soft spot for those Blackmore/Malmsteen/Gilmour three-bolt beauties from the '70s) but the headstock was too small and I just ended up with a really lame looking headstock. Also, the grain is real ugly and the neck is an uncomfortably thin "D" shape. about two weeks ago, I got a 10yr old squire neck, strictly because of the headstock. It was in a bad way. The back was green from play, the frets flush with the board in places- this sucker was scarred from many a battle. I re-fined with some more of that MinWax after carefully sanding out those green splotches. I also refretted it. I painted the head with the last of that met. Blue that's been on a shelf for three months and cleared the head face with even more MinWax. Great stuff that MinWax.



After replacing the tuners (the gears strip if you have too heavy a string gauge) the bridge, the p'ups' the knobs, the switch (hello, 7-way!) the neck and the neck plate (the stock screws snapped, mighty mite to the rescue!) I have a real great guitar. I just installed the squire neck yesterday, man, what an improvement. The seven way switch was a hassle, I soldered the wires backwards, (it's inverted!) The pots look like they should last awhile. This guitar was a great first for me, though it's really not for anyone as the box suggests, it takes a lot of know-how to get it up to par with a Mexican Fender, but it's worth it. It really isn't for the inexperienced, there is a lot of precise measuring since a lot of holes are off, there's some filling to do, finishing is super hard, even for me and I've been in shop for about 4 years now. Replacing electronics is really the easiest part, though I did had some trouble with the seven way switch and the clipper diode on the middle tone control, I had to get some help from my dad on a lot of things (an electrician and engineer, he's taught me everything I know about electronics) Actually, I think this would make an excellent father/son project, me and my dad had a blast with this. but make sure you hone your finishing skills before you make your first pass on this. But it really is fun. Good Luck and thank all you guys at GuitarAttack for having such a great site. I really enjoy looking at your projects, you guys are my big inspiration for doing guitar projects like this one. Again, Good Luck! Tucker BTW, I forgot to tell you how great these pickups sound for the money. Not thin like those really cheap Squire ones, it sounds quite similar to a '72 Tele. the only problem (and I can now see why they can sell them for $20) they all fit the bridge position and are too small for the pickguard holes in the mid and neck, but the resistance and leads wires are different. I would only recommend using them for replacing a bridge position p'up on a Strat, a superb upgrade from a cheap squire p'up on a budget. They are sold at GuitarFetish Store on eBay, a wholesaler. They come in three colors, cream, white, and black. Also, they have a vintage coil version, but I wouldn't risk buying them. I just got mine for the extra output, the black covers, and the low price. I highly recommend for an upgrade from a cheap guitar though.
Great job, Tucker -- Keep up the great work!