Saga ST-10 Kit

standard strat features,3 single-coil pickups, 5 way selector switch, standard tremolo. the body is made of basswood. the body is thicker than other strat copies i have played. overall it is nice.

it sonds great. not much hum from the single coils and the reverse polarity middle pickup is nice. if you set it up right the action can be very low with minimum fret buzz.the tremolo does not swing out of tune to much. teh neck pickup os a little weak, but that will be replaced.

the action on mine was great, but i set it up my self. the neck pocket was a perfect fit. i left it natural but i will finish later. the truss rod did need a little adjustment.

so far so good.

i got it from a dealer on ebay and he was all to kind to me. the dealer was slashmanmusic. he let me no what was happening to my package and where it was. as for saga? i dont know

i loved it.i would definetly buy another if it was stolen. i've been playing for a little over a year now. i know a good amount about guitar in general. (Ex.; repear, setup,etc.) i am very pleased from the results and would not recamend this to a person who dosent know basic guitar setup, and construction. please email me if you have any questions on this guitar.

Basswood, Stratocaster-clone body with contouring and a transparent finish. Niceley finished Maple neck with unoiled rosewood fretboard with 21 "medium jumbo"-size frets. Controls are standard Strat fare- two tone pots, a volume pot, 5-way switch, and the helpful output jack. Pickups are sandard Strat stuff as well with three brandless (passive) single coil pickups (bridge pickup is mounted diagonally, like a Strat. The Bridge is a six-screw tremolo, with the strings mounted through the tremolo block and independantly adjustable saddles. The tuners are super junky chrome plated units. The kit comes with allen wrenches for the bridge, a super short piece-of-crap cable, assembly instructions, and a sweet padded sleeve that's handy for storing guitar necks in (if you have some sitting around like I do). Made in Korea.

Features are about what I'd expect from a guitar this cheap, but except for the strap bottuns, they are not on par with a nice (expensive) guitar.

I use this guitar primarily with a DOD Grind-IT solid state amp through a Digitech RP200 multi effect/ amp modeling pedal. I also use it with a Gibson GA-5 Skylark tube amp and a Gibson Mercury II (10" and 15" speakers in a single cab with separate head). Through the tupe amps, the Saga sounds nice and clean, with some bite with amp volumes high (maybe some overdriving). Through the solid state amp, the Saga sounds boring to me and somewhat "twangy." This guitar pretty much has one sound, and you have to color it with amps or effects (I am usually using five or six effects and amp models through the solid state amp to get a sound I like). This guitar is nice and quiet with switch in positions 2 and 4.

With the effects pedal, I find this guitar good enough for any of the styles I play, which includes folk-rock, punk (Bad Religion), other rock (Weezer, Cake) and some bluesy leads. I often mess around on the guitar though, trying to work out songs, etc.

Without the effects pedal, this guitar could probably play some classic rock, but not really much else as the tonal clarity isn't good enough to play lots of cords or alternating bass. The biggest probalem with this guitar through effects (heavy distortion particularly) is that it doesn't have enough punch to cut through a previous chord with another chord or bass run (the treble strings cut through fine).

This guitar doesn't sound great, but it is certanly acceptable, especially through tube amps.

This guitar is a kit, so any set up problems should be my fault. However, the nut on my guitar was filed too deep so the strings would virbrate on the frets, which makes un-pretty sounds. The frets and fret work were good, but not polished. The finish is thin because you are supposed to go for a solid finish over the sealing coat they give you, but I chose to just polish the sealant coat, which turned out to be pretty good, and it doesn't hold fingerprints much. The tuning machines are really crappy, and come out of tune very easily, even after being greased. The wood quality is nothing special, but not really bad for a guitar that costs less than $100, there are some knots, however and the body is made of at least 3 pieces of wood, which would be fine if you paint it a solid color, but you can see the transition lines with a clear finish. The screws and things are soft and low quality, but they work ok. most of the holes on this guitar were drilled in the right places, but the cover for the rear tremolo routing only lines up for three screws (of the six that it should have). One problem, the soldering work is very poor and the bullet connectors are no good either, also my guitar's 5 way switch only worked in two positions. The pickguiguard is nice and laminated white-black-white.

This guitar plays pretty well, and it looks good, which is more than you can say for a lot of guitar in this price range.

I don't play the guitar live, so I can't tell if it will withstand live playing. The tuning machines are very poor quality, and I would replace them with cheap sealed tuning machines before I played the guitar live. The finish I have on it is probably too thin for live playing, but if you do what the instructions say and use acrylic lacquer, it will probably be fine. My guitar has one light stratch on it, after about six months of fairly heavy playing, but playing isn't what hurts guitars. The finish on the neck is thin, but that has been a good thing in my experience. In six months of playing, the neck finish has noticably lightened where my hand has worn the finish off from normal playing. The strap buttons are very nice (nicer than the carvin units I have)and have foam pads so they dont hurt the finish on the guitar. I would depend on the guitar, but only afted I resoldered everything and replaced the switch with a better quality one.

Basswood is supposed to be a pretty soft wood, but I would think that with a reasonable finish, this would stand up to the abuse you can put some crappy agathis bodied guitar through.

This guitar is a Kit-- it has no warranty. I was missing the pot and switch knobs when I got it, and notified Saga. A few weeks ago I got pot knobs and a new switch, which was good because the original switch didn't work. Saga did what they were obligated to do, but it took three or four months to get the parts.

I have played mostly acoustic guitars, but I've also played a Guild X-50 (early semi-hollow guitar) and a Blade solid body guitar. Did this guitar sound better? No, but I cost less than 1/5 or what either of those cost. I think it is probably better than anything in its price range (and there isn't much) but I would be ashamed if it didn't sound and look better than a Squire (it should be able to kill a Squire). If I lost or it got stolen, I probably wouldn't get another because I am repairing an Alvarez Dana Scoop which I think will eat it for lunch. However, if I had 100 buck for a new guitar, this would be the one I'd get.

Bottom line: for a cheap guitar, this one is unbeatable.

This guiutar looks like it was made somwhere in Asia. It has 21 frets and a 20 radius neck. The pickups are s/s/s. The body is made of three pieces of basswood glued together. The guitar comes unfinished. It is a strat lookalike. Cheap tuners! This kit includes bad cable, cheap strings, and a whammy bar.

To me this guitar sounds great. I have not gotten a chance to play extensively on an am, but it has a good sound. The cable is useless. It buzzes a lot.

The person who made this guitar did everything a little bit off. There were no holes for the string claw which I had to drill myself. You setup the action, intonation, and pickup height. The instructions included are very vague. Us a guitar repair manualo for good instructions. The wood had a lot of flaws which they tried to cover up with spackle. I used a natural finish and there is one spot of spackle that stands out. The tuners do not stay in tune well

This guitar seems like it will last. I don't gig so I don' t know if I would gig without a backup.

I am my own customer service. Go to your local music store if you have any problems.

This is my first electric guitar. I will add a humbucker in the future and hope to change the tuners soon. The instructions were too vague and if you do not have any woodworking expertise I would recommend against this guitar. Other than that it is great. It exceeded my expectations.

21 jumbo frets, random radius (not stock fender thats for sure), SSS pickup config, 4 peice body.. yeah i said 4, cut ur own headstock, crappy tuners.

The pickups were suprisingly good, not like a squier, a step up. medium lows, high mids, medium highs.
They didnt really work for me i needed a high output lead pickup, so i replaced the bridge pickup with an EMG-81, its awsome. Im using it with a '73 Marshall 100w Superlead, so quite a few guitar sound pretty good on it. The guitar at first was pretty noisey, but then again it had no sheilding whatsoever. Unpluged, the guitar sounded pretty good, the four peices were tightly glued so not that much sustain was lost.

The guitar was set up nicely, well wait, i set it up, cause it was in a kit so yeah. the only question applicable is the routeing and screw holes. nicely routed, H-S-S route, so its not just the tone loosing pool route. all the hardware seemed a little cheap, especially the tuners, but what do you expect for $90?

I would totally say this guitar is able to play live, because i built it, i feel more confident and less synical about it. The hardware seems cheap, but i trust it, the tuners are.. yeah awful, i took the stock ones off my bc rich and its fine. i would gig without a backup with this, but thats cause i hate bringing to much stuff to gigs: stack, guitars, its too much to manage. but i would trust it alone.

I e-mailed Saga asking about the truss rod, that was the one peice i didnt trust and wouldnt you know it, the thing came unscrewed, they replied very quickly with very helpful information, the problem was easily fixable and they instructed me.

i played guitar for a few years now. i own a Jackson dinky, and a BC Rich jr. V, '73 marshall 100w superlead, '73 1960b cab, some disto pedals..
if it was stolen i would prob get another, unless some great deal came out on a gibson LP

Has all the standard Strat features,21 frets 3 single coils yadda yadda blah blah. Also comes with a very bad cord and strings. @ out of 3 pickups sound great,the bridge pick up is very very hot and the middle has a nice fat tone. The neck pick up was very indistinct i.e. the swimming thru molasses sound. I replaced it with a cheap Duncan Performer Scorcher single coil sized humbucker which helped incredibly. My only real complaint is the tuners,screwing them into the headstock is a nightmare,very bad metal screws and my particular headstock had a knot in the way of one,not fun at all. Other than that i going to get the nut filed down because with 10 thru 60s it is nearly impossible to play on the first fret.

I play Sabbath style metal and pschedelic sounding hard rock. I play a Les Paul and will never play this on stage. I got this as a christmas present and it fills the lets-find-out-what-happens-when-i-do-this guitar. As previously stated 2 of 3 pickups were good. It is a little noisy but thats cheap single coils for you. I have played this thu a Crate GX-212 and it sound ok except for the dual distortion channel.

Since you have to set it up yourself i cant really say anything bad about setup,but i wish that the nut was a bit better. The body was in nice shape and one piece. I personally painted it metallic blue but the wood was nice enough that i could have just sealed it.

I think that it would hold up to live playing,but i wouldnt use it as a main guitar if i were you. Hardware seems goiod for a 100 dollar guitar,strap buttons are holding.

Never even knew that the company had a website before reading it on this forum.

If it was stolen i would care but i would probably buy their new Les Paul kit. Its basically on the same plane as a Squire strat,only it requires more work. I think it is perfect for a tinkerer.

Don't know where this thing was made, probably China. Solid basswood top, two pickups, strat style. Came with a cheap cord.

Not the greatest pickups but O.K. Used with a Crate amp, good strat variety, not as good as the real deal but what do you want for 75 bucks?

O.K. I had a lot of trouble with this thing, the screw holes for the bridge didn't line up and needed to be re-drilled. The tiny screws for the tuners stripped and broke and had to be drilled out and replaced. The tiny hex screws in the tune-omatic bridge stripped out when trying to adjust the intonation.If you like freaking gargantuan frets you will love the neck, I sanded the frets down to a usable height. Tuners are CHEAP and don't stay in tune.

After a lot of modifications I like this little bugger, it kind of grows on you after you have spent a hundred hours jacking with it to get it servicible. It is a build it yourself guitar but you can't really expect to just screw it together and go. It will be as good as you make it. For a giiging guitar you will want to replace pickups and tuners.

Was bought at ebay auction from online guitar. After I whined to them about the broken screws and whatnot I got no response. I left neutral feedback for them and they promised replacement parts if I would withdraw my neutral feedback. No replacement parts were sent.

I've been playing for almost 40 years, owned Fenders, Gibsons, Taylors, Hofners, Epiphones etc. Do all my own setup work. If you want a $74.00 guitar that you can set up the way you like and won't have an aneurism if it gets a scratch in it, this is the one! It has a good neck, acceptable sound, if it were stolen or lost " I would be worried Lord, but I won't be worried long."

So I knew I wasn't buying a PRS or Gibson LP Double-cut, but damn, this thing isn't worth the $150 I paid. I mainly purchased it for the experience of building my own guitar before I dropped some real $ on a Warmoth (I figured I could afford to screw up now rather than spending $1000 and screwing up on a REAL kit). I spent a week painting it- I used automotive finishes from Advance Auto parts and was quite pleased with the results. Tonight I sat down to put it together, and nothing fit correctly. None of the holes line up, and the parts are pure, unadulterated crap. I began installing the neck with the screws provided, hand tightening with a Phillips head, and two of the four broke off and are now embedded in the neck. Looks like I will have to grind them down with a dremel and glue the neck in (which would probably give it better sound anyway).

Can't comment on this- I can't finish the damn thing because the screws broke off in the neck.

None of the pre-drilled holes line up. I did the paint job on it so they don't get any credit for this. The so-called "flame top" is so thin you can't sand it. They lacquered it at the factory, so if you are thinking (like I was) that you can dye it and make it look like a PRS, don't waste your time or your money.

No. No. No. No. No. No. (to the questions below)

Will this guitar withstand live playing?
Does the hardware seem like it will last?
Is the finish good enough to last, or does it seem thin and easy to wear off
with lots of playing?
Are the strap buttons solid?
Can you depend on it?Would you use it on a gig without a backup?

No warranty. Buy at your own risk. Think of it like you are getting a 1986 Yugo.

I have played for almost 20 years. I don't ask questions. If lost or stolen I would rejoice and buy something else. I like my paint job, I hate the junk parts. I compared it to a PRS Dragon II- no- more like my first guitar from Service Merchandise in 1983- a Harmony somewhat-like-a-strat-knockoff.

The kit is a strat-in-a-box. The pickguard is pre-wired, and the connections all have plugs, though i soldered them anyways. The tuners are very poor; all 6 of mine seem to work differently. Definitely get some replacements. The neck and body of this kit make the entire package more than worth the price. The pickups are meh. They aren't too bad, but they aren't great either.

The sound really depends on how well you set it up during construction. When I first assembled it, I'd have only rated it at about 4. Soldering the connections instead of using the little plugs, polishing the frets, and getting some decent strings have made a world of difference. I play mostly rhythm from several genres, and I'm always able to get the sound (or close enough) I'm looking for. The pickups aren't especially noisy, and I tend to favor the humbucking positions, which sound great.

The finish is really dependent on how much effort you put into it. I put a sparkly kelly green finish on mine, and it looks great.

I had problems with buzzing on the D-string, and the only way I could get rid of it was to place a shim under the neck.

Setting the intonation on this thing was hellacious. Initially there wasn't enough travel on the bridge for the low E-string, so it was almost impossible to get this thing to play in tune. Since I never use the tremolo bar on this thing, I blocked the bridge, and that seemed to help since it increased the string length a bit. It also stays in tune much better now.

The action can be set extremely low on this strat without buzzing.

Durability is really dependent on how you put it together and finish it. I have about 36 coats of clear-coat on mine, so it's just about bullet-proof. I'd definitely recommend soldering the connections instead of relying on the included plugs. I don't really gig, but I'd never use any guitar in a live situation without some kind of a backup.

I have no idea how to contact the company that made the kit, nor have I had a reason to. I'm my own tech support.

I've been playing for about 6 years. I use this guitar with a Behringer Blue Devil amp. I also own a Fender DG-3 acoustic. I've had other instruments, but they've all fallen victim to broke-college-student syndrome.

Don't bother buying this kit if you just want a plug-and-play experience. You won't get instant gratification.

I bought this for the expereince of finishing, assembling, and adjusting a guitar from a pile of parts. It exceeded my expectations, and therefore gets a 10 overall. I basically wanted an inexpensive way to practice, and this fit perfectly.

This kit would also be a great idea for anybody who wants a "Frankenstein" that they can experiment with.

If you really want to end up with a good quality instrument, the first thing to do when building a Saga strat kit is 1) throw away certain components in order to 2) maximize the benefits of the other components. For instance, the tremolo bar is soft metal and bends easily -- toss it and replace. Also, the pickups are weak -- I personally swapped them out for a single EMG 81 humbucker in the bridge position. This pickup is as much as the whole kit, but it comes with all its own electronics, and is the best sounding (and quietest) pickup I've ever used. The springs are just crazy-tight and are too big for the tremolo system -- toss them as well and purchase the smaller strat-style springs available at most music stores. Now you're ready to address the body...

The body is a good quality basswood carefully routed and sealed, and the neck is one-piece maple with a rosewood fingerboard -- also well done. These two pieces alone are what make the kit worth every cent, and then some. The body and neck may throw off younger players who have become accustomed to very wide yet slim necks, and skinny tapered bodies. Saga builds their Strat kits very close to the dimensions of the pre-CBS Stratocaster, which means the body horns are plump, the neck is thicker than many newer guitars,and the headstock has a lot of wood. This is all a very good thing, being that more wood means more tone and better sustain. Good strings like lots of wood.

The tuning machines are so bad that you shouldn't even take them out of the plastic bag. Just go buy some Gotohs or Grovers -- trust me. Otherwise, most everything else fits together well, and if you choose to keep the original pickup/pickguard config, minus paints job you'll be playing in a couple hours. The neck action, however, is well done. My neck required no fret dressing or nut filing at all. Yea, I couldn't believe it either.

This guitar is as tough as any Fender Strat. But guitars in general aren't built to be tough, they're built to be tone-full instruments. If you drop any guitar, it's going to be catastrophic.

NA

Excellent, but as I said, you're going to need better pickups and electronics, tuning machines and tremolo bar with springs. You're really buying the kit for the neck and body, which are excellent and comparable to any midpriced parts.

Ahh... The wonderfully delicate art of guitar building...

the usuall strat features (if you are not so sure what these are, consult a local guitar dealers). Usuall tuning stability with that classic strat bridge. Good tuners. Unlike some wankers, I don't get insomnia if I don't instantly replace all functioning parts with ones made in the USA (mexico ya fools).

The neck is a fat flat stratocaster affair, which is ideal for slow string crossing and lewd string bends.

It sounds just like a fender to my heathen ears. I have allready reviewed another guitar for you (Aria STG400 if you are despirate) which sounded nothing like as good as this one. Oh, I did pay #50 to get the dear old thing set up, which might have made a difference!

Rich fruity sound with distinct summer marshy overtones, and winter fires in the background. Hear the Elderflowers ready for the picking, and sense the little water-creatures as they scurry around the riverbank at dusk.

Oh hell...

I got it set up so that the tremolo leans forward at 45 degrees. When a string breaks... NYAROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPIIIINNNNNNNGGGGGGG!

I made this guitar a little under a month ago, and it has allready had a refinish. My other electric guitar a vintage Vs6CG (yes reviewed also, and yes that is how you spell crackly)can survive having my all american heeman slide dropped on it, whilst my poor old strat can't survive the impact of the occasional atom!

Apart from the string breakages, this is sound!

I live in britain where SAGA is a magasine for old biffers in the last years of their cake baking lives...

Try this DIY guitar for a laugh!