Saga ST-10 Kit

My wife bought me a Saga ST-10 kit in 1980 with her first paycheck. She's a keeper! Back then there was no Harmony-Central mainly because Al Gore hadn't invented the internet yet!

Anyway, this was the bottom of the line, cheapest Strat kit there was. Plywood body, Maple neck. This guitar came with a Fender-esque wang bar assembly. With a little adjustment, I can go down an octave and mostly come back up in tune, except for the G string. I think it gets hung up at the nut.

I give it a "10" for features, because it's a copy of an original. Redundant enough?

cheapy pickups with pole pieces that were little magnets glued onto the top of the pickups. Still, it sounded "Stratty". Stratish? Like a '70s Strat I had and hated. If only I still had that thing....

I've since changed the pickups and now have two Gibson P-90s in the neck and middle position and a Gibson P-100 in the bridge position. Sounds like a fat stratocaster!

Since I did the pickups thing, I give it a 10 for sound. Otherwise, give it a 7 or 8 because the original pickups sounded too thin.

This was a kit, so the guy who set it up back in 1980 did a great job!The screw holes were all in the right places, except for maybe a couple. C'mon folks, this was a long time ago! Who remembers these things?

I liked the wood feel of the neck so I rubbed in coat after coat of raw Linseed Oil on it with an occasional touch every year or so. Now it looks satiny and has a "well-played" wood feel to it. I also put my wife's name in a Fender-style script on the headstock, because she's so nice!

My cousin played all over the West Coast and has a 1958 Stratocaster he bought new and he says this guitar feels just like his. Now that's a compliment!

Since the body is plywood, I painted it a nice robin's egg blue. It has mellowed over the years to an almost seafoam green. Great color!

Seriously, outside of an occasional tweak on the neck, this thing's been fine for 23 1/2 years!

I give the finish a 9 because I didn't do a very good job on it. My bad!

This is the main reason I'm taking the time to type this critique. I've had this guitar for 23, almost 24 years now. It's held up great!

I'm a bass player these days but I sometimes bring my "Verna" Sagacaster along in case our guitarer breaks a string.

Yeah, a rock solid and reliable performer.

Never had a problem to need customer support. But thanks for asking!

I own 16 or 17 guitars and basses, including a "real" Fender Stratocaster and a Gibson Lucille. I play my "Verna" guitar about 1/3 the time and the remainder of them the rest of the time.

Folks, this is a great guitar and you'll have a hard time getting better price/performance. I don't know how their kits are these days, but I just ordered one (on the internet!) and maybe I'll let you know!

This is the Saga made Strat kit. It features a 5-way switch, one volume, and two tones for three single coil pickups. It's your basic strat copy.

Body is basswood, and you finish it out how you want to.

The neck is maple and features a rosewood fretboard. The nut for the truss rod was recessed a bit low.

The screws in the bridge will be replaced. They are made of cheap pot metal.

I have put a lot of hours on this guitar and have not had any trouble with the tuners. I took the advice of another reviewer, popped the backs of the tuners, and greased 'em up real good. No trouble there. You do need to drill the holes for the screws for the tuners a bit larger.

One cheap cord was included.

I play this through a zoom digital effects pedal. Therefore, it doesn't sound much different than my standard strat.

I usually the 2nd or 3rd setting.

Without the pedal, it sounds like a squire affinity strat.

This guitar offers good sustain, an important quality.

The fretboard was finished well, and the frets were already in place. I did polish the frets with a Dremel tool. That really added to the tone.

You cut the headstock out to your liking. I cut mine like a standard strat. Trace this with a pencil.

The guitar was finished with a Light Peacan stain, and a soft clearcoat. It turned out beautiful.

You can finish the body however you like. View this website:
http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/kitbuild.html

The nut required a small bit of filing on the first string position to cure an odd buzz.

The electronics where nicely put together in the pickguard. I have not done any alteration there.

I have a nice low action. It plays like a $468.00 guitar!

Since I finished it, I'm rating myself a seven.

I played with this live this week and it rocked! I took my strat as a back up. I would take this guitar anywhere!

It's is good as you put it togther. The screws are cheep. Some will be replaced. Other than that, I'm more than satisfied. This was a wonderful learning experience. Take your time and do it right.

I'm already considering putting the tele kit together.

I purchased this from surfcitymusic.com. I did have some trouble with the adjusting nut. It stripped. Surf City sent me a new one, and I had it in about a week. They provided good service, and I would deal with them again.

There is no warranty.

I've been playing this for over a month now. Other than the cheap screws, it's a good kit. I would build another one. Take a look at this before you buy it :http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/kitbuild.html

it's good to know what you're getting into. I would consider this to be an entry-level builders kit.

It's sturdy, features low action, and nice sound.

I compare it to a squire strat.

This provides a good learning experience. When your done, you've got an awesome guitar, provided you've taken your time and haven't done anything stupid.

2003 probably China, 21 jumbo frets (nice), rosewood fretboard with 20" radius (nice), nice fast maple neck with headstock you can cut into any shape you want. Nice white 3 ply pickguard with 3 single coil staggered pole pickups (nice), vol. 2 tone knobs w/ gold lettering (nice), body is decent basswood with great light weight and good tone, but is in three glued together pieces like a Yamaha, so has to be painted to hide that, but no sanding was needed! Unlike my expensive Carvin kit. Strat body that will fit strat parts, unlike the Yamaha. tools. no gig bag or strap, 6' cheapo OK cord, directions and everything.

I play Hendrix style acid blues/metal/rock. Pignose G40V w/1x12, Crate MX12--sounds just like old strat through these. 5 distinct tones, plus the 2 tone controls for neck and center/bridge give standard stratocaster tonal variations and sound, almost exactly. A teeny bit less smooth and harsher. Nice acoustic sound (w/o amp) and good feedback character.

Guitar basically went together well. I read these reports and knew the tuners should be replaced, so bought Ping 14 to 1s for $22. I split the low E hole area when drilling out to 3/8" (should have had the drill RPM up higher a the start), repaired w/ gorilla glue. These also required shallow 1/8" holes which I marked by pressing tuner against wood. Cut to strat shape. Painted old Shoreline Gold. Dressed frets just a little. Red oiled rosewood and laquered the rest. Took a couple hours to set up perfect. The trussrod was somewhat hard to get to, but worked OK. This rating is for the result. Looks and plays just like an early 70s strat. Greater sustain. Had to put toothpicks in a couple holes and redrill, the rest lined up well.

Hardware is decent. I used teflon oil at the nut, tuners, saddle, bridge, string holder hole point, and trem spring end points. Strap buttons replaced with left over Carvin gold, which are a little better. I think I could gig w/o a backup, but would bring at least one of my humbucker guitars for variety. This rating is for the kit guitar with replaced tuners as recommended by others.

With this there is really no customer support except from yourself. Unless maybe parts were missing. It comes in a sealed box with everything in plastic inside.

28yrs. 10 other guitars, 3 amps, 2 full stacks, effects. If it were stolen i'd try to get it back. Failing that, I'd build another. I built the Carvin kit before. The Carvin kit is 50% better quality but over 4x the price! Sounds just like the Highway 1, I'd say, which would cost 500 +shpg, ON SALE (usually $600). Except the jumbo frets and flat radius which I like better. This deal can not be beat, if you a good with guitars and tools. Just follow directions and you'd have a good guitar. If you want a great one, you have to replace the tuners and use the teflon oil like I did.

This is a complete Stratocaster style "clone" kit. It has all the basic features of the Strat and is intended as a DIY project Guitar. As other reviewers have posted, the tuning peg hardware is inferior. We changed the tuners out for Gotoh's we bought on Ebay and replaced the pickguard with a black one as well as some of the knobs. We have posted a web page with many more details, including finishing details, at

http://www.thinclient.net/jsg/build_the_guitar_project.htm

The guitar turned out to be very surprisingly good. It sounds like a great old classic Strat, i.e. thin and tight, low output- single coil pickups. If you want to do a DIY project I highly recommend it as a great learning experience. It is also good for building a very good inexpensive guitar, but expect to put more money into it to upgrade hardware, finish it, etc.

The reviews of the guitar vary greatly, we found the kit to go together very well and the end result is much better than we expected. We did have it professionally setup after it was all assembled and added a graphite nut. It has an unusally flat radius neck which is very comfortable

Seems as reliable as any store bought guitar, but even better because it is a great platform to tinker with and try stuff out on

There is a website for the product, but we have had no dealings with the company. Since it is made in Korea I wouldn't expect much support

Overall, this is a very good product. You do need to upgrade some parts to make it a more professional unit. The experience of putting together your own guitar is a lot of fun and well worth the $$ and time put in.

Features

It's a Strat copy...

What year was it made?

Appears made this year (2003)

Where was is made? (Japan, Mexico, USA, etc...)

Somewhere in the Far East.

How many frets?

21? Didn't count them.

Solid-Top? Laminated top?

Solid

Which controls are given (volume, tone, 5-way selector, 3-way, tap, etc...)?

5 way strat style with volume and two tones

Pickup configuration? (S/S/H, H/H, S/H, Piezo, etc...)

S/S/S

Make and model of pickups?

Who knows!

Active or Passive electronics?

Passive

Body and neck woods? (Maple, Mahogany, Alder, Ash, Basswood, Koa, Plywood, etc...)

Maple neck, not bad, but not the clearest...

Couldn't tell you what the body is, but it's now painted blue!

Finish (Satin, transparent, quilted top, flamed top, etc...)

Sealed, but not finished.

Body style (strat, tele, dreadnought, cutaway, thinline, etc...)

Strat

Bridge style

Classic Strat

Tuners

While they're cheap tuners, the biggest problem is they aren't lubricated. If you've built or are going to build this kit, pop the covers off and put a dab of grease on the gears and turn them to work it in. Wipe off any excess. This way you can turn sticky crappy tuners into adequate ones...

Neck/Scale (Fat, Thin, Jumbo Frets, Rosewood, Maple, etc...)

I'd say slightly fat, but I'm no expert on this. Looks like Rosewood fingerboard. Needs to be oiled after the neck has been finished and polished.

Any included accessories? (Case, gig bag, strap, cable, tools, humidifier, etc...)

Cheap guitar cord.

Overall, considering how inexpensive the kit is, the parts, while not top quality, are quite workable. There's room for upgrade, but it does make a decent guitar that's fun to hack with and would be fine hopped up with better pickups and tuners, nut. Still a deal and a lot of fun for the price! I paid less than $100

Sound is ok, but I'm not a big fan of single coils anyway, so not a good person to ask...

I enjoy playing it. Set up makes all the difference. Go buy some good books on this, and learn how to do it on this guitar so you don't mess up other good ones you have. Once you're comfortable with your skills you can get brave on you babies.

Assembled well, no fit problems, however I did have to clean up the bridge routing slightly as there was extra sealer in the way.

Finish is great. I took 3 weeks to do it. Patience is crucial to a good finish. Again, read up on how to do this, and you too can have a really nice finish.

Same for setup. Read, understand, be patient and train yourself and you can get a good setup.

I give myself high marks for my great work.... ;)

Will this guitar withstand live playing?

Yes

Does the hardware seem like it will last?

Tuners could be better, and control pots will probably wear out with a lot of use. Nut needs to be harder. Otherwise all fine and all correctable, when it comes time.

Is the finish good enough to last, or does it seem thin and easy to wear off with lots of playing?

I've got about 20 light coats of lacquer that's polished and buffed. It is what you put into it.

Are the strap buttons solid?

Yup. Just to make sure, I put some epoxy in the hole, before inserting the screw.

Can you depend on it?

Definately.

Would you use it on a gig without a backup?

If I had to...

Customer support? Ahh ha ha ha ha.... I am customer support, so it depends what kind of day I've had!

Playing 27 years.

The guitar is what I expected.

I'd buy another if it was lost. It was a lot of fun to build. I've also got the P style to build next.

I wanted to have fun building a strat clone. I already have two strats...

It actually has some good features for a $75 kit. but it also has some bad ones. For instance, the tuners. They are the worst ones I've ever played. A quick switch with some gotoh's changes that, though. Other than that it has the basic strat features, no more no less.

I play a lot of sonic youth and altrock type stuff. So when i first got it I really didn't think it sounded half bad. A little noisy and the selecter was wired backwards, but hey what do you expect? It wasn't the sound i was going for so i took it all out (I'm saving it for another project), drilled in a slot for a bridge humbucker, and put in a dimarzio distortion. It sings now.

The origional set-up job was aweful. It wouldnt intonate, it had a lot of buzz, and the action would kill my hand. But luckily i set-up my own guitars. I recommend to anyone considering this kit to know someone who can do this. I set it up to where the strings were about 1/16th an inch over the 12th fret. Its a nice guitar actually. I now use it as my main guitar when i gig.

As I've said before,Its my main gigging axe. let me tell you I beat up my guitars. thats why i like this, I don't feel guilty about throwing it around about. It holds up wonderful for basswood. The neck is a lot sronger than i thought it would be too.

Great "beater" guitar. the right kind of thing for people to learn more about the build of an electric guitar. Its not all perfect, but with some new tuners and pickups your ready to roll.

This is a real world review, based on 17 years of playing and building many guitars. The kit was bought as something to do without forking over too much cash. I am being fair, so bear with me and pay attention if you are considering buying this kit.

Typical Strat-style guitar. All the same features as stated previously. Tuners are dreadful. Replaced those with a set of Schallers. The included cord is crap. It may be useful as a stringer for fishing, but it will probably break.

The 5 rating reflects this is a standard Strat-tyle guitar, no more and no less.

I play a lot of different music, mostly blues and classic rock. The guitar sounds very good. I was shocked. I was going to put a set of Fat 50s in it, but I think I'll wait. The quack is good, as is the single pickup settings. The pickups are smooth and have a nice airiness to them. Too bad the switch was wired bacwards at the factory. All the way back on the switch is the neck pickup. I'll have to fire up the soldering iron to fix this. No big deal.

The tone knobs have little or no effect until they are almost all the way down. This is due to the poor taper of the mini pots. Maybe I'll change them, but I honestly don't tweak the tone knobs much. Maybe I'll keep them for the cool cheap wah effect they give.

This guitar is very well suited for what you would use a typical Strat for. I'm basing this rating on sound alone.

BTW, this guitar is quite loud accoustically. This is a good sign...

Setup was done by me. I've done a few over the years. If you are afraid the action will be bad on yours, don't worry. It is quite good on mine. I set mine for 1/16" at the 12th fret. This is lower than I usually like, but it doesn't buzz. It could go lower. the neck is very good, although the 20" fingerboard radius is a little too flat for my taste.

The routing for the trem had to be elnarged in the backside so the trem would tilt more than 10 degrees. The opening needs widened with a dremel tool.

Don't trust them when they say the body is ready for paint. There were bumps and dips in the wood. Make sure the body is sanded flat and the paint will turn out fine. I used the recommended Plasti-kote acrylic lacquer. Use a clear coat after your color coat has dried for a day. Let the paint harden for atleast a week before wet sanding and polishing. If you do, the finish will be mirror-like.

Several of the pickguard holes and one of the neck holes were off center by half the hole diameter. I was able to cheat the screws into place, but it took some attention to get it right.

The low E string intonation was hard to set, due to the saddle not having enough travel. This was fixed by filing on the saddle a little.

The feel of the guitar is as good as any Strat I've played. Take your time and it will turn out fine. You'll need atleast some feeler gages and a digital tuner that can read pretty fine. The better you get this, the better it will sound.

The PITA woodworking flaws from the factory will knock the rating down to a 5. After correcting those issues, I'd give it an 8.

There is no doubt this guitar will survive live playing. With decent tuners on it, it is actually very good and stays in tune as good as any other non-locking guitar. The hardware is not top of the line, but it is serviceable. The basswood body is soft, but I'm not afraid to play it. The strap buttons are one of the better pieces of hardware. I'm not thrilled with the press-on wiring connectors. I'll solder the wires together when I correct the switch problem. I will use this guitar to play live so I can leave my good guitars at home. I'm thinking about getting the Tele kit to use as a backup/2nd stage guitar. No sense in killing your good guitars. These will sound good and play good. I'd rather risk a couple of $75 guitars than my Parker. I'll give this guitar a 7, it's not a tank, but not a toy.

Customer support? They have that? I'll fix it myself if I have trouble. Warranties are a joke anyway. It's the Wal-Mart "use it and return it" mentality. Stuff shouldn't come with a warranty. You should have enough sense to buy what you really want the first time. Try things before you buy them. If you can't try them, do your homework and bite the bullet. You pays your money, you takes your chance.

Onlineguitar, whom I bought this from seems cool. They (he) sent this to me and had it here in a day. Then again, I only live about an hour and a half away from there... He's a good dealer and the eBay thing went very smoothly.

I'll give it a 5 just for Onlineguitar. I don't know if Saga really exists.

Like I said before, I've been playing a few years. I can play a few tunes. I own more equipment than most music stores have. I've traded and sold more than that.

I would get another and may just do that. These make great "beater" guitars. They sound good, which is a major bonus.

The quality of the parts are equal to or better than the cheap Squier stuff. They won't break, but they aren't pretty looking. The workmanship on the wiring and the woodwork are on the poor side of adequate. They will work fine, though.

The best thing about this guitar is it plays as good as an American Fender (polish the frets!) and sounds pretty good, too. If you've got a hundred skins to blow, try one of these. It'll take you a week or two to do it right, but don't rush. The end results will be worth it. Be sure to get some good tuners. Don't even try to install the crappy tuners included. I was shocked at how good the neck and action are. I'm fairly pleased and I think I got my money worth. I'll give the overall a 7, just to round things up.

This is a Saga Strat kit. It has three single coil s/s/s/ configuration. The body is Basswood, which is my choice of wood :) the neck is maple with Rosewood fretboard with 21 frets.

I bought this guitar becuase i wanted a strat after years of playing Ibanez Shred guitars. I have to tell you this kit sounds far ....FAR..better than I expected. I played a Squier Strat before, but this guitar sound much better than a Squier. The clean tone sounds better than my $800 Ibanez S540 USA custom....yup...it doesn't feel to good to say that....cause that ibanez is my main guitar on stage.

The basswood makes it sound rich and warm. I love basswood. It may be cheap, but you should know that many pros like satriani, vai, petrucci prefer basswood.

The guitar is a kit. I bought it off Ebay from OnlineGuitars. He was nice enough to cut the headstock for me in the shape of a strat headstock. I paid him $15 extra for that, but it was more than worth it. I was quite scared that I would waste the money, but hey I paid $75 for this guitar which is not a big deal :)) I took the risk, but believe me, this is best $75 spent in my life...and i am not kidding. It is truly amazing.

The body came unpainted, so I got some Minwax Polyshade from Home Depot and applied with with a soft cotton cloth. It looks really beautiful now. It added a golden-yellowish glace to it. It just looks really classy! :) Beats any red, black, pink or any other sissy colors out there :)

The Action is unbelievable :) I got it lower than my Ibanez 540. It buzzes a little, but if the I set the action higher, it goes away, but thats fine. I practice a lot on this guitar, so I set the action to a point where I can play long hours without stressing my hand.

> Did the guitar contain any flaws?
My only complaint with this guitar was the tuners and the screws that goes with the tuners. If your screw driver slips even once while you are screwing those screws, you are screwed. I wasted so many screws that I had to use only one screw per tuner on some tuners, but it is okay....i will be replacing the tuners. I wish it had better tuners though :(

The nut was okay but I had to file it to get the first and second string a bit lower. The brige is okay to me, however, i made it fixed, so that i can get more sustain out of it and dont have to retune it every 5 minutes.

This is made of Basswood, but seems pretty durable. After reading some reviews here, i was a bit scared, but it isnt that soft really...but certainly not as strong as mahogany.

> Can you depend on it?
Of course I can. The neck is much stronger than I expected. I can even gig with it, but no without changing the tuners...they work okay if you dont bend a whole lot, but i cant play without bending some high notes.

Nope! I dont even know their website. does any happen to know.

Overall, I would definitely recommenc this guitar to anyone. I was sure that i would have to swap the pickups first, but i was totally wrong. It sound so beautful with some reverb and chorus. When overdriven, you can easily get some SRV or Hendrix type tone driven tone and Eric Johnson type clean tone out of it :) I am very happy with it. I use the 4 position for most of my playing. It is dead quite at 2 and 4 switch position....Truly amazing for a guitar within this price range....It is far better than any Squiers or cheap strat copies i have every played.

Just got it off of Ebay about a week ago (April 28th), couldn't tell you where it was made, don't really care.

21 Fret Maple neck with a rosewood fretboard. Headstock end truss rod adjustment nut. Frets need a dressing, but that was expected (and, in my case, wanted).

Solid basswood body, unfinished (you finish it yourself). Stratocaster shape, 3 single coil pickups (no swimming pool route). 6 screw vibrato bridge.

3 single coil pickups. Not the greatest pickups, but better than I expected.

The tuners, though, are junk. They work, but poorly. Poor tuning accuracy, stiff, inconsistent feel.

Came with a cable, some picks (Fender Celluloid thin) and a pack of strings (9-42, I believe, broke within 2 days :) )

Sound wasn't really a factor in my buying it. I was looking for a guinea pig that I would play Dr. Frankenstein on.

Anyways, unplugged, it sounds as well as the Mexican Fender Strats I've played. Plugged in, it's not that great, but better than some POS guitars I've played (Jay Turser Strat-copy, I'm not sure if it was a bad instrument itself or if the whole line is like that).

Pickups will be replaced, with either Carvins or Bill Lawrence (www.billlawrence.com)

Guitar came unassembled. Routing was accurate enough, the neck pocket was decent.

The body wood is ugly, but it sounds nice enough, and I'm going to be painting it.

* Will this guitar withstand live playing?

I don't know, don't care at the moment

* Does the hardware seem like it will last?

I'm replacing most of it.

* Is the finish good enough to last, or does it seem thin and easy to wear off with lots of playing?

I'll be finishing it myself. And if my finish rubs off after lots of playing, I don't care. Look at SRV's Number One. At the end of his carreer/life, the finish was practically gone. It still sounded great.

* Are the strap buttons solid?

Used Schaller Strap locks. They mounted quite nice, no slipping in the predrilled holes. I don't anticipate any problems.

* Would you use it on a gig without a backup?

Never, backups are a must. I don't care if you payed $20 000 for a guitar, if you don't have a backup with you, you're asking for trouble. String breaks and wiring problems always happen at the worst possible moment.

Buying the guitar was fine, no problems. I don't expect to deal with them again, unless to get another kit (which I may or may not do).

I've been playing for 4 years, I've only had one electric guitar till now (a Lado, Canadian maker, very nice stuff, I lucked out and got it [worth $800 new] for $75).

I bought it for the purpose of experimentation and practice at guitar-tech stuff (fret jobs, electronics work, bridge replacement, etc.). All in all, its what I was looking for.


My only real complaint is the lack of a 22-fret maple fretboard version ;)

Just an update. I was the second person to review this guitar kit in march of 2001. Since then I have replaced the nut, and i made up another pickguard with an alnico 2 pro humbucker in bridge position, and 2 single coils out of an old squier pro tone to change out my pickguard with the fender noiseless when I get the urge. I must really have gotten lucky by what i read in some of these reviews! My neck has not warped, it still plays beautifully and sounds great! I still havent painted it, and use it for songs that need the strat quack when i play out. Is it durable? HELL YES! I was worried that the basswood would dent up pretty bad, but it hasn't. Also the 2 guys i work with bought these and have also been extremely lucky with theirs. Maybe the older kits were better than the newer ones because i am still satisfied with it.