Saga T-Style Kit

It is a nice, stripped down typical Telecaster knock-off. 2 single coil pickups, sealed -not finished- body, pre-wired electronics. Spend a day putting it together and viola! your very own Telecaster.

It comes with a really well written set of instructions too. I believe that they were originally written in English too, (not Engrish or Chinglish)

In putting mine together, I swapped out the stock bridge and put a 6 saddle string-through-body bridge in there, just my own preference. $20 extra to the price.

The neck, fretboard, and frets were all very nice on mine, no adjustment necessary. Nice pots, switches and jack. Smooth, not scratchy, reasonably high quality.

My greatest complaint is that the body is sealed with a coat of laquer about 5 mm thick. I had wanted to stain it, but that would have required a lot of sanding. To its credit though, the wood grain is really handsome. I am going to get a black pick guard for it and it will look really snappy.

Very nicely shielded pickups, very quiet. The bridge is very bright and snappy, fairly powerful too. The neck is much thicker, darker sounding. In between, it has a good mix of the two. I am becoming a Telecaster only kind of guy. My main guitar is an Alverez 3 pickup Tele copy which I thought couldn't be beat, but that is more my 'idealized' Tele sound. The Saga has the 'traditional' sound and it is really good.
I went down to my local music store to play their Teles, and the only one that this could really compare with at all was the Fender American, seriously.

This really depends on the person who sets it up. I spent a fair amount of time on getting things to go together nicely. To assemble and finish the guitar to my liking I used a miter saw to cut the headstock, a cordless drill with a tiny drill bit for pilot holes for my mods and a phillips head to screw things together, I used a drill press for the string-through and the same cordless drill with a large bit to mount the ferrules, a little sandpaper, and a soldering gun to improved the electrical connections.
I agree with the previous posts that the tuning gears are cheap, but a little oil in them smooths things up nicely. I spent a good deal of time rewiring the guitar, since it came pre wired and color-coded, finishing it was a snap.

This also depends on the person assembling it. I took my time. I have about 10 hours invested into it. Re-wired it. Made sure all the screws were properly tight. I would use it without a backup on stage. And since it is so cheap, I probably will. I might even buy another to have as a back up for this.

Bought on Ebay from Slashman Music. Nice guys who ship very quickly. Saga has a nice website too.

Fantastic value and a wonderful learning experience. This seems like a good 'Father and Son' activity. If I had a kid, I'd buy this for him or her. Patience, attention to detail and a little experimenting gets you great instrument, and if you totally botch it, you won't be broke, and you'll have lots of good left over parts.

When I ordered it, I was afraid that the components would be so cheap that I'd have to put another two hundred bucks into nice components, boy was I pleasantly surprised that I didn't have to.

Although a completely good guitar on its own as it is, I wish that either the reseller or the company would offer a bunch of options to personalize it, such as different routings for the pick ups, different pickups, the string through bridge, upgraded tuners, upgraded pots. But, that said, the guitar doesn't NEED any of that to be what it is -- a great standard Tele at a price that is unbelievable.

This is an update on a prevous submission.

I had to sell my gear because of financial problems and was in need of a good, cheap guitar.
I am a regular gigging musician.
I got the kit on Monday and was gigging with it on Friday.
The only things that needed extra work were replacing the tuners and filing the fret edges.
I gigged with this guitar many times with absolutely no problems.
I play through an older tube Marshall half stack.
It sounded and played excellent.
I put a Fender decal on the headstock and nobody knew the difference.
I have updated my gear and rarely play my Telecaster these days but it is close by when I need it or want to change guitars.
This was the best guitar investment I ever made.
I have been around a long time and had 60's to 90's Fender guitars.
This is as good as any of them.

Standard modern Telecaster features, budget hardware and woods. Wood is sealed, quite useable as it is. Easy to finish if you want.

These pickups really sound the business. There was a review somewhere on the web by some college professor who tested the Saga strat-kit pickups on some computer, and he reckoned they were comparable to 50s Fender pickups. I can believe that of these pickups!

Like other reviewers have said, you need to set this up to get the best out of it. Cutting the paddle headstock to shape wasn't a bundle of fun; that rock maple is rock hard! The edges of the fingerboard are quite sharp and need sanding for that rolled-edge feel. It's probably as friendly as a Squire-type guitar before setting up.

Machine heads poor. I wouldn't use it live myself as I haven't bothered to set it up; over the years I've been using Strats, Teles, 335s and Les Pauls and I just bought the kit for a bit of fun. I've had my fun, but this would probably would be fine for gigging; it's just that it doesn't suggest 'quality'. But why on earth would you expect it to at this price - it's a workhorse.

I've been playing since I was 6 in 1968. I got exactly what I expected from it - a bit of hobby fun building and spraying it. I didn't do a great job of the spraying, and I'll probably sell it on cheaply as a project guitar. Whatever you want out of it, I'd recommend it.

I like this guitar. It rocks my socks off! Except for the tuning peggys THey seem cheaper than market shoes in the discouint aisle. Holy smokes thats cheap!

Sounds like a double cheeseburger going through a car wash on saturday night with phil collins jammin on my accordion. Yes!....that good!

More action than a dolph lundgren/jackie chan whack-fest. This baby blows it up. THe best thing about it is the action once you file the frets down, but other than that its ok for a while.

This thing is so reliable that if I needed a ride home from pork school this dandy boy would pick me up a pizza before getting me and then a shake too. I love the way it takes care of my fingers. DId I mention the frets hurt?

About as much support as saran wrap would give to dolly parton doing jumping jacks...but it comes with directions, and I found my way there. Not bad for the time of day that it was either.

Despite the shoddy tuning pegs and the sharp frets I found this guitar to be a real cinch to assemble and an even greater joy to perform to. There is that saying that when you have 3 friends you really have 5. Well..now I have 6. ANd then I also have this great new electric hand maid buddee. THanks to the powers that be that let me buy my friends for real cheap.
Other than that its not bad, but it makes the women like me cuz I am musishun and lets face it. All the girlz like that kinda story book ending.

First thing....The headstock comes uncut in a big paddle shape.
After reading other reviews I asked the seller if he could cut it in a Fender shape for me.
He said yes and that I should include an extra $20 to have it cut.
It came uncut and I had to spend more money to have it cut.
I asked the seller to return my $20 because he did not have it cut.
He said he would but nothing.
I asked him a second time and still nothing.
If you should buy one of these kits do not send extra mnoney for anything.

The kit.
It comes exactly as described.

I am amazed at how good it sounds.
I play through a Marshall tube stack.

To make a good gigging instrument out of this kit you need to put a lot of work in to it.
I finished mine in a copper metallic/clear coat and added a tortoise shell pickguard.
I also put a Fender decal on the headstock.
It is beautiful.
Assembly was no problem.
Everything fit the way it should.
My intention was to use this guitar as a regular gigging instrument.
The day I assembled it I had a gig.
After playing it for over 4 hours I found what needed to be modified or changed.
First off there was something wrong in the wiring.
I had to jumper a couple wires and splice all the grounds together to get any sound out of it.
After playing it for hours my fingers were sore.
Mostly because the edges of the frets were sharp.
After considerable filing they are smooth as butter.
I oiled the tuners before I installed them and they were ok for awhile but they got to where they were not useable.
I had a 1969 Fender neck and put those tuners on the guitar.
Made all the difference in the world.
The G string is dead sounding when played open.
I haven't figured that out yet.
I raised the action and it helped some but not completely.
I am using Fender Bullets 9's and the nut may be cut for 10's.
Not a big problem.
Since I replaced the pickguard some of the holes had to be redrilled.
All in all this is one of the best looking and sounding guitars I have ever played.
It is a keeper but expect to find some bugs and take care of them as you go along.

So far so good.
I have played at several jams and gigs with it and it performs flawlessly.
I don't expect to have any problems with it.
Everything that was a problem has been rectified.
Hardware seems to be same quality as Fender.
I do not use any backups when gigging.

Read above...

I have been playing more than 35 years.
Compared to American Telecasters this one looks and sounds better than any I have played.
I owned a 1967 Telecaster and a 1997 American Fat Telecaster.
If you should buy one of these kits pay particular attention to the reviews here.
Forget about the negative reviews.
You get out of it what you put in to it.
If you just paint it and slap it together you can't expect much.
If you put the time in to it to find and rectify the bugs you will have a one of a kind excellent gigging instrument.

I saw this tele-style kit on ebay and thought I'd take a chance. Overall I'm glad I did. It's got all of the basic features of a std tele, which is what I wanted.

Body is pre-sealed basswood (a few blemishes, but that didn't bother me). Neck is maple, with a rosewood fingerboard. It's also sealed. I was a little rough in places, but was easy enough to smooth down by rubbing for a while with a polishing cloth. I didn't paint the guitar, but instead put a couple of coats of tung oil on, which enhanced the natural wood very well. (You can also accomplish this in about 8 hours, if you're dying to get the guitar together).

As others stated, the tuning machines aren't the best. But I've got a Mexican strat that came with worse. I put them on, and they seem to be smooth enough and hold tune, at least for the way I play.

This guitar sound great, especially in postion 2 and 3. Very bright in position 3. But the neck pickup alone seems decent enough too. I'm actually blown away by the sound of it. I keep plugging it in and comparing it with my other axes, and well....I think it's better than both of my strats. It also sounds great acoustically, which is a good thing. It just rings.

The kit went together well. The neck pickup was a little bit of a tight squeeze into the routing, but it made it in. Although, this in turn threw off the pickguard. Fortunately I was also able to tweak that into place. The neck fit very well with the body. Couldn't ask for a better fit there.

Probably the most important thing to note about this kit, is that you have to do some setting up once it's together. You can't just expect to put it together and have perfect action and intonation. I usually find it takes my several days of fine adjustment to get a guitar just the way I like it. And the same was true for this. Spend some time with truss rod fine tuning, string height and intonation adjustments and it'll be just like you want. Otherwise you'll end up with a slide guitar :-)

I'd use this guitar live. No questions about it. The parts are all durable, except you might dislike the machine heads. Strap buttons are good, although they came out easily after installation. The screws were too thin for my liking. I put in some industrial strength ones and now the strap buttons are there for good. Of course, I wouldn't gig with it without a backup. I always have a backup - for string breaks, and acts of God. However, I would use another one of these for a backup.

Haven't tried anything here.

I've been playing guitar for 25 years. I have (or have had) almost every kind of guitar you can think of, LP's, Gretsch, Fenders etc, etc. I've had cheapies that are amazing, and expensive ones that are crap (and the other way around, too).

My style is blues/jazz influenced rock and this guitar is good for that.
Overall, I'm very happy with this and plan to buy the other 2 saga guitar kits.

Yes if it were stolen I'd buy a new one.

So, you've seen these Saga kits on eBay for $79. Are they any good? I just wanted to share a few comments. The bodies are three piece basswood, extremely well sanded and with sanding sealer. Basswood is a good tonewood for guitars. (The Line6 Variax is basswood.) The neck is very nice, chunky and smooth. Actually, you could get by without putting any more finish on it. The neck and body have the same number written in crayon on them, which suggests to me that they were adjusted for an individual fit. Nice touch.

The tuners are very poor quality. The other hardware seems solid and decent. I haven't tried the pickups.

It's worth noting that you can buy a neck just like this neck from Stew-Mac, a Telecaster style body just like this, a pickguard just like this, a control plate and bridge just like this, as separate components, and pay over $300. This kit is a GREAT source of parts for the cannibal. ,

I got this kit, really, just for parts and for experiments. What am I doing with it? When I started, the body, stripped, weighed 4 lbs. 10 oz. Leaving solid wood in a strip from the neck to the far end of the bridge, I routed out everything else from behind, leaving a half inch strip of wood around the whole guitar and 1/4" of wood on the top of the routed areas. The body now weighs 3 lbs. The complete guitar will weigh 5 lbs when I'm finished. I sanded off the edge where my forearm rests on the front of the body so it would be more comfortable. I cut off most of the headstock. I'm planning to install Planet Waves locking tuners into the routed out body. These will tune from behind the guitar and cut the guitar length by 6" and make the guitar more balanced. I'll also but in Bill Lawrence pickups and Q-filter, aiming for a jazz sound at the neck and a steel guitar sound at the bridge. I also may put in an RMC guitar synth pickup and control system.

All parts looked good and straight. Electrics were pre-wired. Instruction book was top notch. Tuners are okay quality 6 inline. Neck is very close match for early 70's style tele with 22 frets. Headstock must be shaped by builder, for obvious reasons. Metal components fit as they should and work like they are supposed to. Screw holes were pre marked. Pickguard on mine looked as if someone had tryed to modify the neck pocket with a dremel tool. Body and neck come sealed with laquer based sanding sealer. I used laquer automobile paint in spray cans to finish it. Overall great quality.

Good range of sounds for the rocker. Pots are limited for tone adjustment. stay bright until last little adjustment when they suddenly change. They are cheap. Replace them for serious music.

Action and intonation are easily adjusted by following the booklet instructions. Fitment is very good for the price. Finish is done by you, so any flaws are you fault.

This is my blues guitar. I typically use it for open d tunng and slide work. It will take everything I have done to it, and more. Very well designed and manufactured.

This is the first kit I have put together, and I am already trying to justify buying a few more just to have. They play great, are an easy introduction into guitar building, and can grow with you as your needs change. I have no fear of tearing it apart, putting a different neck on it just to "see what happens", and changing electronics to get new sounds. Tyhis is my experimental platform for all the crazy stuff I ever wanted to do to a guitar. Greatest bargain on the planet!