Saga TC-10

Unknown year made. standard tele features. Came with snading sealer already sprayed over the multi-laminate body. Looks like bass wood. Definitely paint grade because of the obvious different colors of wood used. Bridge was actually very nice with individual saddles for each string. Tuners are quite cheap, and the holes in the headstock were too large for the bushings supplied. I had to glue them in instead of just pressing them in. they are ok when increasing the pitch, but when you unwind them to decrease they do nothing, and then suddenly release too much. Like I said they are kind of junky. Once tuned, however, they seem to hold tune ok. Neck on mine looked great, until I found a raised fret. Had to do a home grown level job on the frets. Nut was plastic, and needed to have the string grooves filed a little to keep from sharpening the open chords. Fingergoard was rosewood looking, but nice. Came with cheap cord (usefull to plug into tuner only), and the allen wrenches needed to adjust the truss rod and string saddles. Paid just uner $95 shipped

I have to say that I was amazed at the sound. This thing really sounded as good as any Mexican Tele, and better than some real telles I have played. A++++++. I must say that the sound was fat and for classic rock style tunes it is great.

This is definitely crap in crap out theory. It is unfinished and is only what you make it. I took the time to file the nut, adjust the truss rod, lower the action, and dress the fretts. Also strobed it for proper pitch. Very low action and plays like a dream! Strap button holes were drilled too big, but an easy fix. Nice tight neck pocket. Neck pickup had a piece of foam for a spring, and I had to cut a lot of it off. to get it to the right height. I did not solder the connections, as the plug in arrangement worked well (nice and tight connections), then applied the provided heat shrink. electronics were fairly quiet, and smooth.

I don't play live, but it is ruggedly constructed, and should stand up to normal abuse

Like the others said Ha Ha

Have been playing 25 years. I own a 76 les paul custom, 81 Dean ML, 78 "The Paul", Ovation acostic. I would definietely recomend the experience of building and setting up the guitar. Wanted to gain experience before buying Warmoth body (pretty wood) and this gave me cheap experience. What I did not expect was to become so attached to the cheap little thing. I really like the way it plays and although it has a 20 deg. radius, it really played very very nice. I would definitely buy/build another one. By the way, I finished mine with enamel car paint from O'reily's auto parts. I used a medium metalic blue, with lots and lots of clear. I actually don't think you could tell it was a home brew paint job, it turned out so nice. with the white pick guard it looks like store bought. I did a tele style headstock and cleared it as well. Lots of compliments, and everyone is shocked when I tell them I painted it and built it myself. GREAT GUITAR!

As noted previously: + I ADDED Wilkinson brass 3-barrel bridge, Grover tuners, Duncan STR-1, reranch Butterscotch Blonde finish, Graph Tech nut and string tree.

Great. Sounds deeper and ballsier than a lot of teles, I guess because of the relatively soft body wood. The bridge pu is super rockin, if slightly harsh. Can be dialed in with tone knob.

Here's the equation: if you give a bad score in the category, you are not looking at this the same way I am. It's completely unfinished, completely un-set-up, nearly completely un-fit out of the box. This isn't an Ikea desk that you click together and it's finished; it's a box full of guitar parts. I spent hours on mine, filing saddle grooves, making the frets nice (level-crown-polish), shaping a nut, drilling new holes, plugging old ones (with dowels, not putty), shaping the headstock, doing the finish, and on and on and on. The main difference in price between $99 for this and $249 for a Mexican Standard is the time it takes for un hombre to do all that stuff - and Fender doesn't even level the frets!

The pieces are well made - good precision on the routing, holes, etc if you use everything they send you. The rest really depends on me.

Don't know. I got mine on eBay from Slashman music. I get the impression that they are very well run outfit. Communication was pro and shipping was blindingly fast (drop ship, <48 hours from purchase to door). I got the strat kit from TorresEngineering.com a long time ago and it was the exact opposite. If I were getting another, I'd get it from Slashman (not affiliated).

First of all, you have to look at this kit as a very usable body and neck for $99 - a fantastic bargain - PLUS some other stuff covering a wide range of quality/usability. If you think of it like that this guitar pegs the value meter HARD. <BR><BR>I am so stoked to have a real player for $99 base + <$200 in add-on parts (less than $300 total)... Okay just did a spreadsheet on this: $282.25 total for every part on the guitar except the tone cap (couldn't find/remember - less than a dollar on that). I'd spend a grand for a premade guitar before I could get something anywhere near this good. I think elbow grease is the way for me to go from now on. As soon as I pay down my credit cards from Christmas I think I will buy a neck and body ala carte from [allparts, warmoth, etc] and see if I can't make my dream strat for under $600 (I'll spend $300 on the pus alone). If you can get access to the tools and you enjoy the tinkering, you get a vastly superior guitar for a fraction of the price. No brainer.

Pretty much a standard Tele like others have commented on. The body came unfinished with some minor flaws, nothing that couldn't be easily sanded out. I actually think the pots are a lot smoother than I expected.

I had a lot of problems with the setup. First of all the holes for the tuners were drilled too big so I had to fill them with wood putty and then install. The tuners are pretty cheap but seem to hold the tune well.

The bridge pickup was a pain to install. It came with a large (way too large) foam pad underneath it that functioned as a spring. I ended up cracking the plastic ring that you screw the pickup into the body with because there was way too much tension on it. I was eventually able to super glue the thing back together, and with shaving down the foam piece I was able to get the pickup in without breaking anything. Now, however, I think I have the pick up set too low- it's really weak sounding. I guess I'll have to take it apart and try to shim it up somehow.

The neck fit the body extremely well, and except for some intonation, it was almost perfect from the beginning. I still have a little buzz on the high E that I am trying to track down. The frets are fatter than I am used to, but I expect I'll be able to get used to it.

I play mostly classic rock suff, but am trying to expand into a lot of different styles (jazz, country, fusion, etc.) I play through a Digitech modeler and a couple of stomp boxes into a Crate GFX65. As mentioned above, the neck pickup is way too weak. The bridge (and middle setting) seem to have lots of bite. Surprisingly there is absolutely no hum on either pick up setting. I haven't played it live with a band yet, and probably will use it mainly selectively for recording originals where it is needed.

Action is actually better than expected. I think the screw holes for the bridge, or the bridge pickup are a little misaligned- the strings seem to not be right over the pole pieces.
The finish looks okay- I painted it Lake Placid Blue which I got from the guitar ReRanch. If I had taken the time to sand it smooth like they suggested (600, 800, 1000, 1200........2000 grit) it would probably look
great. I stopped at 600, then used very fine steel wool followed by auto paint polish rubbed with cheese cloth. It seems to have worked fine. I made more of a Stat type headstock (mainly because I could easily trace the shape of my real Strat), so it looks kind of like a hybrid.

Hard to know if it will last. I replaced the screws for the strap buttons with some heftier ones. I suspect I'll probably use my strat more as my main guitar and bring this one for backup. I had originally thought that if it turned out poorly I could just smash it sometime during a gig, but now that I put the work into it I don't want to do that.

I've been playing for well over 20 years. I have an American Strat, a Hamer with a Floyd Rose and 4 acoustic guitars as well as a Peavey 5-string bass. I think this will be at least equivalent to the Hamer, which I bought for $150. It's clearly not the quality of the Strat, but again, for less than $100, around $30 in supplies and some time, I think it is a bargain. I bought it mainly as a way to get started making my own guitars- I may try the Saga Paul Reed Smith copy next.

This guitar had few, if any features. Not saying it's a bad guitar, but it lacked in this category. I'd played guitars with humbuckers, and i MUCH more prefered them over these. The single coils weren't enough for the fat tone i wanted. Nice tele style bridge, though. It wasn't Fender brand, but it still wasn't like a cheap, snap together bridge. The body is either basswood or alder, i think. Nice rosewood fretboard.

This guitar, like i noted, gave a relatively clear tone, unlike the tearing humbucker tone i wanted. Really can't complain for 80 bucks. I don't use that many amp effects with my playing. It seems to be alright there, though. The biggest complaint i have is the annoying tone associated with singles! The guitar it self sounded more like a bass then a guitar! I was so surprised at the tone! It sounds more like what a baritone would sound like.

Set-up? I didn't know that word existed with Saga guitars. It all came whatever the guys at the factory felt like doing! Pickups were pretty well adjusted, but i'm not an expert. The other huge complaint was the nut. Now, keeping in mind this guitar cost 80 bucks, the nut was slanted. It tilted, and the e string touched. I had to play only songs with no open bottom e. The finish was non existent. Not saying it sucked, it just came able to paint.

I'm not quite sure this would hold its own on stage. The hardware seems fine. The finish was not that well done, because i did it. The strap buttons were definately solid, which held my strap extremely well. It would definately be the backup guitar on a gig.

10! I had to order another nut, and the guy was really cool with it. I guess it was still under warranty, so he's sending me two for free. I'm not sure if it has a warranty, or if it does, how long it is. All i know is i'm getting two free nuts, so i'm happy.

The overall performance of the guitar was good. I only thing i wish i had was a humbucker. They also sold other guitars, but i liked this one the best. My favorite feature has to be the paint selection. It's completely open.

I was totally impressed with mine. It's a much better knock off of a tele then I thought. The bridge is a cross between a vintage 6 saddle tele bridge and much more modern one. I was actually planning on replacing it until I assembled it quickly just to test the set up. Works beautifully. The tuners are junk. The body is nice, has a very rich toneful sound. Mine did have some imperfections so I am painting it. It has a tummy cut which I wasn't thrilled with since it deviated from the normal tele appearance, but it is alot more comfy and don't think I'd really like a normal tele now. The pickups are made so badly and shielded so well that there is no noise at all. The neck pickup did lack screws and springs easily remedied but I may yank it out all together and go for an esquire look. The pickguard wasn't cut right. If fits, just not with the neck on, so I did have to reshape it. Nothing you couldn't do with a pen knife. After a quick snap together of the electronics and screwing everything together, it took me maybe 5 minutes to properly set the action. Works beautifully. Does need a few tricks of the trade to make it work superbly. It has snap connections. It can be easily saldered. I did not. After testing it, it sounded ok. I didn't feel saldering would do much but waste time.

This thing is reduculously bassy. I wasn't sure if I was playing guitar or a bass when I first plugged it in. Very rich top notch sound. I love it. I most likly will leave the bridge pickup. The neck pickup lacks a bit. No noise on either pickup. The pots aren't the best. I will most likly swich it out with some fender replacements. Although they are adequit. The tone jumps from high to low. I think the basswood gives it a very rich sound. It is much warmer and richer then any of my strats and any tele I've played besides actual vintage models

This thing was a bitch to finish. The sealer they used doesn't absorb much. I scowered off a few layers of paint. I had to consult an expert. HE had problems too. Although it all came together. The neck I found surprising. It was actually shaped like a tele neck at the bottom(square apposed to a rounded bottom on strats). The frets are most definatlly Jumbo! The neck is also quite think and supple. It's a damn good tele neck.

I would play this thing live. Most definatlly. I'll use a strat as my backup. The finish once totally finished will be very thick and long lasting. It should stand up to the normal ware and tare but if it doesn't it should be easily fixable. the strap buttons are solid. I can depend on it as much as any of the many guitars in my arsenal maybe more so (I have a few pieces of crap).

no clue

I love it. I've been neglecting all my other guitars. I always get lucky when I go on long shot guitars. I always manage to find the pick of the litter. This one is most likely a better one, I seen others that aren't half this good. I'd be careful with these, but if you have experance fixing guitars and about $100 to kill I'd say go for it.

Standard Tele features; single coil neck and bridge pickups. 21 fret neck, three-way switch for pickup selection, volume and tone.

sounds like an old Fender to me. Individually, the pickups hum a lot, especially if you're next to anything that generates rf noise, but when the switch is in the middle (both pickups) the hum is almost gone (humbucker technology).

I'm not going to rate this section because it is not applicable. I have a different opinion of the neck than most of the other contributors. I approached this as kit (duh) so I topped, crowned and polished the frets. The neck is very straight right out of the box. This guitar plays exceptionally well now, and I might even try some of Feiten's intonation ideas to improve it even more. I cut the headstock with a hand held coping saw and smoothed it on a belt sander. I bought decal paper from a model railroad shop and printed the name on a laser printer. The top was first coated in black acrylic, then brass, then copper in the center for a sunburst effect. Over that I sprayed gold glitter on the brass and silver glitter over the black, followed by multiple coats of Minwax clear water based urethane. I didn't like the white pickguard, so I used Krylon plastic paint to paint it black. Again I used silver sparkle and clear urethane over that. The last step was to buff the body on an industrial buffer. Any flaws in fit and finish at this point are my responsibility. Email me for pictures...

I'm hitting the stage with it in a couple of weeks. I think it will hold up. On a full set, I never play without a backup available, regardless of my primary guitar.

N/A

I've been playing for many years, but this is the first kit I've ever built. It was a great experience and I now have a truly custom instrument. I'll be starting a strat copy with a cat and mouse carved into the top in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned...

don't know when it was made, like most others.
tele style copy.
assembly was a snap, all holes drilled in the right spots. they forgot to include the step where you install the springs under the neck p/up screws for adjustment. they also do not give you any pre-drilled holes in the neck p/up cavity. if you don't get it in the right spot, it will not line up with the hole in the pickguard. once you screw it down a couple of times, you're screwed. start one screw and test fit the pickguard, if it's not right move the p/up and mark it before you put both screws in. they also jipped me out of the p/up hold down screws. the body is basswood, and mine was actually really nice. clear of any bad spots, and the seams are barely visible.
i finished mine with minwax polyshades. i know it says to use laquer, but this stuff works great, and looks awesome. even though the wood is sealed, the minwax went on and stuck. i applied 3 coats, wetsanding between each coat and buffing the final coat. i used a light oak color, which gives the appearance of a former blonde finish guitar that has spent the last 20 years being played in smoke filled bars. the color has a nice aged yellow tint to it.. it looks awesome. i give it a 9 because i spent alot of time on the finish. my efforts paid off in this department.

sound is ok...not great but ok. could use a p/up replacement with quality p/ups for best sound. but it is ok the way it is now. has a little buzz, typical for single coils. sounds like a tele to me.

action ??? what action ? the neck on the one i got SUCKS !!
after i cut the headstock design (i used a dremel roto saw, which worked great for this) and sanded it smooth i put my replacement tuners on (as you already know, the supplied ones suck)and the string trees. i noticed that the nut was sitting a little low, and at a slight angle but didn't think much of it. i put the neck on and strung it up...the strings were resting on the neck, even with the saddles cranked up as high as they would go! i had to replace the nut, and the only one i could find was too wide. so i had to file the nut to fit the slot. once i got it tuned, i had to tweak the neck quite a bit with the truss rod. i was able to lower the saddles to about 1/2 way, and everything is ok...but the action is really high still. if i lower the saddles, i get fret buzz. the action is a little higher than i like, but it's playable. the first and second frets need some attention on the bottom edges. (looking at the neck from the bottom edge) where the frets are exposed on the bottom side of the neck, they have burrs on them. very uncomfortable to play. i will have to file them off. the backside of the neck has alot of nicks, and small gouges in it...looks like it was made at 4:45 on a friday night if you ask me.
the other hardware is fine, and seems pretty heafty. knobs are nice, 3 way switch is good. the screws were ok for me, but other people have said that they had trouble breaking screws and rounding off the heads. just take your time, and use a really good screwdriver and they'll be fine. i didn't bother with the quick connectors for the electrics, i soldered all mine. the ground wire setup is not the best. they want you to run a ground wire from the control panel and wrap the wire around the middle screw that secures the bridge. not the best idea, because when you put the bridge assy. on, the wire is under it, and the bridge will not sit flat. it has the wire under it, holding it off the face of the body. it just looked hokey to me, so i ran the ground under a p'up mounting screw on the bridge assy. i installed a small ring terminal instead of wrapping the wire around the screw...that just seems so cheesy.

don't play live, don't know how durable it is. i just got it playable last night.
the strap button screws are a joke. i used some heavier stainless screws that actually fit the screw holes. the ones they gave me are way too small, and the pre-drilled holes were too big.

who ???

i don't consider myself a musician. i've been messing with guitars for about 10 years and i've had all kinds of junkers. now i am starting to build up a pretty good collection (i have 4 including this tele) and i wanted to build another one. (i bought and built the saga strat kit in 2003...which came with a much better neck than this tele) i play through a crate gfx 30 amp, and i used a little distortion, lots of reverb, and chorus sometimes. the tele will suit me fine, because all i do is play in the garage anyway. i'm not in a band, i just fiddle around for fun. this tele kit was a fair deal, just wish i would have gotten a better neck.
i have a saga strat, a 1962 kay hollowbody archtop, an $89.00 s-101 s.g. copy (which is a rock solid guitar with amazing sound by the way. bought it brand new for $89.00) and this new tele. so i have a range of different guitars to play with.
this kit was ok, but it's like all the others, you don't know if you're gonna get a good one or a bad one until after you buy it.
for $74.95, i think it's worth the risk.

Basically the same features as a Fender Telecaster, except that the strings don't load thru the body (fine with me!)
Body is Basswood, neck is supposedly Maple, but looks like it may be something else similar. Pickups are Tele-style, except that they have ceramic bar magnets instead of the usual individual magnet pole-pieces as on Fender (not so great). Tuners are not good, but I had a much better set on-hand to put on it, so not a problem for me.

Sound is basically like a Tele, but without quite so much treble sparkle as a real Tele, due to pickup construction. Of course, there's some hum with the single-coil pickups, but not as bad as expected.

Since this is a kit, this category is all up to the builder. The only flaws I found on it were two misaligned holes for switchplate and jack plate. Everything else fits very well. Also, the body is made up of about three pieces of wood, and there was a little craks between two of them that only showed up once I started painting it. Easily fixed with filler putty. There is a veneer of some blond wood on the back (?!?!?!) of the body which, if it had been on the front, would have allowed for a nice sunburst finish. Why they put it on the back is beyond me! The neck/pocket fit is very good, if actually a bit tight.

Yes, I think it would survive live gigs. It's plenty robust. I did use longer/bigger screws in the strp buttons, as the ones suuplied looked a little iffy. The rest of the hardware seems just fine, plenty stout. I'd never use it without backup, but then, that's true of any guitar for my purposes.

N/A...it's a kit.

I've been playing for about 25 years. I've had REAL Fenders, Gibsons, others. This guitar can be built into a very serviceable instrument. It needs better tuners and pickups, but all else seems completely workable to me. Of course there's no comparison to an American Fender or a Gibson, but I'd put it up against any other Asian-made guitar. For the $75 I paid for it, I give it a big Thumbs Up! These kits are a really good value, IMHO, for the guy who can do his own minor guitar repairs and setups. I like it!

i look at this guitar as 2 different parts, 1. the body is pretty nice for the money, basswood (according to saga web site). the pickups are'nt tele bright, but i'm happy with the sound of the bridge, the neck pickup is a bit muddy w/ distortion. basic tele set up other wise.
2. the neck, well the neck is a piece of crap, tuners are crap. i don't like anything about it, thickness, radius, frets, finish, etc...

the sound was better than i expected for the money, i've never put a guitar kit together, so i was'nt expecting much. pickups get some feedback, but what cheap guitar does'nt? playing through a crate td-50c, i can get some decent (to me) rock sounds with the gain around 5 and the shape between 6 and 8. some open tunings (ala keith richards) sound nice. it's a little thin clean, but hey it''s a cheap guitar.

about 80% of it went together fine, i dumped the easy connection wiring and just sodered the wires. i bought this guitar as a project, so i was expecting really having to do more work than i did. the bridge and neck were off a little, so about 10 minutes with a dremel and a drill i had it back aligned. as i said before the neck is crap, alround. i'm hunting ebay for a new affordable neck, oneday. the tuners are lame too, but i'm not worring about those until i find a new neck.

for me it's a project guitar, it's expected to break and need repairs. i've played it pretty rough a coupe of times and no problems yet. i've had a copy of the guitar player repair guide for a while, and was looking for a cheap-o to start learn more on.

been playing around with guitars and bass for probably 8 years. i've owned mostily strat copy guitars, fitted with bridge humbuckers. always wanted to try a tele, to get some new sounds and ideas. i think this guitar is better than the squire tele, for less money too. also, i've always been interested in building guitars and d.i.y. repairs, this guitar fit the bill. if it got stolen, i'd probably build another. i want to learn as much as i can, before i blow the biger bucks on building a nice guitar with warmoth parts.

See previous reviews for features... It's a Tele, nothing fancy. It's worth noting the neck radius is 20" which may not appeal to some players.

Stock pickups are a joke. Replaced them immediately with DiMarzio Twang
King neck and bridge pickups which sound awesome. I'm playing the tele through a Vox Valvetronix amp and Marshall JTM-30 combo and I can get a sweet, bright tele tone through both amps...

With stock pickups..2

With DiMarzio's.. 9

After reading the previous reviews, I was expecting to perform a lot of tweaking to get the neck and body into proper condition. Boy was I surprised. The neck was flawless, with the neck pocket tight and the nut needed absolutely no attention. Amazingly, the slots were cut exactly as needed for 10-46 gauge strings.

The body was sanded extremely well and was painted with ReRanch Shoreline Gold metallic with nitro clear coat finish. Looks beautiful.

The tuners provided with the kit are horrible. I upgraded them to Gotoh vintage oval tuners which required the tuner holes to be drilled
out slightly with my Dremel. No big fuss though.

It's only as good as I built it :-) I'd depend on it for a gig, but I should always have my backup guitars on hand for other purposes anyway...

None.

Been playing for 7 years. Also own a Gibson Les Paul Classic, PRS Swamp Ash Special, and Gretsch Streamliner. The Tele fits in perfectly with these other guitars. If someone stole it, I'd build another one...