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Saga TC-10

Summary
Manufacturer URL http://www.sagamusic.com/
Features 7.4 (32 responses)
Sound 7.8 (29 responses)
Action, Fit, & Finish 6.9 (30 responses)
Reliability/Durability 7.2 (31 responses)
Customer Support 5.4 (9 responses)
Overall Rating 8.2 (31 responses)
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Product: Saga TC-10
Price Paid: US $80
Submitted 05/27/2004 at 10:01am by jim katzin
Email: mantelclock<at>yahoo dot com

Features : 8
Standard Tele features; single coil neck and bridge pickups. 21 fret neck, three-way switch for pickup selection, volume and tone.

Sound : 8
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).

Action, Fit, & Finish : No Opinion
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...

Reliability/Durability : 8
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.

Customer Support : No Opinion
N/A

Overall Rating : 10
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...


Product: Saga TC-10
Price Paid: US $74.95
Submitted 01/18/2004 at 10:08am by rob riley

Features : 9
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 : 5
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, Fit, & Finish : 5
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.

Reliability/Durability : 5
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.

Customer Support : 1
who ???

Overall Rating : 6
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.


Product: Saga TC-10
Price Paid: US $75
Submitted 12/29/2003 at 05:46am by Dave Hughes
Email: dlhughes001<at>juno dot com

Features : 5
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 : 4
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.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 5
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.

Reliability/Durability : 5
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.

Customer Support : No Opinion
N/A...it's a kit.

Overall Rating : 7
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!


Product: Saga TC-10
Price Paid: US $69.00
Submitted 10/03/2003 at 11:38am by seanp

Features : 6
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...

Sound : No Opinion
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.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 5
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.

Reliability/Durability : 5
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.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 7
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.


Product: Saga TC-10
Price Paid: US $89
Submitted 08/11/2003 at 10:18am by Larry

Features : 6
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.

Sound : No Opinion
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

Action, Fit, & Finish : 7
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.

Reliability/Durability : 7
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...

Customer Support : 1
None.

Overall Rating : 8
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...


Product: Saga TC-10
Price Paid: US $89
Submitted 05/25/2003 at 11:21pm by Sal
Email: Salsg<at>hotmail dot com

Features : 8
Tele clone, same features as a Tele. 21 frets,rosewood fretboard, basswood body, two single coil pups. Comes ready to finish. I give it a 8 because the features it should have, it does have except for the string through body and the ferrules.

Sound : 7
I picked a Tele kit cuz I have two strats and no teles. It sounded kinda crappy, like a cheap squire. The neck was worse, thin and brittle. The neck wasn't so bad actually. I replaced the pups with Fender Vintage Teles, the ones on the '52 RI, and big difference. A/B'ed to a '52, the '52 was brighter, probably due to the maple fretbaord and ash body. My kit sounded like a tamed Tele, with a more "woody" tone, less highs, more mid-grit to it. Single coils are noisy, except for noiseless ones, but then most aren't really single coils. 7 is with the Fender pups. I suspect that the sound will improve with better wiring and pots, and a better bridge made of brass. I was able to get a similar sound to Albert Collins, which I like, through my Deluxe Reverb and Fulldrive, again not quite as bright, but it sounded good.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 3
Setup, after I put it together was crap. It needed the nut to be filed, the neck needed to a shim, the frets needed leveling, the pickguard didn't fit right, the bridge pickup almost didn't fit, and the pots and switch have a lot of static noise. I sanded/filed the edge of the fretboard and frets to give it a smooth rounded feel like the American deluxes. I finished it myself with vintage cream from reranch, and it looks pretty good. Better than I expected because I am not patient, and I'm not very good with my hands. The action was really high, 8/64" at the 17th fret. I took it my luthier, he did what was needed, and now it's at 3/64", lower than Fender spec. Take it to a good luthier and he can work magic. BTW, my '57 RI Strat is at 2/64" with no fretting out. After $20 setup, playability is 7.

Reliability/Durability : 5
I think this guitar is reliable enough. It's a little noisy, cheap wiring and pots, but works fine. Always have a backup cuz of string breakage. It stays in tune, and I got it to intonate well enough to play chords in tune at the 15th fret. Tuners are cheap, but they keep in tune. I plan to swap the bridge, and put in good pots, switch, and wires.

Customer Support : No Opinion
NA

Overall Rating : 6
Been playing a long time, went through many Fender strats, and a Tele or two. This was a project to see what it's like to build one since it was so cheap. After taking it to my luthier, it's actually a nice playing instrument, probably on par with a mexi fender. I would strongly recommend drilling the holes and making the strings go through the body. This was a big problem for me to get it setup right at the bridge. This will also increase sustain. I plan on doing that when I replace the bridge. I think the limiting factor for me was not having the right tools to what was needed, but I think I can get one setup well next time. Advantage to these are they are cheap, you can replace any parts you want to easily, and you can make it any color you want to.


Product: Saga TC-10
Price Paid: US $75.00
Submitted 05/14/2003 at 06:48pm by Vince
Email: vinboombah at hotmail<dot>com

Features : 8
The neck was stamped 2/2003, I'm guessing it was made either in China or Korea. Basic Tele Copy. Solid Basswood, not the prettiest wood, several large chunks, glued together, lots of blemishes, not really suited for a clear finish, it did however have a good sealant on it which painted up nicely with very little sanding. The only ding in the finish was one I put in it myself! I painted it with 3 coats of cream colored auto paint,some GM model#. I sanded between each coat w/ #1000 steel wool, and then 4 coats of clear, also sanded between coats, and finally polished w/ rubbing compound. I must say it looks damn good. I want it to weather some because it looks soooo new!
The neck appears to be maple. I traced a Tele headstock and cut it by hand with a coping saw and then shaped it with a palm sander and #80 sandpaper. It turned out great with 5 coats of Automotive clearcoat and lots of sanding and polishing. I also applied a fifties era Fender decal.( It's only a forgery if I claim it's really a Fender.) The bridge totally looks like a Mexican Tele. I don't know who made the pick-ups, but the sound fairly decent. I have to remind myself that this whole project has only cost me about $150.00 total, "What do you want for nothing??"
The hardware is decent EXCEPT for the tuners. I'd have to agree with the others, the tuners are cheap. I found some decent Kluson copies on eBay for less than $20.00, they make all the difference in the world. The ones that came with the kit look like Mexican Teles. I think that rather than including a cheap cable, which I don't need, they could pop for better tuners.

Sound : 8
I play mostly rock-a-billy and twangy stuff so it fits my style fine.
I play it thru a SUNN Studio Lead (solid-state) Good clean sound, haven't tried it distorted. The pick-ups are relatively quiet. The neck pick-up is a bit weak, bit I'm going to experiment with it.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 8
Obviously, there is no set-up. It's a kit, but I've done lots of guitars, it took 30 minutes, piece of cake. Fit was very good, I've seen complaints about this, but either I got lucky or they've gotten better. The neck fit was really tight, so was the pickguard.

Reliability/Durability : 8
Don't know why it would survive live playing. I'm not Pete Townsend. I don't really have a problem with the solderless connections, the kit came with shrink tubing to finish the connections. They should hold. The paint will probably wear off but I think Teles look better that way. Look at all the "relicizing" going on now. As far as playing a gig without a back-up. I never play any gig w/o a back-up guitar, strings break, etc..

Customer Support : No Opinion
Don't know about this. Hey, I paid $75.00 for the kit. Who cares?

Overall Rating : 8
I've been playing 20+ years, lots of guitars.
I would like to see them offer a maple fretboard and better tuners, but, hey, it's a cheap guitar, IMHO a good deal. You can make it as nice as you want. I can't rationalize buying a vintage Tele or a $1,200.00 reissue. I'm going to build a few of these so I can have all the different Teles I've always wanted. I'm about $150.00 into this one and I'm satisfied. As good as a Mexican Tele or a Squier with the pride of having built it.


Product: Saga TC-10
Price Paid: US $74.00
Submitted 02/21/2003 at 03:56pm by Greg
Email: Madrummer2004 at aol<dot>com

Features : 6
Probably made 2001-2002 dont know where it was made
21 frets
the body comes sealed for painting (or at least spray painting with auto paint which i did)
1 volume 1 tone 3 way pickup selector
pickups are some crappy wanna be telecaster pickups
body is telecaster style
everyone is right that has posted so far the tuners are horrible!
Cord Included

Sound : No Opinion
I play metal/jazz/improv/jam band stuff little of everything
Im playing through a fender roc pro 1000 head and peavey BV 4x12 cab
It isnt that noisy and actually plays pretty well
The sound is very twangy and at some times a bit hard to control It is great for clean setting on amp, but for distorted sounds you need to do a bit of tweeking to get what you want. For the price the overall sound is good. Although the tone control doesnt have enough control over the sound as i would like it to.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 7
Its a kit so nothing was set up. A Lot of the holes wernt drilled so that was kindof annoying. You get what you pay for though and in the end i got everything set up the way i like it. The body comes ready to spray paint a finish on it, and i did that and it came out really really well. Everything seemed to fit ALRIGHT some of the holes were a bit off and the routing was a little big at some spaces and the wiring chamber had large hole broken off of it from a careless routing job where the jack is soposed to go.

Reliability/Durability : 5
This would be a backup guitar for 1 or 2 songs that need that twang sound. No way i could use this for my main axe. When playing live it would be very hard to control.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 7
You get what you pay for. It turned out alright and its playable. The directions arnt the greatest and if i hadnt put together a few other guitars before i would have found them hard to understand. Ive been playing for 6 years. I bought this as a continuous project/add on guitar and i think i have my work cut out for me. Better tuners would be my first wish.


Product: Saga TC-10
Price Paid: US $89
Submitted 01/29/2003 at 11:25am by Rich Manson
Email: rmanson<at>core dot com

Features : 6
- 2002 Telecaster style guitar kit made in 2002, presumably overseas. I'm guessing Korea, based on the tuners.

- Body is made of basswood (looks like 3 pieces), includes tummy contour not found on traditional Teles. Body has been sealed with what appears to be polyurethane. It's already sanded and ready to be painted.

- Neck appears to be maple with a 21 fret rosewood fingerboard. The headstock is an uncut paddle type. Truss rod is accessed near the headstock.

- Standard tele pickup and control configuration. Pickups are generic foreign type. Electronics are attached with cheesy solder-less connections which are supposed to be covered with shrink tubing. Do yourself a favor and solder the connections -- it's not that hard to do.

- Bridge is a more modern style -- has 6 individual saddles rather than 3. However, the bridge is top-load rather than through the body. As an interesting note, I found out that late '58 model and all '59 model Fender Teles were top-loading.

- Tuners are cheap foreign junk made by Jinho Music Company. Jinho is based in Korea, so I'm guessing the kit was made in Korea. Samick uses Jinho tuners (ones of much better quality) on some of the guitars they produce for others (e.g., Guitarpunk.com). Having read other reviews of Saga guitar kits, there was no way I was going to install the cheap tuners. Fortunately for me, they forgot to drill the small screw mounting holes in the headstock. The problem is that the tuner holes are 5/16". Other than generic foreign tuners, every decently-made tuner is 7/32", 3/8" or 10mm, so I thought I'd have to made the holes larger. I ended up purchasing a brand new set of Kluson Deluxe split shaft tuners through eBay (only $20 -- what a deal!). The Klusons actually will fit with the tuner bushings provided in the Saga Kit -- no drilling!

Sound : 3
I'm not quite sure what the pickups are supposed to sound like. They definitely aren't made to sound like a traditional Tele. They sound rather generic and lifeless -- but that's to be expected from cheap pickups. I bought the kit with the intention of replacing the pickups anyway. I won't replace them until I'm done painting the body.

Despite the cheesy solder-less connections, the guitar is relatively quiet. I think this has more to do with the design of the Tele style pickups (chrome shield on neck pickup and steel plate on bottom of bridge pickup), than the actual pickups themselves.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 5
Fit? I don't think that Saga knows what that word means. The control cavity on the first body I received was routed about 1/4" too wide -- there was a visible gap on either side of the control cavity cover -- yikes! The person I bought it from replaced the body with a new one. The second body was worse! The neck cavity was routed too narrowly to fit the neck. The routing for the bridge pickup was not straight, causing the bridge not to sit straight. I took the neck and body to a local luthier -- Jon Hill (www.hillinstruments.com). He used a router to size everything properly and now the fit is very good.

After getting the body routed properly, I assembled the guitar. Saga pre drills all of the holes for you. I wish they hadn't -- most of the holes are not put where they should be. Several holes had to be filled and redrilled.

After the guitar was assembled, I put on the strings. I did a rough set-up and intonation. I also gave the truss rod several good cranks. At this point, the guitar plays decently when notes are fretted. When striking either the high E or low E string hard in the open position, there's a fair amount of buzz. I'm not sure if it's caused by the saddles (had to set them fairly low to get good action) or if it's caused by the cheap plastic nut. I think the depth of the slots on the nut is fine, but it looks like some of the slots are a bit wide for the strings, which could be the cause of the buzz. I'll probably replace the nut with one made of something better than plastic.

The polyurethane finish on the body should provide a nice base for painting (I haven't painted it yet). Because of the sealer on the body, there's no chance of staining or using any translucent finishes. Visit www.reranch.com for great products and great tips on painting.

Reliability/Durability : 3
I don't think I would ever play this guitar live without modifications. Cheap tuners and cheesy solder-less connections don't make for a realiable axe.

I've already changed the tuners and I plan on changing the nut, the pickups and all of the electronics. Once that's done, it should be fine.

Customer Support : 1
Customer Support? That's a good one. Stop by the Saga website and send them an e-mail and ask them where you can buy Saga products -- see if you get a response. The instructions to the kit just list a P.O. Box in California.

I purchased my kit on eBay from a vendor called Online Guitar. I believe that Online guitar is run by a guy named David Trent. David agreed to replace the first defective body -- but I had to paying the shipping costs to return the body to him. It then took a number of e-mails, several phones and 2 week's time to get the replacement body. Ultimately, he refunded a decent portion of my original purchase price to cover the routing problems of the replacement body that I noted earlier in my review.

Overall Rating : 5
I bought this guitar kit knowing that you get what you pay for. I've played guitar for 17 years and I've never built my own guitar. Ultimately, I want to assemble a guitar using parts from a vendor like Warmoth or USA Custom Guitars. Before I spent big bucks, I thought I'd start with something cheap. This way, I'll learn how to cut the headstock, paint the body, replace the nut, etc. with very little investment. The alternative was to buy a cheap Squire Tele, but I wouldn't have the satisfaction of doing the work myself. I've been accumulating decent parts for goods prices through eBay. In addition to the $20 Kluson Deluxe tuners, I picked up a brand new Kent Armstrong neck pickup for $14! When I'm done with parts and painting, I'll have about $250 in a guitar that plays far better than a similarly priced Squirer.

If you buy the kit realizing your getting something worth about $80, you'll be fine. If you're expecting more, you'll be disappointed.


Product: Saga TC-10
Price Paid: US $90.00
Submitted 11/30/2002 at 01:40pm by Gerry Bock

Features : 6
This is a Telecaster copy Kit I bought off eBay. Typical telecaster configuration, two pickups, 3way switch, one volume and one tone control. This kit has a Basswood body, Maple neck with rosewood fretboard, 21 frets. Comes with a prefinished neck and body. The finish is very heavy duty stuff, very hard to sand off if you want to do a stain finish. I tried paint remover and it didn't work at all. If you want to do the spray paint finish it is very well suited for this type of finish. No string-thru body, but comes with a bridge that can be used to make it a string-thru, which I did. Tuners with kit are cheap, I upgraded to Gotoh. Kit comes with everything you need,parts for complete guitar, allen wrenches and amp cord.

Sound : 6
I own a Guild d25m, Gibson SG Special, and a Springfield 300 (excellent 335 copy), so I was looking for a Tele twang to add to my sounds. I play thru a 1965 Fender Princeton Reverb and a Zoom707 pedal with pretty good results. I play in our Praise and Worship band at church and we play a lot of Christian rock. The pickups in this guitar are not that bad for being so cheap. You will want to shield all the body pockets and the back of the pick guard with copper tape shielding. This makes this guitar very quiet and it is easy to do. I have not had a lot of experience with Fender guitars, but this has a twangier sound than my other guitars which have Humbucker pickups. The tele pickups sound good but are weak. An upgrade would help out here, but for a $90.00 kit they have a pleasing tone.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 4
Ok..this is a kit. Be prepared to do a LOT of work. The pickup pockets were not routed big enough to even put them into. Be sure you check this before you start to finish the body. I did because I noticed right away that the holes to run the wires from the pickup pockets to the control pocket were not there. You have to shape the head of the neck to your liking, I cut my very similar to a Telecaster. The holes for the neck and body were not drilled straight and didn't line up too great with the neck plate. Managed to get it together because they must have had the neck on the body when they were dilled otherwise they never would have lined up, still the screws went in at an angle. I must admit that the neck to body fit was nice and tight.HINT: use a drop of liquid hand soap on screws before you put them in. It makes them go in much easier and keeps them from breaking. The screws in this kit are pretty cheap. The wires were poorly soldered to the terminals and I had to resolder some of the connections. The neck was straight and frets were well dressed and has a nice smooth feel. Pick guard holes didn't line up well, had to fill and redrill one because it was off just enough the screw wanted to go in at too much of an angle. The hardware was packed in plastic bags with no protection...some scratching of chrome pieces. The body and neck were in good packing and in good shape when I took them out. Action,fit and finish...it's all up to you and how good you are at it.

Reliability/Durability : No Opinion
This is a guitar that is only as good as you make it. Better tuners are a must. I am sure the pots and selector switch won't stand the test of time, but for right now they work and are very quiet. Strap buttons are solid because there is a long beefy screw to hold them in. This guitar is what it is, a cheap, fun kit to put together. That is why I bought it, to have some fun with. I could have bought a tele copy already put together for the same price, but I can have the same quality guitar, if not better, and say I built it myself. If you take your time and do it right it will take you a week or two to build it, the finish is the time consumer. Not sure I would gig with this guitar until all the bugs are worked out.

Customer Support : 1
There is none, only a post office box number in California that I found on the box. No phone number, e-mail or web site that I have found. Best of fortune, you are on your own, don't buy it unless you have the time and some woodworking tools, router, drill press, good hand drill and bits, and a ton of sand paper if you plan on staining it.

Overall Rating : 5
I have been playing for over 35 years and know my way around guitars. This kit could be better if they would have done everything they should have done at the factory, routing and drilling holes right. I don't think I would buy another one of these kits, would be better off buying each piece and start with better quality parts. I still have a problem with the high E string sounding a bit dead when played open. Going to have to work on the nut to correct that. I don't feel cheated with this guitar because I wasn't expecting to end up with Fender quality. I bought it because I wanted to put a guitar together and thats it. I basically got what I payed for and alot of fun to boot. When I get all the bugs ironed out, I will play it for awhile and it will probably go up for auction.

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