Saga TC-10

My kit came with a -very- nice looking two-piece basswood body. The glue line is hardly noticable. 1-ply white plastic pickguard. Maple neck with nice flat rosewood fretboard. 21 jumbo frets. Neck pickup mounts to pickguard, like a newer tele. Plastic nut. Cheap tuners that need to be replaced.

My kit came with a 3-saddle vintage-lookalike bridge, without holes for through-body stringing. That doesn't bother me, cos I wasn't planning on going through-body anyway. The box and directions still show the 6-saddle modern-looking bridge though.

Everything is stock on mine at the moment. I plan on replacing the tuners and possibly the 3-way switch. I may put a 6-saddle bridge on it eventually.

Playing it through a Digitech RP-350 into the "vocals" channel (2) of a Kustom 250 head from the 70s (one of those tuck and roll jobbies), into a 2x12 closed-back cabinet.

This thing sounds -really- good, for such a cheap instrument. It screams soulfully with a little overdrive in the center position, and twangs nasally clean on the bridge. It sounds like a guitar that should cost 5-6x more.

All in all, the fit and finish are mostly up to you. If you spend like $40 on 3rd party tuners and a switch, I give it a 9. As is, I give it a 7.

I put it together before finishing it, to make sure everything worked right. I'm going to shield the cavities with tinfoil after I finish it, cos it hums a little (unsurprising).

Some of the screw holes were very slightly off, but it went together just fine. The neck was just a shade too tight, so I had to sand a tiny bit out of the neck pocket. Also had to take a sliver off of the pickguard to get a good fit around the neck.

The bridge ground wire was a little too short to be comfortable. Another inch or two would have been nice.

The saddles on the 3-saddle bridge don't pivot, but the intonation is fine anyway. That being said, I'd never set up a 3-saddle bridge before, so... Yea.

I'm getting a little buzz at the bridge on the B and high E strings. That's with the crappy strings that come with it though. If the buzzing persists after putting decent strings on it and polishing the saddles after I take it apart for lacquering, then I reckon I'll shim the neck a hair and set the bridge higher. If that doesn't do it, then I suppose I'll be buying a bridge. No biggy; they're cheap.

The pots feel kind of funny when turning them. I'll probably replace them at some point, but they are fine for now.

The tuners are pretty bad.

The neck is great. It is a tiny bit thicker than I like, but I think all the teles other than the Baja are like that. The frets are even, well-leveled, and nicely smoothed on the edges. The truss rod was perfect straight out of the box. The string spacing is nice. I expect that it will be shreddable once the neck is laquered and smooth on the back. Lol.

The 3-way switch is a little flimsy. It's one of those PC board switches, and it wiggles a bit.

I don't gig anymore, but if I did, I wouldn't play live with it until replacing the pots, switch, and putting strap locks on it. The rest of the guitar is great though.

Well, I guess I am my own customer support on this thing.

I tried to call myself and ask myself how to adjust the saddles, but I kept getting a busy signal. Imagine that.

I've been playing for guitar for 15 years, piano for 25. I own a 1965 Stella Harmony 12-string flattop, 1966 Fender Mustang, Yamaha G235 classical guitar, Yamaha FG350 flattop 6-string, Harmony open-back banjo, Wurlitzer spinet piano, Korg Poly-800, Kustom 250 head + 2x12 cabinet, Crate Flexwave FW15R, Digitech RP350, Crybaby Wah, Boss chorus, Boss flanger, Boss overdrive. That seems like too much information. Lol.

If it were stolen, I would cry and build another one if I couldn't get this one back.

For $90 + $25 tuners + $15 switch and some elbow grease, you can have a guitar that plays and sounds like something in the $500-600 range.

I highly recommend this thing, if you are comfortable with setting up your own guitars and such. If you're just starting to play, you'd probably be better of buying a $100 Rogue cheapie that works out of the box, and then getting one of these once you are comfortable with setup.

yes, the telecaster kit. basic guitar, but really all one needs...i set it up and got everything right and am not painting it witt duplicolor spary laquers. white and clear coat.

UPDATE 9/01/2008:
oh, something else i found out on my ALDER body tele kit that's being sold on the internet...(and that i assume is made by saga too.) the headstock has the tuner holes WAY far apart in comparison to the neck, compared with the basswood body kit i put together. the basswood kit parts were sized just perfectly. so, to get a tele style headstock shape on this guy, i need to plug the holes with 5/16" wood dowel and redrill the holes out in the right places. when it's all finished the repair won't be too noticable, but it's another task that's going to require patience and time.

i have to say the quality of the alder kis is very good, but it's like the neck and body are just slightly oversized. i'm not sure what's going on here. cbs era fenders tended to be like this. everything got REAL BIG.

they may have fabricated it this way to discourage people from making copyight restricted fender clones.

it souds superb. it was a bit tricky getting the action set. but that is something that takes a lot of tinkering and experience.

i eventually loosened the truss rod about a quarter turn to let the neck have a slicght concave radius when tuned to pitch. at first, the plastic bridge pinched the top two strings. anyway, it is set too high so i filed it down and recut the string slots and then, finally, adjusted the saddle heights..

it felt 'scratchy' at first. but if yoiu burnisf the frets bu pressing the strings down and rubbing them back and forth across the fretboard this sets the 'crown' of the frets and smoothes that out

i got the action pretty low. but these are medium sized frets...and the neck is what fender ay have graded close to a 'd' size-meaning it's on the larger size in section. that's not to say you can't shave the neck, but i'm not into speed metal, so the neck is fine as is for me.

being a 'purist', i wanted to get the headstock shape as close to vintage fender. i got a few detail pics of a reissue model headstock.

the most time-consuming task thus far was to get the back side of the neck/headstock like the fender style. 150 grit sandpaper and patience and i think i did a pretty nice job.

it seems as solid as anything. the upgrade jack should take care of any problems. the truss rod was effective.

i put the caps in that fender uses. the kit came with one cap on the tone pot. fender uses a .05 picofard bridging from the volume to the tone pot and a single .001 picofarad cap on the hot leads of the volume control. it's available as a diagram on-line if you are interested.

btw, the pots do have a very nice feel and taper. i'm not going to swap them out for now.

i'g give this a 9....but i think the tone is mostly due to the pickup upgrade. that's well worth the money to do if you want good tone. playing it thru my marshall jtm 45 with a doug hoffman hand wired board set up and slightly moded by jame's audio in Dallas,i have to say there's really not more i could ask for tone wise.

so, $100 for the kit, $90 for the pickups, $4 for the caps, pots and jack, $12 for the paint and the neck will have gloss clear and amber provided br reranch...and maybe a fender decal off the web that's going to be another $20 or so...a bit over $200 sunk into the project.

yes, the kit arrived very quickly! i bought it on ebay on the internet, and i've also seen it a few other sites but for more money...

i was very pleased with the overall quality of the kit. the neck is indeed maple. it does have some brown streaking in the wood, but overall it looks fine for a clear finish. the frets are medium...but they were dressed well. there was a comment somewhere that the frets 'seemed to be wearing quickly'; well I guess i'll find out, but they look fine. i've bought a lot of after-market fender style necks, and this neck is one of the better...

the body is solid and laminated from 5 or 6 strips of basswood. one comment was that the 'body couldn't be clear coated'...well, it looks fine to me. sort of nice. the sealer is a lot better than the sealer on cbs fenders. anyway, for now i'm dry fitting the whole thing together and after it's all set up i may decide to have it painted.

the whole thing bolted together. the routing is very clean and tight fit is common. you need to use that screw driver that has a t-handle to get the larger screws in.

i tightened the truss rod up a bit. once it's all strung i'll set the final tension.

the hardware is well made and has good plate on it. btw, the guitar string thru the bridge, not thru the body as is the case on the standard tele. drilling out those 6 holes so close together on a basswood body...well that's tricky. good chance they'd chip out even if you used a good dripp press. so, i'm sticking with the kit's configuration here.

the pots are 'mini' type. they seem well made. i'll have to see how well they trim the sound. if i don't like it i've already ordered a set of replacements...250 audio and 250 k linear taper. also, an 'orange drop' capacitor. it's only a dollar, and they seem to be the rage among amp builders.

the jack-that's a thing i advise you replace. the one they send with the kit is a bit lightly made. a switchcraft plug costs 2 or 3 dollars but once it's in it will last years. i replaced mine. if you think of how many times you plug and unplug over time...

the tuner keys...well, a little light gauge but i popped the backs off and have the gears exposed so i can tighten the screws...i'm going to give tham a chance, but may opt to get a set of gotah's.

pickguard-very nicely made, usually these things cost 20 dollars at guitar center. all-parts probobly buys their pickguards from the guys in china who cut the one that comes with this kit.

one commet: p'ickguard didn't match cutaway.' actually, that 'hump' at the inside the cutaway where the neck conects to the body is a characteristc of an 'authentic' telecaster. if you look at any telecaster, that's the way the pickguards really are fit.

one comment 'screws seem cheap'; actually they're the same you get at lowes or home epot. i noticed the pickguard screws look like they have a nickle plate, not a high gloss chome plate. the large screws are chrome. the p-g crews do seem a gauge too small, but they fit fine and i can't complain.

the pickups: well, i bought a set of fender vintage telecaster pu's, so i'm not going to be able to say anything about what they sound like.

i saw a company that sells this kit with a set of 'upgrade' pu's for $260 or so...i paid about $90 with shipping for my pickups.

I had to trim out the neck p-u opening slightly using a sharp knife...the fender unit is just a little bit lareger at ends. on the positive side, it was easy to do and there's a super-tight fit there that looks very nice.

i downloaded and printed out a template to cut tele head shape. if your using a jig saw, try a 14 tooth per inch blade-it will go slow but you won't have any chipping. also, if you use a jigsaw, you will need to cut from the back...so your template has to be a mirror image. if you have a band saw you can cut from the top...and use the regular template.

so, it's all assembled except for the tuner keys...

haven't wired it up yet...

pretty darned good by any assessment. darned good for a kit that is mass produced in china and costs under $100. the body has a carved out back like on a strat...i guess they do that to avoid copy right issues with fender. but it's nice...sort of an upgrade in a way...

should be fine. everything is solid. neck is hard rock maple (you'll find out when you cut the headstock-that's hard wood)

possible down side: tuner key...
pickups-may not sound as good as real fender units. the 1/4 jack should be replaced with a good quality one like one from switchcraft.

i didn't need customer support

25 years, lots of fender stratocasters...including a couple with after-market maple bodies. guild deep body jazz electric, guild d-55, j-45...a gibson les paul, es-335 dotneck with soapbar pickups...

i play a marshall jtm 45 with a hand wired point to point doug hoffman board. also, i had a twin reverb i sold. for just messing around i use a small solid state crate combo.

okay, well i'm enjoying this project...i'm sure it will sound great. i may decide to get it painted, but maybe not. it's a good choice if you have some experience in setting a guitar up. correct set-up is always the key for any guitar at any price. but the basic guitar assembly is made about as easy as it could be. hyou'll need that phillips head screwdriver with the t-handle to get the neck screws in.

well i've been reading the comments on the saga tele kit here...i ordered one on ebay last night...so for $95 plus $24 shipping, it's got to at least be an interesting experience.

i had a ash body telecaster years ago and i traded it in for a giuld d55. since then i've boucgt 6 or so strats and set tem up with different pickups...fender custom shop, stock fender, seymore duncan, etc...but i've always had this longing to get another telecaster.

first, a lot of comments are saying the body sealer is real thick. well, i think that's cause basswood (if indeed it is real basswood) is really soft...and will ding unless there's a hard shell on top. i'm hoping it will look interesting/decent without needing to get it sprayed, but we'll see. apperantly it's pot luck how many wood chunks go into a particular body, which is common with aisia manutacturers because they want to waste no wood at all. some pic i've seen of the kit look like the body is made from balsa wood! others. the wood has a nice warm color to it. bass wood comes in a wide range of colors...so it's usually painted.

i'm hoping the neck and fiingerboard are at least equal to older fender stuff--made in the 70's under cbs, the equipment was sooo poorly made fit and finish wise...anyway, i think the new generation of customers doesn't appreciate how well even a fender squire is made! today everything is carved on a computer controlled lath...so fit and finish tend to be pretty good.

on the electronics, i always was thinking of an upgrade. i'm thinking about klein pickups-it's a company in north texas that specializes in custon windings and stuff. they price at about what anythng from seymore duncan would cost-maybe a bit less in fact.

as a side note to comments about the board being really rosewood...lest us not forget that even rickenbacker usus bubinga on their fretboards-that's a wood usually reserved for the lowest priced instruments. frankly, if they seal the board too, it tells me the fretboard most likely isn't rosewood, but some other wood that has a stain on it.

i have so many strats, and i really want a tele...so, i thought this project maty be fun..i'm expecting to not use the pickups, and maybe needing to bu a set of tuners because there's a lot of negative comment s on them here. also, i'll most likely put in pots from, again, klein. it is after all a very simply wired guitar so the swap is no big deal, and one of the nice things about the tele is how well the volume control works. you can really set the tone with the volume pot.

anyway, when i get the kit and put it together i'll try to write some non-biased comments here.

in my opinoion, the order of how any electric solid body guitar sounds is: 1. player skill, 2. amp/speaker type & pickups, 3. overall set-up 4. wood type (species), and 5. quality of wood (number of laminate chunks).

well well see

hoping for the best. expecting possibly a trip to the local refinishing shop. sometimes these folkes will cut you a deal and spray you the color of the day for a low price. or sometimes they just may want to groove a bit and do a 'vintage' finish at a well price.

i have to believe the wood parts are fine. the neck will be playable, the frets relatively even set and not too rough...but we will see. i'm expecting to replace the pots and selector switch.

i don't expect much from saga-from what i've seen their business model is to source out manufacturers to get these kits together for the lowest possible price. it is a kit after all.

well we will see!

Basic Tele kit from Saga

Stock pickups area crap, so figure on upgrading. I put in a set of vintage Seymour Duncan I got from Timber Ridge Custom Shop and they really made a difference. Now its really not a bad player.

Bad out of the box, but I can't say enough for the ebay guy I bought this from. He puts in the kit a set of tips on building that really make you think about building and are very helpfull. Plus he actually answers his emails and kinda long winded ! All in all, pretty good service.

Like most Asian stuff, its middle of the road. The only advantage is building to your taste.

Nothing at all from Saga, but the guy I bought this from, Timber Ridge Custom Shop, is great. About the only guy on ebay you can trust.

Well, its still a Saga kit, and you get what you pay for, but the experience was pretty informative and fun. Don't expect this to be a Fender like ax out of the box. Its not. But I do think if I made another I could make it as good or better than a mexican fender. Its really not too tough to do !

Tele-style guitar kit. White pickguard, tele controls w/o tophat style, bridge with 6 saddles and strings through back of bridge. Chrome of decent thickness, maple neck w/ rosewood and white dots, ALDER body prefinished. Head stock was paddle I cut to G&L shape, 22 frets that needed dressing, I pre-lubed the tuners, used graphite Ts instead, Big Bends nut sauce on the nut and back of string holes. Riuted body and pickguard for white open coil 10 Ohm humbucker I had. The wiring diagram was backwards and the neck adjustment was backwards on the directions, too! Only one hole had to be toothpick filled and re-drilled 1/16" over. I ran a ground from under the bridge plate to the common grounds and drilled for two extra mounting screws for the bridge, left it natural and put tung oil on my headstock cut. Intonated and set the pickups for proper influence. Dunlop 65 on the strings given. Shorted 6 screws!!! Required soldering which the strat kit doesn't.

I played it on my Behringer stack and my Orange stack. It will twang as a regular telecaster or crunch like a demon metal monster. My other telecaster has a twinblade bridge with coil splitting 5 way, so this is a different animal, without the bluesiness of the lipstick neck. It basically has two sounds as opposed to what it would have had. It would have been twang, rock on both, and blues on neck with a weaker over-all sound. It is such that you can play lead on either pickup, metal chugging rhythm on the neck or rock rhythm on the bridge. Sounds great!

This is a kit, so I had to "set it up". Frets needed substantial work then the board red oil as usual. Proper lubing of the tuners and nut is a necessity few seem to know. Like I said earlier some of the directions were backwards, and screws missing. It took more talent to make with soldering and fret dressing,etc. Besides the body having one screw hole off, it was great, needing no sanding or other work except what I did with my H neck mod. The neck lined up well. I set the action just under 1/8". The pots were good, tuners had phillips "deluxe" tightening screws and it holds fine, good sustain with the extra bridge screws and the lubing.

Everything was lubed and set up solid by me. Drop of glue in the strap button screw holes. The lube in the tuners will last years, while the Nut Sauce goes on at every string change and the string cleaner/lube weekly. It is very solid and could easily gig without a backup. The chrome is thick and durable.

I'm customer support. The dealer was a know nothing middle man.

It is and HS tele to go with my SH tele special, to go with my strats, to go with my Les Pauls, to go with my hollow and semi-hollow bodies, to play with or without effects through class A, AB, and solid state stacks and 1x2-12 or 1x12. I started to learn 43 years ago and am still learning. It is a very nice telecaster with a nice shape and look, and what used to be a weak bridge humbucker found its reincarnation as a monster neck pickup. It is a twanger and a bone crusher in one innocent looking guitar. The regular kit would sound OK.

Kit comes with everything...

Maple neck/rosewood fingerboard
Basswood 3-piece body
Standard Tele bridge
Neck pickup
Bridge pickup
etc etc

The wires were snap-together. So I took those off and redid them with solder connections instead. The ground wire was barely long enough.

Made in China, most likely. But trust me, this blows away the Squier Teles.

I play a lot of kinds of music- alt rock, blues/rock, metal, some classic rock. My amp is a Line 6 Spider III 30. I often use a Danelectro dist. pedal. I have no trouble getting those sorts of sounds with this guitar. It's pretty hard to get the ground wire to get onto the bridge screw entirely, and it shows. Depending on the gain settings I use, it can get noisy if my finger leaves the strings. The bridge pickup is very twangy clean, but has a very balanced tone when I crank the gain. The neck pickup is not so great. Although it is less harsh sounding than the bridge pickup clean, it isn't so great distorted- unless, that is, I'm playing blues stuff. In those cases, it does it's job well.

I had to finish this guitar on my own (I'll go into that in the Overall Rating section). The manual said that the neck was adjusted at the factory, but either that isn't true or it got out of whack in transition. Intonation was far from good at first. I got it professionally set up, and it's better. I still have problems with my G string sometimes.

It can most certainly withstand live playing. I don't play at concerts, but I do play at church and I know that this will hold to quite a bit. The tuners are gonna go at some point. They just plain stink. But for now, I'll live with what I've got. One of the strap button holes was stripped, and I replaced it with a Planet Waves one that had a bigger screw and that problem is now fixed. The finish is far from perfect, but that's most likely because I was the one who finished it, and it was my first time ever doing something like this.

No warranty. I have had to go to Saga so far...

Now...

When I bought it (by the way...if you get one of these, DO NOT buy from onlineguitar.com. Shipping took 3 weeks and customer service was horrible.), it came with all the parts that had been promised. I spent several days finishing it with 4 coats of Amber colored stain (for a Butterscotch blonde-like finish) and 3 coats of lacquer spray. I also spray painted the pickguard black to go for a '52 Tele style guitar. After spending a couple hours putting it together, I plugged it in. No sound. Took it apart and used the process of elimination. All the connections were good. The pickups, which I tested directly into the amp, worked fine. At first, we thought it might be the switch, which was of a weird design nothing like the Fender kind. Replaced that with an MIA switch, and that didn't fix the problem. Then I replaced the snap-together connections with solder connections, but to no avail. Finally, we found out it was the jack. Got a new one from RadioShack, and viola!

If it were stolen, I definitely wouldn't get this again. It was fun, but in the end, I would rather be able to just play it as soon as I get it. I put about $40-50 into this after paying the $80 + shipping.

It's a great guitar, but next time, I think I'll buy one that's already been put together for me.

About what you'd expect out of a standard telecaster.
tone and volume controls - not too bad, they are smooth, function well
and actually control tone and volume.
3 way switch - feels terrible (wobbly lever) but works fine.
no crackling, popping or anything else from the controls.
Tuners - throw them in the bin and get a set from elsewhere.
Body basswood - 4 or 5 pieces by the looks of it.
Neck appears to be maple with rosewood (or equivalent).
I would re-wire as the wiring is very cheap and thin. the plug connectors are not very inspiring either.

apart from tuners - using parts supplied in kit.
strangely I will give the sound an 8.
The pickups dont have a lot of personality but I play this through a fender g-dec and the pickups respond well to the effects.

Un-amped the body has a nice tone. I will be refitting with stl-1 and str-3 and adding shielding and new wiring at a later date.

There were only things wrong with this kit and they are small.
1. the scratch plate doesnt quite line up with the shape of the guitar.
2. the neck pocket had a wood tear which made it uneven.
This was non-visible and probably due to blunt router.
The electronics bays needed a bit of sanding to clean up the edges and seriously this was sooo easy to put together.
Neck bolts on super easy, and was a perfect fit, same with everything else.
All I did was shape the headstock, a bit of sanding, spray clear coat (and buff) and bolt together. A little work doing a setup, playing by the end of the day.

I dont play live so I dont know - I reckon with a good clear coat and stronger strap mounts it would do alright.

Didnt need it - everything was in there.

Been playing off and on for 20years. I dont gig but like to play.
I own a garrison acoustic, ep-dot studio, s&p acoustic, and a few other bits and pieces (bass, PA, g-dec etc)

If it were stolen or lost would I buy another? I dunno - I got a lot of gear and I have another tele on the way from warmoth (although it's costing a bucket)

For $200aud delivered via priority to australia and the fit of the neck and ease of setup, this is a very good buy.
Over time, I would replace just about all except the body and neck to bring this up to great status.

Same configuration as listed in other reviews. All hardware and electronics are no-name components. Cheap no-name components. This is a no frills guitar project. I had a lot of fun putting it together, but it also showed me how poorly this product was made.

Sound is pretty bright and it does have a twangy bite. It is a harsh sound, though. I don't really care much for the sound unless I put it through my Behringer V-Amp2. Even this sounds good when you use the V-Amp. It's hard to tone this sound down. The tone pot takes you from nothing to almost full on treble in about 1/8 turn. The volume control is a little better, but still not very responsive. Anyway, all the other cheap guitars I own sound much better than this. Much better.

The body is actually not too bad. The best part of the whole damn thing. The nut is okay too, but still, really cheap. I had to paint it myself, which I enjoyed. It turned out to be a beautiful guitar. Most of the screwholes lined up with the pickguard and in general, things went together, sometimes though, it was a battle. The wiring setup is so cheesy. I already had to replace the tone pot because the stem came completely out of the pot! And one of the tuning machines just broke off when I was tuning the b string. Never happened to me before in my life. I barely played this thing and it is falling apart! The neck is atrocious. It is playable, but just barely. It just looks so good.

I would leave this wretched monster at home. Better yet, somebody else's home. If you just feel like putting a guitar together, yeah, it fits the bill. It's just that you can buy a much better tele copy that already has a finish and better hardware for about the same price, if not cheaper! I know a lot of people love these kit guitars, and it is enjoyable to mess with it. What you end up with is not really a usable instrument, just something pretty to look at. I think most of these high ratings are just due to the fact people think they're getting a nice guitar for the money. I happen to disagree with that. Any Johnson or Jay Turser tele blows this one away.

I don't even know if they have a customer support.

Since it was an enjoyable experience, up to the point of actual playing, I have to give it a little better rating than it deserves. I won't ever buy another cheap guitar kit. I sunk a lot of money into another junk guitar and by the time I got it decent and playable, I could've bought a nice guitar to start with. My other cheap guitars are miles ahead of this thing. When you bang a chord on this, the neck vibrates somewhere inside. It feels like it will fall apart at any time. But it sure is pretty. MMMMM!

Standard tele stuff. I threw away the tuners, and put on a set of grovers. I really like the classic bridge w/ individual string height and intonation. It has a comfy feel to it. The frets are a bit too big, but overall nice. It only means that shredding is not what this axe is made for...and since I do not "shred", I am ok with that! I like the feature that I could shape the headstock to my own liking. The only issues I have/had w/ the kit is that some of the pre-drilled holes were not exact for the screws themselves. i.e. the screws do not lock tightly, rather set and spin in the holes. There weren't many like this, I think one of the strap buttons, one of the string trees, and one og the bridge screws, but with alert handling, it will be fine. The other issue I had was the instructions did not state exactly which screws were for which holes. This took some patience and common sense (how many screws to the ratio of how many holes). Overall a tremendous learning experience. The guitar is much lighter than my Ibanez, and VERY comfortable to play. The balance is nice, and the cut away portion allows effortless access to the highest frets!

Well, the stock pickups sound like a tin can. However, I did not get the kit with the intent of using the crap that came w/ the guitar. For a $100 kit, how good can the pups be? The bridge is WAY to loud and "tinny", and the neck is totally useless! I got a set of GFS twinblade style pups for $60 (for the pair), and they sound great! I also replaced the pots w/ 500k. The natural "acoustic" sound of the guitar is unreal! Really! I am blown away by this! So the sound potential is there, you just need suitable electronics. Even though the stock electronics absolutely suck, I will rate this a 9 because of the raw potential of the guitar. A little TLC and you will have a GREAT GUITAR!
I am playing it with a Yamaha MagicStomp II through a Peavy Classic 30, and every nuance I need out of the guitar is there!

First of all, understand that this is a pre-fabricated kit. All guitars are unique in how every little piece fits together. The company only followed a pre-laid out basic guidline. Expect to come across some snags. But in the end, you will have a truely custom guitar. The neck sat so high in the joint that the finger-board literally sat like 1/3" above the body! I had the heel of the neck planed down to correct this, then added a shem to angle it just right. Expect some sort of set backs! Other than that, which has been corrected, the guitar as a whole is great! The wieght, balance, feel and playability are fantastic. I have had several people play this baby, and all are fully impressed at the way it feels, plays and sounds! This is a thing where you will get out of it exactly what you put into it! If you want to put it right together and play it, it will be ok, but if you patiently take your time, and think the project through, it will be a great axe! I spent like a month on it. My wife said if I ever do another kit again, I will be a single man! But the result of my labor is a guitar I will take and play anywhere.

I seems built to last. And now because of this project, except for the soldwring, I can fix most anything on the guitar. So, there aren't many worries there. I think I will eventually replace the strap buttons, They are ok, but I want something that locks down for stability. I play every week with the church, and I usually don't bring a back-up...mostly because the guitar, my gig bag w/ my cords and foot controller plus kids is too much. But, a wise person would never play a serious gig without a backup.

I had some questions from Saga, so I emailed them. I recieved a promt response from someone in there marketing dept. He was very professional and polite. Through the process, we emailed each other quite a few times. He seemed very interested in what I was doing with the kit. He even asked my permission to use the pictures of my finished product for marketing. I would have to say I was fairly impressed with the support aspect of the company.

I have been playing for 12 years, and I play everything from blues, to contemporary christian, to full on metal. I would definately purchase another kit from Saga. The finished product is uniquely mine. I feel a sense of pride in that! I would take this guitar into most any guitar shop and play mine against theirs and I gaurentee that 9 times out of 10 I would choose mine!

This is a full story of the build. Saga was new this year, 2006, made in China. Typical telecaster style we all know.
This one had a two piece basswood body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, plastic nut, and the rest of it was typical tele in every way.
I removed all the sealer from the body. Then I stained it, and beat it with sticks and tools, put chatter marks on it with the sander, carved it quickly on the top and back, sanded around on it with various grades, restained it, etc.. until finally I had it looking like a very used guitar, with a shiny gloss finish.
Your mileage may vary, but I really like the look.
I put on Kluson Double Row Deluxe Tuners, chrome, 16:1 ratio. Let me review these quickly. Dynamite look, solid as can be, really well made and operate perfectly. The stock tuners pretty much sucked.
I carved the headstock and finished the neck in gloss poly, just like the body.
The rest of the hardware and electronics work well. The chrome is all thick and nice, the pieces fit well and everything functions as should be.
The neck has a very nice feel it to, not fat, not too thin. The fretwork on this one is the worst I've seen out of ten. You might know it since I kept this one for me. (I sell these kits at my hobby shop. and I've built more than one.)
I'm giving it a 9 because of the crap tuners.

Now, the nut is also the worst of the lot so far. It's cut way high, the high e string is muted, and to top it off there seems to be at least two very low frets on the upper frets on the b string.
That being said.. you can play it. It's just not fun at all. First time that's happened, by the way. The Strat and Paul kits played just fine, with one Paul kit having unusually rough fret surfaces. (all of them need polished or buffed out.)
The high e therefore seems a tad weak, but if I crank the amp treble and hit it, it seems very much to be the bad nut slot and a possible burr at the bridge saddle. No big deal. This sort of thing really should be expected to happen considering how many of these kits they sell.
These Klusons pull the cheapo strings right into tune.. fine tuning is right there.. I love this ratio, and I love the way these tuners feel and look. They make the headstock. I put on graph tech trees, but I'd prefer chrome rollers.
The neck pickup is weak. A tad too weak for most people, I'm sure. But it doesn't sound bad. Just not very darn strong. The typical and expected Tele neck tone is there in generic form.
The bridge pickup, even much farther away from the strings than the neck, is still much louder. I don't mind that! Pretty rich, plenty of articulation, you can tele with this just fine, rock, country pop, etc.
It's as noisy as you'd expect, perhaps a bit more vulnerable than some pickups, having the open bridge pickup.. I'll sheild the cavitys with copper paint and wrap the bridge pickup with copper foil tape, and it will quiet right down, I'm sure.
These pickups are better than what's in the ST kits.. the strat style. Those pickups seemed much flatter sounding, and lifeless. But this TC 10 has to be rated better than one would have a right to expect given the price.. and that's a ten.

Really the worst neck. I can see a very high fret right below a very low fret just looking down it. It's laughable in comparison to every other saga neck I've seen. I'd have to give it an 8 just because I know that's true. But I will say, when they screw something up at SAGA they screw it up with panache!
very rough and uneven frets, possibly it will need a fret or two replaced. It's funny, but I never sell a kit without checking it completely for this sort of thing. And what did I do but choose one without checking and wound up with the problem. Way to go, dipstick.
Fit is great. everything is tight. hellova time getting the pickguard bridge control plate to fit.. that's how tight.. not a bad thing.
I wish you could see it, from just a short distance it's a very flashy gloss finish on a dark piece of well figured wood.. close up it's an old soldier, battle scars and all..
Very neat grain in the neck wood by the way.. some dramatic stuff happening on the headstock that really jumps out when glossed.
I don't recommend removing the sealer Saga puts on them. Follow the instructions and paint unless you want to do a lot of work. When you remove the sealer you discover the guitars are not well planed. sealer is used in pools to level the top or back or wherever. This requires a lot of effort and planning to overcome.
I'll give it an 8. I'd normally give a Saga a 9.

It's solid as a rock. It has just as good a feel to it as my Fender Custom Tele Special, My Custom WD strat hardtail, or any of the other better guitars I own.
Strap button holes were reinforced with a bit of hardwood and a half a dot of tite bond glue. I do this with every guitar I have so I wont discount any points on the saga.
I do the same with neck holes.
The neck maple is very hard. hard to cut. hard to drill. hard to get a screw into. that's good maple.
the rosewood looks good.. lots of these saga necks have really nice red or yellowish streaks or flecks that I like a lot. This one tends toward red and in thin sometimes vague streaks.
The chrome is thick, it all seems quite nice, really. the pickguard is even white black white. three plys.
the nut sucks. when I fix the neck I'll put in a solid bone nut.
I'll give it a ten. It's solid, It will hold up, I have no doubt.

They back their stuff up with me, a dealer, and we both will back it up to you the customer.
These guys are interested in keeping the customer satisfied and they have always dealt fairly with me.

I'm going to enter the list price below.. though I paid dealer price, and though I and everyone else sell these for less.

I've been playing since the mid sixties. I own ten of these kits, right now, and seven or eight of the ST's, and one of the LC kits.
I also own some WD custom kits, guitars and basses, an epiphone sheraton I love dearly, two squiers a taylor and I'm building a custom strat and p bass for the higher end guitar freaks.
What I love about a Saga is the consistency first. It means you should have a fun easy time with these kits and that's what's most important. It will work and pretty darn well, kit for kit for kit.
I choose consistency over quality, because there are some not so hot things about these kits.. the plastic nuts.. probably superglued in.. the rough frets.. Ok I'll give them that..but the tuners.. have to say those should change for sure.
Anyone with patience and the instructions provided should be able to assemble this right out of the box, skipping the paint or headstock carving with no trouble at all. And have a pretty nice guitar that just needs a set up.
Someone more experienced, with just minimal painting skills, could spray paint these from a can and make it look damn sharp, as well as give it that fret polish and nut replacement, add the tuners and turn this thing into a great practice guitar, or a really handy and tough back up guitar.
A skilled person could make this his main guitar. But I confess, you have to take a LOT of the thick sealer off.. and keep your paint as thin as you can.. you have to swap out the tuners and the pickups for sure. I'd add a 4 way switch, maybe a push pull with a humbuck in the bridge. the neck and body are fine.. really. strong and well made though a little rough throughout.. shortcuts, construction thats sort of made to hide flaws.. but so what.. put auto grade paint on this thing and it will look fantastic.. carve the top!
It'll never be premium grade Swamp Ash, but basswood is a good instrument wood.
The last thing I'd like to say is that I really wish this had been my first guitar. It would have played better, and taught me more about guitars and how they work than I learned in the next year and longer for some things.
High School or College, Son or Dad, even Mom or Sis can build a Saga and, given the above.. objective assessment of your skill and knowledge level.. come up with a pretty nice guitar, or more.
overall I have to say ten.. I think every guitarist or bassist should build one, at least. At this price. why not one a year until you have a full set?
I'm gonna!

I put this together about a year ago and it was my 2nd Saga kit, the 1st being a strat. I got a Fender vintage Tele Bridge for it and ran it string through body and used Schaller locking tuners instead of the ones that came with it and I went with Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups. Turned out very good. I painted this vintage blonde and cut the headstock similar to a Fender Tele but not quite the same. I didn't put any decals on the headstock, left it blank. For $120 you can't beat this, especially if you enjoy with trying to come up with something on your own.

Sounds very good. I play classic rock and blues, mostly late 60's through mid 70's. Run this through a Hartke G60 Piggyback rig, a Marshall MG30DFX and a Marshall MG10CD. Does well on all the amps. Nice twang on the bridge pickup and bluesy tone on the neck. Middle is somewhere in between. I'm rather proud of myself on this one, even though everything was cut out for me. It sounds really good.

These kits are not as easy to deal with as the ads make you believe but they are good for learning something about how guitars work, constructing them, etc. Nothing really fits that well together, so it takes some sanding and refinishing to get everything to work properly and you can't go overboard - it has to be perfect or you will have a loose guitar. If you get one, be patient and take your time. Don't get frustrated and you can have yourself a good little guitar.

Don't know. I'm a physician by trade. I just play at home. I think with the Fender Vintage Bridge and Schaller tuners as well as the Vintage Noiseless pickups, it will be around for awhile. Strap buttons are fine. I think it's dependable but if I were to gig, I wouldn't gig without a backup.

Been playing for 40 of my 45 years. I have also the strat and PRS style Saga guitars as well as Fender MIM Strat and Tele. I also have a Korean made Epiphone Les Paul. I use Martin and Takamine Acoustics. This is a great kit to make your own guitar with as long as you maybe change some hardware out and be patient when making it. I still plan on making one of every kind.

Standard basic Tele features. Made in some unknown asian country. The tuners were such a joke, I tossed them into the trash as soon as I saw them. I replaced these with some Grover Mini-Rotomatics. The neck was actually really nice, no sharp fret ends. Pretty flat radius on the fingerboard, but I like it that way. Multi-piece Basswood body actually had nice maple veneers on the front and back, which strongly tempted me to just put a clear coat as the finish. Top-loading bridge is cheap but very sturdy, and even has holes in the bottom so that you can make the strings anchor through the body. The body isn't drilled for this option, but its an easy mod to do with a drill press. Electronics are ultra-cheap, but actually work quite well. Snap-together wiring was easy to hook up. The wires are of such a thin gauge that you could use them as dental floss. Some of the pre-drilled screw holes were a bit off, but these were an easy fix with some careful measurements. The cheap plastic nut on mine was cracked, but still works ok. I'm going to have this replaced with a bone nut.

I was expecting this guitar to sound like a crappy bottom of the barrel Squier. I was quite surprised to hear how good the pickups are. The bridge pickup is nice and jangly, with a rich full sound. The neck pickup isn't bad, but not as nice as the bridge. These pickups of course aren't going to compare to expensive "boutique" brands like Duncans or Fender Custom Shop models, but I'd say that they compare favourably to the Mexican Fenders. I was also happily surprised by how little noise these pickups made. I have not yet sheilded the guitar, but the noise is manageable. I'm probably going to replace the pickups with something fancier (probably something hum-cancelling to be on the safe side), but the stock pickups are quite usable out of the box. The pots work OK, they're not scratchy. I'll replace the pots, switch and wiring with quality components when I change the pickups, but again the stock electronics are usable for now.

I won't give a rating here because this is a kit: any finish flaws are my fault. I painted the guitar with cheap rust paint (Tremclad) from Home Depot. Do not do this! Use something more resistant like automotive paint, or better yet get some Nitro from ReRanch.com. My paint job looked really good when I finished it, because I followed the finishing instructions on the ReRanch web site. However, the cheap paint I used is already starting to chip off where it rests on the guitar stand. I've never been a fan of "relics", so I'll probably repaint the guitar when I have the time. Painting the guitar is the longest part of assembling this kit. If you patiently take your time, follow the instructions on ReRanch.com and use good paint, you'll have an amazing finish. If you rush and try to finish your paint job in an afternoon, your guitar will look like crap. Make sure to assemble the guitar to see if every thing fits in the right place before taking it apart to paint it.

Setup wasn't too hard. I had to do the usual adjustments (truss rod, intonation, pickup height, etc.). Take your time with this, you can't expect the guitar to be properly set up the moment you are done assembling it. If you're not sure how to do a proper set-up yourself, take it to your local guitar repairman and have him do it. There is some buzzing on the lower strings because of the cracked nut that came with this guitar, but other than that it plays quite well. Since the nut is cheap plastic, I'm going to replace it with a properly cut bone nut.

If you take your time putting this together and replace the stock tuners with quality components, it should be quite usable live. The strap buttons didn't look very trustworthy, so I changed these with straplocks. I haven't played live in 10 years, so I haven't actually gigged with this guitar. Seems as solid as a Mexican Fender.

Never dealt with Saga, so I'm not providing a rating. I bought this kit from OnlineGuitar on Ebay, and this guy's customer support wasn't very good. My kit had some missing screws and this guy would never answer my emails concerning this problem. I would recommend buying this kit from someone other than OnlineGuitar.

This was a really fun kit to make. Keep in mind, though, that this isn't something that you can just pull out of the box and assemble a finished guitar in an afternoon. It will need to be finessed to make a good guitar. Be prepared to replace some of the components, especially the tuners. This isn't of the same quality as a Carvin or Warmoth kit, but the price is so incredibly cheap that even after paying for upgrades you'll get a good guitar for little money spent. I plan on buying some of the different Saga kits, maybe the Strat copy. The best part of this kit is that when you're done, you'll have a nice guitar that you'll have built yourself.
I've been playing since high school (I'm in my mid 30s now) and I own lots of other gear, including a 1980 Gibson Explorer, a 1974 Fender Precision bass, and an Aria Pro 2 SB-Elite-2 bass (similar to the ones used by Jack Bruce and Cliff Burton). I've owned tons and tons of amps, but I've sold most of them because I only play at home now. And believe me, a full stack is just a little too loud if you want to stay on good terms with your neighbors. I currently have an all tube Fender Pro-Junior, and a solid state SWR Workingman's 10 combo amp.

Not sure when it was made. It has a basswood body and maple neck with rosewood fretboard. It came with all of the standard tele parts. Included pack of strings and 3 fender picks.

The sound on this guitar was surprisingly good. It was more than what I expected from a kit. It has a nice, warm tone. I don't think I would change the pick ups. They are pretty decent. It is pretty quiet too. I use a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp with Boss Stomp Boxes and it gets the job done.

The factory set up was aweful. I had to spend about 2 hours getting it to work out the way I like it. The neck bowed right out of the box, so I carefully adjusted the truss rod. The bridge was a little off, so my 1st string (E string) was slightly off the fret board. I had to adjust that and it is still slightly off, but works just fine. I also had to adjust the pick plate, as some of the holes were a little off. The machine heads are aweful and the guitar does not stay in tune. I will have to replace them. The wood seems to be pretty decent. Everything else is great.

Once I change the machine heads so the guitar stays in tune, I will gig with it. The hardware seems pretty decent, but I may change it out over time if it wares. No biggie... The finish is pretty darn good. I used some automotive paint with a clear top coat. It came out pretty good. The strap buttoms seem to be solid. I would not gig without a backup, but then again, what guitarist does? That would be foolish. However, once I change out the machine heads I think that I could get through a set without having to use a back up guitar.

I bought the kit from onlineguitar.com and they were late on shipping the kit. The customer support was aweful. They did not do anything to rectify the problem. I have not had to deal with Saga Guitars directly for anything.

I have been playing for 17 years. I own several guitars, including fender strats, and gibson les pauls. This guitar does not measure up to them; however, it is well worth the money and is better than some of the cheaper versions that you can get, such as the fender squire model. Once you tweak this kit to suit your needs, you will have a very playable, enjoyable kit that you can brag to your friends that you made on your own. Overall, I love this guitar and I am glad that I bought it. It was fun putting it together.

Made in october 2004
Stadard tele features
Basswood body, maple neck, rosewood fretboard

The first thing I changed on this guitar was the tuners. the stock tuners are junk and not very useable. I used tuners from an old washburn Mg-25. I also replaced the nut and the saddles.

I play mostly metal and punk. This thing has an amazing sounding bridge pickup. It has a lot of highs great definition and tons of volume, great for distortion. The neck pickup is a lot quieter but it gives a really mellow sound good for blues or jazz.

To me it sounds better than many guitars costing ten times as much.

I am not going to give a rating for this section because I feel it is up to the builder to rectify any flaws.

I had this guitar for about a year and have upgraded a lot of the parts i thought were lacking. I would compare the basic kit with all of the stock parts to a squier. Once you put some time into doing a proper set-up and replace the tuners, nut, and saddles it becomes an amazing guitar.

I would definitely gig with this thing without a backup.

The only thing that prevents me from giving it a 10 is that the strap buttons are crap. You should replace them with straplocks if you value your guitar.

never dealt with them

The instuments that you can make out of these kits are an amazing value. I am so impressed by this kit I am going to buy the strat and p-bass kits as well. It is a great way to learn how to build and set up a guitar. If it were stolen or lost I would buy another in an instant.

My favorite feature is the pride in knowing that I built it myself.

If you have some free time and are ready to put in quite a bit of work setting it up, buy one.

It was cut out in Japan, but put together in my Garage. Pretty good pots and switches. Bridge pickup is good, the neck is okay. I need to play with the neck pickup some more.

I ordered replacement tuners before I even purchased the guitar on Ebay. Good thing because the Saga Tuners make the crappiest guitar tuners seem really good.

Clip together electronics, they work well. I plan on soldering these as soon as I recieved a new neck pickup or get it to sound better.

I also cheated and purchsed a Fender Telecaster Water decal on Ebay. Anyone close up can tell it is not a Fender, but I gotta tell ya, from even 10 feet away it is hard to tell. However, I had one guy just yesterday ask how I liked playing a Telecaster?? He thought it was a Fender. Like I say, this kit is what you make it.

The neck pickup needs some help, I will probably replace it. The bridge pickup has that twangy tele sound. I would say I am impressed for the cash I shelled out $100. Sounds pretty damn good to me. But again, you put this kit together.

It can be a little noisy, but not bad. I have been playing metal since 1984 and I was looking for a Tele sound that did not cost $1000.00. I wanted something a little different than my BS Rich Plat Warlocks or Les P's. I can screw around with my Samick custom strat and my multitude of effects pedals and come close to a Tele sound, but there is something about the general shape of this guitar that has its own tone and feel.

I really like it so far.

I just finished the action on my guitar. It came around pretty good. Worked on it carefully for about 1 day. I have heard horror stories about the truss rods breaking. I took it easy with my truss and it came around nicely. I painted it with car laquer spray paint from Wal-Mart and a clear coat from the same manufacturer. Turned out pretty damn good. If I could do it all over again, I would go with just clear all over and a black pick guard. The key is, it is what you make of it. I was expecting darker wood, it was a light tone basswood.

I have not owned it for more than a week. Would I gig with it? I actually might, again, the guitar quality and sound is all up to you, its a kit. I haven't "Gigged" for about 10 years now. I replaced the strap screws with a bigger and longer one on both. If you ever have had a guitar fall off a strap or had a strap button fall off you know what I mean. For $100 each it would be easy to have a backup. I just might too.

Bought this on Ebay. Slashmanmusic was the seller. They have great communication and I plan to buy the PRS clone from him in about a month. I don't work for them, I just had a good buying experience with them.

As for sagamusic.com, I have never contacted them.

I say go for it. Buy this sucker. I have played Squier Tele clones that sound worse. I have been playing since 1984. I own 7 guitars from Warlock to Strat. I own 3 bass guitars. I play all my intstruments through Crate 4 BX-25 amps with several effects, Tube preamp. I have too much stuff. Remember to get different tuners. The tuners that come with this are servicable, but why mess around.

If someone stole it I would try to chase them down and try to kill them, but after about 2 hours of searching I would realize it only was $100.00.

I love this guitar. You get out of it what you put into it.

Built July 2005

22 frets
solid top, volume, tone, three way selector. Came with lead, strings, 3 plectrums, allen keys for bridge and truss rod. Was missing three screws, which was not a big problem and cost pennies to supply.

sounds OK, nice crunchy sound, quite bright and crisp.

No real dislikes. frets need to be polished as they are a little rough.

action set up took some time, longer than the build, satisfactory. decided to try the supplied tuners and replace them later, after fitting they work OK, remembering this is a ?50 guitar, it was far better than I had been expecting.

strap buttons very secure, was able to shake holding by the strap, no sign of working loose

not been used very long, no signs of weekness. thre finish looks ok but time will tell. May strip and paint later if it doesn't last out.

n/a

excelent value for money, none of the quibbles expressed by others seemed to be valid with my build. body a nice looking piece of wood, neck excellent. was going to paint when I read reviews but when I opened the box I was totally impressed and decided to leave it natural.

I did a Brazillian rosewood top, which eliminated the pickguard and all the original holes and especialy the ugly grain the top had. I did the back vintage tabacco burst. The basswood body comes sealed with a polyester or epoxy . Unless your're lucky, plan on a color or some other solid finish. Very usable body and neck for the price. As we all know, ditch the tuners,pots,and nut.

Very quite, replaced pots to cts and changed wireing. Neck pickup is weak compared to a hot bridge- a keeper. Neck pickup does get some muddy humbucker sounds just not clear. Bridge does tele spank. I put a strat pup in neck, suits me better. The basswood body sounds very good. I will put some G&L Asat MFD p/ups in.

25 1/2" scale. wannabee maple neck, med jumbo frets needed alot of time to suit me. Plays very good, fast neck, thinkin a 20" radius. Action, Fit & Finish is only what you make it!

Solid. Don't like the bridge all that much,
gonna try brass saddles next.

Nah

This is my 3rd guitar project. I do finishing and repair for a living.
For under $100 + tuners, nut, finish and the time..its well worth it.

Not sure of the year or where exactly these are made. It is a solid body kit made from basswood. The body is already sealed. I looked at several offerings of this kit and I picked the nicest wood. I don't think that any are of a quality to add a transparent finish. I immediately replaced the tuning machines with Gotoh units. Then I added a set of Fender Texas Special pickups. I did have to consult the Fender website and figure out the neck pickup wiring. The kit comes with a two wire neck pickup and the Texas Specials use a three wire neck pickup. I soldered all of my connections. I just like that better than using the supplied connectors. If you don't change anything and use the stock pickups, the wiring is color coded. So, wiring is a no brainer. I finished mine with an automotive enamel with several coats of clear in an orange and white EVH style. The body is a Tele style and is made pretty well. Some of the screws are not of good quality, but that's not a big deal. The controls are a three position switch, volume and tone controls.

I've only been playing for about a year and play mostly rock and some blues. I use it mostly with a VOX AD30VT which is an awsome amp. This a modeling amp with lots of built-in effects. There is a lot of noise mostly on higher gain settings, but I can live with it. The middle position is kinda high for my tastes sounds more like my Strat. I mostly use the 3rd position which I belive is the neck pickup and it kicks a$$. I find myself playing it more than my Standard Strat. I have friends with tons more experience and they love it too.

The fit was very good. The screws for the strap buttons were too small, no big deal at all. I took mine to a local luthier and he adjusted the intonation, pickup heights and strobe tuned it for me. I used a set of Eddie Ball Super Slinkys. The kit comes with strings, but hey, strings are not expensive, so I went with a good set. I set the action low and it works well, again, I get real good comments on how fast the action is an how well it plays. As for my tastes and style, I love it.

I have only had this one finshed for about two months. No problems so far. I don't know how well it would stay in tune with the supplied tuning machines. My stays in tune real well. I only have to tune it about once a week. I don't play professionally or in a band, so I'm not as hard on a guitar as some, but I think it would hold up well.

I haven't dealt with the company at all. No reason to.

I've been playing for about a year. I own a Standard Strat. I bought this kit, because it seemed like a fun thing to do. Since building this one, I purchased a Strat style kit to build for my daughter. I will be using an automotive lacquer finish on it. I think it will be more durable and shine more. I haven't found anything that I didn't like yet except for the original tuning machines and I replaced those during the build. I love the sound and the action. The sound is great and by changing postions on the three way, you can get a different sound from each position.

Assembled in the USA in 2005 (in my basement!). I'm not sure when the kit was made. Pretty much a generic Tele clone in terms of features. Two single coils, volume, tone, and 3-way pickup selector, chrome knobs and tuners. Basswood body, not sure about the neck, and a rosewood looking fingerboard (1/4" thick, so I'm assuming it's not real rosewood). It came unfinished - actually with a sanding sealer applied. The visual quality of the wood was much nicer than others have described (I probably just got lucky), so I simply chose to apply a clear laquer finish. I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out, drips and all! I cut the headstock into something that looks kinda like a standard Tele headstock. Close enough from a distance. I haven't decided on a decal to put on it yet. I won't pretend it's a Fender (it wouldn't fool anybody anyway). Six saddle bridge, no string-through body (not a biggie, IMO) I'm giving this a 10 because nothing is really missing in terms of features.

For a $72 guitar (+ shipping and tuners), the sound blew me away! The pickups sound great! Just the twang I was looking for and clean as all getup! The neck pickup is a little weak but that's probably because I haven't mounted it correctly yet. I'll need to trim and install the foam 'spring' that mounts under it so right now it's sitting a little low. Pots will definitely be replaced on this one since the sound pops in and out toward the low end of the volume control's travel. FWIW, both pots feel quite smooth. Surprisingly little hum.

Frets were level, although they could stand a bit of polishing. No sharp edges. A number of screws were missing, bridge screws were too small for the holes (or the holes were too big for the supplied screws), white wire needed to be soldered to the pickup selector, yellow wire was missing from the pickup selector (both easily remedied, but annoying), Blue ground wire missing the loop described in the instructions and it was uncomfortably short, but usable. All missing/inadequate hardware were readily available either from my coffee can collection of screws or from the local hardware store. Nut slots needed to be filed and the nut had to be repositioned about 1/8" toward the first fret to get it to intonate correctly (is 'intonate' a verb?). Tuners were crap (appears to be a universally held opinion). I didn't even bother to install them. Instead, I picked up a set of genuine Fender tuners on ebay for about $30, which meant that I had to drill the tuner holes to 10mm.

Since I know how this was built, I have a high level of confidence in its ability to deliver, once I change the pots. Time will tell. Given the rustic finish I applied, I'm not too concerned with looks over time. Indeed, a bit of corrosion on the chromed bridge, for example, might even add to its charm, not that I'm anticipating this.

I'm not anticipating having much of a need for customer support since I tend to handle such problems myself. Any parts that would need to be replaced can be upgraded fairly cheaply when the time comes so I'm not worried about support.

I've been playing for 30+ years. I've owned a few Gibson, Fender, Epiphone, and other lesser-known electrics, both 6 and 12 strings. Alvarez, Ovation and other unknown acoustics, both 6 and 12 strings. While not the best guitar I've owned, it's a far-cry better than the $30-ish mass market guitars common in the 60's. This guitar was fun to build. I'll be very comfortable repairing/upgrading it since I know where everything is and how it got there. It may not be an ideal project for a beginner begginner kit-builder due to the amount of improvisation I needed to do while building it, but I'd have no problem recommending it to someone who is even slightly mechanically/electrically inclined and wants a 'Tele' type guitar but is of limited financial means. Despite the problems I encountered building it, I find it hard to fault it when I consider the price.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

NA

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.

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.

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.

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.

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..

Don't know about this. Hey, I paid $75.00 for the kit. Who cares?

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

- 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!

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.

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.

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? 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.