Free Saga Prs Kit!

[Xanthus]

So I'm barely done gluing my neck lam's together for build #2 when my buddy calls me up and says that he has a guitar kit sitting in a box under his bed. He found it when he was doing some cleaning and said that if I want to come pick it up, it's mine. I asked him what make/model it was and he said it was the HT-10 Saga kit.

So I'm looking at it online (haven't gotten around to picking it up yet) and thinking what I could do to it to make it half-decent. Ideas thus far include:

-Re-backing. It's kinda like retopping, but with the back... I want to buy some mahogany and stick the carved maple top on, to give the PoS some actual tone.

-Pickups. I'm thinking Seymours, getting a JB/59 or JB/Jazz, some versatile combo. Even if the project goes nowhere, I'll have good pickups

-Electronics. new switches, pots, knobs, jack.

-Hardware. Basically just better tuners, maybe bridge and tailpiece.

-Painting. I want to do black/sand/black for this awesome AAAA maple top, spray the back with opaque black, and do a faux binding if the maple top is thick enough to do so.

-Making a new neck/fretboard??? I figure that I'd use the bolt-on until I have time to make my own set neck and glue that and carve it.

Now, the real question is... Is it worth it to put that much effort into a Saga kit? I dunno if I'm being overly optimistic, but I see a bit o' promise in the guitar, as well as the fact that the only money I put into it is the upgrades, becasue the kit is free

[Robert_the_damned]

-Re-backing. It's kinda like retopping, but with the back... I want to buy some mahogany and stick the carved maple top on, to give the PoS some actual tone.

An interesting idea but if you're doing that much work you might as well be making a whole new body for it.

-Pickups. I'm thinking Seymours, getting a JB/59 or JB/Jazz, some versatile combo. Even if the project goes nowhere, I'll have good pickups

always handy to have a decent set of pickups.

-Electronics. new switches, pots, knobs, jack.

unless any of isn't working just use the stuff it comes with, expensive pots sound the same as cheep ones though you might want to use better wire (sheilded stuff if you're not shielding your cavitys) and maybe a new switch as really cheep switches do suck.

-Hardware. Basically just better tuners, maybe bridge and tailpiece.

I'd replace the tuners for sure. The bridge *might* need replacing but I don't see it neccisarily needing to be replaced. As long as the tail piece fits there's not a lot of point replacing it.

-Painting. I want to do black/sand/black for this awesome AAAA maple top, spray the back with opaque black, and do a faux binding if the maple top is thick enough to do so.

That sounds like it'd look nice. I think the top is actually a veneer and so proabbly less than a milimeter thick, you could route a binding channel and put in some maple binding if you're that into the faux binding thing.

-Making a new neck/fretboard??? I figure that I'd use the bolt-on until I have time to make my own set neck and glue that and carve it.

Again not a lot of point if you want to actually use the kit as if you did all this replacing you're basicly making a new guitar appart from carving the top.

Now, the real question is... Is it worth it to put that much effort into a Saga kit? I dunno if I'm being overly optimistic, but I see a bit o' promise in the guitar, as well as the fact that the only money I put into it is the upgrades, becasue the kit is free

I'd keep the body pretty much as it is and just stick some half decent pickups and tuners on it and it'll sound pretty good, not like a top of the line PRS but it'll sound better than a cheep off the shelf guitar.

Rob

[Xanthus]

OMG FORUMS ARE BACK UP!!!

I just didn't know what to do with myself those few days.

Anyways, thanks for all the advice, Robert. I picked up the kit yesterday and think that I'm going to be moving in a different direction with the kit.

Namely, the garbage

I've been staring at the kit for a while now, and at points I wish that I could get a refund for the gas I spent getting over there to pick it up.

Where to begin...

-The "flamed maple" is a veneer, yes, but I don't know if it should even count as such. There's no figure whatsoever! Aside from a small change in color, you wouldn't be able to tell if the top was a different type of wood. Oh wait, yes you would.

-Because the maple veneer top doesn't have KNOTS in it! Saga sure has low standards when selecting their premium woods. I count 4-pieces of basswood, with the imperfections and knots filled in with some sort of wood putty.

-Neck doesn't fit in neck joint

-hardware is flimsy

however

-the neck looks nice! one-piece maple, rosewood fretboard, nice low frets. fretwork came out pretty nice, too, no goofs that my eye could see.

So in conclusion, I had my hopes up WAY too high. Because living's in the way we die.

I'm thinking of just assembling it as-is, painting it with spray cans, and giving it to my girl as a gift. Methinks it's comparable to the Squire Strat she's got now, hahaha.

So my hopes of pimpin' out a sweet carved top (which was the highlight of my hopes. Carving a top scares the poop outta me) have gone down the drain, but it's all good. I've still got the V to work on.

Speaking of which, I need to find someone who can plane my neck blank flat, because my hand tools aren't cutting it...

[Geo]

If you do all the things you mentioned, you won't have anything left from the kit. Personally, I would just build it as is, but I would solder the electronics cuz I think that would be more reliable. It's totally free, so I would build it and use it as an "expendable" guitar.

Or... build it and sell it.

[brian d]

Xanthus, is that a set neck on the kit? What sort of heel does it have?

cheers,

brian.

[Xanthus]

No, it's a bolt-on, but the screws/screw holes are actually UNDER the neck pickup route. Thinking about it, it's a wonder how the neck pickup is going to fit there at all, haha.

Check the picture again, you might get a better handle on what I'm talking about.

[brian d]

Interesting.

I haven't seen a neck join like that before.

thanks.

brian.

[crafty]

Throw it up on eBay or just use it for building practice.

[Xanthus]

Yeah, I'm going to put it together, maybe throw a clearcoat on the body, dunno. If the girl doesn't want it, I'll probably throw it up on Ebay for a quick chunk of change. People'll pay more for a pre-assembled s*** guitar than the pieces sitting in a box, haha.

::EDIT::

Threw the Saga together today, as I had nothing to do.

The short of it: If Saga guitar kits were a plague, it would be more feared than the killing of the firstborn.

The long of it: It's a total PoS. Neck didn't fit in the neck pocket, didn't come with a neck plate or screws, not all the screw holes were predrawn like the box claimed, none of the holes were IN the right place. I shouldn't have to take a rubber mallet to my tailpiece to get it to fit. The neck pickup ring had to be cut because it was bumping up against the end of the neck. I didn't even install the tuners yet because the holes for the mounting screws are incredibly far from where they should be. The only thing that went together smoothly were the electronics. Nice snap-together, color coded, very cool. Undoubtedly less than quality parts, but assembly was good.

I'm really looking forward to beating the crap out of this one. I already want to smash it on stage.