Saga TC-10 Electric Guitar Kit - T Style

I purchased this guitar kit because first of all I needed a (hopefully) decent guitar. Second, I love telecasters and strats but could could not afford a good one... So I got this one, hoping I could manage to mold it somewhat into a fender. I love DIY projects, so I was thrilled naturally. Finally when I received it, the body was spectacular and the neck too, although it was a little crooked at around the high e 19th fret area (which potentially lead to fret buzz that I've not able to resolve yet). The pickups are solid but the wiring and hardware were not premium as expected. I bought some Mr Gearhead tuners and that was it. The only part I had to improvise were the peghead tuner holes which were too small for the new brushings and the ones they provided!! I enlarged them however thanks to my dads drill press. Overall, the process was easy but not as easy perhaps as advertised. I'm am very satisfied with the final result which is a custom telecaster! As for the sound however... It would depend on how you set it up. It is generally very good for the price.

Received in record time in great shape. Body is decent (4 piece basswood). Neck seems straight. However, tuner holes are too close together for the provided tuning machines. I may replace the tuners for something a bit smaller and vintage looking. Overall, not bad for the money.

NECK The nut was missing. I had to by a new one: ~$20 (bone) from SM. The holes were not good, especially the ones for the tuning pegs they were touching each other. A lot of hammer work to get them in. The neck wasn't fitting in the body. A lot of work required to make it even and fitting in the body. The neck is overall well done, some work on the frets and a lot of lemon oil to apply but at the end the fretboard is good and the shape is confortable. I cut the top of the neck to have a Fender Telecaster shape. I'm very proud of it..... because it looks really nice. The original shape is really horrible..... BODY The shape is good and the pieces (pickup and pickguard) are fitting well. The only problem was that some holes where not straight leaving the head of screws oblique. I applied some copper tape inside the pickups and electronics holes to avoid the radio effect: 20$ from SM. I had to buy 2 new Guitar Strap Buttons because the one in the kit were horrible and with too short screws. PICKUPS and ELECTRONICS The electronic is not working well, the thin E string doesn't sound on the bridge pickup and the tone tune doesn't work at all. The output jack is really bad.... I keep it, but I'm planning to buy a new one. STRING AND BRIDGE The bottom holes in the bridge are missing so you need to replace the string with bullet strings (I bought the Fender vintage bullet strings) to have them in the right position. But I'm planning to make the holes. I have already bought String Ferrules from SM ($7/8). The 6 Saddle Bridge Chrome is not working well and setup the action and the intonation is really hard and I really prefer the 3 Saddle. PICKGUARD I didn't like the pickguard white so I bought a black Fender Telecaster original part, but it doesn't fit in the holes (grrrrrr!!!!), so I had to finish the white one in black. FINAL COMMENTS AND RECOMMENDATION At the end around 40 hrs of work to get it done.....It was my first one, so now I won't do the same mistakes again. What I can say is a lot of fun...... but a Squier......it sounds better and costs almost the same and at end it is a Fender.... So if you like to do some manual work, my suggestion is buy it. If you are looking for a good guitar you need to replace original pieces so you need to be sure that you can afford: - new pickups and electronics, - new bridge, - new strings, - good finishing and lacquer technique My suggestion is to buy from SM the body and the neck and from Fender all the original parts. It will cost you more but it will be your real Custom Guitar....

I have been a regularly gigging guitarist for the last 40 years. I own 13 name brand guitars. I decided to take a shot at putting together a kit guitar. I was looking for something fun to do that would end up as wall decoration. I always planned to continue using one of my American Teles, my Strat, and my LP as my primary axes for gigs and recording. This kit guitar plays so well that it is now my primary gigging guitar. I like it so much that I bought two more kits during the Black Friday deal. (The attached pictures show two of them. I have yet to put together the third guitar.) I am stunned by how good this guitar is for the price. Now for some details. What is good about the guitar: - The neck is simply great. It plays so nicely. It appears to be actual maple too. The frets are already dressed nicely, although they are a little sharp at the endpoints. - The action and the truss rod don’t need to be touched. They are nearly perfect out of the box. - The intonation is spot on. - Every guitar I have ever purchased has needed to be setup, but these needed less setup work than any of them. I had to slightly adjust the height of two strings to stop some buzzing, and I needed to raise the pickups to increase the gain, but that’s all I needed to do. - The cuts on the body are exactly where they should be. No extra drilling was necessarily. - The pickups are better than I expected. I planned to replace them with a name brand (I like S.D. PUPs) but these sound quite good. I may upgrade them eventually but it isn’t necessary to do so. What’s not so great: - I found the tuners to be unusable. They are very stiff and they slip. I replaced them after two gigs. I couldn’t live with the stock tuners anymore. - The string guides on the headstock wobble and have sharp edges. I decided to replace those at the same time I replaced the tuners. - The pickguard isn’t an exact match to a real Tele. I bought a replacement pickguard only to find that I needed to get creative about screwing it on the body. Overall, I got much more than I expected from this purchase.

tl;dr Solid kit, happy with result, be prepared to invest in hardware. I got this kit and put it together. I took the pick guard, neck, and tuners and chucked those in the woods so the aardvarks could eat them (along with all the car radios that seemingly every young person removes and tosses in the woods before the ink even dried on the title). I purchased a Fender pick guard in black ($17 on Amazon). The pilot holes didn't quite line up. Drilled new ones, installed. The selector plate no longer lined up to the pilot holes, so drilled new ones for that, installed it, and it fits and works well. I picked up a cheap Chinese knockoff maple neck which had only tuner holes drilled. That was about $40 on Amazon. I had to buy new tuners from a local music store, nickel coated, $40. These are so much better than the cheap ones that come in the set. Because this is a mod and not part of the scope, I'll ignore the details there. Had I kept the kit pieces, it would be an easy install, so no issues there. Wiring was easy (invest in an ice-pick for this project, or improvise with what you have. Don't thread the wires by hand!!). It is grounded on the bridge. Bridge install and selector plate install was also easy. The bridge looks cool, the selector and knobs feel solid. The strings go into the bridge but NOT rear guitar thru-body like proper Fenders. I see no reason why, if you had the skill and desire, you could not set it up that way, assuming you purchased more hardware. The directions were clear enough, decently labeled. I had no problem with following the instruction after reviewing them 3 times before I did any work. Once the guitar was assembled, with help from a guitar hobbyist friend, we set the neck, intonation, and action. Quite satisfied with the results. 12th fret is within a cent or two of being dead center tuned, it has low action, plays well, and in tune, no buzzing. The strap buttons hold my Ernie Ball strap snugly. It has a solid weight to it and sits well on your shoulder (unlike say an SG). Sound wise, it has punchy rhythm and twangy lead. I'm very surprised by the pick ups. I play mainly punk rock and other rock styles. I expected to replace them but don't believe I will. I haven't decided if I'm going to proceed in painting it. It looks slick as it is. Now some bad: as cool as the bridge looks, the high e string doesn't sustain at all and looks to be because of the bridge. I'll have to replace the bridge which I plan on spending $20 or so to replace. I contrasted the design of this guitar with a Mexican Fender Tele. The shape is slightly different (though I didn't notice until I did the comparison) and the body is maybe between 1/32nd to 1/16th of an inch thinner (guessing, didn't measure). Overall, I love my guitar and I'll be getting more Saga kits in the future.