BUILDING A SAGA T-STYLE

March 2007

From GuitarAttack: -- Very cool color and a Bigsby!  Wow!

Hello, my name is Nick from central/upstate NY (yes, where all the snow is,
hahaha). My Saga Saga started off with a couple of ebay purchases, the first
was the saga TC kit and the second was a bigsby-esque tremolo, a pretty good deal at 35 bucks.

Once the kit came (which seemed to take forever!!!!), I began by scuffing up the body and spraying a silver Dupli-Color base coat on the body.  While that was drying, I stripped the neck with steel wool pads of varying coarseness.  I wet sanded the base coat on the body with 1600 grit sandpaper and topped off with 4 coats of Dupli-Color blue metal speck paint.

I wet sanded with 1600 grit paper between coats and final wet sanded with
2000. I topped it off with 6 coats of Dupli-Color truck, van and SUV clearcoat
and buffed with a drill-mounted buffer from Stew-Mac and turtle wax
polishing compound.

Once buffed to the desired sheen, I used Eagle One Nanowax to bring out the shine, and it looks fantastic.

I stripped the neck completely, and I trimmed the headstock to the traditional telecaster shape.  Then, I applied Formsbys tung oil over the whole neck and headstock. I bought a white pearloid pickgaurd blank from Stew-Mac as well and cut and shaped my own pickgaurd.

As far as mounting everything, everything lined up like a dream, I barely had to trim the nut down at all to get some great action out of it.  I masked off the neck pocket before painting so I wouldn't have to worry about an ill fit after painting.

The tremolo went on pretty easily -- just a little lining up and the screws went right into that basswood body.  I kept all the wiring and electronics the same for now, but will be changing it all out soon.  I'm also waiting for a telecaster custom sticker to come in the mail for the headstock but for the most part, its all done.

nick_mrozowski@hotmail.com
 

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