BUILDING A SAGA LP-STYLE

First, I put the guitar together.  That is how I found out one of the tuning keys was smashed and unusable.  I emailed the people I bought this from on EBay.   He told me he would send one out to me, but that was almost a month ago and still no tuning key.  So I had no choice but to buy a new set off E-Bay for around 30 dollars.  I had them in my hands in two days! WOW that was fast shipping.

I also found the pickups had dings in them and after preassembly I found they didn’t sound all that good.  So, I bought a nice set of LP custom pickups off E-Bay for around 33 dollars.  They really sound good!  So after I put the whole thing together I found I had to adjust the neck (truss rod) and I had to end up shimming the neck a little to get the strings to stop buzzing without have to raise the action to high.  So after I played on it for about two weeks and made some other changes, I took it all apart and began to refinish it.

Note from GuitarAttack.  This is a pretty good technique -- play the guitar for a week or two before you apply the final finish.  Any problems that are lurking will shake out before you buff it out!

Now, some more fun.  I wanted the natural look for this guitar but like I said I had to end up painting it because of stains in the wood.  I tried some of the things that I found on Guitar Attack to bleach the wood but nothing would work.  I went to Home Depot and found a few colors I liked a lot.  I came home with two colors and wound up using Rustoleum Painters Touch Ivory Silk.  It’s a color close to the natural color of the guitar. At first I was unsure of the Rustoleum paint because I have not seen anyone using it on a guitar before.  It came out great!

It did take me two weeks of work to get it were I liked it. Here is something I found that worked for me on the bindings. I know some prefer to paint and scrape but I did the tape thing on mine. First I cut ¼ inch strips (I couldn’t find any ¼ inch tape) and I took my time and went around the bindings. After painting it I pulled the tape (hint pull tape before the paint dries all the way -- it comes off cleaner) but after I took off the tape some of the edges weren’t sharp enough. So now what do I do… Take a cheap razor knife (you know the ones with the break off tips) and slide the tip of the razor out just so it sticks out a little, equal to the thickness of the binding.  It was the perfect tool for scrapping the bindings.
 

Before I painted I wanted a clean look for my LP, so I left off the pick guard. I filed in the holes with wooden tooth picks, and they are the perfect size to fill in little holes. Well, as you can see I think the guitar came out just fine. I did have one other mishap…As I was putting in the pickup I dropped one on the guitar and scratched it. So now what do I do?  Here is something I use to do when I use to build Hot Rods. This tip worked out just fine… because I am using rattle cans I sprayed some of the matching paint into the lid and use a tooth pick and stuck it in the paint and filled the scratch.  You may have to fill it a few times to get it were you want but after it dries then sand lightly and to the same with your clear coat and sand lightly and buff out. No more scratch. I forgot to say I used Minwax Lacquer for the clear coat and wow did it come out nice.

 
This is my first Saga guitar and only the second time I ever refinished a guitar. All In all it was a lot of fun to do.  I just love the way it came out. Not a bad guitar. I own a few guitars -- from cheap ones to high end ones -- and this one falls somewhere in the middle. I plan on putting on a gold bridge and some other gold parts, but I just ran out of money on this one so I guess now I have to sell some stuff on E-Bay so I can support my habit.

I have about $400 in the guitar not counting time but I did enjoy building a lot. I hope to be able to buy a high end guitar kit some day but that will be down the road a while. Thanks for taking the time to look at my Saga. If you would like you can email me at eagleblues@cox.net.

The guitar is called Eagle Blues!
 

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