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September 2006 -- From
Craig Irvine: Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Craig Irvine I'm 43 years old and play lead guitar in rock & blues band in Detroit called The Strays. I have been playing close to 30 years now and use this Tele regularly on gigs along with a Fender Stratocaster and an Epiphone Emperor II Joe Pass Model. Well about a year & a half ago at Christmas my kids pooled their money together and bought me a Saga T style kit off e-bay because "dad" had always wanted to build his own guitar. Well when I received the kit I started right into it and this gold Tele is the result. I built the guitar exactly as the instructions taught me and you know what, it came out great and has become one of my regular working guitars. OK, here are some of the details about my Saga. First it is hard to tell in the photographs but I think I got lucky because there is a real nice flame in the maple neck and it looks very sweet, I finished the neck in Deft clear lacquer from a spray can, going off the top of my head I believe I finished the neck with six coats of clear with fine sanding between coats, it is fast, smooth and feels great in my hand. I dressed the frets & nut a bit and also junked the stock tuners in favor of some no brand die cast sealed tuners with the small Fender style buttons on them. I finished the body of the guitar first by sanding down the "sealer" stuff they put on it at the factory and then priming the body with Kilz primer and then several coats of Dupli-color Cadillac gold from the auto parts store along with several coats of the Dupli-color clear coat. I must admit the finish is not perfect but it is perfect for me, remember this is a working musician's guitar that gets beer spilled on it on a regular basis. The guitar was then assembled and set up using all the factory stock parts and it plays great, sounds better than great, and stays in tune reliably. Since I built this guitar about a year and a half ago, it has been used and abused, it is becoming a relic the hard way, though use, sweat, beer, rock & roll and regular jobs playing out. Is has already got quite a few nicks and chips and wear marks. It also has been dead on reliable, on a job last Saturday playing outside in 90% humidity and 90 degree temps, my real Fender Stratocaster would not even think about staying in tune for very long, but the saga would stay in tune for an entire set. So, in my humble opinion I would rate these Saga kits as just a great deal, for about $100 plus some time and paint and maybe another $30 for tuners I have some serious Tele mojo, some serious tele twang and one fantastic guitar that I have grown to love. But since some assembly is required you will only get out of it what you put into it, now I have been working on and modifying my guitars for over 30 years so I do know how to set one up and get it playing the way I like. My only complaint with this kit is that the neck pick-up does not line up right with the pick guard and kind of leans a bit forward towards the neck when it is all assembled; I just left it that way. |
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Great job, Craig -- ROCK ON! |
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