I still have some time before I really need to make any decisions on that so I’ll wait it out for now. Perhaps I’ll be able to expand my reservoir of play funds enough to be able to meet the needs of both projects. I’ll keep you all up to date as things develop.

You can find Saga kits in the following styles:

• Telecaster (TC-10)
• Stratocaster (ST-10)
• Les Paul (LP-10)
• PRS (HT-10)
• P-Bass (PB-10)
• Mandolin (AM-10)

I pursued the TC-10 telecaster style kit, but it should be noted that aside from the flame tops on the LP and HT, they’re all pretty much the same deal. Now I haven’t personally gotten my hands on one of these kits but here are the comments that were common everywhere I read:

• The tuners are good for the garbage and that’s about it. Plan on buying extra tuners.
• While the body is technically solid basswood, it’s a solid laminate. Laminates aren’t uncommon in guitars but they’re usually 2 piece laminates. The more pieces in the laminate the worse the sound will resonate and it seems like there are a lot of pieces in these
• The body comes with a ton of sanding sealer on it. That means that the body is very well sealed, but all that sealer might deaden the sound some and some people prefer to sand it down a bunch before building the finish up. That’s your call to make.
• The electronics are a little bit better than most people expected.
• Not a lot of comments on the neck so no news is good news?

That’ the summary of what I’ve found in my research on Saga guitar kits. but if you don’t trust me, here’s a few of the URLs that I found helpful as I was trying to make heads or tails of the Saga guitar kits.

• Harmony Central Saga reviews
• HT-10 build
• Lots of Saga builds

The final word on it all is that provided you buy new tuners, these kits can turn out pretty decent. How they turn out will depend largely on the time and patience that you put into them. You’re not going to end up with a guitar that sounds like one that’s worth several thousand dollars no matter what you do to it since the base materials just can’t match the quality of expensive instruments. But as far as a first guitar kit goes as you enter into the world of the luthiers, the Saga kits are inexpensive, on the easy to build side (as kits go) and lots of people have had lots of fun building theirs. If you’re looking for a first build, this is a cost effective way to go.

The end result is that I’m going to have to wait anywhere from 2 weeks to 30 days for enough revenue to turn over from my online ventures to have enough to go after the guitar. So in order to sooth some curiosity, here’s the breakdown of what I’m setting out to build.

• 2 piece swamp ash telecaster style body
• maple neck with ebony fretboard
• solid color, Krylon Regal Blue (So far. It’s a toss up between that and Smokey Grey, the samples will tell me which way to go)
• Grover tuners
• Modern Tele bridge
• All electronics will be what comes with the kit

That’s what’s on the drawing board. At least for the moment I’ve a history of occasionally changing my mind on my way through a project. The reason I’m not upgrading any of the pickups or electronics is because there’s a really good chance that I’ll make a mistake with my first build. If I’m lucky and things go well, then I can upgrade all that stuff after the fact. Not to mention that I might have increased the amount of available funds by then too. If the guitar is a bust for any reason, then I won’t have a pile of really nice parts kicking around doing nothing. I’m pretty confident in my abilities to put together the simple wiring within a guitar. The hours of carful sanding and painting on the other hand… Only time will tell

Warmoth has an excellent reputation as being one of the premier vendors of custom guitar bodies and necks. So I checked my options out over there and found lots of beautiful guitar bodies and necks of all styles. As always you get what you pay for and if you want to shop where they make the best parts, you’ll be spending a reasonable amount of money, around $450 USD for a basic telecaster body and neck. I hope that someday I’ll be willing to put this amount and more towards a personally built guitar, but I didn’t think it to be wise for my first build.

That’s when I found International Luthier. They’ve got customizable guitar kits that are pretty much right in between the cheap and expensive options mentioned above. What I really wanted was a neck with an ebony fretboard and with these guys, I could do it at a reasonable price. I think I can get exactly what I want for about 250 USD. combined with the fact that his shipping quote was less than others, it makes for a very affordable, middle of the road kit.

I haven’t yet put in an order as I’m not 100% certain I want to invest into this project at the moment. There are a lot of home projects that need funds so I’ve still got some decisions to make.