Underground Journal

Saga Guitar Kit: Installing the Guitar Neck

If you’ve ever had the notion to build your own electric guitar then you’ve probably seen the Saga guitar kits that are floating around.  They’re pretty good kits and reasonably priced.  They’re a good way to get your feet wet in guitar building, and you can learn a lot about guitars in general just by putting one together.

If you’re building a Saga guitar and decide to make modifications keep in mind that one mod may lead to other mods, sort of like a cascade.  I decided to change the bridge on mine and it caused me to have to make some modifications to my neck  pocket, because the guitar neck was sitting too high with the new bridge.  The strings were resting on the neck even with the bridge saddles at maximum height.  I had to rout out the neck pocket, so that the guitar neck would sit low enough that the strings wouldn’t rest on the neck, even with the bridge saddles raised as high as they go.

I also had to make the tuner holes larger because my new tuners wouldn’t fit.  If you’ve got to do this, then use a reamer don’t drill them out.  It will take a little longer, but you don’t run the risk of your drill wandering and your hole becoming off center.  The Saga neck comes as a “paddle” headstock, that means it’s blank and you can cut it to the shape you want. Don’t get too crazy cutting parts off or you could affect the placement of the tuners.  The holes drilled for attaching the neck didn’t really line up with the neck plate so I had to fill the holes and redrill them.

All in all the Saga guitar I built turned out pretty nice, although I made myself a lot of extra work with my modifications.  The guitar neck is the business part of any guitar so it’s something you’ve got to get right.  If you’re learning how to play guitar, or interested in building a guitar consider a Saga guitar kit.

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