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Is the Saga HT-10 guitar kit good for a 13 year old boy?

I'm looking to build a kit guitar this summer for fun. So far my favorite one has been the Saga HT-10. I was wondering if me, being a 13 year old boy who's never built a guitar kit before and doesn't have experience with tools or electronics, would be able to assemble it with not too much difficulty. I know it won't be just sliding in the parts, but I'm just wondering if it's in my ability to do it.
Norm Jones, do you know of any other kits that would be easier to build for me?
Norm, what do you think about the Saga TC-10

Asked By: ben - 5/31/2010
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
Hello there,

Very frequently those kits are not just screw together and play. They require some skills to get the guitar into playable condition. I recently helped a kid on a kit that he bought from someone else had put together and gave up. In that one, when you bolted the neck onto the body, the strings were wrong. The first owner put a 1/2 shim under the neck. Of course you still could not play it with the neck on that wierd angle and the neck would have snapped it handled much. We had to change the routing for the bridge in order to be able to get the strings in their proper level. Also, the bodies generally require finish sanding before you can paint/stain them. If you know nothing about guitar building and do not have someone with experience to assist you, making a playable guitar would be difficult.

As an alternative, consider building what we commonly refer to as a Part-o-Caster. You can pick up a body, neck, pickguard, tuning pegs, pots & switch, bridge and pickups from eBay. Good used parts are not cheap, but if you watch youcan find some bargains. That would be much easier to assemble. You will not need power tools to reshape the body or finish the routing and cavities. You will not necessarily have to do a paint job. You may find a body that has a decent finish. There is no getting around having to do some soldering. You will have to solder the electronics. However, if you can find a loaded pickguard that will reduce how much soldering you have to do. I see a loaded Squier pickguards on eBay frequently. Those would be better than the Saga pickups anyway. With a loaded pickguard, you do not have to solder the connections from the pickups to the pots or the switch (that is already done). You will have to solder the ground wire from the bridge to a pot and solder the hot and ground wires from the output jack to the volume pot.

There are some things you should know before you start buying parts. Not all parts will fit together to be playable even though the guitars look similar. For instance, the shape of the heel of the neck is a point to watch. Teles have squared shoulders on the heel and Strats have rounded shoulers. The neck pocket on a Tele will not accept a Strat neck (without modifications). The problem is that some Strat clones have Tele shaped heels even though they are Strat clones. Yamaha comes to mind. A Fender style Strat neck does not fit the neck pocket in a Yamaha Strat clone body. Also about necks, they commonly come in 21, 22 or 24 frets. You can generally use a 21 or 22 fret neck interchangably because a 22 fret neck is designed like the 21 with the 22nd fret extending past the heel of the neck. So a 22 fret neck will work with most bodies designed for 21 fret necks. The scale length for those would be all right and the guitar will have proper intonation. However, a 24 fret neck will not work on a body designed for a 21 or 22 fret neck. It is longer and if you put it on a body for a 22 fret neck, although it fits into the neck pocket, the scale length will be off and the guitar cannot have proper intonation. What that means in case you do not know about intonation is that when you tune the guitar with open strings, as you play down the neck the guitar will be increasingly out of tune.

In spite of the pitfalls, I would still sugget the part-o-caster route. Just use a Squier body and neck with a Squier loaded pickguard and you should be safe.

Please feel free to shoot me a message (link in profile) if you need more information.

Later,

Hello again,

Just so I can be certain we are talking about the same kit, is this what you are considering.

http://www.amazon.com/Saga-HT-10-Style-Electric-Guitar/dp/B001FB5YVS

This is not a bolt together and play kit. Contrary to what others have said, it does require soldering. If you look at the picture of the parts of the kit you will see the following: The pickup selector switch and the output jack are wired together. However, you will need to solder the pickups to the pots and switch. In additon, you will also have to ground the bridge. I looked at the link (provided in another answer) where some guy had built this kit. If you read the page about finishing the neck, you will see the headstock comes unfinished and he had to shape it.

I have assisted other people redo their kits (not this particular one) to get them playable. I have found neck pockets that were not completely cut out and required to be finish routed in order to get the neck in properly. I have found where the bridge was set too high and a cavity needed to be routed in order to lower the bridge enough to get the strings to lay properly.

Whether you build this kit, some other kit or assemble a guitar from parts, you will need to know how to do the set up of the guitar in order for it to be playable. That set up will include at least, determining if the relief is proper on the neck and if not adjusting the truss rod to get proper relief, adjusting the height of the nut, adjusting the height of the bridge and adjusting pickup heights. While it may be possible for you to learn how to do all of that, I believe it would be helpful if you have someone with some experience in building guitars to assist you or at least to provide advice when you run into problems.

Here is a link to how to build an easy to put together paint spray booth. If you do not have a proper set up for painting, this will come in handy.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5732113_build-paint-booth-finishing-guitars.html

You can do a paint job using spray cans. Those frequently do not look like professional paint jobs, but they can look all right if you take your time and are careful. If you have acess to a air compressor and paint spray, you will probably get a better finish. However, it can be done with spray cans. Sanding is a big key to the process. Adequate sanding in preparation. Adequate sanding between coats of color. Adequate sanding before and between coats of your clear coat. Then a final buffing to polish.

I do not want to discourage you from building a guitar. But I do want to make you aware that it is not simple. It is fun (well usually when everything goes well). It can be challenging. There is a certain satisfaction in playing a guitar that you have built.
Answered By: Norm Jones - 5/31/2010
Additional Answers ()
Yes this should be doable, unless you have ten sets of thumbs or something... It is basically a case of following instructions and assembling the bits and pieces. It's a bolt on neck, so there should be no problem there. Also, it looks as there are no soldering involved.

The hardest parts then would be the wood finishing/spraying and the final set-up/adjustments.

You'll find some more info here: http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/Saga_ht-10_build.html
Source(s):
40+ years of setting up, repairing, playing and dealing with guitars. http://learnelectricguitarnow.net
Answered By: Torbjorn - 5/31/2010
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