Final (sort of) Assembly!


Here it is! The assembly of the guitar! I didn't think this day would ever arrive, but after nine long months it's here. Alex spent the afternoon here helping me to assemble the pickguard, put the neck on, and install the pickguard/electronics. I'm glad he was here. After getting the pickups installed, we realized the holes for the knobs and those for the screws that hold the selector switch were too small. This is why you need to make sure of that ahead of time. Luckily, he was able to hold it down enough for me to expand the holes with my drill. As an explanation of the title, I need to tell you about the problems I've had.

1. When I tried to do the setup (see links page for instructions on how to do so), I couldn't get the intonation right. I had placed the bridge thinking the neck was set to a 25.5 inch scale (standard of Strats), but it was actually 25.6875 inches. Thus, to get the saddles exactly double the length from the nut to fret 12, I had to reposition the bridge.
2. The rout in the body for the neck is too shallow, so the neck is quite high off the body, necessitating a very high bridge action. This problem is moot, however, because of the next one.
3. I could have constructed a better neck than the kit one from scratch, by myself. As it turns out, the 12th fret is positioned so that 25.6875 inches is the scale length, but none of the other notes played in tune after intonation. I learned that to measure fret position, people use the following formula:

Nut to Fret #1= Scale length / 17.817
Nut to Fret #2= (Scale length - Nut to Fret #1) / 17.817

And so on. I measured using both 25.6875 inches and 25.5 inches, and the frets are positioned improperly for both. I've sent a message to Saga explaining the problem and asking them to give me a solution, but I won't hear from them for a few days.
5. Finally, the machine head for the A string is positioned such that the angle at which the string is pressed against the nut is not sufficient to stop it from vibrating, so I get buzz on the open A string.

These problems render the guitar all but unplayable, for now. Hopefully, Saga will send me a good neck, or a refund with which I can buy a good neck. Once I get the neck problem fixed, installing it will be a cinch, and it will be ready. I've played it through an amp, and the pickups sound pretty rad. They're very bluesy. I like Torres Engineering. I'm pretty sure they actually made the pickups, so if you're going to do a project like this. Check them out for your pickups, even if you don't buy a kit from them (which comes with their pickups).

The assembly starts with installing the 'ferrules' into their holes under the bridge. These will take the brunt of the string's forces as it comes out from the back of the body and move toward the bridge. They're a tight fit, and will be under the bridge with string pressure on them anyway, so they don't need glue.
Here they are all finished. They're a little uneven, but they won't be visible in the end.
Here are the corresponding parts on the back. These are brass washers over steel/rubber washers. They protect the body from the string balls, which would otherwise gradually push into the wood from the pressure on them. They're also a bit uneven, crooked, and ugly, but I don't mind them.
Here's the bridge going one. The six ferrules line up with the six holes in the brige, so the strings can come through.
You probably can't see it, but there's a felt washer underneath the knob to protect the body from the metal. All you need to do is screw the screw in through the middle, pretty easy.
You need to slip the black and white wires through the hole before securing the jackplate. They will later connect to the pickguard.
Here's the jackplate screwed in, and the bridge fully assembled with its saddles.
Now on to the neck. This is all you need to install it, besides a screwdriver (or drill with a driver bit.
If the holes in the neck and the body line up, you'll have an easy time of driving them in. The neckplate protects the wood from the screws, and makes it better looking than a guitar with four washers in its place.
To install the pickups, you need to put the screws through the holes in the upside-down pickguard, slip the springs on, then screw them into the holes in the pickups. The screws then control pickup height, which you can adjust after stringing. This process is a pain, and easier with two people, so make sure you have a friend and everything fits before you start it.
The knobs have threads on them, so you can use the washers to hold them in place. After they're one, you just need to press the knobs on. I also installed the switch at this point, and put its grip on.
Here's the pickguard fully assembled, all I need to do now is put it on. That's harder than it sounds. Making all of the wires fit inside the casing is rather difficult. Also, if you made your own, it may be a little off in dimension, and not fit as easily as you hoped with the neck on the body.
Before we screw it down, however, we need to connect and seal the wires. Black goes to black and white to white. If you have a bridge with tremolo, the blue (bottom one) would connect to the claw in the back of the guitar to ground it. Since I don't have one, I'm just going to seal it's end.
Hold a candle or lighter close to (but not touching) the yellow shrink material. The heat will cause it to contract very quickly, giving your plugs a nice tight seal. The paper inside the body's cavity is just me having fun. Most companies put a sticker inside their guitars with the model number, serial number, etc, so I made one for myself.
Seeing this made me the happiest I've been with this project since all the parts came in the mail. I was elated that it looked just how I wanted it to when I started, and I spent a little while just looking at it.
Later, I put the strings on and attempted to do the setup. I couldn't get the saddles far enough away from the twelfth fret, and I also had them raised up really high. It was disappointing, but I got to see it with strings on, and play it a little, even though it was out of tune.
Here you can see the modifications I made to get the bridge in the right position. I moved it about 3/8 inches, and also drilled new holes in it (the ones that are father to the left) so that the strings could still come through the holes in the body.
And here's the final product. It's skewed a little in this picture, so click on it to get it to the right size. Unfortunately, it still isn't completely playable. I've written to Saga to explain that the neck they sold me is quite poorly constructed, but they haven't responded yet. Since I last wrote, I've also started getting buzz on the open B string as well, but not from the nut, so I can't tell where it's coming from. I may glue down the washers under the bridge to make sure they're not vibrating. I hope to get a new neck and get it installed soon, so I'll post those pictures later. Until then, thanks for reading, and I hope that this guide has helped.


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