Watch out for Saga guitars....!

I know there are a lot of members who also play guitar, so I thought I'd give you a "heads up" about SAGA.

A while back, I bought a Saga reproduction of an early Selmer Macaferi called a Gitane...supposedly an accurate reproduction of the guitar Charlie Christian
played (carried by Musician's Friend and other mail order houses).

The first time I took it out of the case, the strings buzzed, so I took it back to the dealer, who couldn't fix it...green wood at the neck joint that caused an irreparable bow. He replaced it.

Same thing with the replacement. I took this one back and it was also beyond repair.

The dealer had dropped the line, due to on-going quality problems and lack of support from Saga, so I contacted the company directly. I was told that there was a one year warrantee against manufacturers defects (they don't include any warrantee papers with their instruments)and that the last order processed by the dealer was December, 2003, so I was basically S.O.L.

In contacting other area dealers, I heard the same tale...defective products and no factory support.

It was only a $650.00 instrument, and my expectations were relatively low. I mainly wanted it for historic reasons. But, it should have at least been playable.

Live and learn. The dealer offered to refund my money, but he's a relatively small guy, so we worked a deal where I bought two more instruments at a price that allowed him to recover his cost for those two and the defective one.... a wash for him. I paid more than the instruments I got were worth, but this is a decent guy and I didn't want him to "eat" the cost of the Saga.

Subsequently, I've seen three more of these "clubs", all with the same problem.

Watch out for SAGA...they SUCK, big time!
This is the WORST instrument and the lousiest factory support I've ever gotten, and I have over 300 stringed instruments.
I'm thinking about initiating an action with the Attorney General's office to force the recall of every one of these pieces of "firewood" ever made.

Russ

That was a noble gesture you've done for the music dealer, Russ.

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Greetings from Frankfurt (Germany),
Sheriff ;-)

GO GET EM RUSS,
These is too much of this kind of crap going on all the time and they think they can get away with it.
We need some class action suits to get things back into proper perspective
Bebop

That's bad news Russ. Thanks for making it known. And there are so many good quality cheap guitars nowadays people won't stand for bad value now. The Charlie Christian model would have been nice to have so I'm sorry that didn't work out. I listened to Charlie's few recorded works a lot when I started learning guitar as a kid. So much so that my Dad took me at the time to hear Benny Goodman when he was touring.

Agile have recently brought out a cheap jazz hollowbody that may be worth looking at http://www.rondomusic.net/coolcat.html and http://www.rondomusic.net/ will accept all returns within 30 days and are very reputable. I bought one of the high end Agile Les Paul copies and it has become the guitar I use the most nowdays. In a blind test it would be hard to tell it wasn't a Gibson.

Nigel...this one is a total acoustic...supposedly built from the original plans of the early Selmer.

Looks completely unique. No way, as far as I can tell, to add a pick-up. It's still available from Musician's Friend and others. that's why I'm warning people to avoid them or anything else SAGA builds.

Russ

Gee I don't think I ever heard Charlie Christian playing acoustic. The album I had was called Solo Flight and was all Charlie playing electric guitar. Are there recordings of him playing acoustic guitar ? I'd like to hear them if there are. I really loved Django Reinhardt's acoustic gypsy jazz and though obviously I never got to see him perform I did see Stephane Grappelli in the early 80s playing with some young guitar players who were very Django infuenced in their style .... but as they were touring with Stephane that is not so surprising.

Nigel...don't know what in the world I was thinking. The Saga is an accurate copy of the Selmer that Django played. Of course Charlie played an early single pick-up hollow body (Gibson, I think).


The Saga is still available from Musicians Friend and retailers (looks nice-DON'T BUY IT!).. It's called a Gitane. The company made a big deal about using the original plans.

It ain't funn getting old!

Russ

Capt. Russ,
I heard the same story with Saga guitars. A friend who managed a local music store here had some literature on them, and refused to carry Saga guitars because of all the horror stories with warped necks, knobs falling off within hours, bad frets, malfuctioning pick ups and so on. I gotta ask this... Is it legal today for companies to produce something and not include any literature on their warranty policy? I thought this was mandated by specific business laws.

Squeak

Squeak....you're right! In states that have adopted the Uniform Commercial Code (many have), there are specific rules of commerce. I'm having my attorney check with the Attorney General's office now, have statements from two repair people here in town about this persistant neck problem, and will spend $10,000.00 without blinking an eye to stop this place from producing junk and not backing it up. That may sound crazy, since a $650.00 instrument is involved, but I'm really PISSED OFF!

Here, all I'm trying to do is warn members
about Saga, so they don't get into the same situation.

Shame is, it's a really attractive and historic instrument.

Russ