Saga Electric IV Mandolin Kit

[tracy]

Hi All,

Just passing along this to you.

This is concerning the Missing "Saga Electric IV kit" on the International Violin, (IV), web page.

Some have had trouble finding this kit on the IV web page and are wondering if they still are selling the kit.

To answer the question, Yes, they are still selling the kit.

I just checked with ken and he emailed me this message back and asked me to pass it along.


"We are out but we have more coming in I hope in 2-3 weeks. We will have them and if they want to reserve one they can email me personally. Please let them know that and also there are only a limited amount due in. Only 30 total. Thanks for your help!!! :-)
Ken"

Here Is Ken's Email Address: kwise@internationalviolin.com


International Violin Co. Main Web Page

Thanks
Tracy

PS
I Recently bought one of these kits and I really like it. For the money, this is a great kit. It sounds and plays very good. I'm planning on getting another one to convert to an 8 string soon.

As soon as I get a chance, I plan to post on putting it together etc...

[ira]

anyone else have experience with this kit?- ease of building(i'm relatively lame)? quality, tone, playability as compared to somewhat like-priced emandos (e.g.-mandobird)?
any other reviews?
thanks,
ira

[duuuude]

Ira, someone built one not too far back and posted a few thoughts on the process. Sorry, can't remember exactly who but it should still be in the e-mando forum somewhere I think. Even had a few pics, as I recall.

[tracy]

Ira,

I really like the saga e-mandolin kit. It plays well and sounds pretty good. The E string on mine is a little soft relative to the other 3 strings. I plan to change out the pickup in the near future. I am still trying to decide what pickup to switch to. (In fact, if anyone out there has any good suggestions for me...) For the price of the Saga kit, the pickup that it comes with is on par and gets the job done fairly well. Spending a little money buying a better pickup will transform this kit from being great to being fantastic.

The kit makes a very solid, sound instrument. Much more solid than the MandoBird. The Saga kit feels and plays just like the Kentucky E-Mandolin. If I were going to go out today and buy a “finished” 4 string e-mandolin with a limited budget, I would buy the Kentucky E-Mandolin - hands down. If I went out today to by either a “finished” or “kit” 4 string e-mandolin, I would buy the the Saga E-Mandolin Kit - hands down. I like the shape of the Saga better. The Saga is easy and fun to build. I learned a great deal putting it together. The Saga kit is cheaper. If you want to save money and like putting things together, get the Saga kit. If you do not want to deal with putting a kit together and can afford the little extra cost, go with the Kentucky E-Mandolin.

Last I checked, Janet Davis Music was selling the Kentucky for $219. If you go for the Saga Kit I highly recommend going to Ken Wise at International Violin.

Tracy

PS In order to get back to you quickly, I decided to go ahead and post the first part of my response to your email and will post the rest of my response a little later when I get it finished. I will tell you in more detail of the actual kit in the second part of my response. Maybe in an hour. I wrote this quickly so I hope it makes sense.

[tracy]

Ira,

The kit is fairly straight forward and easy to build. The kit requires no woodworking. The work required consists of assembly and if desired, a final finishing of paint. After assembly is complete, the kit will require a good setup job to adjust the neck rod, string height and intonation. The setup job to me was the most challenging part of the kit. I had zero experience with instrument construction or setup prior to putting this kit together and I had no problems. If you have a decent grasp of the intricate functionings of a screwdriver, you will have no problems with assembling this kit. Setting up the instrument after it is assembled is a different matter. The setup is not difficult but will require you to know a few things. It is not Rocket Surgery though. I had to go the the net and read up on how to do the setup which turned out to be the best thing about putting this kit together. I learned a great deal about stringed instruments, how and why things are done the way they are etc... I can't say that I am now an expert on setting up stringed instruments but I now understand the basics enough to do a basic setup barring complications like a high fret etc. The fret board on the Saga kit was very well made. I had only one minor problem on one fret that had bowed up ever so slightly away from it's setting of which I bravely and gently pressed back into position. It was so slight, I could have left it as it was and just raised the string height slightly.


The main things you would want to make sure to do:

Add shielding to the cavities and underside of pick guard over the cavities.

I used copper foil sheets that I bought from a local hobby store. It was not hard installing the copper as shielding but it did take a great deal of time and patients. If I had to do it again (and could afford it), I would use conductive shielding paint.

Change out the plastic nut with a bone nut.

Change out the strings to a set that best suites you.

If desired – Put the final finish on. The kit comes with a clear finish or pre-finish on it. I chose to leave it as it came. I might decide to add a final paint finish in the future. It looks and feels fine as it comes.

If desired – Cut the tail stock to a desired shape.


I hope this helps!

Tracy

[tracy]

ira,

I beleive this is the Link To Other Thread That mandollusional Mike was telling you about.

Let me know if I can help further.

Tracy

[kvk]

Hi Ira,

I build a couple electric guitars in a previous life and they really are just a box of parts you bolt together. Solder a few wires and your done. A couple of the other threads mentioned somethings about shielding and ground the IV to keep it from buzzing a bit. Electrics will do that if they are not wired right.

I would think the hardest thing would be set up. Doing a nut is very make-shift if you don't have nut files. I've done it with little needle files and it comes out servicable. I've never taken the pludge and spent $50 on nut files.

If I didn't already have mandobird, I'd buy the IV kit just for the fun of building it. I'm actually thinking of selling the mb to buy the kit but I have to finish IV A first.

[tracy]

Ira,

I failed to tell you that all the electronics in the kit comes pre assembled. You will not have to do any soldering except to ground the shielding.

Tracy

[Professor PT]

I sent Ken at IV an e-mail but have had no reply so far. I assume they are still not in stock. I called another place that sells them on-line, and he said it would be about three weeks. I was hoping to get one pretty soon so I can work on it and do some recording with it. I have a Telecaster, and it will be very cool to have a little e-mando in the same shape. I think the Tele is still probably the best electric guitar design ever: simple and elegant.

[Mastersound]

Hiya - this is long winded so read at your own risk!

Great to see another source of economically priced emandos. I'm backing off production of mine so I don't mind sharing a few tips and tricks.

All these emandos seem to use a P-bass pickup, and a common issue is a quiet E string. The easiest fix is to raise the pickup height at the E string end. A small piece of foam under the E end of the pickup does the trick. Another option is to use a heavier string, so if the standard set is 10, 13, 17 and 26w then maybe try replacing the 10 thou with a 12 thou. Yes, it will be under higher tension, but it will also have greater output. Another option is to try an EMG Select P-bass pickup which has a blade polepiece so gives a more even string response. They come as a pair but it's not rocket science to separate them. If your budget stretches to it you could try a DiMarzio blade style P-bass pickup pair. These ones have a twin blade design and seem to have a lot more output... but they're about 3 times the price of the EMG pickups, which are around three times the price of a standard generic P-bass pickup. The Rolls Royce is the Bartolini, but of course you'll need to sell a couple of your children for scientific experimentation to pay for one pickup!

To brighten the tone you can also try different pots and caps. The standard pots for single pole pickups are 250K with a 0.047uF cap. Recently I've been using a 500K log pot for the volume control and a 1meg linear pot with a 0.047uF cap for the tone control. I tried the 0.022uF but it didn't give as good a result as the 0.047uF. We're all fixated with the orange and green caps as having the most "mojo", but the blue ones actually work just as well, are smaller in size, and according to my electronics supplier the tolerance is actually better than the others.

If you're looking for a nice low action you need to spend some time reslotting the nut. You can buy a little 6" hacksaw (sometimes called a junior saw) that has a 20 thou blade. You can use that to deepen the nut slots for the D, A, and E strings. A standard hacksaw is 25 thou, so that will do for the G string which is usually 26 thou. I set the action at the first fret at 20 thou using a special gauge from Stewmac, but you can use the hacksaw blade as a feeler gauge and set the action to 25 thou. Two blades together gives you 50 thou, which is a good height at the 12th fret.

There's probably been more rubbish spoken and written about tuners than any other part of any emando. There are very few really bad tuners. Some look better than others but most do the job they're intended to. If you have problems with strings going of tune my bet is that either the strings aren't tied off properly and are slipping through the hole in the capstan, or that the string is binding in the nut slot.



So now your action is nice and low, your strings are running through the nut slots nicely and are tied off at the tuners properly. Now you need to adjust the intonation. If your emando has a proper bridge with saddles that are adjustable for vibrating string length and height then it's a simple job to adjust the intonation. You will need to use your guitar or chromatic tuner to fine tune your intonation. Start by tuning your instrument to pitch, then check the heaviest string's tuning at the 12th fret. If your tuner shows that you're sharp adjust the saddle on the bridge slightly further away from the neck. If your tuner shows that you're flat then adjust the saddle on the bridge slightly closer to the neck. Turn the adjustment screw one or two turns at a time, retune to pitch, and check again at the 12th fret. Repeat this for each string, retune the whole instrument to pitch, and recheck each string at the 12th fret just to be sure.

So now you should have a well tuned and intonated emando with a nice low action. Enjoy playing it and don't forget to change strings often. Mando players seem to think having old strings is a plus, but it's putting extra tension on the neck and making notes/chords harder to fret. If you're spending half an hour a day playing then change your strings every month! If you're playing an hour a day and doing a gig a week then change strings every 2 to 4 weeks. You have an electric mando so let the volume come from the amp, not from you thrashing away with a thick pick on ancient strings!

I hope this has been of some help. Although I haven't seen one in the flesh a kit emando like the one from International Violin should be relatively easy to assemble and setup. Don't forget you can retune it to GCEA and play it as a soprano uke as well!

[sides7]

I have been bugging Ken Wise of IV about the Saga Electric mandolin kits and when will they be available again. In the latest E-mail from Ken he says:

"The traditional Electric mandolin kits will be back in stock in about 4-6 weeks and they will NOT be Saga but they will be a different design and exclusive to me(IV).

I'm kinda disappointed as I don't think we'll see that price point again.

Charlie

[buddyellis]

Search the archives for "IV kit"

There are a bazillion threads on this kit (and the related IV f kits from Ken, too.)

Link here

OOps I just realized that was the electric kit. There are some threads on those too.