Build #11 - AGM-3F

I'm building this alongside an AG-1F. I received the AG-1F a while back and I've just started on the clear coats for that. Since this kit just arrived, I've now got something to do while waiting for clears to dry on the first. My initial look at the kit leaves me with some concerns/questions.

Disclaimer: I haven't done a proper mock build so I could be worrying about nothing.

My first question is around the Bigsby and how to correctly locate it. I found a nice old post here that explains it with a picture - https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...ead.php?t=1733. I gather the whole point there is this is part of the mock build and you'd use the string alignment from tuner to bridge and extend that in a nice straight line to the Bigsby to locate where it should sit to keep the strings nice and straight. What I don't get is how far back from the bridge it should be located. I assume that closer to the bridge means bigger break angle but is there some sort of guideline as to what I should be looking for? Last thing I want to be doing is trying to fill in drill holes on my flame top because I've got it wrong.

Second question is kinda related to the first in a way. As I mentioned, I haven't done a proper mock build yet and this could be perfectly normal. The one thing I've done is to slot the neck into the body to see how it sits and I've noticed there's a bit of a break angle for the neck. This could be normal, but the neck on my AG-1F doesn't have this and seems to sit nice and parallel with the body, and the mock build on that seemed to indicate the strings sat correctly over the pickups through to the bridge and rang true with a fairly decent action. I would have thought the AGM-3F would be similar since the bodies are essentially the same other than the material used and the routing (I think).
It seems the neck would be more suited to an arch top, like an LP etc, where the bridge and pickups would sit a bit higher. I've been scouring other build diaries to try and find something similar but with no luck. I get the feeling that with the way the neck currently sits, I'm going to be sitting the bridge and pickups up really high. Or, perhaps I'm going to need to do some planing/sanding of the heel to level it out a bit. I'm reluctant to do anything without a) first doing the mock build to perhaps highlight that all of the above is utter stupidity from me and b) asking the opinions of those with much greater knowledge than I possess.

Of course, I've chosen now to write this message when the kit is back at home and I can't take photos to demonstrate. Will provide photos later when I can take them.

First issue looks like a non-issue. I put the pickups in with the neck and noticed that the housings are progressively bigger and all seems to line up in a straight line, to the naked eye.

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Next issue. There's a nice groove/crack through the middle of the first three frets. I'm guessing that might need some filling with CA glue, some sanding and a bit of a sealing coat to smooth that out. Always been lucky with my fretboards in the past. Law of averages applies here.

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Finally getting around to making a start on this. Was just beginning my mock build when I noticed something the troubles me with the alignment of the neck. However, I'm not sure if it's normal so I don't want to go and take drastic action in case I'm just going to destroy things.

The neck sits nice and flat and true in the pocket. However, I've noticed the high E string side at the fret board sits about 0.5mm higher than the low E side. I've done all sorts of measurements and it appears the difference in height is in the heel. The pocket measures at an even depth throughout and the neck itself looks even. It's just the heel is 0.5mm thicker on the high E side. When placed in position, the heel is flush with the surrounding timber in the pickup cavity on the low E side, but sits up a little on the high E side.

The question I have - is this normal to allow for the difference in thickness of strings? I just did a similar measurement on my Ibanez and it looks like there is a similar variance but this is the first time I've noticed it visually. Probably doesn't help that all my other guitars are asymmetric bodies which makes it much more noticeable on a symmetric body. I would have assumed it to be normal except that the way it sits up slightly on one side in the pickup cavity has me wondering. That said, the pickup sits in the cavity without any issues and is nice and flush with the body so I may be overthinking it.

Trying to show what I'm talking about with pictures.

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In an ideal world, everything would be nice and level. As it stands, 0.5mm isn't a big difference and it's on the added tenon, whilst the fretboard itself seems pretty even. I've seen some fairly slanted fretboards on kits, and this is certainly not one of them. You'd normally have the treble strings lower than the bass side strings, which means the bridge sits lower on that side. The factories aren't that good at getting the neck angle just right, so if it's a bit shallow, the bridge can end up sitting right on the body, which means that you may be glad of that extra 0.5mm of height. It's not a lot, but it can make a big difference to how the guitar plays if the bridge does have to sit very low. These are kits routed from templates by fairly unskilled workers, not by CNC machines, so tolerances are 'generous'.

You could level the top of the tenon if you wanted to, to know that the bottom of the pocket is all nice and flush, there's nothing wrong with that at all. Practically, it won't make any difference as the pickup will be sitting a lot higher and the pickup wire holes are nice and low, so there shouldn't be any issues with the pickup's own output wire getting in the way of the pickup sitting properly. Though you may just want to have a look at the exit hole on the bridge rout as this can be quite high, and the three pickup cables passing through it are quite bulky and can stop the pickup sitting correctly if the hole is too high up in the pocket. I've got to work on lowering the entry to some cable holes on my EX-1 kit, and my GSM-1 also suffered from this.