AGD-612L - Doubleneck Left handed !!

Hi everyone,

Here's an update of the few steps i could go through this weekend...


I installed the tuners to both necks and i confirm 18 tuners completely unbalance the piece as expected....:D
I think it will be difficult to balance the piece without adding more weight, but i'd be interested if anyone have any advice that might help.

Then, i grounded the posts and pulled them in.
Attachment 37103

As soldering training is now 20 years old, it definitely shows but shuold be fine enough.
Since i used all shielded wire i ordered, i had to use the "original" wiring for now.
Attachment 37104
Attachment 37105

Unfortunately, i now figure that the 3 "sg" type switches (switchcraft 90 degree model) i ordered will be kept for a future project as i need ordinary switches, my mistake.....but for now i used the original that came with the kit.

When i installed the bridge and saddles to precisely confirm the scale before i drill the neck pocket holes, i notice the necks could be more angled to help lower the action in the higher fret positions.
Seem like i have enough heel height to sand to perfect fit, but i am not sure how i am suppose to calculate exactly how much to sand and how to angle the sanding.....
I know i could buy a maple shim online but again, i am not sure how to calculate what would be needed....Any advise would be welcome.

It is the reason why i haven't put string on the beauty yet and as you can expect, i would be ready to perform necessary steps anytime soon once i have some advice.

Attachment 37102

thank you in advance,

So your problem is that the neck angle is such that even with the bridges on their lowest settings, the action is still far too high?

A shim is the easiest thing to do here as its a bolt on and the shim is added at the body end of the pocket so won't be seen.

Adjust the neck truss rods until the necks are as straight as they can be. Set the bridges to their lowest height. Then run a fairly long straight edge along the neck to the bridge saddle position. Ideally the straight edge should intersect with the bridge about 2mm maximum below the top of the saddles. But you'll probably have the situation where this intersection is several mm below that, say 4mm below the top of the saddles. So the neck angle needs to be increased so that the intersection is between 1-2mm below the top of the saddles, allowing you to adjust the bridge height upwards slightly. Lets go with 1mm below as the target. So the intersection point needs to come up by 3mm.

The height of the shim you put at the end of the neck pocket can be adjusted empirically i.e. you just fit one and if it's too tall sand it down, or too short then fit another one. But you can get a good idea of what its height needs to be using simple ratios.

The length of the pocket itself (headstock end to body end), compared to the length from the headstock end of the pocket to the bridge position, will give you the necessary ratio. Just using the kit photos on the site, this looks to be roughly 1:3.5 (or 2:7)

If you increase the neck height at one end of the pocket by x, then the height increase at the bridge will then simply be x x 3.5. Working back the other way, if the height needs to increase by 3mm, then the shim needs to be 3mm/3.5 = 0.86mm tall.

This is slightly approximate as the shim isn't infinitely narrow, so the effective length of the pocket is shortened slightly by the depth of the shim - so don't make it too deep (almost as wide as the pocket width, but maybe 1cm deep max). Also, make it out of something hard like an old plastic credit card, or a bit of hard maple veneer, something that won't compress when squeezed. It is better to make it too tall and then sand it down, rather than too short and have to make another one or else use two shims, one on top of another.

Using the straight edge and comparing it to the bridge saddle height means that you don't need to fit the strings whilst making any adjustments, so it's relatively quick to fit and remove the neck to adjust the shim and then fit it again to test.

If the shim had to go at the headstock end of the pocket. then I'd probably look at sanding the heel to change the angle, but as it's at the body end, then a shim is what I'd use.

You could make a full pocket length shim, but its a lot harder with minimal benefit. However, if you want to, the height of one end compared with another is the same as the small shim height would be. However that angle is a lot harder to fine tune once you've made the full-length shim. But you could make a small shim first, then a full length one, once you know the height/angle. Or use the small shim height to work out how much you need to sand off the heel of the neck. But you can make a near-infinite number of shims to get that right, but you can only sand a neck heel so many times before it becomes too thin.

Hi Simon, sorry for the long silence, many things happen in my personnal life that kept me away from moving foward...
But now, i am back on track and ready to complete the missing steps.

Actually, the problem is that i need to raise up the bridge a lot (mostly out of thread in the bridge post) in order to avoid buzzing from fret one to about 9 or so and therefore, gives me quite high action past the 12th fret...
i will take pictures later this week and post it so you can clearly see.

Does it mean a fret job would be necessary?

Again thank you for your appreciated input and thoughrough explanation