AGJM-1 - First Build

[Dan_B]

Hi all,

This post has been a long time coming. I've been lurking around here for awhile, admiring all the great looking builds. We had a few issues with my delivery, but thanks to Adam's persistence I finally got a chance to get stuck in over the weekend. Thank you, Adam

I ended up with 2x kits. One of which the body was damaged, & the other the neck was no good.

With Adams advice I was able to fit the good neck into the good body, & sent the other back. The fit was tight, but with a bit of sanding I got the neck to fit nicely. Before:


& after:



It was looking nice & straight.. I did a mock build & to me the strings looked evenly positioned on the fret board. (forgot to take a pic).

[Dan_B]

I am keen to get this as close to an SG Jr as possible, & I was in need of a bit of sanding/shaping therapy so I took to the contours with a file & some P60 sand paper:




In the time it took for the second kit to arrive, I cut & shaped a new pickguard on 3 ply. I'll need to tweak it a bit later, to follow the contours a bit closer. or I might start a new one & cut it closer to the bottom of the P90.


I've bought a new P90, which was slightly too big to fit the pickup cavity. I nervously hit it with a trimmer. It's a bit rougher than I hoped, but the dogear cover hides my handy work.

[Dan_B]

I then hit the sanding block for a few hours, & a few hours more, before I coated it with timbermate -



I sanded it back down after it dried.. but it looks as though I need to keep sanding to get rid of some marks:




I might leave that until next weekend, when my finger prints have grown back

[emuflats]

Welcome Dan. I'm a newbie but those contours look great!

[Bakersdozen]

Agreed, this is a really nice solid start. Looking tremendous.

[G-Axe]

Definitely worth the hard yakka to get those contours done. It's not a proper SG without some bevels.

[Andy40]

Gotta love the AGJM!!!!

[Fretworn]

Welcome Dan.

[Dan_B]

Thanks all.

I did a few more hours of sanding over the weekend, another coat of of timbermate that I watered down really thin, & more sanding. After that I gave it a coat of water based Cherry Red stain.





I had hoped that by thinning out the timbermate it would have helped in raising the grain, but I'm not sure if it has helped. The grain has lifted in places on the ends & is a bit rough



I'll have to get out the P240 again. Any tips on how to deal with this?

Also not sure if I'm 100% sold on the shade of red.. I may knock the colour back on the next coat, & darken it up a bit more.

[Bakersdozen]

Love that colour there mate. Remember it will darken up under whatever clear coat you plan to apply. Go back with maybe 400 first instead of 240 and see if the grain settles a bit. If you need to apply more colour after knocking off the raised grain, maybe you could increase the red concentrate, so you end up using less water. Therefore less raising of the grain.