Layman's way of shimming a bolt-on neck

koshikas

koshikas

New member
Hello there, need to get one of my guitars neck shimmed. i've been playing the guitar with bit of moderate action from the time i bought it. but now realize that it ought to be a shredstick, which it is. so need to get that action crazy low if i can. the floating trem bridge is at its lowest the stud bolts would go, so i will have to resort to shimming the neck.

From the tiny bit of research I did, the proper way would be to shim with some sort of hard wood. but from the little time i spent on getting some thin piece of wood/veneer I've had no luck and I'm lazy and impatient. What would be the next best thing to shim the neck with. people seems to put all junk to shim necks; from masking tape, business cards, picks, credit cards, etc. I've sort of settled for thin metal washers, which are good (because the dont compress, metal) and bad (they will dent the wood under compression).

What do you guys think?
 
Re: Layman's way of shimming a bolt-on neck

Ive used.. business cards... brass shim stock... aluminum shim stock... and veneer shims. And some of the factory plastic spacers some necks come with. They all seem to work the same for me.
 
Re: Layman's way of shimming a bolt-on neck

Plastic milk jugs work great (obviously not intact)
 
Re: Layman's way of shimming a bolt-on neck

Paper is all you need. Get something thin like typewriter paper, and fold it over as needed to add thickness.
 
Re: Layman's way of shimming a bolt-on neck

there are a lot of ways to shim a neck but the cheaper and easier is with normal paper folded, cut a piece 2 times longer then the neck shelf, fold it in half, then the upper half goes folded in half, place it on the shelf, put your neck, screw it, if the angle isn't correct keep adding paper, you had to made an angle of something like 5° to be able of setting the guitar really low
 
Re: Layman's way of shimming a bolt-on neck

thanks guys, keep your funny shim material coming.

it seems like I'll settle for paper or sand paper from what you've suggested so far.

Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk
 
Re: Layman's way of shimming a bolt-on neck

Playing cards are used for shimming pool tables because they don't compress. I'd try a few cut up playing cards.

On a slightly related note, I think the Fender Micro Tilt is awesome.
 
Last edited:
Re: Layman's way of shimming a bolt-on neck

I used business cards.

Stew Mac has some thin carbon fiber strips that should be fantastic.

Bill
 
Re: Layman's way of shimming a bolt-on neck

I've used cereal box shims before with no loss of resonance and vibrance of the guitar.

I'm nit saying it should be Plan A, but, in my Jackson, it worked great and the guitar still had the same resonance it did before.
 
Re: Layman's way of shimming a bolt-on neck

did the shim. ended up using 3-folds of fine grit sand paper. I just made sure that the shim covered the area from inner edge to just beyond where the inner screws were. I was little concerned whether the neck would keep moving, neck joint is one of those easy access ones, so one screw is closer to the inner screws. but so far no problems with that.

as far as resonance comparisons I can't say much because there were simply too many changes going in at the same time. to start with I don't know how I missed it but the neck pocket was covered in good layer of paint. the neck was almost glued with paint. I also did a pickup change that went awry. (small advise you cannot make a lousy pickup better by mag swaps). but I honestly don't feel any compromises with acoustic tone or body resonance.

the original problem was solved. the action is much lower than it used to be, what I mean is, now I've choice of lowering the bridge if I choose to, earlier it was pretty high action even with the bridge lowered all the way down. I had to jack up the bridge a bit to avoid the buzzes. and as much as I like having crazy low action I realised that u need bit of releif and action if you want to keep digging in the way I'm used to.

thanks guys

Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top