Re: Warmoth neck
Agreed. Not the best idea, as it affects the fine tuning range and intonation (which becomes a pain in the neck to adjust because there are shims involved). Floyds work best with a straight radius, but they can work with a compound radius.
These are the types of shims I use on Floyd saddles, I don't see how they effect fine tuning range and intonation at all
http://www.axcessories.com/products.asp?cat=25
On USA made Jacksons you find copper shielding tape under the saddles that act as shims, which IMO is not as reliable- if you take the saddle off years down the line for cleaning, the tape falls off and you can't get the correct height. These shims I use are made of steel, I don't see how they would have adverse affects.
Just put 3 shims under the high and low E strings, and 1 shim under the A and B strings, and your action on a 10-16" compound radius neck like Warmoth or Jackson is set.
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I copied this off the Warmoth site:
This is an easy guide to shimming your Original Floyd Rose saddles to get a close match to your fretboard radius. This way you can dial it in very fast to get very close to a perfect match for best action.
Note: Unless your guitar has a 10" non-compound fretboard radius, you will need to shim your floyd saddles if you want good action. This is because the ORIGINAL Floyd bridge radius = 10".
You can buy .2mm shims that fit Floyd saddles on the internet in packs of 6 or 12. Just do a google search. To find out how many .2 mm shims to add to each string saddle, see below (note that the D and G strings get no shim):
Fingerboard Radius (at bridge) / E strings # shims / A and B strings # shims
10" / 0 / 0
12" / 1 / 0
14" / 2 / 1
16" / 2 / 1
18" / 3 / 1
You can also make your own shims out of coke soda cans (cut out of the coke can skin, which is about .1mm thick) or you can use copper shielding tape (that you shield your guitar with.) If you do either of these, you should measure the thickness with a micrometer. You can also cut up feeler gages to get your appropriate thickness. Here is a table of thickness to add to each string:
Fingerboard Radius (at bridge) / E strings / A and B strings
10" / none / none
12" / .2 mm / .1 mm
14" / .4 mm / .2 mm
16" / .5 mm / .2 mm
18" / .6 mm / .2 mm
For Warmoth compound necks, use the 18" row for radius at bridge to find out what to add. For some other compound neck, you'll need to estimate or calculate your fretboard radius at the bridge ( the radius flattens as you get closer to the bridge for a compound neck.)
