Bass neck shim

[johnbsharp]

I have aquestion about wedge or tapered shim?Won't this change the parralel distance between strings and neck at the thick end of shim vs. a flat shim that won't change the pitch? Thanks alot on your help!

[soapbarstrat]

the reason for using a tapered shim is because a flat shim would probably need to be quite thick, which doesn't look very good (the part you will see) and will make it so that the neck screws won't go as deep into the neck screw holes as they did before on all the screw holes, which would make the screw connection less stable. A tapered shim wouldn't raise the neck enough for this to be hardly an issue.

It doesn't really change the distance between fret-tops and string bottoms if the string heights are properly adjusted at the nut and bridge. Well, I guess you can say that when a neck needs to be shimmed and the correct sized shim is made, that the 'parralel distance between strings and neck ' is improved , which was the whole idea.

I think it's also more comfortable to have the neck tilted a little, although it might be too subtle to make enough difference. But just think about how the normal playing position makes the headstock of the guitar point at about 10-0-clock. A little easier on your left arm if it's closer to 9-o-clock, I would think.

I've never tried to shim a neck with a full-sized FLAT shim, but I'm guessing it is not the way to go. I might have removed one and replaced it with a tapered one, but my memory is getting fuzzy with doing this stuff for 15 years. I sort of remember doing something like that. Wish I would have documented all the repairs and mods I've done over the years.

[Brian]

Wish I would have documented all the repairs and mods I've done over the years.

Me to

[jeremywills]

i just utilized a heavy guage guitar pick on my strat, i cut it in half and the the straight edged goes to the wall of the neck pocket and the pointed edge towards the nut, its probably not the bestest way to do it but it was cheap, we all probably have picks laying about everywhere, at least i do so i had it handy, and it worked for me, i guess either i got lucky or its an acceptable way, anyways a fyi for you to try if u want, note i cut my own nut and setup the guitar with very light strings, and have the trem blocked so its more like a hardtail, i have no ideal if being a bass would work like that, i would assume so since it would be a hardtail, you might need two picks being a bigger neck pocket, good luck

[johnbsharp]

This is a reply I recieved from soapbarstrat I found very usefull. Thanks. J.W. I use a router to make full-sized tapered shims, but it's a lot of set-up work. You can use just about any hardwood, but maple is real dense, so the thinner end of the shim is a little tougher than something like mahogany. I never made one out of mahogany, but I would assume it would be very very brittle when sized that thin.

There's also the issue of a partial shim causing the neck to "kink". Some say it happens. Worked on some guys cheap chinese squire bass a few years ago that got on my nerves because he wanted his action lowered. The only way to do that was to shim the neck. He didn't want to pay what I charge for a full-sized shim, so I said I wood stick a partial shim in there. Then he says he doesn't want that because he had it like that but removed the shim because he heard the neck can 'kink' from it. But he still wanted the action lower (bridge adjustment wouldn't do it alone). I got tired of his crap and put a partial shim and charged him a very low price since I couldn't perform the impossible for him. I guess he thought I would eventually "give in " and do the full-sized shim dirt cheap, but forget that. I wanted that bass off my bench to make room for the next job.