Do you shim your necks?

[Telliot]

This is a wonderful invention. I would happily buy these to replace the strips of card stock I'm using now. I always worry about there not being full contact in the neck pocket and what it might be doing to my neck.

[Haustnótt]

at $14.00 for two shims, they seem kind of expensive

I agree that they are a bit pricey. It is a one time investment, though, and this is a product of great quality. But it would indeed be better if you didn't have to buy two shims of different angles.

I don't think I have much use for the 5' ones.

I'm pretty sure that I'd want the 1 degree shim in almost all cases

That's what I thought too, but it turns out half a degree tilt means a bridge maybe five millimetres or so higher (too lazy to do the math right now). That was perfect in my case, twice the height would be overkill. But YMMV, as they say.

I'll let you all know the reply.

Yes, please do. It probably wouldn't hurt if someone else asked the same.

[Larry Mal]

The answer is no, at least not for now, although they said they'd consider it in the future.

I'm fine with it, because I'm pretty sure I'd want a degree on my offsets, but not so sure if I'd want that on the others.

And, I thought it was $14 for the single one anyway, and if I order two sets, then I can combine two .5s into one!

Yay!

[saxjag]

If you use two .5s but reverse the orientation of one of them, it's like having no shim at all. Works the way a RWRP pickup cancels hum. Or so I'm told by Schrodinger's cat.

[rjungemann]

I used two business cards (one shorter than the other to give a bit of an "incline") to shim the neck on my VMJM. Worked perfectly for me.

[jorri]

I've recently tried taking them out. I didn't find any sonic improvement. I then had a few string slips so i put the shim back in (my bridge is nearly touching the pickguard without a shim).

Before it was wood veneer. And now a business card, as that is thinner and i wanted to go for the minimum amount. Not sure that there's all that much difference, if anything the wood veneer was better, but there's limited times i'd want to keep removing the neck, since i probably imagined that!.

I once had a really huge shim though (a good inch wide, and a second piece of veneer on top of that) and that seemed to deaden the sound. It also didn't improve any 'bridge problems' after a point.

[jorri]

So how thick would a 1 degree shim be for comparison? I'd have some interest but i'm probably using a thin piece only about 0.25mm thick!

I'd seen some similar before, but they were flat (some custom builder somewhere) which imo is useless, causing less tonal transfer for only a small change...and you can make that type from a piece of wood veneer, scissors and a hole-punch! This sounds a lot better! But perhaps more for bigger shim amounts, i have no idea what angle i've shimmed at, and only know the difference in bridge height, or shim thickness vs. width.

[Haustnótt]

So how thick would a 1 degree shim be for comparison?

I'm unable to do a precise measurement right now, but 1 mm is pretty close to the thickness of the thick end of the 1 degree shim. It tapers down to maybe 0.2 mm.

[jorri]

So probably a 0.5 would be good. Shame they don't sell separately, as i'm not sure why i'd need two in most cases. Which tells me the bridge height raises by about 1.6mm (there was a really simple trig calculator).

[Larry Mal]

I ordered a few sets, so I'll have three of each measurement. Not really sure what kind of a review I can give on shims, but I'll say some words when I have them.

[tkachuk07]

I shimmed my VMJM. I didn't have one for awhile & it was fine, but I did some detailed setup work & decided to try the shim. I felt it improved the guitar being able to raise the bridge some more & kept the shim.

I just got a Jag & plan to do the same when I get a chance to really dial in the set up.

[Larry Mal]

They seem to be scheduled to be delivered today. If anyone wants any photographs or measurements, I'd be happy.

I have a Telecaster that is hopefully heading to the shop this weekend for unrelated matters, but it'll get a shim of some kind while I'm at it (I'm guessing the half degree on those, but aren't certain).

And I might as well do some work on my Jazzmaster, so it can be shown with a full degree and half degree shim if anyone cares to see that or wants measurements.

Of course, it may be that you all can imagine what a God damn shim would look like and don't need my ruminations, so if no one speaks up for this, I probably won't bother.

[Deed_Poll]

I had my luthier make one up for my '65 to replace the improvised bit of pot metal / credit card situation it had going on in there. It sounds great and is not noticeable at all, even if you're looking for it. He stained it to match the neck exactly.

All the bodies I make on my CNC will have an angled neck pocket as standard if they are taking an offset bridge. It's really important to get that right.

P.S. I have had good results in the past folding and refolding aluminium foil to shim my necks. You need quite a bit, but don't add too much in one go. It took a long time to get just the right amount but when you compact it with the neck as you go, it just becomes a solid lump of aluminium. It's such a hard / tight fit you can see the wood grain embossed in each side! Works great and is inexpensive.

[Larry Mal]

The shims are great. I put a one degree shim in a Telecaster, then immediately took it to the shop, so I can't say if it really will be what I want in there or not.

But, I put a one degree shim in my AVRI Jazzmaster, where I suspect that it will be great, and so far it is. It allowed me to get the Mastery bridge up a little higher than I had it, although I did have a shim in there prior, an old cut up plastic student ID card.

I'm not going to make too much out of a damn shim, but sometimes with this particular Jazzmaster I can get the action super low, and just amazingly easy to play. Low like you'd set up your Gibsons, about a millimeter and a half at the twelfth fret. Lower than I can get most of my other Fenders, not like I care, but it's just something about this guitar.

Like I say, I can get it that way with the plastic ID card shim, but I did dial in the setup pretty quickly with the new shim and I probably will put one in all my Fender type guitars. I just tend to like them in there. Sure, it costs $7, but what kind of time do I save from not having to rifle through the wallet for an old ID card and shit, cutting that up, putting holes in it.

And that was easier than what I had been doing, which was buying wooden shims at Home Depot and sanding them down. That usually didn't work all that good either. I never even thought of aluminum foil.

This was fun. And clearly, before you have to say it, there's not a lot of excitement in my days since I've been really looking forward to these shims and have been talking about them so much. I know that. You know that. It's understood.

Good shims!

[saxjag]

Shimmy shimmy koko pop.