Do you shim your necks?

For help with setups and other technical issues.
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Johnny Alien
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Re: Do you shim your necks?

Post by Johnny Alien » Tue Jul 19, 2016 5:41 pm

I only want the 0.5 degree shim and I can't bring myself to pay $14 plus shipping for one shim. If someone has an extra .5 they would like to sell I would be interested. OR if there is anyone interested in just the 1 degree I can grab a set and sell the 1 degree shim to you.

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captdusty
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Re: Do you shim your necks?

Post by captdusty » Wed Jul 20, 2016 3:11 am

Johnny Alien wrote:I only want the 0.5 degree shim and I can't bring myself to pay $14 plus shipping for one shim. If someone has an extra .5 they would like to sell I would be interested. OR if there is anyone interested in just the 1 degree I can grab a set and sell the 1 degree shim to you.
I might be able to help you, but it sorta depends on your patience level. I have a set, but still have some experimenting to do on a project build before I know for sure if it's the 1.0 or the 0.5 I really need to keep. In a rush?

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Johnny Alien
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Re: Do you shim your necks?

Post by Johnny Alien » Wed Jul 20, 2016 3:39 am

captdusty wrote:might be able to help you, but it sorta depends on your patience level. I have a set, but still have some experimenting to do on a project build before I know for sure if it's the 1.0 or the 0.5 I really need to keep. In a rush?
Not at all. If you have a .5 I would be interested whenever. Thanks.

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Re: Do you shim your necks?

Post by bunkre » Wed Sep 14, 2016 10:13 am

I just got a marketing email from Stew Mac today announcing new sizes and single orders. Finally! http://www.stewmac.com/Materials_and_Su ... uitar.html

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Re: Do you shim your necks?

Post by jellodog » Sat Nov 24, 2018 7:45 pm

Axolotl wrote:
Tue May 10, 2016 8:26 am
... 2 days ago I decided to put the leftover 0.5 degree on top of other shim to achieve a greater break angle. I thought the bridge would go sky high, but instead it worked like a dream. I got a better bridge height and angle, but also the guitar came more alive, the strings resonate more and they feel more springy. I can really tell a difference (I'd say due to shimming higher the neck and not the stewmac shims per se) . I adjusted the pup height a bit, and ever since I have this guitar has felt or sounded this good. I'm elated.

I know 1.5 degree is a lot of shim, but this Jazzmaster is loving it. I don't think I'd ever think of shimming the neck this much if it wasn't for these pre-angled shims. So glad I got them. You can see in the pics the two shims at the neck joint and the bridge height I'm using.
Exactly THIS!

It took me 3 years to realise that the perfect shim angle for my Jazzmaster is 1.5 degrees, and yes, I would have never tried such an angle it wasn't for the StewMac shim sets. I Googled to see if anybody else has gone as high as 1.5 degrees and found this old post. I'm posting here so that others know that you really may have to try going further than what you'd imagine to be reasonable.

The Jazzmaster (a Partsmaster) had a 0.5 degree shim for a long time, but after a couple of years I think the neck shifted a little, perhaps because of a dry environment, but anyway I had to adjust the truss rod and I found it hard to get a the right neck relief, action and bridge break angle. I'd also always suffered from a little bit of rattle, buzz and ringing that seemed to originate from the bridge.

I came to the conclusion that in order to get the correct relief, action and tension that perhaps I should try more shim, so added another 0.5 degree wedge. Things seemed to improve, but it still seemed that I needed to adjust the neck relief further, and that perhaps things would be better in terms of bridge height and bridge angle if I just kept going, so I did.

Now my bridge break angle is perfect with the 1.5 degree shim, with enough down force that:
  • I can use 10 guage strings instead of 11s, which made string bending effortless and comfortable
  • The guitar has greater sustain
  • Greater resonance note clarity and bloom
  • There's less bridge rattle and buzz (even with a Staytrem bridge, I had issues)
  • Neck relief and action are perfect, especially above the 9th fret where I had some high-ish action issues
  • Less weird ringing overtones (the B string was particularly bad)
I've always loved my Partsmaster, but now it is absolutely perfect and sounds fantastic - with so much mojo.

It's been such a long journey of learning and tweaking. And I nearly threw in the towel back in 2015 because spraying metallic nitro in a damp Manchester environment was just so damn hard. But to finally have reached this point, where I'm super happy with the guitar, well... I almost cried when I finally plugged it in and heard its new and beautiful voice having made this shim adjustment. I never dreamed it could be this good!

P.S. One more thing:

That "trick" where you put the neck back on, tighten it up, bring the strings to tension, then slacken the neck bolts so the neck heel shifts and sits firmt and tight against the front face of the neck pocket, before tightening the bolts again? Well that's not a myth: it totally works every time for me, and it really does make a difference to the resonance and sustain - and also in my case, it helps with achieving really excellent intonation too.

P.P.S. The dry environment issue caught me by surprise because I moved to Canada and as a new arrival, I wasn't familiar with the low humidity effects of extremely low Winter temperatures. I have since bought a humidifier and now my guitars are safe and healthy.
Last edited by jellodog on Mon Nov 26, 2018 5:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Do you shim your necks?

Post by Danley » Sat Nov 24, 2018 10:14 pm

I used to have some pretty aggressive shimming on my Jaguars/Jazzmasters; which would still be needed if I wanted to say use the stock mute. But I gradually started toning it back, and now none of my guitars have shims. Just not really necessary considering I prefer a shallow break angle that keeps the strings off the back of the bridge anyway.

I also have guitars with microtilt- but it's totally backed off/not in effect on any of them.
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Re: Do you shim your necks?

Post by zepset » Sun Nov 25, 2018 10:29 pm

I shim. A bit more angle helps for the sound & setup I like. Never saw these Stew Mac shims before, will have to buy some for Christmas :)

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Re: Do you shim your necks?

Post by Pacafeliz » Mon Nov 26, 2018 2:35 am

i have shimmed pretty much all of my guitars!
usually i just put a normal medium-size/thick fender pick in there and that does the trick! :ph34r:
i love delay SO much ...that i procrastinate all the time.

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Larry Mal
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Re: Do you shim your necks?

Post by Larry Mal » Mon Nov 26, 2018 4:43 am

Pacafeliz wrote:
Mon Nov 26, 2018 2:35 am
i have shimmed pretty much all of my guitars!
usually i just put a normal medium-size/thick fender pick in there and that does the trick! :ph34r:
The only problem with doing that, and using a solution like the Micro-Tilt, is that you apply uneven pressure at that part of the neck and the neck and frets can (and do) develop a bulge there. I've had guitars in which this has been the case and your choices aren't good, either living with higher action than you want or filing the frets down where the bulge is, or removing the frets and sanding that part of the neck down.

Not for me- now that I can buy a full pocket shim, I'll just do that from now on.
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Re: Do you shim your necks?

Post by Haustnótt » Tue Jan 08, 2019 2:23 pm

As the starter of this thread a couple of years ago, I am happy to see that it keeps helping people in getting the best out of their offsets.

I still have the 1 degree shim in my VMJM, but my 1998 Custom Shop Jazzmaster doesn't need one; it plays great with the stock bridge and 12-50 flatwounds.
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