So my neck is shimmed?

robgilmo

But not with wood?

https://i.imgur.com/FCW6jeQ.jpg

Its a bit of sticky foam type stuff, I dont know if the pocket seat was uneven or the neck needed adjusting to tilt it slightly, either way its in there.


It looks like the heel isnt sitting flat against the pocket seat anymore, most of that will be air?

https://i.imgur.com/breiAQi.jpg

What kind of an effect will that be having on the guitars timbre?

robgilmo

Some close ups of the pocket, Im tempted to remove this and see if the neck heel seats flush against the pocket seat but I dont know if thats a good idea or not, any thoughts? It looks factory to me.

https://i.imgur.com/0ImvBvD.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/JJFHKb2.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/HlL9CjR.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/xIJKPYR.jpg



Or is it a case of dont fix it if it isnt broken?

prowla

I often use a strip of thick aluminium foil (ie. from food trays) for shims, to fit up to the 1st pair of screw holes.

Fender made Strats with their micro-tilt mechanism, which is really a built-in adjustable shim which isn't quite as wide.

guitarfishbay

I wouldn’t have chosen to use that material, but I have a business card shim in most if not all of the bolt on guitars I own. I just can’t remember if I put one on the Tele or not.

I do it for setup preferences, I play heavier modern music and want a stiffer snappier feel to the guitar(/bass). Increasing the break angle can help with getting that kind of setup, but it depends on the geometry of the guitar and how much break angle it had to begin with.

If you remove it you’ll have to set the guitar up again, but if you have time you could do it as an experiment to see what you prefer on that instrument.

Snags

I have no idea on the rights and wrongs of it, but having had the necks off both my bolt-ons (Fenix Tele and Peavey Crapola Jazz bass) they both had paper-based shims present (and still do).

ESBlonde

I have a bit of soft wooden matchbox as a shim in my strat, in it's forth decade now so testing is still in progress!  ;-)

ICBM

A shim is normal on many Fender-type guitars and the material appears to be completely irrelevant to the tone. Don’t over-think it .

Personally, I actually think they sound *better* with a shim usually, but that may just be because it enables you to set the saddles slightly higher which increases the break angle and the pressure on them.

robgilmo

Best left alone then, thanks guys.

rossi

I use veneer of of an old sewing machine table that supports a marble top in the garden .of course being over 100 years old means mojo is just plain fantastic .

sweepy

I use slivers of old Business cards, DiMarzio used to sell a posh one with holes for the neck screws but needless to say you could never get them i the UK and necessity is the mother of invention etc. 

clarkefan

My EVH Wolfgang has a "built in" shim, the floor of the neck socket is angled, never seen that on a bolt-on before.

Bridgehouse

I had a shim in my 64 Precision. Looked like it was original as well.

Swapped it for a stewmac full length shim. 

ICBM

Bridgehouse said:

I had a shim in my 64 Precision. Looked like it was original as well.

Swapped it for a stewmac full length shim. 

Did you notice any change?

I’ve come across those in a couple of guitars, without any noticeably special results. My feeling is that a ‘traditional’ short shim actually sounds better - one was in a Jazzmaster where the full-length shim was too high, so I replaced it with a standard fibreboard one, and the tone improved noticeably. That’s just one example though.

robgilmo

Is there any truth in that a shim at the back of the heel can deform it?

ICBM

robgilmo said:

Is there any truth in that a shim at the back of the heel can deform it?

Not that I’ve ever seen. It can indent the body though!

Bridgehouse

ICBM said:

Bridgehouse said:

I had a shim in my 64 Precision. Looked like it was original as well.

Swapped it for a stewmac full length shim. 

Did you notice any change?

I’ve come across those in a couple of guitars, without any noticeably special results. My feeling is that a ‘traditional’ short shim actually sounds better - one was in a Jazzmaster where the full-length shim was too high, so I replaced it with a standard fibreboard one, and the tone improved noticeably. That’s just one example though.

None whatsoever, except it looked aesthetically better and was easier to position compared to the crappy strip that was there in the first place

Philly_Q

clarkefan said:

My EVH Wolfgang has a "built in" shim, the floor of the neck socket is angled, never seen that on a bolt-on before.

Warmoth have that as an option - or a standard feature on certain body shapes - where the body's going to be used with a tune-o-matic or non-recessed Floyd Rose.

ICBM

Philly_Q said:

clarkefan said:

My EVH Wolfgang has a "built in" shim, the floor of the neck socket is angled, never seen that on a bolt-on before.

Warmoth have that as an option - or a standard feature on certain body shapes - where the body's going to be used with a tune-o-matic or non-recessed Floyd Rose.

It was done as long ago as the 1970s or even the late 60s on cheap Japanese Gibson copies. Not really the same as a shim at all.

clarkefan

Same effect though, angling the neck?

ICBM

clarkefan said:

Same effect though, angling the neck?

Yes, but some people argue that the shim ruins the tone by preventing full wood-to-wood contact and hence vibration transfer between the neck and the body.

Personally I think that's nonsense - as is the need for an angled 'wedge' shim - not just because thousands of shimmed vintage Fenders sound fine to great with nothing more than a bit of cardboard or the original Fender fibreboard factory shims in there (they made them specifically, in several thicknesses), but because of this...

http://www.nkforsterguitars.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/howe-orme-neck-join.jpg

That's a Howe-Orme neck joint on a NK Forster acoustic. The neck touches the body in only three places - the pin at the back of the heel, and the two adjustable wheels under the fingerboard, which can be used to adjust the neck angle and alignment... and it sounds like a normal acoustic guitar. (Only possibly better!)

robgilmo

So that being said, why is it that body material is said to effect sound? Are we looking at bridge contact?