Neck Shims

[maggotspawn]

I want to lower the action on my Jackson JS-32 7 strings. I need some neck shims. I tried lowering the action and it's fretting out on the higher frets. Anything I should know? I see some plastic shims on Amazon, think they will be OK?

[BroSlinger]

Have you tried raising the bridge and tightening the truss rod? I’ve never had to shim a shred guitar that had a bridge that had room to adjust.

[GuitarBilly]

Look for the brass shims on Amazon they don't cost much. Or wood shims. Plastic is probably fine too but I am not sure it they change shape over time. Probably not but I tend to prefer more durable materials

[maggotspawn]

I haven't adjusted the truss rod because it is where I like it, with little relief. I'll look for the brass shims. Thanks guys.

[Rampage]

My G&L Rampage is all fucked up. Two refrets on an old guitar. I got one of those balsa wood planes from the grocery store and used part of that as a shim. Ended up working perfectly!

[BroSlinger]

I haven't adjusted the truss rod because it is where I like it, with little relief. I'll look for the brass shims. Thanks guys.

If it’s where you like it, and it’s fretting out, then you either need a new nut or you need to raise the bridge.

Shims are great, but I don’t know how it’s going to help you.

[fretless]

Usually the shim is used at the heel. To facilitate lower action higher up the neck. From your description of fretting out higher up. Shimming the heel would not help I don’t think. I agree it probably needs a truss rod tweak and setup. The nut only affects the open strings so if no buzzing then probably ok there. If you are attempting to correct a bad pitch by shimming the front of the heel then you may have mixed results. Let us know how it goes and good luck.

[EndTime]

Yeah if you can lower it to the point it’s fretting out, then there is no reason for a shim. Nor would it help.

It’s pretty simple. You either are setting it too low. The truss rod has too much relief and needs to be straightened. Or there’s a rise in the heel. MANy guitars end up with a subtle rise at the end of the fretboard. For a few reasons. But it’s pretty common from my experience these days. Especially Epiphone and Gibson’s. Obviously those are set neck, but those are common. Obviously bolt ons can also have this issue.

But with that said, a truss rod adjustment should mitigate some of that before leveling off the upper frets.

[maggotspawn]

[EndTime]

What’s the video for? To explain what a shim does?? I’m very sure what a neck shim does and why to use it. If you are inquiring about those, then yeah they are good and I have a half dozen or so on hand, Altho they are asking a bit much for those these days, I think like $8. It’s still a small cost but they initially were like $3.

Anyway, what you are explaining is your issue, doesn’t need a neck shim. This video showed the upper frets not playing because they weren’t clearing the neck pickup. I doubt that ls the situation for you. Or at least you haven’t mentioned the pickups being in the way.

Again, these days I set up a hundred plus guitars a month. And MAYBE I shim 1 or 2 per hundred. When the action simply can’t be lowered enough.

You explained you can lower it enough but that the high strings fret out. There’s 3 main reasons for that. It’s simply too low to play correctly. You have high frets or a rise in the fingerboard at the heel. Or you have too much relief in the truss rod. None of those reasons need a shim.

[ajaxlepinski]

My Strat had the high E and low E bridge saddles set as low as possible The rest of he saddles (A,D,G,B) are set a bit higher to match the fretboard radius.
The trem had 5 springs hooked up so, it was effectively, a hardtail bridge and the string height was perfect.
My buddy set it up for a floating trem by removing 2 of the springs and, in doing so, the strings were raised up and the action was horribly high over the upper register.
Since, I want to keep my new floating trem setup -and- the bridge is bottomed out, the only way to lower the strings is to add a shim thereby, moving the fretboard closer to the stings.

Another instance for wanting to use shims... (it sounds like this is the case for Maggotspawn)...
If your your neck has a ski jump that the truss rod can't fix, sometimes you can put the shim near the front of the neck pocket, tilting the nut area of the neck up.
It may or may not help, depending on the severity and location of the ski jump and how tight your truss rod currently is.
Depending on where the ski jump is and how the action is over the lower frets, a taller nut may help, instead of a front pocket shim.
If you like the action over the lower frets, try a front pocket shim.
Most ski jumps really need a fret filing and possibly a fretboard sanding but, at that point, I'd rather get a new guitar.


Luckily, in my case, my Strat has a micro-tilt feature built into the neck that does the same thing as adding shims to the rear of he neck pocket.
I just have to get around to making the adjustment!
This pic is not my Strat but, it's exactly what I have...

[BroSlinger]

What’s the video for? To explain what a shim does?? I’m very sure what a neck shim does and why to use it. If you are inquiring about those, then yeah they are good and I have a half dozen or so on hand, Altho they are asking a bit much for those these days, I think like $8. It’s still a small cost but they initially were like $3.

Anyway, what you are explaining is your issue, doesn’t need a neck shim. This video showed the upper frets not playing because they weren’t clearing the neck pickup. I doubt that ls the situation for you. Or at least you haven’t mentioned the pickups being in the way.

Again, these days I set up a hundred plus guitars a month. And MAYBE I shim 1 or 2 per hundred. When the action simply can’t be lowered enough.

You explained you can lower it enough but that the high strings fret out. There’s 3 main reasons for that. It’s simply too low to play correctly. You have high frets or a rise in the fingerboard at the heel. Or you have too much relief in the truss rod. None of those reasons need a shim.

Yep. I’ve shimmed 2 out of about 100 guitars.

One was a jaguar that needed more tension over the bridge.

The other was my warmoth jerry garcia that needed the tom bridge raised a lot to use a non standard tail piece.

[EndTime]

What’s the video for? To explain what a shim does?? I’m very sure what a neck shim does and why to use it. If you are inquiring about those, then yeah they are good and I have a half dozen or so on hand, Altho they are asking a bit much for those these days, I think like $8. It’s still a small cost but they initially were like $3.

Anyway, what you are explaining is your issue, doesn’t need a neck shim. This video showed the upper frets not playing because they weren’t clearing the neck pickup. I doubt that ls the situation for you. Or at least you haven’t mentioned the pickups being in the way.

Again, these days I set up a hundred plus guitars a month. And MAYBE I shim 1 or 2 per hundred. When the action simply can’t be lowered enough.

You explained you can lower it enough but that the high strings fret out. There’s 3 main reasons for that. It’s simply too low to play correctly. You have high frets or a rise in the fingerboard at the heel. Or you have too much relief in the truss rod. None of those reasons need a shim.

Yep. I’ve shimmed 2 out of about 100 guitars.

One was a jaguar that needed more tension over the bridge.

The other was my warmoth jerry garcia that needed the tom bridge raised a lot to use a non standard tail piece.

Yeah, I’ve personally shimmed my guitars generally cause I like a bit more clearance over the body on say a standard Strat, etc. mainly cause that pickguard creates a little less space between the strings and that surface, and sometimes I really do come down that hard with my pick hand on aggressive rhythm and I’ll feel my pick hit the pickguardZ so I shim for a bit more clearance. Also on Regular bent steel Strat saddles, again I’ll usually grind down the saddle height screws so they don’t stick above the saddle and grind your palm up. But working on customers guitars, unless they pay me a bit extra to take the time to individually grind them all, I may shim the neck so I have to raise the saddle heights which in turn bring those height adjustment screws more into the saddle and not cutting into your hand as much.
And the other few times was simply couldn’t get the action low enough. But that’s honestly pretty rare unless it’s a Squier or some other off brand guitar… But in the OP description and issue, he simply doesn’t need to shim the neck unless he wants to add height to the bridge.

[maggotspawn]

Issue solved. Strings were hitting the bridge pickup.

[ajaxlepinski]

[GuitarBilly]

[fretless]

I used to swear by shims but I’ve since removed every one. They can cause a little neck hump there and I’ve been able to get the action low enough so no mo shimming. I prefer the saddles sit on the screws as well and you can get like one or two threads on the outside strings. This keeps a uniform tone and attack across the strings/ saddles. Now lets move over to Les Pauls. I now raise the stopbar. Believe it or not slamming it can sometimes cause weird sounds, weird vibrations and sometimes the sitar effect. Raise that bar !

[newholland]

this! i was gonna recommend stew mac's. they make premade angled shims-- my oldest tele needed em, and they're fantastic tools and also made of maple cut on the right bias to not disintegrate! i think you can get a set for well less than ten bucks and tweak it out.

[BroSlinger]

this! i was gonna recommend stew mac's. they make premade angled shims-- my oldest tele needed em, and they're fantastic tools and also made of maple cut on the right bias to not disintegrate! i think you can get a set for well less than ten bucks and tweak it out.

Yeah, they're great, but they're like $10 a piece now, I think.