wtf does it mean to shim neck

rockman1994

I was wondering what does it mean to shim the neck when you put in a tine o matic bridge in the fender mustang. and is it easy to do it by yourself or do you need a guitar tech guy. if sos so how much does it cost for him to put in the tom and shim the neck for it.

tylerfender

shiming the neck means you put something on the under side of the neck(in the neck pocket)to raise it up..for example, if your action is too high but you have it as low as itll go, just shim the neck and it raises the neck up so you have perfect action. i use computer paper, but you can use so many different things like guitar picks or those business cards or whatever.

nirvana23freak

sandpaper works well so it grips the wood, that what i heard, alteast.

JaguarOW

nirvana23freak said: sandpaper works well so it grips the wood, that what i heard, alteast.

thats whats in my guitar, the guy who owned it before me put it in

AnotherTool

I've said this before, i would never use sandpaper.

Just use a folded piece of paper, a business card, or a thin pick depending on the amount you need to raise the neck.

The idea that it grips the wood is a stupid one because whatever you put in there won't move anyway, the neck and bolts hold it tightly in place. Sandpaper only has the abrasive on one side, so it wouldn't grip, and imagine trying to make your neck as close to the body as possible with random grains of sand in the pocket.

nirvana23freak

true

AnotherTool

I'll knock up a crude photoshop drawing of how i do it.

AnotherTool

http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg22 ... imming.jpg

Take your neck, and cut the business card so it'll fit around the screw holes closest to the bridge. Now take a small piece of sticky tape, and put it so half the tape is on the card, and the other half is on the butt of the neck, this just keeps the card in place while you place the neck in the pocket.

Screw in the neck and the jobs done.

Simple, neat, and if you need a greater angle, then either double up the card, or if you need to use picks, i'd put one around each screw hole and one between them, but i've never had to use picks.

rockman1994

wait Tyler don't you mean when it's too low but is as high as it gets

tylerfender

no, if ur action is too low then dont shim the neck, this will only make it lower.if ur action is low, then make the action higher.

AnotherTool

When you lower the bridge on a guitar without a shim in the neck, near enough everytime you lower the bridge as low as you can (not as low as it'll go), you'll end up with low action up the headstock end, but the action rises up towards the body end.

So the shim raises the neck at the butt, so you can have a low action all the way down the neck.

Do you understand now?

rockman1994

Ok yea now i get it

JamesJ

if youre putting a tom in mustang, you may need more than a pick, or a business card, ive used the backs of writing tablets for mine, and made the pieces as big as i could to cover the neck pockets.

Aug

.0040" of an inch is really about as thick as you'll need to go, when shimming any Fender neck, usually. A medium guitar pick, cut in half is usually perfect.

tylerfender

theres alot of things you could use to shimmy a neck

shimmy? wtf? shim i meant

Codog

Cardboard from notebooks works well, thats what kurt used i think.