Is shimming a guitar neck ok?

[Craig Williams]

I have two guitars (tele and Strat) where I have had to adjust the neck angle with shims in the neck pocket to give the neck downward tilt to achieve the low action I like. I normally use a piece of credit card cut to fit and about 3/8" wide. They both are great players and sound great. Don't feel I have lost any sustain etc. But strangely I always feel bad that the guitar should be capable of achieving a low action without doing this. I know ultimately it is better to have the whole surface of the heel of the neck in contact with the neck pocket but Fenders utilizing micro tilt adjustment only have contact with the adj screw is that correct?

 

[EsquireOK]

Downward tilt? Using what as your reference for what's up and what's down?

What I would think of as "downward" tilt is quite rare to have to employ.

Better to talk of "neck angle," and use zero, positive, and negative to refer to it.

And yes, it's beyond OK. It is standard practice, and almost always makes for a better set up guitar. Most old Fenders, and tons of contemporary ones, have come out of the factory with shims.

It isn't to achieve low action. It's to adjust the relationship between action and saddle height.

 

[Killing Floor]

Yes it is ok. Lots of guitars have shims. Very common.

 

[Craig Williams]

Sorry, downward I mean tilting the headstock down to achieve a flatter string to neck angle. Standard the strings are angled UP towards the bridge even with the saddles bottomed out

 

[Troubleandahalf]

I had to shim an old MIJ and it was just the thing to do.

Based on advice here I used playing cards. I cut one in thirds, one in half, left one whole and sanded a smooth ramp like /wedge shape. It really worked well.

 

[Dan German]

Heck, to mount the baritone neck on my Bullet Special body, I put a neck plate in the pocket to raise it up. How’s that for a shim? (BTW, cheap chromed steel apparently has all the toanz because it sounds awesome.)

 

[mexicanyella]

@Dan German , when you did that toan enhancing pocket neck plate shim, did you switch to slightly longer screws? Or did you feel that there was already enough length to bite securely with the stockers without stripping the holes?

 

[NorthenLights]

Yes to shims! For me, it turned two barley playable guitar to two of my most beloved instruments.
The only thing that is not ok is not enjoying an otherwise fine guitar because of a bad neck angle.

 

[wulfenganck]

I have two guitars (tele and Strat) where I have had to adjust the neck angle with shims in the neck pocket to give the neck downward tilt to achieve the low action I like. I normally use a piece of credit card cut to fit and about 3/8" wide. They both are great players and sound great. Don't feel I have lost any sustain etc. But strangely I always feel bad that the guitar should be capable of achieving a low action without doing this. I know ultimately it is better to have the whole surface of the heel of the neck in contact with the neck pocket but Fenders utilizing micro tilt adjustment only have contact with the adj screw is that correct?

It's absolutely okay.
I have done it with a Godin Acousticaster.
I have a couple of wooden veneers with different thickness, that works fine.
No loss of sustain at all.

 

[beagle]

If it needs a shim it needs a shim. A strip of card is just as good today as it was long before the internet...

 

[Dan German]

@Dan German , when you did that toan enhancing pocket neck plate shim, did you switch to slightly longer screws? Or did you feel that there was already enough length to bite securely with the stockers without stripping the holes?

I don’t remember. I had two sets of slightly different length, and I remember checking them to see which worked better, but I don’t recall which that was.

 

[sk25]

I've used folded over post-it notes, printer paper, heavy drawing paper, even a small piece of cardboard I was using to estimate how thick I would need to make a wooden shim for it (it needed a lot since the neck was made for a much shallower/differently angled neck pocket)...the guitar sounded so good and played so well afterward I never took the cardboard back out.

Personally, I've never noticed any real loss of sustain/tone/whatever with a shim of any sort so long as the neck is firmly in place at the end.

 

[Boreas]

Heck, to mount the baritone neck on my Bullet Special body, I put a neck plate in the pocket to raise it up. How’s that for a shim? (BTW, cheap chromed steel apparently has all the toanz because it sounds awesome.)

Bigsby used to include a thick aluminum shim with their B16 kits. They still sell them.

 

[Boreas]

What kind of bridge/saddles are you using? Neck relief adjusted properly? Neck pocket and neck heel smooth and the neck doesn't "rock"?

If you have Micro-tilt use it. Otherwise, shims are OK. Both are reasonable solutions.

 

[tfarny]

Very common. Just like a string tree, shimming a neck is one of the side effects of Leo Fender's design choices, in this case to have a zero degree neck angle between the fretboard and the guitar body. This creates setup issues in a lot of Fender guitars, but they are easily solved by shimming the neck. No biggie.
Traditional instruments from violins to mandolins to Gibson guitars all have a neck angle built in to the design.

 

[chucker]

this is such an area of grief that the acoustic makers offer bolt on necks. taylor conspicuously and martin has a model. the beauty of leo's designs is the bolt on neck. i like heavy paper stock and being able to shim in multiples. i just started with guitar but am <very> happy with the setups i am getting.
to look at this from the other way around, if i ever spring for an acoustic it will have to be neck adjustable otherwise i haven't received value.

 

[NoTeleBob]

Here's a neck angle calculator... but it won't tell you what angle to use, just what you have and what you need to change to get to some other angle you determine you need: https://www.tundraman.com/Guitars/NeckAngle/index.php

 

[Tonetele]

Been modifying and building since 1980 and you'd be surprised how many times people have asked me to replicate, exactly, my neck dimensions. Modern C shape, 21mm at the first fret and 22at the 12th. Shave it by counting the exact same number of strokes with a file then different grades of sandpaper. Only ever have one go bad where I took too much off and the "skunk stripe" started lifting.
Stewmac sell them, with, or without, Fender logos. ( No commercial affiliation).
They are Mighty Mite necks and licensed by Fender. Always a perfect fit if neck pocket is correctly routed.

 

[Tonetele]

Apologies to the above- answering another question.
Shimming is okay , two of my Telecaster have very tint shims, but I got a Guass school graduate to do those jobs.

 

[buster poser]

I'm of the opinion that today's Jaguars (or at least the one I have) should come with one from the factory. Borderline unplayable before that, so yeah... I think it's okay. Would recommend wood shims from Stew over plastic/paper, but lots of people have used both without issue.