strat neck shim

[gwEm]

alot of people use a pick or other object in the rear of the neck cavity to raise the height of the neck, in the case that the bridge cannot be adjusted to give good action.

will this also give a more gibson-like neck angle... or will the angle be so slight that its not really possible to notice it?

i'm able to set my bridge fine without a shim, however it would be nice to get a bit less of that straight fender neck angle.

[kevincurtis]

Hi GW, when I took off my Tokai strats neck it had 2 shims and I had never noticed...they do make a difference at the bridge end but I would say you are talking millimeters - to get Gibson neck angle you would need to shave the neck join...and then the bridge would need sorting (if a normal trem could even be used?)

[WezV]

its quite slight .  i dont like using a pick as the shape doesnt lend itself well to angling the neck... a straight shim placed at the back of the pocket works better to create the appropriate angle - like this




although personally i put them just infront of the screws.

anyway, if you want to create more neck angle you first need to check your bridge will go high enough to accomodate that.  then you can play around with thicker shims.  but its a balance, too thick and you start to take away from the solidness of the neck join.  in cases where a thicker shim is needed (usually when a neck wasnt made for that particular guitar) i prefer to make a tapered shim that fits the full neck pocket... just to ensure solid contact !

[gwEm]

thanks wez and kev... seems not that worth it then, unless the bridge height is a problem when you get a dual advantage for fixing the height and getting abit of neck angle.