Pardon me while I adjust my truss (now then!)

[Stu's Dad]

I've never had to shim a neck yet, and I've yet to hear of anyone needing to. One of my Strats actually has an adjuster at the base of the neck with a small hole in the centre of the neck plate, and that's been redundant since it was bought in 1986. If the neck relief and tremolo are properly set up and you can't get enough string height I think there must be something wrong with the guitar.

Sometimes I think we can get bogged down in so much detail.

Len

[David Martin]

I've had 60s Fenders with neck shims from the factory... and more recently Custom Shop Strats.

[JimN]

I've had 60s Fenders with neck shims from the factory... and more recently Custom Shop Strats.

The depth of the neck heel and the depth of the neck pocket are not made or cut to an exact match. Not even in the Custom Shop.

Sometimes, given the fixed position of the bridge and its relatively small range of operating heights, tilting the neck (which is what the shim is used for) is the only practical solution. Fender used to fit a metal neck-tilting mechanism to some guitars (essentially to those models with bullet truss-rod adjusters ; the 1970s Strats, Jazz Basses and some examples of the Telecaster Deluxe and Custom with Wide Range humbuckers), though of course, Jim Burns beat them to that by at least eight years (some original Marvins were fitted with the same thing).

Using a strip of fibre about a centimetre wide and about 2mm thick in the treble end of the neck pocket is usually all that is needed to give enough neck back angle to get the job done and to allow the bridge saddles to be adjusted upward sufficiently that their height adjustment screws no longer protrude so as to hurt or injure the side of the player's hand. The correct position and adjustment of a Strat trem bridge is the result of several physical variables; not just player preference.

[johnc]

I've had 60s Fenders with neck shims from the factory... and more recently Custom Shop Strats.

The depth of the neck heel and the depth of the neck pocket are not made or cut to an exact match. Not even in the Custom Shop.

Sometimes, given the fixed position of the bridge and its relatively small range of operating heights, tilting the neck (which is what the shim is used for) is the only practical solution. Fender used to fit a metal neck-tilting mechanism to some guitars (essentially to those models with bullet truss-rod adjusters ; the 1970s Strats, Jazz Basses and some examples of the Telecaster Deluxe and Custom with Wide Range humbuckers), though of course, Jim Burns beat them to that by at least eight years (some original Marvins were fitted with the same thing).

Using a strip of fibre about a centimetre wide and about 2mm thick in the treble end of the neck pocket is usually all that is needed to give enough neck back angle to get the job done and to allow the bridge saddles to be adjusted upward sufficiently that their height adjustment screws no longer protrude so as to hurt or injure the side of the player's hand. The correct position and adjustment of a Strat trem bridge is the result of several physical variables; not just player preference.

Indeed!

Some necks are fine, others need a shim...and I still prefer any Fender or Fender type guitar with a separate neck to any set neck guitar like Gibson etc...if there are problems, the Fender type is far easier to fix and adjust etc...as for accidental damage, set neck guitars can be disastrous..

[roger bayliss]

Here are details of strat neck pocket dimensions obtained from Warmoth sometime back. I went looking for these as a self build project had a low cut neck pocket which needed nearly 2mm of wood shim to get it to spec.

16mm deep from face of body

76.5mm long

55.5mm wide.

The neck thickness should be around 25mm where it goes into the cavity.

A 3/8" router cutter is used for corners in cavity they also stated.

[Tone]

A few years ago I bought a self built Strat made from Fender licensed parts and modelled on Hank's white Strat from c1963. It's a nice guitar (I still have it) but when I got it the action was too high, even with the bridge height reduced to the minimum. So I put a shim in the neck pocket as described above and it's been fine ever since.

A piece of old credit card makes an ideal shim!

Cheers.

Tony

[Gatwick1946]

Thank you Tony.

I will try a small shim. If it does not cure the problem, at least I will have done no irreversible damage, methinks!

To everyone else, thank you, I am grateful for your advice.

Kindest regards,
Christopher

[davec]

Coincidentally, the neck pocket on a Strat is the same size as a credit card. An actual plastic credit card may be too thick but W. H. Smiths give "special offer" vouchers at the till. They are credit card sized but made of thin card. You can use one, two or three, as necessary, and you can make them half or third length to tilt the neck.

Make screw-holes in them with a paper punch and don't worry about "tone loss" through the compressible material. 99% of the "coupling" of the neck to the body is through those whacking great screws, which Fender insists on calling "bolts".

I think the first mass-produced "neck tilt" mechanism appeared on the Peavey T60, which was the first guitar made with computer controlled machinery and therefore probably had no need for neck adjustment! The only time I ever touched mine was when I fitted a Stetsbar vibrato.

My view is that the neck tilt mechanism was for the manufacturer's benefit. Although it was expensive to make and install, it saved far more in labour costs at the factory set-up stage: a couple of turns of a screwdriver instead of multiple cycles of unstring, remove neck, shim, replace neck, restring, tune...

DaveC.

[bor64]

I think the first mass-produced "neck tilt" mechanism appeared on the Peavey T60, which was the first guitar made with computer controlled machinery and therefore probably had no need for neck adjustment! The only time I ever touched mine was when I fitted a Stetsbar vibrato.

DaveC

Think again ....because the first Peavey T60 saw the light in 75.
Fender introduced the "micro" tilt in 71.
Burns before that.

Cheers Rob

[davec]

Hi Rob,

I concede. When I said mass-produced I really meant CNC machined.

The earliest one I encountered was on the Peavey and I heard stories that Chip Todd (the Peavey designer) had invented it years before but messed up the patent application, so Fender leapt in.

I've also heard that it was actually invented by Nat Daniel of Danelectro in '63 -- but he didn't bother to patent it. However, it was definitely fitted to Danelectros from '63 onwards so I think that even predates Burns.

Have you ever found a patent? The only listing I can find is US Patent #3550496, TILTABLE GUITAR NECK INCORPORATING THRUST-ABSORBING,PIVOT AND LOCKING ELEMENT, inventor Fender, Clarence L., filed 07/14/1969 and assigned to COLUMBIA BROADCASTING SYST INC.

I still think the ill-fitting necks of '70s Fenders would support my theory that the real reason for fitting it was labour-cost savings by the manufacturer .

Regards,
DaveC.