Altering the angle of a neck

[Lord Henry]

The angle of the neck on my SUB 5 is a bit off so that the 20th and 21st frets are above the 12th. This means that to avoid fret buzz I have to have the action higher than I would like. So, my question is how do I sort this out?

Is it something simple and safe enough to do myself? If so, how would I go about it (as much detail as possible please)?

Also, I'm still within the 1 year free setup period with this bass. Is this something that would be covered by a setup or will I be charged?

Thanks in advance,
Cheers

[Jazz Ad]

Neck angle has nothing to do with action. You want to adjust saddles and truss-rod.
The only case in which you need to modify angle is when you're running out of course on saddle screws.
Anyway it's very easy and called shimming a neck.
The search will reveal many posts related to the subject.

[Nick Ioannucci]

ive never heard of 'neck angle' but maybe your truss rod just needs to be adjusted, take it in for a setup

[Lord Henry]

Ah, maybe I wasn't clear in my first post.

When you loosen the truss rod to put more relief in the neck it doesn't bend equally all the way along. The thick section where the screws go in, the part which holds the highest 5 or so frets, actually stays striaght and the bend only begins at around the 15th fret, where the neck joins the body. My problem is that this flat section is not alined with the body and points slightly backwards. This means that the 12th fret will always be below the highest frets no matter how tight or loose the truss rod.

I think that Jazz Ad is right that I need to shim the neck. How do I work out how thick the shim should be and where do I put it? Should it be glued in place or just held by the tension? Is there a rish that I could totally bugger up my bass by doing this myself?

As a side point I believe some basses have a screw that alows you to alter the angle of the neck without using a shim.

Cheers

[Trevorus]

With a shim, a little goes a long way. If you want to angle the neck away from you (in playing position) put it near the edge of the neck pocket (towards the head). If you want to angle it back towards you, then put it at the base of the neck in the pocket.