Jazz Neck and Body Mismatch

[bowthing]

Hi Folks,

I just did a re-fret on a mongrel Jazz bass, '69 neck and '74 body from what I can tell. The neck heel was shimmed up with a popsickle stick, and I was interested in eliminating that as well as a lot of other problems. When everything was finished though, the neck sits so low in the body (about 1/8" lower than another Fender I have around) that the only option other than putting the shim back in was to cut the bridge saddles way, way deep. It's a badass bridge, and the G string now has a very shallow angle and not much tension on the saddle.

It plays and sounds great, but the strings are angled down a little toward the bridge and pretty close to the body. The neck pocket has the original lacquer on it, so I have concluded that the original body that the neck was on wasn't routed as deep. So I'm wondering what you might recommend. I was thinking I could rout the neck pocket flat, glue in an ash shim, then rout it to the proper angle and depth. Any other experiences or recommendations on this problem?

Thanks!

[bowthing]

I moved this to Luthier's Corner...

[darkstorm]

Popsicle stick? Egads that is bad. Certainly thick enough that putting glued in and fitted wood wedge like your saying sounds good to me.