rear neck shim?

[jondog]

Whenever I've needed to shim in the past, it has been at the front of the pocket. On my newest project I seem to need to shim the rear of the pocket. Am I missing something?

[mech]

If the bridge is tall, the neck pocket deep or the butt of the neck thin, the neck may need to be shimmed. Done it before with a shim the full size of the pocket when changing bridges to raise the entire neck instead of tilting it. Yours may need this or a little tilt. Some basses/guitars come with a neck tilt mechanism.

mech

[steelhead2]

first bass i ever disected(bought it new/Squire) had a shim between the lower screws,strip of sandpaper,,that's what i've used ever since figuring if the factory used it so be it.

my mim P i actually have 2 shims,one between the screws under the treb side and one between the lower screws,and yes= it has sustain,,i'd say use what makes it work for you,i had all sorts of shims in one bass(not more than one at any time but dif thickness's),had to swap them out seasonally,but it was a bodyshop beater i kept where i work so it always changed with the weather a LOT

[darkstorm]

Shimming rear of pocket so necks has a slight rearward tilt to it is the more common.

[joelb79]

Originally Posted by darkstorm

Shimming rear of pocket so necks has a slight rearward tilt to it is the more common.

+1 I see it a lot with basses I take apart. I also have started using this and love it. Helps with getting low action up and down the neck on lots of basses.

[John Wentzien]

Use some "drywall" sanding mesh...has grit on both sides and keeps the neck from shifting.
Looks like sreen.

[lethargytartare]

Originally Posted by jondog

Whenever I've needed to shim in the past, it has been at the front of the pocket. On my newest project I seem to need to shim the rear of the pocket. Am I missing something?

You need to tell us (a) why you've shimmed the front of the neck pocket in the past (and I'd be curious to know how often since I'm used to that being a sign of something being very wrong with the neck pocket) and (b) what you're trying to address by shimming the rear of the pocket this time.

Then we can pontificate on whether you're missing something or not

[bThumper38]

I plan on keeping my jazz, so I sanded the front end of the heal drastically. I love it.

[slaphappychappy]

Originally Posted by mech

If the bridge is tall, the neck pocket deep or the butt of the neck thin, the neck may need to be shimmed. Done it before with a shim the full size of the pocket when changing bridges to raise the entire neck instead of tilting it. Yours may need this or a little tilt. Some basses/guitars come with a neck tilt mechanism.

mech

I had to do this recently on an early 80's samick bass i picked up.
I just tried different washer sizes until it seemed right.
By the way,I agree with what ^^^^^^ says.

[jondog]

Originally Posted by lethargytartare

You need to tell us (a) why you've shimmed the front of the neck pocket in the past (and I'd be curious to know how often since I'm used to that being a sign of something being very wrong with the neck pocket) and (b) what you're trying to address by shimming the rear of the pocket this time.

Then we can pontificate on whether you're missing something or not

a.) It's not that often, I make a lot of parts basses and have had to do it a few times. It is not a sign of a bad pocket, it's a sign of using parts not explicitly designed for each other, as in different brands.

b.) The heel seems to be at the right height, but the neck seems to be angled back. A shim at the rear of the pocket would remove this angle.

[lethargytartare]

Originally Posted by jondog

a.) It's not that often, I make a lot of parts basses and have had to do it a few times. It is not a sign of a bad pocket, it's a sign of using parts not explicitly designed for each other, as in different brands.

I still find that odd -- for all the parts-projects I've built, the only time I had to consider a front shim was on a body with a hand-routed neck pocket (which wasn't square with the body). I'd still be curious to see examples of issue-solution (probably wouldn't be practical to dig up that info, obviously)

Originally Posted by jondog

b.) The heel seems to be at the right height, but the neck seems to be angled back. A shim at the rear of the pocket would remove this angle.

But what are you trying to address? "neck seems to be angled back" isn't, in and of itself, necessarily a problem. I only end up shimming if my saddles are bottomed-out. If the heel just looks high, then the first thing to try would be raising the action. If it's ramp-up, then you'd get horrible action elsehwere on the neck. If there's too much pitch, then maybe your saddles wouldn't be able to be adjusted high enough to get consistent action, etc.

Ultimately, I bet you'd find that the majority of shims put into use are rear-shims, not front-shims. So as to whether you're missing something, maybe there are approaches to doing setups that could help you avoid any more front-shims?

You could run a poll, or gather people's experiences on cases where they used front-shims, why, how it worked out, etc. Compare your own -- you might find you're spot on and not missing anything at all