Favorite neck shim material?

[Axtman]

I am working on a Fender bass that needs a shim at the heel of the neck. What is your favorite/recommended shim material? Thanks.

 

[dmk]

StewMac shims. Perfect fit. StewMac Neck Shims for Bass - StewMac

 

[2saddleslab]

Cut off a portion of a business card.

 

[Polfuste]

I got it on two basses. One on is a thin metal one, the other one is a piece of plastic card (credit card shape). Same result: setting perfect on both basses and not any sound and resonance loss.

 

[FunkHead]

maple.

 

[MIMike]

I've used a chunk of aluminum window screen before. It gets a good bite into the wood and doesn't shift around once tightened up.

 

[58kites]

I've used the Stew Mac shims before and they work okay but most of the time you can forever see that there is a shim in there.
I've gone back to cutting a bit of a pretend credit card that show up from various banks in the mail trying to offer their services.
Not as thick as a credit card but thicker than a business card.
I like to put the shim directly under the two heel-ward neck screws, I punch holes for the screws with a hole punch.
This is the way MusicMan does their neck shims and I think it's the best way to do it.

 

[Zooberwerx]

0.4 or 0.8 mm hardwood veneer...similar to surrounding structures, diminished chance of organ rejection. Great opportunity to chase the pocket holes and add some screen.

Riis

 

[gln1955]

I got a brand new G&L with a sandpaper shim. It wasn't quite enough, so I went with the flow and put thicker sandpaper in. Perfect.

 

[JRA]

What is your favorite/recommended shim material?

i can't say i have a favorite, but every ax i have (except one) uses a shim. they are:
- full pocket shims a la stewmac-type (both wood and some plastic? material) from ebay and amazon.
- credit card, business card, thin wood: as a strip, in the traditional neck pocket location. mine are varying thicknesses.
- DIY post-it note, full pocket, 'step ladder'.

all of them were installed to change the angle of the neck (as well as raise the overall height on a couple) to get more wiggle room at the bridge (and/or the height of strings over the pickups/body). they all work. i don't have any experience that says one is necessarily better than the other. IME, a full pocket shim is more 'dramatic' in its effect, while the strip of material in the 'deep end' of the neck pocket can be more subtle.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Veneer or playing card in the front (body) end of the neck route assuming you're trying to raise the bridge saddles a little.

 

[2thAche]

I second the Stewmac shims. Get the pre shaped ones for your Fender. Full contact just makes more sense and removes the possibility of ski ramping the end of the neck

 

[claudel]

 

[Matt Liebenau]

I second the Stewmac shims. Get the pre shaped ones for your Fender. Full contact just makes more sense and removes the possibility of ski ramping the end of the neck

Partial shims don't cause ski jumps.

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/getting-the-facts-about-ski-jumps.1111265/

 

[2saddleslab]

I second the Stewmac shims. Get the pre shaped ones for your Fender. Full contact just makes more sense and removes the possibility of ski ramping the end of the neck

Every shim I've ever used was partial to either the neck or bridge end of the pocket and never experienced ski lift.

 

[Chrisk-K]

Depleted uranium.

 

[Picton]

Business card, partial. I don't buy that that thickness of card would ever cause ski jump in a thick chunk of maple.

I pulled apart a JP90 once that didn't look like it'd been touched since it left the factory, and the shim in there was a piece of thin Fender pick material. I carefully left it in place, because it was tort, so... toan.

 

[Jeff Scott]

StewMac shims. Perfect fit. StewMac Neck Shims for Bass - StewMac

That'd be a lot of money for something that anyone can just scape together with things found throughout one's home.

 

[2thAche]

Every shim I've ever used was partial to either the neck or bridge end of the pocket and never experienced ski lift.

Neck pockets are made flat, always. Same with the base of the neck. To me, you'd want a shim to also be flat.

 

[larrysb]

You know, those Stew-Mac shims are not that easy to make.

I made a larger 2.5-degree maple shim for something else, using a sine-plate on a Bridgeport milling machine. It's actually kind of difficult to get an accurate angled shim. Took a couple of tries to figure out how to set it up and mill the maple stock down to "nothing" on one edge without destroying the thing.

The pre-shaped ones are laser-cut. I've used them in a few guitars with very good results. No "obvious" evidence once installed. Use the least amount of correction necessary and they work great.

In my opinion, there's something to be said for full-contact between the heel and neck pocket surface.