Looking for help to correct high saddles - neck geometry

[skycruiser]

I've got a Fender MIM Jazz that was originally a fretless but I swapped in a Fender roasted maple Jazz bass neck. I bolted it on and a local shop did the setup. A couple weeks later I've come to realize or notice that the saddles are really high. The guy who did the work mentioned that he had to raise the pickups a bit, and now I see the the saddles were raised near the max limit as well.

Looking down the neck and checking with a long straight edge, I can see that the truss rod is set to give positive relief on the neck (concave on the fret side - sorry if I'm not using the right terms). I think this is generally what you want - a little bit of curvature in this direction. I can also see that the neck heel is well seated - no gaps.

I can see 2 reasons the saddles need to be high: 1) the heel of the neck is too thick and 2) the neck is tilted "back". Since I can see positive neck curvature, I'm leaning toward the the 2nd possibility (and also just eyeballing - that's what it looks like to me). I think a shim oriented to tilt the neck forward could fix it, though it would be visible and ugly, or the heel could be cut at an angle - both lowering the neck slightly but more importantly tilting it forward.

Are there any measurements or checks I can do to figure out if I should make this cut to the heel and what angle to cut it?

Could this be done with a special jig and belt sander, or does it have to be cut?

Maybe good first step would be to stick some shims in on the nut head stock side of the heel and confirm that I can lower the saddles and get better action.

Any and all advice is appreciated!

 

[Turnaround]

From the pic it looks like there is a shim in the neck now, but it is tilting the neck back instead of forward (reverse shim). If so, remove it. That should be enough to correct the problem. If there is no shim, start by putting in a reverse shim about the thickness of a business card in the outboard third of the pocket. Increase or reduce the thickness of the shim until it provides a satisfying result. Then you can decide on whether you want to reshape the neck heel, the pocket or make a wooden shim, or live with the business card. At that point you will have the critical dimension.

 

[skycruiser]

From the pic it looks like there is a shim in the neck now, but it is tilting the neck back instead of forward (reverse shim). If so, remove it. That should be enough to correct the problem. If there is no shim, start by putting in a reverse shim about the thickness of a business card in the outboard third of the pocket. Increase or reduce the thickness of the shim until it provides a satisfying result. Then you can decide on whether you want to reshape the neck heel, the pocket or make a wooden shim, or live with the business card. At that point you will have the critical dimension.

Thanks @Turnaround! I was typing up a response (to myself) as this came through.

Last night I basically did what you suggest. There was no shim installed, so I added one made of folded aluminum tape. With this shim I'm able to get saddles down quite a bit and also can setup with lower action without buzzing on the last couple of frets. I'll try to get a good measurement and calculate the angle of the shim, and then pick up a blank, or set of blanks, to craft a proper shim. I'd prefer a fully seated heel without gaps. I'd also rather not cut into the body so shims seem the way to go. A reversible fix if preferable at this point!

Here are a few pics: