Charvel Model 2 Neck / Trem Question

[CAL1]

Hello All,
First and foremost, I love this place; I’ve found so much useful info that my mind is on over load and yes I’m a newbie.
I’ve been a loyal Charvel / Jackson owner since the late 80’s and I finally got my first love back; my model 2; in the mid 90’s I got married and being the great husband that vowed to be I sold all of my rig to help with our bills and a new house and my wife promised that once we got back on our feet I could replace what I sold. So I took full advantage of that and went out and picked up a new Jackson Stealth Ex and a Johnson Millionam 150 which is one of the badest amps I’ve ever played, IMO.
My blue model 2 was sitting in it case unplayed and my buddy made me an offer that I could not refuse so with much regret I sold it to him with the speculation of it must stay in the family and I got first dibs on it when it was time to sell it, at that time in my life “cash was king” and every time we got together and jammed I kicked myself in the ass for selling it to him but he was and still is my best friend and needed a real guitar.
With all of that being said fast forward to Nov.2010; my 40th. birthday; My wife being the great woman she is, got it back to me……What A Gift; well so I thought; after removing years of stickers, dirt and grim I discovered that at one time she took a hard hit and the fret board had separated from the neck around the 1st-5th frets. It wasn’t has hard to repair has I thought, a little wood glue and some nitro clear…good has new.
I tore down the JT-6 trem and rebuilt it thanks to the tech page on Audiozone.dk and it’s good has new, a new 500K pot and jack and I’m staying with the J90C pickup, I what to put it back to stock for now, I have some plains for her but I need a bench mark first.
I reassembled everything and I found that the strings sit really high off the fret board so I replaced the nut with a Graphtech nut, not to hard by the way thanks to this site, the trem is setting down on the surface of the guitar so everything is at it’s lowest settings, the next thing I was thinking about was a full neck shim to rise the neck up or would putting OFR tem fix my problem? The Jt-6 trem base plate looks thick compared to the JT-580 that is on my Stealth.
I’m sorry if I took way to long to get my question but I love talking guitars and once I get going it’s hard to stop.
Thanks for listening and any help would be greatly appreciated.

[VitaminG]

a shim would be the quickest & cheapest solution. You'll notice a greater change with a partial shim. A piece of business card in the bottom of the neck pocket will increase your neck angle slightly, which will allow you raise the bridge off the deck. That will give you greater scope for adjustment

[Razor]

I'd check the neck relief too if it were me.

[DonP]

Something seems odd. If it didn't need a neck shim before...photos?

[CAL1]

Thanks guys,

I’m such a tool; I forgot to mention that the neck already has a shim in it, about the thickness of a bus. card, when I removed it for cleaning I find one and put it back in the same spot that I find it. Neck relief seem good, I put a straight edge on the fret board and all looks in order, it really has me baffled, I’ve done set ups before and I’ve never seen one like this. I will up load photos tomorrow, I forgot my phone cord at work. I’ve heard that the Charvel model series guitars have higher then normal action; it is by no way close to my Jackson. Am I being anal? And if I have to do a full neck shim what is a good material to use? I was thinking about going to my local building supply store and picking up some thin veneers or would a thin piece of tin/brass work?

[CAL1]

Ok You can tell I'm a newbie; how do I upload photos, I have a ton i what to share...please help.

[DonP]

You have to upload to a web service. My ISP provides for free hosting. You can use photobucket if your's doesn't.

[CAL1]

[dg]

Upload to photobucket.com or whatever, then to post the pics here you click on the icon that looks like a picture of a tree, then enter the URL of the pic.

Also, whoever said that you can't get the action as low on a Model Series as a Jackson has no idea what they're talking about.

[CAL1]

Thanks, I'll try that. I was thinking the same thing about the high action; like I said before, setting up a guitar is nothing new but I've never had to or think about a full neck shim. the strings are higher when they exit the trem then up the neck, so that tell me that the neck angle is off?

[VitaminG]

I’ve heard that the Charvel model series guitars have higher then normal action;

no reason that should be the case. Because of the non-recessed trems, the strings will sit higher off the body but there's no reason you can't get the action as low as you like it.

Thanks, I'll try that. I was thinking the same thing about the high action; like I said before, setting up a guitar is nothing new but I've never had to or think about a full neck shim. the strings are higher when they exit the trem then up the neck, so that tell me that the neck angle is off?

do you mean it looks like the second image below?



if that is the case, where is the existing shim? Is it at the edge of the neck pocket? If so, moving it to the bottom of the neck pocket should give you the change in angle to fix your problem

[dg]

The Model Series bodies have angle built into the pocket so that they are right for a trem that sits up off the body full-floating. From the original post, it sounds like he had the trem resting on the surface, but still had high action. That makes me think the shim was at the outer edge of the pocket to eliminate the built-in angle, but it was too thick to make it just right for the trem to rest on the body. My advice would be to get rid of the shim, raise the trem off the body where it was from the factory, and block the trem or get a tremol-no if you want dive-only.

[CAL1]

Here a few photos for you all to ponder; I'll take more later tonight and post. VitaminG you are right, it does look the the 2nd image, but still high with the shim installed

[Grandturk]

If it looks like the second pic and the wang bar is still on the body, then you'll have to add a bigger shim to create more of an angle.

Once you've got enough angle that the trem floats, then you have the range to adjust the action up and down.

Question - is the neck straight? Does it have any bow to it that the truss rod cannot take out? Is there a rise in the fretboard? Any of these issues will make it difficult to get really low action.

[Twitch]

I shimmed my Alvarez with corrugated card board strips, they compress nicely. It wanted the bridge up higher because the saddle screws (vtrem) were poking me in the butt of my hand, also, I dont like having the necks of my guitars angled forward in relation to the body. In my opinion, they should be at no angle or a back angle in order to have the best action and feel.