model 4 neck shimming

[Dallas186]

hi guys,

i'm currently putting back together a model 4 which had been disassembled by it's previous owner (it was listed in the ebay section here) sadly the JE-1200 is missing (that's another story and one for another post) but the upside is it came with an original Floyd Rose and the body had been routered to take it (albeit quite badly which took a bit of putting right and some inserts and new posts) but at £95.00 plus shipping it was a steal

anyway, its amost back together and the action is pretty sweet BUT i'm worried cos the neck took a lot of shimming and in the front of the pocket which really surprised me. i reckon i had to shim by about 30 thou or .75mm which seems an awful lot to me though the floyd is adjusted about as low as it will go to the body.

what do you guys think, it's thrown me cos i was expecting to shim at the back of the pocket not the front.

any input appreciated

best,

Rich

[Rich#6]

Is the trem now recessed? The orginal setup had the neck at an angle because of the trem being non recessed. If the trem is now recessed the neck has to be strait and that is why you have to shim the front of the neck pocket.

[metalhead28]

anyway, its amost back together and the action is pretty sweet BUT i'm worried cos the neck took a lot of shimming and in the front of the pocket which really surprised me. i reckon i had to shim by about 30 thou or .75mm which seems an awful lot to me though the floyd is adjusted about as low as it will go to the body.

Seems to me that if you have the bridge adjusted as low as possible and you have to shim the neck upwards, you should just raise the bridge and you could probably lose the shims.
That is, unless you want a really low bridge, then you're stuck.

[DonP]

I'm assuming you are shimming the back of the neck pocket to increase the neck angle.

If that's that case, you can be brave like me and router an angle into the neck pocket. I did this with an Aria Pro II, not worth much to some, but I've customized it so much it play's and sounds F'ing awesome now.

[Carbuff]

If its that one that had the trem recessed then yes you will have to shim the neck to get rid of the angle as the M4 didnt come with a recessed trem originally.. Kinda sucks. Maybe you could take a belt sander to the neck heal if the shims bother you?

[Dallas186]

ahhh that makes sense, yes the floyd is now recessed. but iv'e had the neck off again tonight and scraped away some of the overspray from the back of the neck pocket and that has allowed me to take out 2 pices of wet-and-dry plus the floyd is now a little higher so doesn't bind the body at the front on dives as it did before.

the shims did bother me cos i didn't think it was right yet couldn't see an alternative, also it left a 'gap' when looking down at the neck/body join as the shims didn't extend right the way to the edge. it looks better now as at least the gap isn't as big but is still there..

thanks for the input at least now i know why.

cheers!!

Rich

[metalchurch79]

That's cool that you got it to a point that you could live with anyway. Sometimes the only way to learn is by trial and error, and every guitar is different, so what may work for one, may not work for the other.

Was the paint build up in the neck pocket that bad that you were able to remove shims just by scraping the paint off? Damn!

[Dallas186]

yep believe it or not, though i didn't think about it till i read the reply from DonP where he mentioned routing the neck pocket, i pulled the neck off again to have another look whilst considering the routing option. it was then i noticed the build up 'step' at the back of the pocket that i had originally missed in my eagerness to fit the neck and tighten the bolts...lol

cheers!
rich