Neck shim question

[Shredded]

Hi all! My Floyd Rose on my San Dimas is sitting too high for my liking. I generally like it as close to the body as possible. Would it not be possible to put a small shim at the top of the neck pocket in order to lower the Floyd?

[ed]

I would say it is possible. It might look ugly but if you are fine with how it looks then its ok i suppose.Also you would have to make sure there is room to lower the pickups too.

[Shredded]

I’m thinking a very slim shim (like a strip of paper) would not be noticeable and would change the angle enough.

[ed]

If you have the tools(screwdriver) go for it. Its not like you cant undo it.

[metalhobo]

with the length of the neck pocket being 3 inches, the distance between the neck pocket and the bridge being about 7.5 inches, this means that for every millimeter of height reduction at the bridge you want about 2/5 that increase at the edge of the neck pocket. so if you want to lower the bridge 1 mm you'll need a shim of 0.4 mm. your average printer paper is about 0.1 mm thick. so you'll need a shim made of four layers of paper to get 1 mm of bridge height reduction.

[Number Of The Priest]

Presuming you've lowered the bridge by turning the trem posts clockwise to bring the bridge closer to the body, shimming the neck pocket is an alternative.

See here: https://www.stewmac.com/tonewoods/el...or-guitar.html

To change the angle of a bolt-on neck, players and repair shops have used shims for years. We've seen everything from matchbook covers to guitar picks stuck in neck joints.

Those kinds of shims create an unwanted gap under the heel of the neck: a dead air space where humidity condenses to swell the wood. As Dan Erlewine describes in his Guitar Player Repair Guide: "This gap may cause an upward kink in the neck. And many players feel they lose tone unless firm contact is maintained between the neck and the body."

That's some pretty convincing rationale for using a full coverage shim as opposed to little strips of paper, cardboard, metal, etc.

[CaptNasty]

Imo

Presuming you've lowered the bridge by turning the trem posts clockwise to bring the bridge closer to the body, shimming the neck pocket is an alternative.
See here: https://www.stewmac.com/tonewoods/el...or-guitar.html
That's some pretty convincing rationale for using a full coverage shim as opposed to little strips of paper, cardboard, metal, etc.

What NotP said. You don’t want to create a “Ski Slope” at the end of your fretboard.

https://hazeguitars.com/blog/the-per...bad-neck-shims

Use a full pocket shim. Why take the risk?

[Razor]

An Model 2 I used to own had a smallish shim at the front of the neck pocket. It was taped/glued in place. I always assumed it was a factory shim. Sadly that was forever ago when I first got into guitars. I didn't care for the color so I moved it down the road. It was a real nice playing guitar though.

[1337storm]

I temporarily shim the neck until I find the correct neck angle, then I remove the shim and re route the neck pocket to the same angle.
I've done it on maybe 10-15 guitars and it has worked out great every time.

[pianoguyy]

Hi all! My Floyd Rose on my San Dimas is sitting too high for my liking. I generally like it as close to the body as possible. Would it not be possible to put a small shim at the top of the neck pocket in order to lower the Floyd?

Follow me for a minute -
I put up a fence. It was perfect. The best work I've ever done.
The zoning guy came around to inspect it. He said it was 2 inches over code. He said I would have to tear it down.
But, dangit, I know I measured it correctly, it was 4 feet. I am not tearing it down, chopping off 2 inches of each board and putting it back up.

Here's the problem. It was on a hill. He measured from the outside which gave a bit of an extra slope which added to his measurements.
Even though I discovered the difference, it still doesn't change the fact that the fence was 4' 2" above the ground. How do I lower it 2 inches?

Answer -
I don't lower the fence. I raise the ground.
Get a bunch of dirt and raise the ground.


So, now, how is that relevant to you -
Instead of disassembling and reassembling your guitar trying to find the perfect neck angle...
Put wood under the trem to "raise the body".

[Number Of The Priest]

Pianoguyy's last sentence of "putting wood under the trem to raise the body" made me think of something I heard Steve Vai do on his pre-JEM guitars that had non-recessed Floyds. The bridge was too high to be comfortable for his forearm, and I remember reading that he put a piece of foam on the body (presumably at or near the forearm contour) which raised his wrist slightly to meet the high bridge at a more comfortable arm angle.

For one, I like the higher bridge as that is more comfortable for me personally, and guitars like the Les Paul still have high-perched bridges and a corresponding neck angle, but I understand why ergonomically it was not optimal for Steve for the technical-oriented superstrat-style design he liked. As a result, when designing the Ibanez JEM for its 1987 release, he specified a route underneath the trem to allow the bridge to both sit lower and to allow him to raise the pitch more dramatically before the trem collided with the body. Try to think of any pre-1987 metal guitar that had a recessed Floyd with a trem route. I cannot. I personally half-jokingly blame Steve and Ibanez for popularizing this current configuration; if not for him and the influence of the JEM and its sibling guitar the RG, I think Jacksons and Charvels today would still have done what they did before (non-recessed trems and no trem route) instead of following Ibanez's lead, which would mean far more Jacksons and Charvels would be "more comfortable" for me with the old-style configuration.

For the record I don't have problems playing guitars with recessed trems. I just find the non-recessed configuration more comfortable, with my hand way up high above the body and never accidentally colliding with the volume knob.

The point of this story is... if OP runs out of options, maybe he could stick a piece of foam on the face of the guitar like Steve Vai. 😁

[CaptNasty]

I would say the nice thing about using a shim is that it is a quick and easy change that is also quickly and easily reversible to the original configuration.

I do agree with NotP about bridge height. I too personally prefer non-recessed tremolos. I learned to play in the 80s. If Vai is responsible for the recessed tremolo craze that we are currently living with, he deserves some finger wags and very stern “tuts”.

[Banjowarrior]

I shimmed the front of the neck pocket on my EVH Star. For some reason, in spite of the DTuna the neck angle on these seems to be routed for a floating trem. so for the DTuna to work the trem had to be set at a massive down angle (or some other approach). I took the DTuna off my EVH B/R/W Stripe and set it up to float. For the Star I cut a piece of card into a T shape so it sort of sits up against the screws, slid it in there and tightened everything back up. Worked very well. And not immediately noticeable.