Cardboard in neck socket

ball ox

Recently got me a reissue Jaguar. It came setup with some crappy strings so I said I'd stick some flatwound 11's on it. When I took off the neck to adjust the truss rod a few pieces of thin (like cereal box) cardboard where stacked on top of each other! Now, this was probably to adjust the angle at the neck socket to provide for the low gauge strings that came stock but I'm calling shenanigans! :mad: I took them out anyway and set her up with flat wounds. Playing very well now with no problems in relation to the neck angle or relief..... Anyway what I'm trying to suss out is, is this common luthier practice or was some prick at the fender factory having a laugh? Looks to me like it might have been a quick fix for a dodgy neck. Not what you'd expect after splashing out over a grand on a guitar really. in a bit of a moral dilemma now though, it's set up well and playing great, dunno if I want to send it back
What think ye boards folk? Anyone ever see or hear of this?

Voodu Child

Its called a shim. It's perfectly normal, a lot of shims are fitted as part of a standard factory setup. Why they don't just reprogram the CNC machine I don't know (), but anyway, ive seen them on plenty of big-name brands straight out of the box.

All it does is adjust the angle of the neck relative to the body, so it's not really about getting a higher/lower action, it is more about making sure the height of the bridge is good.

Johnny Storm

AFAIK shimming the neck on a bolt-on neck guitar is fairly standard.
I don't know if I'd be happy if it came from the factory that way though?

Edit: damn! he beat me to it again!!!!

ball ox

Ah....
Thanks for the replies gents, that's certainly put my mind at rest.

Why they don't just reprogram the CNC machine I don't know

exactly what I was thinking which made me raise my suspicions

Dord

It's common practice. Don't worry about it.

Darkstrike

I've done it to half my basses myself, no biggie.

BuddhaJoe

+1. Ive 2 American Standard Strats and I've had to use the microtilt (shimming) system on both to get the guitars setup right.

feylya

It's official name is Toneboard. Makes your guitar sound amazing. Vintage toneboard is obviously better so leave it in and let it break in

Dord

I usually use recruitment agent business cards in my neck pockets. It makes the tone more whiney and condescending. :pac:

rcaz

It's 'cause of the somewhat troublesome design of the Jaguar/Jazzmaster bridge. When setup with really light strings, there isn't enough pressure on the bridge to keep it solid, so if you sharpen the break-angle over the bridge, there's more pressure pushing on the bridge perpendicular to the body, so the bridge stays more steady in the thimbles, and the saddles stay more steady on the bridge.

But with your flatwounds you shouldn't need it.

All you need to know about offsets!

When do we see pictures? :pac:

ball ox

Ended up ditching the flatwounds in the end. They sounded fantastic but just did'nt suit the music I play, especially with the band. I'm after putting regular nickelwound 11's on it and stuck one of the 2 shims back in. After the usual pain staking jaguar juggling act (setting the bridge up) it's now playing beautifully. Will stick pics up when I get hold of a camera. Tempted to change the saddles at some stage though. They're not causing any problems or anything but the strings are'nt exactly the same distance apart. I'm analy accurate in my measurments when it comes to set ups and not being able to have them uniform kills me. The multiple string groove thing is just pure retarded. I get the whole choice of string spacing thing but I really dont see why anyone would'nt want them uniform.

ball ox

El Pr0n wrote: »

When do we see pictures? :pac:

Please excuse he shoddy photography :pac: