action height on stratocaster

midlifecrisis

Recently bought a used mexican fender strat. the guitar is in very good condition hardly any wear no marks. The action is a little too high for my liking but the little saddle screws are almost fully out so the saddle wont go any lower. the neck is very straight, just a tiny amount of concave so i dont think that needs adjusting. Am i right in thinking my only other option is to put a shim in the neck pocket or is there other methods.

John_A

If the saddles are decked then a shim is the only way forward.  No big deal lots of strats have one

midlifecrisis

yes, i think thats the way, a simple procedure, just been reading the right and wrong way to do it so to avoid my cackhandiness im gonna give it to a tech

King85

midlifecrisis said:

yes, i think thats the way, a simple procedure, just been reading the right and wrong way to do it so to avoid my cackhandiness im gonna give it to a tech

If you're going to a tech you may as well have a go at it on your own before hand surely? It's a none destructive bit of modding so worst case you still end up going to a tech if you can't get it right.

Maynehead

With a shim, what you’re aiming for is to have the strings pretty much touching the frets when the saddles are dropped to the deck.

I’ve used maple veneer, paper, business cards, it doesn’t really make too much difference, as long as you get the shim height right.

midlifecrisis

i would really like it done properly, not using bits of card but a proper tapered shim, normally id have a go but to be honest by the time ive located a suitable bit of wood, glue, some tools to do it i think id be quicker giving it to a tech. at the moment im happier just to know what needs to be done and let someone do it properly. however when ive got a bit more time i may try it on an old guitar i have which i think needs similar. However thanks for the advice and guidance

axisus

midlifecrisis said:

i would really like it done properly, not using bits of card but a proper tapered shim, normally id have a go but to be honest by the time ive located a suitable bit of wood, glue, some tools to do it i think id be quicker giving it to a tech. at the moment im happier just to know what needs to be done and let someone do it properly. however when ive got a bit more time i may try it on an old guitar i have which i think needs similar. However thanks for the advice and guidance

You don't need all that I have put shims in several guitars, I always use a bit of card from a cornflakes box. Works perfectly.

thermionic

A tech will just probaly use a small bit of card anyway.

The StewMac tapered shims look nice, but a bit of a ffaff to get hold of over here.

Maynehead

I’ve done the tapered maple veneer shim before but it was a huge time sink and if you don’t get an even graduation across the entire shim it kind of defies the point. I wouldn’t even trust a guitar tech to do it properly.

You can achieve a similar effect with 3 strips of card of decreasing thicknesses laid across the neck pocket. The compression of the neck will flatten out the “steps” into a smooth and even wedge.

ICBM

Maynehead said:

With a shim, what you’re aiming for is to have the strings pretty much touching the frets when the saddles are dropped to the deck.

I’ve used maple veneer, paper, business cards, it doesn’t really make too much difference, as long as you get the shim height right.

This. The shim material is irrelevant - it just has to be the right thickness and fit reasonably well - ideally it needs to occupy most of the space between the two inner screws and the end of the pocket.

There's a lot of nonsense about shims 'killing tone', tapered wooden wedges being better, 'vibration transfer' and all that, but the fact is that there are thousands of great-sounding Strats out there - including many of the most revered vintage ones - with shims, mostly card or fibreboard. I use card or a simple strip of wood veneer, depending on the thickness I need.

They do not kill tone, in fact they may even improve it. Every time I've fitted a shim to a guitar without one, or ever replaced a tapered wooden one with a plain one because the tapered one was the wrong thickness, the guitar has always sounded better afterwards - whether that's because a card shim actually sounds better or because a well-set-up guitar sounds better is a question you can ask, but in the end it really doesn't matter...

Henrytwang

It’s alleged that Fender used to keep businesses cards from employees who’d left to use for shims on new guitars.

ICBM

Henrytwang said:

It’s alleged that Fender used to keep businesses cards from employees who’d left to use for shims on new guitars.

I think that's likely to be true, at least in the early days. By the mid 60s they had pre-stamped fibreboard ones in several thicknesses, at first 'trapezium' shaped and later 'D' shaped to fit perfectly in the end of the pocket.

StormshadowGuitars

midlifecrisis said:

i would really like it done properly, not using bits of card but a proper tapered shim, normally id have a go but to be honest by the time ive located a suitable bit of wood, glue, some tools to do it i think id be quicker giving it to a tech. at the moment im happier just to know what needs to be done and let someone do it properly. however when ive got a bit more time i may try it on an old guitar i have which i think needs similar. However thanks for the advice and guidance

You're seriously wasting your time...... and money if you take it to a tech and expect them to do that.
A piece of business card cut to fit in the pocket is usually the perfect thickness (in most cases) and takes minutes to do without even removing the strings. Then you can crack on with playing it

Paul_C

I generally fold a piece of wet&dry paper at the 2/3 point so that around 1/2 way to the back of the pocket there's a single thickness, and the last 1/4 is double thickness - something like 240 grit adds a little grip to help the neck stay put too.

Remember that if you had a Strat with the micro-tilt set up it would only be sitting on the grub screw at the back, and Fender seemed quite happy with that small amount of contact

mbe

In the 80s Tokai used their own card hang tags on the Fender replicas. It was never an exact science.

Maynehead

Paul_C said:

Remember that if you had a Strat with the micro-tilt set up it would only be sitting on the grub screw at the back, and Fender seemed quite happy with that small amount of contact

To be fair, that is wood to metal to metal to wood. So one could argue there is less loss of mojo, because we all know that cardboard is the best absorber of mojo known to man...

dindude

midlifecrisis said:

i would really like it done properly, not using bits of card but a proper tapered shim, normally id have a go but to be honest by the time ive located a suitable bit of wood, glue, some tools to do it i think id be quicker giving it to a tech. at the moment im happier just to know what needs to be done and let someone do it properly. however when ive got a bit more time i may try it on an old guitar i have which i think needs similar. However thanks for the advice and guidance

Hey, I’ve got a Stewmac maple tapered shim, I ordered from the US recently for a Jazzmaster project and ordered two, one 0.5 degrees and one 1 degree - I ended using the 1 degree but not the 0.5 - would prob be ideal for yours and is yours for a fiver posted. Would be good to see it go to good use.

I too wanted it done properly, my OCD couldn’t handle a copped up business card.

ICBM

StormshadowGuitars said:

midlifecrisis said:

i would really like it done properly, not using bits of card but a proper tapered shim, normally id have a go but to be honest by the time ive located a suitable bit of wood, glue, some tools to do it i think id be quicker giving it to a tech. at the moment im happier just to know what needs to be done and let someone do it properly. however when ive got a bit more time i may try it on an old guitar i have which i think needs similar. However thanks for the advice and guidance

You're seriously wasting your time...... and money if you take it to a tech and expect them to do that.
A piece of business card cut to fit in the pocket is usually the perfect thickness (in most cases) and takes minutes to do without even removing the strings. Then you can crack on with playing it

Exactly that.

"Properly" is the way Fender did it, with card or fibreboard. Or don't 50s and 60s Strats sound good?

gringopig

.

midlifecrisis

ive been a victim of looking at youtube videos telling me to do it properly with wooden shims. being easily convinced by you lot now its likely to be done with an old corn flakes packet. which has more mojo, weetabix or honey nut cornflakes

andrewaward

As has been said any business card thickness piece of card will do fine - you'll be amazed the difference just one makes.....cut roughly to any of these shapes: