Side-shimming a strat neck

TTBZ

I've got a bit of a string alignment issue with my new build - the neck isn't sitting quite straight in the pocket so the high E is a bit close to the edge of the fret. I've tried just holding it in place and tightening but it seems to shift back over. So guessing a side shim at the bottom of the pocket on the low E side is in order to shift it over and straighten - what's a good material for this that won't compress over time?

ICBM

Card - try a business card or a piece of cornflake box. It might compress slightly, but not much.

andy_k

I have had similar troubles, have a good look at both the floor of the neck pocket and the back of the neck heel, make sure both are dead flat and preferably lacquer free.
check that the very butt end of the neck isn't too tight in the body- sometimes that causes the neck to react too easily to gravity and the neck wants to rotate to a more 'fitting' position, if the joint is very tight.
If it needs a shim, ie, there is actual space in there, I would try some business card, but a strip of wood veneer will be the best result.
Also, the holes in the body for your neck screws might be too small, and you are fighting them when you are pulling the neck into its 'correct' position, when it is tightened down it should stay there, but again, if there is room for movement, you will be fighting gravity at some point.
The neck will move to where it is most comfortable, you need to make it comfortable in the correct place, introducing a shim without finding out where the issue lies could lead to a later crack in the neck pocket somewhere.
Ask me how I know.

ICBM

Another useful trick for ‘mobile’ necks - which I’ve done a lot on 70s Strats - is to pin the neck. Drive two panel pins into the floor of the neck pocket, lined up roughly along the length of the neck, so just the heads stick up by about 1mm or so. Then, making sure it’s aligned correctly - I do that by fitting it loosely with the E strings on so you can check it - tighten it down onto the pins, which will bite into the surface of the neck and lock it into place.

I would do that if the pocket is significantly too large - as a lot of 70s ones are - and a shim isn’t going to restrict the movement enough.

TTBZ

The neck seems to fit the bottom of the pocket ok, but there's a small gap at the top of the bass side and it can be moved into position by hand when loosening the screws, so I'm hoping a little shim at the bottom will solve it! Will try a bit of card and see how it goes.

BillDL

ICBM said:

Another useful trick for ‘mobile’ necks - which I’ve done a lot on 70s Strats - is to pin the neck. Drive two panel pins into the floor of the neck pocket, lined up roughly along the length of the neck, so just the heads stick up by about 1mm or so

I've also used a manual staple gun held loosely so it doesn't drive the fairly thick staples in to full depth, and snipped them off just proud of the wood to leave short sharp spikes.  It works very well.