Angled Wood Shims On Sale

[Fiddy]

I prefer the thin metal ones like this ones here. I just received some the other day.

[OffYourFace]

metal short shimz?!! You are obviously a Toan Pioneer

[Fiddy]

Ha, brass i mean, not sure brass is considered a metal...

[OffYourFace]

Ha, brass i mean, not sure brass is considered a metal...

it's an alloy which just means it's made from different metals (copper & zinc, both are considered soft metals).

[Fiddy]

Ah, like Stryper.

[Steadyriot.]

With those Tosicam (Amazon) and Muspor (aliexpress) branded wooden shims, SM's monopoly is seemingly broken. There are also unbranded ones that may be the same too ...
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005264874999.html

The pictures they use are literally photoshopped Stew Mac shims. I'd tread carefully.

[timtam]

With those Tosicam (Amazon) and Muspor (aliexpress) branded wooden shims, SM's monopoly is seemingly broken. There are also unbranded ones that may be the same too ...
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005264874999.html

The pictures they use are literally photoshopped Stew Mac shims. I'd tread carefully.

Haha. Good catch !

Another seller actually calls them Stewmac shims !
https://www.ebay.com/itm/364167306446

Having bought many aliexpress and ebay guitar-related products from China, I tend not to assume that pics with any of those products mean much though. I think there is probably a digital image mill somewhere in China tasked with generating vaguely relevant imagery for all these re-seller products (hence the acoustic non-bolt-on-neck guitars shown in most of these shim ads). The classic faux pas is the pic below from a soldering iron seller's page.

So it wouldn't stop me buying those shims. But I'll be interested to see how closely they resemble the SM ones.

[OffYourFace]

Ah, like Stryper.

[timtam]

OK, so my ultra-cheap unbranded Chinese shims have just arrived. Having shopped around before I bought, I found that the prices had got very low from some sellers. I got the pack of 3 shims for around US3.50. And the news is .... they are fake ! At least as far as the taper is concerned. They 'look' legit ... until you measure them with calipers - when you find there is no taper.

Measure thicknesses:
"0.25deg": 0.41 to 0.46 ... basically random minor thickness variation across the shim (no consistent end to end difference)
"0.5deg": 1.1 to 1.1mm end to end
"1.0deg:" 1.46 to 1.46mm end to end

By comparison, here are Stewmac's quoted specs:
"Taper specs (approximate)
0.25-degree shim tapers from 0.030" to 0.019" (0.76mm to 0.48mm)
0.5-degree shim tapers from 0.028" to 0.008" (0.71mm to 0.20mm)
1-degree shim tapers from 0.060" to 0.010" (1.52mm to 0.25mm)"
https://www.stewmac.com/tonewoods/shop- ... or-guitar/

I do have a 0.5deg Stewmac shim lying around. And it doesn't fully match the SM spec, although it is tapered ...
0.93 to 0.34mm, ie 0.59mm difference (cf SM spec of 0.71 to 0.20mm, with 0.51mm difference)
If you do the trig, with its ~75mm length, that comes out at about 0.45 degs. So the actual angle on the SM shim is about right despite the thickness variation from spec.

Re the fake ones, up-thread you'll see that as well as those unbranded ones that I bought (probably the most common advertised) there are branded ones: Tosicam (Amazon) and Muspor (aliexpress). The branded ones are more expensive. Those may be better.
The customer reviews on Muspor don't tell us much ..
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005222083360.html
But the reviews on Tosicams are positive ...
https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Canada-Wo ... B0BMGQYF4Q
There are also branded plastic ones ...
https://www.amazon.com/Plastic-Guitar-N ... B09QZ2QQMY

Has anyone here bought/measured the Tosicam/Muspoor ?

Incidentally the fakes parallel my experience with cheap ebay nut files. I once took a chance on a set of 3 double-sided nut files that looked 'kind of' like the Hosco ones (which I actually already owned), just to see if they might be half-decent backups. But despite the specified thicknesses (for different nut slot widths), they were basically just random thicknesses. I got my money back.

There are some decent inexpensive luthiery tools/supplies on ebay/aliexpress. I have bought some stuff that turned out to be decent. The trick is to pick the fakes from the good stuff.

[Johnny Alien]

I don't like the wood shims that fit the whole neck pocket. There is zero reason to have something that is angled fill the whole neck pocket and lift the part that doesn't need shimmed even if its only .06 or whatever they say. I don't buy into the tone of it being wood or that its better to have full neck pocket coverage. I like the ernie ball guys.

https://shop.music-man.com/neck-pocket-shims.html

[Larry Mal]

The reason isn't for tone, it's so that the pressure is equalized on the neck and part of the neck doesn't start bulging up from the rest of it.

"Ski jump" they call it.

[jorri]

The reason isn't for tone, it's so that the pressure is equalized on the neck and part of the neck doesn't start bulging up from the rest of it.

"Ski jump" they call it.

Absolutely, and wood is reasonable to machine, suffucient friction and same hardness as the parts its attached to so will conform to it if needed.

[muffonrat]

Has anyone here bought/measured the Tosicam/Muspoor ?

There are also some SM listed in Banzai on line shop for 15 € for a single shim which is kind of expensive for me so..
Just ordered the Muspoor branded ones,will report back. My experience with the cheap ones was exactly as you described, a flat piece of wood cut to the shape of the neck pocket.

[Johnny Alien]

The reason isn't for tone, it's so that the pressure is equalized on the neck and part of the neck doesn't start bulging up from the rest of it.

"Ski jump" they call it.

I know thats part of it but having done shims the old way for more years than I want to admit I have never had that happen to any guitar. I just don't care for the visible piece of wood lifting the front as well as the back.

[naught]

OK, so my ultra-cheap unbranded Chinese shims have just arrived. Having shopped around before I bought, I found that the prices had got very low from some sellers. I got the pack of 3 shims for around US3.50. And the news is .... they are fake ! At least as far as the taper is concerned. They 'look' legit ... until you measure them with calipers - when you find there is no taper.

Measure thicknesses:
"0.25deg": 0.41 to 0.46 ... basically random minor thickness variation across the shim (no consistent end to end difference)
"0.5deg": 1.1 to 1.1mm end to end
"1.0deg:" 1.46 to 1.46mm end to end

By comparison, here are Stewmac's quoted specs:
"Taper specs (approximate)
0.25-degree shim tapers from 0.030" to 0.019" (0.76mm to 0.48mm)
0.5-degree shim tapers from 0.028" to 0.008" (0.71mm to 0.20mm)
1-degree shim tapers from 0.060" to 0.010" (1.52mm to 0.25mm)"
https://www.stewmac.com/tonewoods/shop- ... or-guitar/

I do have a 0.5deg Stewmac shim lying around. And it doesn't fully match the SM spec, although it is tapered ...
0.93 to 0.34mm, ie 0.59mm difference (cf SM spec of 0.71 to 0.20mm, with 0.51mm difference)
If you do the trig, with its ~75mm length, that comes out at about 0.45 degs. So the actual angle on the SM shim is about right despite the thickness variation from spec.


Has anyone here bought/measured the Tosicam/Muspoor ?

I bought the Tosicam shims from Amazon. These are good.

Here are the measurements:
0.25° shim tapers from (0.84mm to 0.53mm) - Actual angle 0.235°
0.5° shim tapers from (0.82mm to 0.32mm) - Actual angle 0.379°
1° shim tapers from (1.68mm to 0.36mm) - Actual angle 0.985°

Compare these to the Stewmac specs, pretty darn close.