Amazon neck shims?

[Gordon]

The 25 degree one was more than enough for my jazzmaster. I tried the 50 degree one in my telemaster with a really deep neck pocket and it was a bit too aggro, but they were easy to cut down, much easier than the wood ones from stewmac, which I've had disintegrate on me a number of times and also give me splinters.

When you want a roughly perpendicular neck...

[JSett]

...and also give me splinters.

Time to do some manual labor and toughen those hands up!

Jokes aside, I know what you mean, they are kinda delicate.

[eggo_princess]

The 25 degree one was more than enough for my jazzmaster. I tried the 50 degree one in my telemaster with a really deep neck pocket and it was a bit too aggro, but they were easy to cut down, much easier than the wood ones from stewmac, which I've had disintegrate on me a number of times and also give me splinters.

When you want a roughly perpendicular neck...

Haha, decimal places are important! But I think 50 degrees would only be slightly more than halfway to perpendicular. I hope we're not giving Gibson too many ideas...

[Matthias]

...and also give me splinters.

Time to do some manual labor and toughen those hands up!

Jokes aside, I know what you mean, they are kinda delicate.

I found that with the Eastern-made ones when I cut them down for a Jag pocket, When you cut, I found if the grain isn’t quite straight they split along the wrong line. I wonder if someone could make them out of fibreboard so they’re easy to shape but then depends how much emphasis people want on “wood-to-wood” contact for such things.

[JSett]

I think the wood to wood thing is totally over-exaggerated. I've used a wooden shim once and it made fuck all difference. Neither of my offsets (JM and Jag) have any shim at all now they're set up perfectly, before that I just used a plectrum or scrap of sandpaper and I've never found any change in tone or resonance.

No crowd will ever notice or care.

[Matthias]

I think the wood to wood thing is totally over-exaggerated. I've used a wooden shim once and it made fuck all difference. Neither of my offsets (JM and Jag) have any shim at all now they're set up perfectly, before that I just used a plectrum or scrap of sandpaper and I've never found any change in tone or resonance.

No crowd will ever notice or care.

100%. If someone made these of a material that was easier to shape, I’d leap on it. I hate seeing the noticeable air gap when using a big shim. I am not sure how much shims in reality add to humps and not aware it’s been truly proved - in my mind it’s logical the heel of the neck is clamped so the truss rod won’t act on it the same way. But, might as well stick one in there if I’m going to shim it anyway and it’ll possibly save a vintage or expensive neck down the line.

[B.T.]

I’ve had to shim my Jag to get the mute working properly. How are you shim-less Jag owners doing it?

[JSett]

I’ve had to shim my Jag to get the mute working properly. How are you shim-less Jag owners doing it?

Mastery bridges

[B.T.]

I’ve had to shim my Jag to get the mute working properly. How are you shim-less Jag owners doing it?

Mastery bridges

Right on, I have experience with stock, Mustang, and new/old Staytrems but not Mastery. If you raise the Mastery up high enough to clear the Fender Jag mute how do you compensate for the break angle so that the string height isn't skying over the fretboard e.g. how do you get the low action back with a Mastery bridge without having to shim the neck a bit? Just wondering, again I've not worked with the Mastery bridge yet. I did have their trem system on a Jazzmaster a while back, good stuff.

[alexpigment]

Right on, I have experience with stock, Mustang, and new/old Staytrems but not Mastery. If you raise the Mastery up high enough to clear the Fender Jag mute how do you compensate for the break angle so that the string height isn't skying over the fretboard e.g. how do you get the low action back with a Mastery bridge without having to shim the neck a bit? Just wondering, again I've not worked with the Mastery bridge yet. I did have their trem system on a Jazzmaster a while back, good stuff.

One thing that is kind of lacking from the equation is the neck pocket angle. Someone who has an AO65, for example, without a shim and someone who has an AVRI (or older MIJ, VM or whatever) without a shim is a very different situation, since the latter has a flat neck pocket. I'm not implying that you don't still need a shim to get the mute working properly, but you do have *some* control over the bridge height vs saddle height with a Mastery in a way that you don't with Staytrem/Mustang, so who knows.

[B.T.]

Right on, I have experience with stock, Mustang, and new/old Staytrems but not Mastery. If you raise the Mastery up high enough to clear the Fender Jag mute how do you compensate for the break angle so that the string height isn't skying over the fretboard e.g. how do you get the low action back with a Mastery bridge without having to shim the neck a bit? Just wondering, again I've not worked with the Mastery bridge yet. I did have their trem system on a Jazzmaster a while back, good stuff.

One thing that is kind of lacking from the equation is the neck pocket angle. Someone who has an AO65, for example, without a shim and someone who has an AVRI (or older MIJ, VM or whatever) without a shim is a very different situation, since the latter has a flat neck pocket. I'm not implying that you don't still need a shim to get the mute working properly, but you do have *some* control over the bridge height vs saddle height with a Mastery in a way that you don't with Staytrem/Mustang, so who knows.

That makes sense. I have a Jag that has a neck pocket with a slight angle built-in but I’ve also had to add a little shim in addition to get the action right with a Fender mute and a Staytrem bridge. The Staytrem doesn’t have saddle height adjustment and without an additional shim the bridge plate bottoms out on the mute body screws to where you can’t set the string height low enough (I like 2mm at the 12th both E’s) and it will make metal rattling noises.

[JSett]

I’ve had to shim my Jag to get the mute working properly. How are you shim-less Jag owners doing it?

Mastery bridges

Right on, I have experience with stock, Mustang, and new/old Staytrems but not Mastery. If you raise the Mastery up high enough to clear the Fender Jag mute how do you compensate for the break angle so that the string height isn't skying over the fretboard e.g. how do you get the low action back with a Mastery bridge without having to shim the neck a bit? Just wondering, again I've not worked with the Mastery bridge yet. I did have their trem system on a Jazzmaster a while back, good stuff.

I never bothered with the mutes on my Jags so I wouldn't know, but I assume I'd then have to shim a little. I had an AV65 Jag with the angled pocket and hated it...so much so I reverse-shimmed to straighten it out a little.

Where I plant my pinky for arpeggios and fingerpicking means the strings being too high feels weird to me so the lower the better.

[alexpigment]

I had an AV65 Jag with the angled pocket and hated it...so much so I reverse-shimmed to straighten it out a little.

Where I plant my pinky for arpeggios and fingerpicking means the strings being too high feels weird to me so the lower the better.

This 1000%. Fender, are you listening? If they would just split the difference and not go so ham-fisted with the neck pocket angles, I might not have spent so many hours delicately cutting and modifying neck shims to work turned backwards. That said, I suppose it also makes me wonder why no one makes pre-shaped/-drilled reverse shims.

[B.T.]

Mastery bridges

Right on, I have experience with stock, Mustang, and new/old Staytrems but not Mastery. If you raise the Mastery up high enough to clear the Fender Jag mute how do you compensate for the break angle so that the string height isn't skying over the fretboard e.g. how do you get the low action back with a Mastery bridge without having to shim the neck a bit? Just wondering, again I've not worked with the Mastery bridge yet. I did have their trem system on a Jazzmaster a while back, good stuff.

I never bothered with the mutes on my Jags so I wouldn't know, but I assume I'd then have to shim a little. I had an AV65 Jag with the angled pocket and hated it...so much so I reverse-shimmed to straighten it out a little.

Where I plant my pinky for arpeggios and fingerpicking means the strings being too high feels weird to me so the lower the better.

Ahhhh I see. Yeah I also need that low action myself. On most I'll usually do like 1.5-1.7mm on the treble side and 1.8-2mm on the bass side with slight relief but with my Jag I like a solid 2mm on the bass and and treble because I tend to get rattles with Jag/Jazz bridges if the bridge is not parallel to the body. Probably something that Locktite could cure but I've never investigated.

I'm in the Jag looks naked without the mute camp. I do use it from time to time though.