Neck shim question

[RalphH]

Hi there
I need to do a full pocket shim on a 5 string bass neck due to the heel being convex and loosing about 1.7 mm in height in the process of making it flat. I understand a thin piece of maple is best practice for this, but in your opinion are there alternatives that offer the same sonic value? Metal perhaps? I'm finding it hard to obtain a blank piece of maple of the thickness and size (75 X 105 mm) I need for the 6 bolt neck pocket.

Many thanks.

[pablopepper]

I'm sure any wood veneer would be perfectly suitable, maple or not.

[Simon Barden]

The easiest way would be to get some maple (or another hardwood) veneer and use two sheets stuck together at an angle to each other like a ply. Almost all veneer is 0.8mm thick, so two sheets would be 1.6mm. It's easier to get smaller offcuts than big sheets, so I'd have a look on eBay for marquetry veneers.

The alternative to using a shim is to add some slight angle to the heel so that the body end of the neck heel is thicker than the neck end, so the neck angles up when fitted and as a result, the saddles need to be set higher. So you need to be able to remove a very small amount of wood from the heel at a very shallow angle, probably only 2°-3°. You could probably work out the amount you need by simply angling the neck in the pocket with a straight edge on top of the neck, and see how high the straight edge is over the saddles.

And the alternative to using that method is to use a small shim at the body end of the pocket to achieve the same neck angle, but I'm not sure how well this would work with a 6-bolt neck as you will lose a lot of neck to body contact area.

[RalphH]

Thanks Simon
I will be a full pocket shim of equal thickness. The genuine SR5's have the neck on the same plane as the body, so I'm sticking with that as I'm trying for a replica. I'm finding it hard to get veneers without importing from Australia and ending up with way more than I need, and spending close to $50 including postage; hence my question about using metal. Would there be any sonic difference if I used a shim of brass for instance? Or aluminium?

[Dedman]

I de-laminated some good quality marine ply to make a shim on my Jazzmaster.( used 1 ply) Once glued in and painted you would never know it was there.

[RalphH]

I de-laminated some good quality marine ply to make a shim on my Jazzmaster.( used 1 ply) Once glued in and painted you would never know it was there.

I like that idea... did you need to do anything to the ply to assist in the delamination?

[Dedman]

I pretty much cut it rough size at full thickness then used a coping saw to cut a slice off at the right thickness

[robin]

Hi Ralph, have you thought about headstock veneer? The cheap stuff on eBay will come from China, but is less than $10 for 3, delivered. But if it's urgent that might not work.

[RalphH]

Hi Ralph, have you thought about headstock veneer? The cheap stuff on eBay will come from China, but is less than $10 for 3, delivered. But if it's urgent that might not work.

Sounds like a plan. ebay? Don't have a URL by chance?

[Hobastard]

Back in the Eighties we used to Shim necks to angle them back slightly, we used layers of Paper which we glued together once we achieved the desired setup..... Paper is Wood after all.....