That really depends on how far out it is. And is it a bad neck pocket or was the heel of the neck ground too thin? Either way if it is out more than 1 or 2 mm then I would seriously consider swapping it for another one. Shimming does not hurt anything. But a large enough shim job is more than noticeable. I would bet these guitars are not made to really tight tolerances. Play to the masses so to speak. Some people like their action high. I believe SRV kept his a little higher than I would like.I just want to make sure a shimmed neck isn't the sign of other problems and won't affect anything adversely.
All of that being said. Have you considered replacing the nut? Maybe it was grooved too deep.
sounds like an awesome guitar! Congrats! I hope the minor problems sort themselves out.
Steve Thompson
Sun Valley, Idaho
Guitars: Fender 60th Anniversary Std. Strat, Squier CVC Tele Hagstrom Viking Semi-hollow, Joshua beach guitar, Martin SPD-16TR Dreadnought
Amphs: Peavey Classic 30, '61 Fender Concert
Effects and such: Boss: DS-1, CE-5, NS-2 and RC20XL looper, Digitech Bad Monkey, Korg AX1G Multi-effects, Berhinger: TU100 tuner, PB100 Clean Boost, Line 6 Toneport UX2, Electro Harmonix Little Big Muff Pi, DuhVoodooMan's Rabid Rodent Rat Clone, Zonkin Yellow Screamer Mk. II, MXR Carbon Copy Delay
love is the answer, at least for most of the questions in my heart. . .
- j. johnson
Shim it yourself. In fact, learn to maintain your own guitars. No one can know better than you how you like your guitars to feel and play. I had a tele custom built for me and I needed to shim the neck just a tad. I used a piece of business card. Problem resolved. Enjoy the hell out of your guitar.
Stingx,
I'm actually really scared to do this. I am the head of experimental testing at an engineering research facility, have no qualms about totally ripping apart my amp, but messing with the guitar scares the hell out of me. Is there a good tutorial you know of? I admit I never had my tech solder anything for me, and I'm totally anal about solder joints, so I have been contemplating doing this myself.
So we played that party on Saturday night and just destroyed it. This guitar just cut through the mix so my solos were so freakin incredible, I got lost in my own little world a couple of times and had to figure a way out of it. That happened really badly when we played Blood Sugar Sex Magik by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I broke into the solo, totally forgot where I was so I just dropped the volume a bit and kept going until the end, where I juiced it and went crazy. Everyone clapped at the end and the band guys were like "Holy hell! We never heard you play like that before!"
I never heard myself play like that before either! It's the guitar man. This is just my guitar...
Shims are 100% reversible so if you make a mistake, you just put things back where they were.
I'm a first-class idiot and managed the shim job just fine. Nothing to it really and it helps a lot.
I'm less worried about the shim after playing this for a bit. He was trying to get the action lower at the higher frets, but I am playing it really well where it is. I'm not particularly shreddy and I play chords hard so when the action is much lower than it is now, I get a lot of buzz. Where he put it is perfect in my opinion.
Steve Thompson
Sun Valley, Idaho
Guitars: Fender 60th Anniversary Std. Strat, Squier CVC Tele Hagstrom Viking Semi-hollow, Joshua beach guitar, Martin SPD-16TR Dreadnought
Amphs: Peavey Classic 30, '61 Fender Concert
Effects and such: Boss: DS-1, CE-5, NS-2 and RC20XL looper, Digitech Bad Monkey, Korg AX1G Multi-effects, Berhinger: TU100 tuner, PB100 Clean Boost, Line 6 Toneport UX2, Electro Harmonix Little Big Muff Pi, DuhVoodooMan's Rabid Rodent Rat Clone, Zonkin Yellow Screamer Mk. II, MXR Carbon Copy Delay
love is the answer, at least for most of the questions in my heart. . .
- j. johnson