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Gap in Pocket After Shimming Axis Neck

J

jl2112

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 12, 2012
Messages
51
I wanted to lower the action on my Axis. The neck appears to be almost straight. I can barely see any movement of the sting to the fret at 7th, just hear it touch when fretting 1st and 15th. It came to me about 2.5mm on the low E and about 2 at the high E. My goal was to get it to 1.5mm and 1mm. I have been able to get it to 2mm on the low E and 1.5mm on the high E with out notes dying in the upper register. I added a business card shim cut to the size of the factory shim that was already installed closest to the pickup. I just noticed there is a small gap between the neck pocket and neck which I am sure is because it is raised at the end of the neck. I don't want to over tighten the neck screws so I am wondering if I should be tightening everything until there is no gap or is this how it should be.
 
Regardless of any "other" issues there, the neck pocket screws are only to be tightened to a "firm snug" - no more!!

Now, you do know I suppose, that when you elevate the bottom of the neck even with a very thin shim, you will "tilt up" to some degree the bottom of the neck. Because of this (no matter how small the shim) the screw holes will not be a perfectly straight/aligned hole (as it were) before you shimmed. I am not saying this is of major concern necessarily, you just need to know this when tightening the screws back up.

I think this is the "gap" you ar speaking of?? No??

Necks are VERY sensitive and tricky - there really should be NO gaps, margins, or room anywhere areound the neck pocket. If so, you need to also shim that gap. (generally speaking)
 
Do not over tighten the neck screws when you have inserted a shim - if you do you will more than likely introduce a "hump" in the neck - which is not good and can seriously affect your guitar neck.
+1 with TNT - snug and that's it.
 
I was careful to never over tighten, just snug. Usually I would have gone right to straightening the neck just a little more and adjusting the bridge. I had decided that the neck did not have much adjustment to give it since I could just fit a business card at the 7th fret with the first and 15th pressed and so I figured it would not make much difference. The bridge was parallel and resting on the body so I didn't want to start adjusting that. I spoke with customer service, which I should have done from the beginning since they can get all of the details during a conversation and work with you. First of all I have a yellow shim already there from the factory. That is as thick as they get so it should not be shimmed anymore in most cases. I took out my additional shim and so now there is no visible gap between the body and neck. I was told to go ahead and adjust the neck a little more and raise the high e side of the bridge just a hair for compensation so I can lower the low E side just a bit. I straightened the neck slightly but have not done the bridge adjustment yet. I am going to let it settle in and play it for a bit first but it feels pretty good right now. The high E side is at 1.5mm and the low E at 2mm. It's where it was with the additional shim minus the gap now. I thought there was nothing else to adjust and I started reading too much about shimming. I found out you can over shim. Its been said before that some issues are better off being addressed with customer service where they can take the time to help. As usual they came though and I learned a little more about properly adjusting my guitar.
 
jl2112 said:
I was careful to never over tighten, just snug. Usually I would have gone right to straightening the neck just a little more and adjusting the bridge. I had decided that the neck did not have much adjustment to give it since I could just fit a business card at the 7th fret with the first and 15th pressed and so I figured it would not make much difference. The bridge was parallel and resting on the body so I didn't want to start adjusting that. I spoke with customer service, which I should have done from the beginning since they can get all of the details during a conversation and work with you. First of all I have a yellow shim already there from the factory. That is as thick as they get so it should not be shimmed anymore in most cases. I took out my additional shim and so now there is no visible gap between the body and neck. I was told to go ahead and adjust the neck a little more and raise the high e side of the bridge just a hair for compensation so I can lower the low E side just a bit. I straightened the neck slightly but have not done the bridge adjustment yet. I am going to let it settle in and play it for a bit first but it feels pretty good right now. The high E side is at 1.5mm and the low E at 2mm. It's where it was with the additional shim minus the gap now. I thought there was nothing else to adjust and I started reading too much about shimming. I found out you can over shim. Its been said before that some issues are better off being addressed with customer service where they can take the time to help. As usual they came though and I learned a little more about properly adjusting my guitar.
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Nice reply.
Hats off to good ol' CS.
 
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