Hi,
I just picked up a Luke iii and have a question..I don’t seem to be able to get the bass side string height below 5/64”. Bridge saddle can’t be lowered any further and the truss rod wheel is maxed. Is this basically the lowest this can go or am I missing something?
Assuming the neck and bridge are correctly adjusted and the you still cannot lower the saddles appropriately, then a shim at the pickup end of the neck pocket is the appropriate remedy. But first I would check the neck relief and bridge setup...
Neck relief: Capo at the 1st fret. With the guitar in playing position, hold the low E string down at the 17th fret. Look at the gap between the bottom of the string and the top of 7th fret. If you have feeler gauges and know how to use them, personally I'd be aiming for 0.008" (0.2 mm). (That's hair thickness, or similar to a thin sheet of paper).
How high is the bridge off the body? The Luke bridge mounting posts should be set so that with the trem arm pulled all the way back, there is only a tiny gap between the bottom of the bridge plate and the top of the guitar body (i.e. as low as possible without touching the guitar top). Factory setting is that the cavity springs are adjusted so that at standard tuning the bridge is angled forward with a 1/8" gap between the guitar top and the back of the bridge. Like this...
Assuming the bridge and neck are OK, a shim in the neck pocket is the way to go. You can pick up the phone and order shims directly from Music Man but in the mean time a simple business card will do the trick in the short term. Loosen the strings and take them out of the tuners. Remove the neck. Cut your shim to fit in the neck pocket between the screw holes and neck pickup. Reassemble the guitar.
