sandpaper shim?

[skabassist13]

hi,
i was playing with my bass today and got bored so i decided to take off the neck. i did and found a piece of sandpaper under it. about 1"x1/2". not very big. i wasnt sure what it was there for. could it be a shim? and then i put the neck back on, without the sandpaper and the neck was so high my E string was pushing against the frets. so being me i freaked and had my neck off in about 30 seconds. i put the sandpaper back in between the neck and the body and tightened it down and my action seemed a bit high. anybody have any idea whats going on? i should probably say its a squier p-bass. thanks.
Travis

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

It is a shim. In your case it would have been at the front of the body pocket to push the neck forward (as opposed to Moondogs' thread below). Again, it's used to allow sufficient adjustment travel of the string saddles. Without it, you'd probably find you can't adjust the strings high enough from the fret board.

The early Pre-EB 'Rays have a "micro-tilt" feature to allow neck angle adjustmemt without actual neck removal.

 

[bovinehost]

Basses aren't real difficult to disassemble, but if you haven't done it a couple of hundred times, you need to pay attention to how it came apart in order to be able to put it back together properly.

Not saying you shouldn't be tinkering with your bass, mind you - I think that as a male, you don't truly own something until you've screwed around with it - but let's be careful out there.

It's all fun and games until somebody loses a shim.

 

[Moondog]

Well said Bovinehost; I am a perfect example. I picked up a nice SR5 of E-bay & had to F with it. During this process I found the shim (& don't know where it came from) and inadvertently vacuumed up those white washers under the control knobs. I also over tightened one of the pick-guard screws and raised the paint a bit. I can't believe the thing still works! I am truely a 1st class dumbass . . . live & learn.

 

[skabassist13]

what do you mean by the front of the pocket? is that closer to the headstock or the bridge? cuz when i took it off it was closer to the brodge than the headstock. but thanks for all your help guys. i really appreciate it.

 

[Moondog]

Rod means your shim should go closer to the headstock to bow
the neck forward. In my case, the shim required placement closer to the bridge which bowed the neck backwards & lowered action.