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Joined:
July 2010
Posts: 83
Location: Urbana, IL | Since I'm back to playing acoustic again (it's a cycle I go through) I'm re-evaluating their (Adamas 597, 598 and 1597) playability.
Last night I went through the stash of shims I've accumulated over the years and measured each of them. Most of them were 0.03" thick, one was 0.032 (the one I pulled from the W597), a few were 0.0295, one was 0.0265 and one was 0.0225.
Anyway I'd like to get a little more granular with shims so I can get the strings as low as I want (I'm an electric player by nature) so I've started looking at other shim options.
I found this on Amazon which seems perfect for fine tweaking the shim height:
Plastic Shim Stock
The only question I have for you folks is do you think the material will be good for shim. From what I've read in old threads here on shim material I think the material will be fine.
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Joined:
September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Credit Cards, Library Cards, Circuit Board Material, all work well.
That stuff on Amazon would be good for precision work, but...
Do your realize how thin 0.030" really is?
That is less than 1/32"... which would create a 1/64" change at the 12th Fret.
So I don't think that you will be needing the 0.0005" stuff, which is thinner than paper.
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Joined:
July 2010
Posts: 83
Location: Urbana, IL | I'd stick with the same phenolic material but I couldn't find it in stock form or in different thickness. Thanks for confirming this plastic stock will work.
I am aware of how thin 0.030" is - I measured all the shims I have with my digital micrometer and have another hobby that dabbles in minute measurements.
I'm just looking for shims that give me a little more granularity than the standard Ovation shims. I'm an electric player by nature so getting the Admamii to play as easily as possible is my goal.
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Joined:
May 2011
Posts: 758
Location: Muenster/Germany | Adamas guitars are the guitar formula 1, so let´s think like that. If you use shims of cheap material like credit cards and (even worse) use several shims on top of each other the transport of energy from the string to the top will not be perfect.
For all of my Ovations I use single shims of one piece of wood, sitka spruce for the wood-top and hardwood like ebony or beech wood for the Adamas with carbon top. I am absolutely sure that there is an improvement in dynamics. And you can make these quite easy, with a saw, a file, little sandpaper -and patience. I made many experiments with several materials and finally came up with these.
Another improvement especially for Ovations is that the original shims are too small and exact and little longer shims again are better for bass response. Sometimes there`s not even a physical contact between the low E string and the guitar top if you look into Ovation bridges and under the pickups!
I bet that at the high end my Ovations act better than many others. |
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Joined:
July 2010
Posts: 83
Location: Urbana, IL | I want to avoid stacking shims as much as possible which is why I'm looking at a set of shim stock. Optimally I'd like a single piece shim but a 2 piece shim is better than a 3 or more piece. Ideally I could use the plastic stock to quick determine the shim thickness I want then build a single piece wood shim to replace it. |
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Joined:
June 2012
Posts: 2331
Location: Pueblo West, CO | Matt_B - 2015-07-30 10:38 AM
I'd stick with the same phenolic material but I couldn't find it in stock form or in different thickness. Thanks for confirming this plastic stock will work.
I am aware of how thin 0.030" is - I measured all the shims I have with my digital micrometer and have another hobby that dabbles in minute measurements.
I'm just looking for shims that give me a little more granularity than the standard Ovation shims. I'm an electric player by nature so getting the Admamii to play as easily as possible is my goal.
You can order Garolite sheets from McMaster-Carr. These come in: 1/32", 1/16", 3/32", 1/8", etc. I suggest G-10.
For more granularity than this, you can use 1/64" birch ply available from most hobby stores, or hobby wood suppliers. Birch ply also comes in 1/32", 1/16", 3/32", 1/8", etc.
For even more granularity, you can order styrene sheets from Evergreen Scale Models. Styrene is the same material used for credit cards. Styrene from Evergreen is available in .005", .010", .015", .020", .030", .040", .050", .060", etc.
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Joined:
March 2013
Posts: 359
Location: undisclosed | DetlefMichel - 2015-07-30 10:46 AM
Adamas guitars are the guitar formula 1, so let´s think like that. If you use shims of cheap material like credit cards and (even worse) use several shims on top of each other the transport of energy from the string to the top will not be perfect.
For all of my Ovations I use single shims of one piece of wood, sitka spruce for the wood-top and hardwood like ebony or beech wood for the Adamas with carbon top. I am absolutely sure that there is an improvement in dynamics. And you can make these quite easy, with a saw, a file, little sandpaper -and patience. I made many experiments with several materials and finally came up with these.
Another improvement especially for Ovations is that the original shims are too small and exact and little longer shims again are better for bass response. Sometimes there`s not even a physical contact between the low E string and the guitar top if you look into Ovation bridges and under the pickups!
I bet that at the high end my Ovations act better than many others.
I figured this out too when I was setting up my country artist. It caused some debate but I could hear the differences. |
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Joined:
December 2004
Posts: 572
Location: Denmark | I would use fibreglass/epoxy (printed circuit boards, G10 as mentioned by DanSavage) ground to preferred thickness. This option lets you use a single tapered shim if desired. I agree that the quality of the mechanical coupling is important. I have a 1597 where some foreign matter was stuck between the side of the pickup and the saddle groove. so the saddle wasn't free to move vertically. After I cleaned the groove (and removed a shim) the sound was very much improved.
Edited by tpa 2015-07-30 4:20 PM
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Joined:
February 2015
Posts: 70
Location: Western Sonoma County | <p>You can also grind your shims to suit if you're really picky. I have an Elite which required shimming only at one end (bass strings). In that case I tapered the shim by sanding it from half thickness to almost nothing across the four bass strings. Did a few of those until I got one that works perfectly. The saddle sits snugly and from what I can hear, the pickup works as it should. The guitar sounds great and plays the way I like.</p>
Edited by jbblunck 2015-07-30 7:25 PM
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Joined:
July 2010
Posts: 83
Location: Urbana, IL | Dan, thanks for the link to the Garolite sheets.
I restrung the 597 again last night, this time with 11-50 and swapped out the 0.0225" shim with a 0.0295" shim and between the two the minor fret buzz issues I had (B string 3rd fret and high E 15th fret) went away. I'd rather use 10-48 but I feel it sacrifices too much acoustic tone. I generally set up my acoustics so they have fret rattle if I dig in and snap the strings.
BTW, when I was restring the guitar I put the two Es on first and the high E was fretting out until I put more strings on and increased the tension on the neck. The guitar is smooth now. 
Thanks again for all the replies. |
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Shims
