|
|
Joined:
April 2009
Posts: 10
Location: PA | My Ovation Elite (20 yrs old) has 1 shim under the saddle, and a couple extra shims in a small envelope. I occasionally get some fret buzz, and I'm suspicious the guitar is in need of some fretwork, but I'd rather not bother with that at the moment. So, I added 1 shim, which completely fixed the buzz, but I do not care for the higher action.
Here's my plan, and I'd love your advice...
The shims are approx .280" thick. I'd like to make a shim that is about half that thickness, so that I can eliminate at least some of the buzzing without raising the action TOO high. My question is: what sort of material can I use to make the shim? I'm thinking as long as it is rigid material, it will work. I have some .015" aluminum sheet that I can cut to the right size - will that work?
Thanks for your advice. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
April 2009
Posts: 10
Location: PA | Just wanted to point out, my concern about the type of material is related to the piezo pickup. I don't want to inadvertently use a material that will have a negative affect on the piezo's performance.
Thanks. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | Call the factory. They make the shims with different thicknesses. Or, take some double sided tape, attach it to a shim, then attach the shim to a small block and sand it down evenly to the desired thickness.
Or, you might try adjusting the neck back just a quarter to a half turn (a quarter turn at a time). After 20 years, the neck may have pulled just a bit.... |
|
| |
|
Joined:
November 2008
Posts: 1119
Location: Michigan | Play it with the extra shim in for a while and I think you will adjust. Adding .028 at the saddle will increase the string height from the top of 12th fret to the bottom of the string about half of that---.014 or about the thickness of 3 sheets of paper. Not that much really and half of that at the 6th fret and so on. As moody said you probably could back off on the truss rod too. Sometimes it is one or the other or a combo of both. I have an angled shim, shimed the neck where it attaches to the body and adjusted the truss rod but the action is now wonderful. It just takes a bit of tinkering. Which I enjoy doing anyway. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
April 2009
Posts: 10
Location: PA | Thanks!
I should check the relief on the neck, just to see if that's a factor here. Thanks for that recommendation.
Correction to my initial post: the shims are .028", not .280" (that'd be a heck of a shim!).
Thanks again everyone. |
|
| |
saddle shims
