Fingerboard shim

[Dave Bagwill]

Ken - I was just re-reading your excellent online manual, and came across this statement:
"Changing the neck angle to close the gap
under the fingerboard IS NOT THE ANSWER. Doing that would take out the required
neck set angle and ruin any chance of low action. A tapered shim under the end of
the fingerboard works well and if executed properly looks very nice."

-I realized that I've never actually seen that done.
Do you have any pix of the process, or of such a shim on a finished guitar, and a description of the process? I don't need it for a current project, but you never know...
Thanks

[Tim Benware]

Here's one way (I haven't tried this yet but it is in my building arsenal in case I needed it. There may indeed be better ways to do it.):

Making a FB Wedge

Basically double stick the wedge-to-be to a flat wood base at least as wide as the wedge. Use a riser behind the wedge, and some distance from the wedge, to hold the plane at the correct angle. For the mathematically inclined think similar triangles or the fact that the tangent of an angle equals the rise over the run.

As an example, for a 3" long wedge tapering from 1/4" to 0. Line the 3" piece of wedge stock up with the end of the base and attach with double stick tape. Measure back from the the end of the wedge 3" and attach a 1/2" riser. Use a plane (with a sole that is long enough) to shape the wedge and that's it. You can move the riser closer to the end of the wedge by reducing it's height proportionally, for instance, if the riser is 1 1/2" behind the wedge then make the riser 3/8" tall.

The thin and fragile wedge can be easily removed with Naptha.

[ken cierp]

What Tim said -- There's a maker here in MI that does this on every guitar he builds. I saw him at one of the festivals, he uses finger board thickness and an extension wedge to get to his ideal fret plane height at the bridge -- not for me but it works.

[Dave Bagwill]

Using contrasting woods? Do you want the shim to be noticeable?
Thanks for the method.

[ken cierp]

If done correctly its invisible.