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PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 8:31 am 
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Brazilian Rosewood
Brazilian Rosewood

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I'm wondering what your method for making such a tapered shim is. I have always just double stick taped the squared off shim to a work board edge and used a block plane but I'm always looking for better ways to do things. Or faster ways I should say. So what do you do? Belt sander? Jigs jigs jigs? Planes and scrapers? What?


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 9:09 am 
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Location: Cobourg ON
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How thick do you want your shim to be at its thickest? 1/8”?

Sand/plane a strip of wood to 1/4”.

How long is your shim? 4”?

Then tack the strip of wood to your work board, behind your shim stock, 8” from the front edge. The back of the plane’s sole will ride on the 1/4” strip of wood.

You’ll need a longer plane than a block plane, but this will give you the exact angle and length you’ll need.

Steve


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 9:37 am 
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Same method as above, I use a really sharp 62 1/2 low angle jack (Veritas).

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 10:40 am 
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Cocobolo
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there is a very good tutorial recently over at the UMGF that was shared from this forum.. pictures and a very simple method ...I had seen it here many moons ago..I don't have the link here, but it was a recent topic on UMGF and provided a link back to the OLF post


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 11:24 am 
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Woodie posted this:

viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=47545&p=628821&hilit=fretboard+shim#p628821

It's what you're looking for, I think.

cheers



These users thanked the author SteveG for the post: jack (Fri Apr 20, 2018 10:11 pm)
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 12:24 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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Yeah that takes the guess work out of it nicely.


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 1:09 pm 
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Cocobolo
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SteveG wrote:
Woodie posted this:

http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopi ... im#p628821

It's what you're looking for, I think.

cheers

I made up a board to make those shims after reading those posts (it was quite timely as I needed one at the time) and have used it several times since. It works like a charm, quick and easy.

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 5:31 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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Why are you using a shim there?


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 6:24 pm 
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I thought with the correct geometry you wouldnt need a shim.


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 7:09 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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It's a neck reset. Sometimes you need them sometimes you don't. In some vintage cases even when you need them you don't use them. This one is on a '40's Martin 00 and the customer prefers play-ability over authentication. I don't like fall away myself so I tend to agree and I always use what ever wood the FB is made of and 9 out of 10 times you'd never know...

This one barely requires a shim but it will make it perfect!


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PostPosted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 1:01 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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jfmckenna wrote:
It's a neck reset. Sometimes you need them sometimes you don't. In some vintage cases even when you need them you don't use them. This one is on a '40's Martin 00 and the customer prefers play-ability over authentication. I don't like fall away myself so I tend to agree and I always use what ever wood the FB is made of and 9 out of 10 times you'd never know...

This one barely requires a shim but it will make it perfect!


Oh, That makes perfect sense. I thought you were talking about a new guitar.


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 8:38 am 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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It's a good topic for new builders too. When I started I used the books that were available at the time, Sloan then later Cumpiano, and others. None of those books give a good method of neck angle and geometry. In fact they don't even really talk about it. Cumpiano at least has a method for setting the neck angle but if you don't have any upper bout geometry then you are going to have some serious fall away. My first several guitars were like that. Sometimes you get lucky and it's spot on but most of the times not. Once I figured out my own method for getting the body geometry right to accept the neck angle it's no longer an issue but for many following those book methods it most certainly can be. I don't really see anything wrong with requiring a shim IMHO. If you design it that way that's fine and in fact using alternate wood can make it look cool too if that's what you want.


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 11:23 am 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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I had to throw this in - a study in multidimensional geometry

Image

Image

The neck pickup ring was a little wonky too


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 5:30 pm 
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Freeman

How many shims did you have to make before you got that thing right??

Ed


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 8:57 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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Ruby50 wrote:
Freeman

How many shims did you have to make before you got that thing right??

Ed


LOL, just one. Got it fairly close to the curve of the top and flossed it until it fit. Glued it on to the top and put the neck in the socket (first picture) - planed the top of the shim until it was level with the neck, then took a 24 inch beam with 120 grit and sanded the whole thing flat. Fit the dovetail and amazingly, everything lined up where I wanted it.

Image

Strings pulled a couple of thou of relief, no rise or fall off of the extension, life is good (whew)

Image


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