neck shimming, buzz, no low action... what to do?!? - I can'

[berntsen]

I had my JEM 7vwh for a while now. First I did was to shim the neck. This mod was done since the lo pro hit the body then I rise the lo pro. When I shim it the first time I put paper on the bodyscrews. And the lo pro work nice! But then all the problems came. The 1. fret buzzed... at B-string mainly, and 2nd at 1. fret on e- and G-string. This buzzing appeared when I had low action. I dissapeared when I turn to high action. Then I came 3 months of praticing and then 4 live shows. So I just learned to play on high action. I got another sound out of the guitar, that for sure, but my speed (mainly) took a step backwards. *

3 weeks ago, the finally show was over. Then I went away for a while, and now I'm back.
Now I really want my guitar to have low action and NO buzz. I has taken the shim out. I made a new one, and it "higher" then a credit card. This one is on the bodyscrews.

The reason for putting the shim there, and so big, is because then I make the action so high on my guitar, that all the buzzing goes away. Then the action is biggest at the 24th fret. So I thought a bigger shim would fix the problem. Put no the buzzing is even wilder. It the same tone on the 1st and 2nd fret on the G, B and the e-string. LOL!

Anyway, what should I do? where should I put the shim, how should I turn on the trust ect.

sorry for the bad english... but I live in norway, so I guess I excused

[Rich]

Remove the huge shim you just put in and go back to a normal size paper shim. Shim under the nut on the trebble side to raise the nut till the open string buzz goes away, assuming your neck has enough relief and the buzz isn't coming from backbow. Also assuming the buzz is open string buzz, your post was a little tough to understand.

[vaijem777]

I guess my first question would be: *are you sure the guitar even needed a shim in the first place? *Have you tired adjusting the trem's heigh with just the posts first? *It sounds like you are using WAY to thick of a shim too. *I've never needed to use a shim any thicker than a piece of notebook paper folded 5 or 6 times. *The shim should be right at the heel of the neck and the end closest to the body. *It shouldn't need to be more than 1/2 inch wide or so. *

Rich from Ibanez Rules did a great photo-tutorial which touches on shimming a neck. *You can find it here:

http://www.ibanezrules.com/tech.htm

I guess I'd suggest taking whatever shims you have out, then starting from scratch. *Start with a thin shim, then progressively get thicker, if you even need one at all. Also, make sure your neck isn't over-bowed. *You can sight down the neck from the headstock to the body, just looking down the edge of the fingerboard. *If the neck arches up, you need to relax the truss rod (turn away from you, if the headstock is to your left, the body is to your right). *If the neck has a big dip in it, you need to tighten the truss rod (opposite direction). *A little bit of a dip is usually ok, and I usually set my necks to be almost perfectly straight with a VERY slight bow (dip). *