Neck shim+nut shim=better tone?

[bringer of torture]

I'd be curious to get a few opinions on this. My RG450 used to sound pretty good, but in the last year and a half or so I've noticed it getting very trebly. I replaced the V8 S1 V7 pickups I had in it with Evolutions and it's been quite an improvement; it still sounds very bright, though. Not quite the sound I would expect. Not only that, but I've got fret buzz in quite a few places that I can't seem to get rid of without raising the action to a fairly uncomfortable spot. I did change out the Lo Trs II for an OFR Pro, and lately for an Ibanez Edge trem; could this have something to do with it? Also, the neck has never had a shim but according to Rich's Ibanez Rules tech section (which I refer to constantly and is like gospel to me ) I could do worse than to put one in. How about a nut shim? How do I know that I need a locking nut shim? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[bringer of torture]

I sorted one problem: apparently when in my infinite wisdom I removed the nut last year (to replace with the OFR nut only to find that nut to be too, high) and put it back on I put the nut shim on the bass side by mistake. I moved it to the treble side and all of that horrible fret buzz is gone! Still a bit trebly for my liking though; should I replace the 500K pots with 250K pots and install a treble compensator for good measure?

[bringer of torture]

Success! After much hard work (not to mention removing the nexk 3 times) I've managed to find that a small piece of business card as a shim between the bridge side screws and neck side screws on the neck gives the neck enough of an angle to eliminate my fretbuzz almost completely and also to have my tremolo at a comfortable height. Can't really say it did much for the tone, though; I suppose I'll have to invest in those new pots after all. Is there anything else I can to do improve the tone of my guitar? With a higher clearance over the frets the sustain is at least slightly improved, if nothing else.

[CosmicDebris]

If you want to send it to me I will sort everything out for you =)

[bringer of torture]

Cheers for the offer, Cosmic Debris, but I think I've about got it where I want it at least for the moment. I don't know why I'm still bothering with this guitar to be honest; I suppose it's because I've already sunk a fair bit of money into it to upgrade it.