alienx ~ I pulled the neck off just to take a peak, but the angle was good so I left it as it was... I just wanted to see IF it was shimmed or not (it was). I should note that I've got a great tech who's spent years explaining things to me, a really good book ("The Guitar Player's Repair Guide" by
Dan Erlewine), and a lot of trial and error under my belt now, so I've learned what I like in a guitar set up and can pretty much manage the lion's share of it myself... but I had to "undo" nearly as many "setups" as I did in the beginning. It helps if you have one guitar you can play with, and another guitar to play - that way you don't feel any pressure to "finish" the job
TODAY, which makes the learning much less stressful, imho
My experience is that the tone of the guitar will tend to improve with a proper back angle on the neck (which usually means a subtle, well placed shim). I like my guitars so I can raise my bridge a little off the body while keeping the action nice and low across the whole fretboard with virtually NO relief in the neck, and the shim allows me to do this; it also seems to add to the "ring" of the guitar, rather than detract from it. I've never noticed a loss in sustain or tone after shimming a neck, and I've done it to most of my bolt neck guitars, including my fave strat and tele. I've always loved the Fender "Micro Tilt" adjustment on their HM and AS Strats - it's basically an adjustable shim. When I shim my guitars myself, I use old credit cards or membership cards cut a little less than a quarter inch wide and about 3/4ths as long as the neck pocket is wide. The nice thing about shims is that if you put the guitar back together and don't like the results, you can just pull the neck off and remove it. It's not like a refinish
