Tell the customer or no?

[Mike Baker]

I have a guitar in for action adjustment. It is a strat type guitar with bolt on neck. In adjusting action I have found that when I get to the proper string height the allen adjustment screws in the saddles sit very high out of the saddle. IMO the proper fix would be to shim the heel of the neck to change neck angle and allow me to adjust the saddle heights to get the set screws lower in the saddles. On my own instruments this is what I would do, but I have never had to do this on a customer's guitar. Should I call and tell the customer beforehand, or go ahead and do it, and tell him about it later?. This guy will never take the neck off the guitar. In fact, he doesn't even change his own strings. What would you do?

[Russell Vance]

Dear Mike,
Strats and the like often have this appearance due to the long screws which come as standard - there are three lengths of saddle height adjustment screws which Fender supply - the short ones are generally found in the B and E(high/skinny) saddles and the longer ones in the other saddles which sort of allows for bridge radius adjustments.

The upshot is annoying screws which stick up and snag ones hand when palm muting and just plain resting on the saddle. This wasn't a problem that existed in the 50's when Strats came with the bridge cover 'ashtray' that clipped onto the bridge to cover this area but Fender have moved with less than blinding speed to fix this problem. Either get some shorter screws (Fender and Allparts sell em) or grind the ends offa the ones in there - bearing in mind that imported Strats often have metric screws in these saddles whereas USA Fender has imperial/US threads. Changing the neck angle will cause undue bother, change the tone of the instrument and require a complete new setup.

Rusty.

[Mike Baker]

Thanks, Russell. A couple of comments. First, I appreciate and value your help and opinion. As to shimming the neck, it is recommended on Fender's support sight in situations where there is no more room for adjustments, and in all the times I've ever done it on my own instruments I've never noticed a tonal change. I believe it is an accepted procedure.As long as the front and sides of the heel make good contact with the neck pocket I don't believe a shim is of any consequence to tone.JMO. The guitar is a Yamaha Pacifica, so I would guess that the saddle screws and trem itself are import, but I don't have any of them handy, and don't care to make a StewMac order for six saddle screws.If it were a higher quality instrument perhaps, but in this instance, shimming is the most handy option. Again, thank you for your help. I do very much appreciate it.

[Bob Webster]

Hi, Mike. It's sounds like you'd really already settled on how you were going to deal with the problem. As for the question of what to communicate to the client, nothing beats full communication up front. Even if he is a dead beat guitar dad, he will be able to tell the next person who works on it some time from now exactly what its repair history is.

Bob

[Mike Baker]

Bob, that's pretty much the question I had. I've already attempted to contact the customer. Got his voice mail. He's a long time customer and friend, and usually just tells me to do what needs to be done, but I don't want to presume too much. Thanks.

[Russell Vance]

Thanks for the most gracious reply, - it's not the shimming that changes the tone - it's a bolt on and we can shim to our hearts content - I'm not a great fan of 'ready to wear' web-sites like the Fender site - all that happens with the 'one size fits all advice' is that I have kids trying to do setups with a ruler and worrying that I don't!

I am also not inclined to get into tone discussions - you can either hear it or you don't. But, as I have a brace of Strats and look after most of the FCS instruments in this town I guess I'm in the ballpark when I say do not move the strings too far away from the body/pickguard - which happens when you shim a neck in the manner suggested. This distance matters wrt tone development and I'm always reticent to muck around with the fundamentals of these instruments. The break angle of the strings across the saddles also changes which changes tone in some extremes. Shimming also changes the feel of the instrument as it changes the relative position of the nut to the body. These are considerations that the customer should probably be apprised of.

Anyway to answer the question - full disclosure is good for new customers as it instills trust - regulars usually have a brief which includes "do whatever is necessary". All good , Rusty.

[Jim Bancroft]

My simple answer is, the customer needs to know what you are going to do to his guitar. Just contact him a discuss the repair options, and let him decide.
Be honest, up front, and do not hide anything, is the best policy.

Jim

[Mike Baker]

Thanks guys. My first inclination was to contact the customer, which has been attempted. I'll await his reply.

[Mike Baker]

I got ahold of the customer and explained the situation. As usual, he said "Do what you need to". He picked it up yesterday, more than happy with it. Thanks, all.