Conference napalm::guitar

    	Metal would eventually damage or gouge the wood of your neck.
    I'd recomend plastic or even wood,even though wood is going to give alot.
    Plastic can be had with different thicknesses and is really the
    way to go.I used plastic to shim my bass neck and it worked fine
    
                             			Rick
    

    Now that I think of it, if I shim the entire neck attach area
    equally, the problem will get worse, since I will have to crank
    up the saddles even higher (no-can-do). I guess I will have to
    shim the neck right under the screws closest to the headstock.
    That way the neck will angle up more, and I can lower my saddles.
    Also, I believe that a small shim (~.010") will produce a big
    difference (.040" - .050") at the bridge. That's about how much
    I will need. 
    
    Apparently, when I refinished my guitar, the new finish is thicker
    than the original finish (not surprising since I used about 10 coats
    of laquer, and didn't buff the neck attach area), and now the neck 
    is sitting up higher.
    
    From what I have read about the Fender company, they had a lot of
    problems with neck angle, and had to shim a lot of guitars with
    4 bolt necks. This lead them to develop the micro-tilt neck. A lot
    of people think the 3 bolt micro-tilt neck was developed for the
    guitarists convenience, when it was actually designed for Fender's
    convenience. Most guitarists didn't like the micro tilt necks, and
    after years of customer complaints, and lost sales, they finally
    went back to the four bolt, non micro-tilt neck configuration. The
    source of this information is the Guitar Player Book by Tom Wheeler.
    
    							Mark J.
    
    Has anyone ever encountered a Fender guitar with shims from the factory.
    If so, what kind of shim stock did they use.
    
    

    I talked to my trusted guitar repairman about it.  He
    says that plastic will work, but he prefers to use maple
    veneer for shimming material.
      
    It sounds like you really need to remove the paint from the
    area to get the height correct, though.
    
  frank

	As I remember the material used in shimming necks by Fender was
a paper type wafer with more density than a matchbook cover but less than
plastic. This was probably cheaper to buy than plastic. I have read Tom
Wheelers early editions of the book you are mentioning,however I have 
seen some recent new strat's that still have this tilt mechanism,but use
4 bolts to attach the neck instead of 3. So,I think they still use the
tilt mechanism???
	I would think you would be better off to take the finish off of
this area(at the heel of the neck)than try to shim the neck or bridge.
	Of course caution and care should be taken to do this. But you've
    already refinished the guitar anyway. Whatever you used to strip
    the finish can be used to get back to the bare wood at the heel.
    
    	Right?
                             
							Rick

    This past weekend, I tackled my Tele, and I think I get the neck
    where I want it. First I dismantled it, and scraped the laquer
    from the attachment area with a wood chisel. I then reassembled,
    and noticed a big difference, however, after setting string height,
    I found the screws were still sticking up a bit, so I pulled the
    neck off again, and shimmed under the front screws with 2 layers
    of masking tape. After reassembling this time, I found that I could
    lower the action to right where I want it. My only complaint now,
    is that in order to intonate properly, I have to pull the saddles
    back pretty far, especially for the high E and B strings. In so doing,
    the intonation screws still end up on a bit of a sharp angle. It
    is possible, that one of the screws may have a slight bend in it.
    I may look for a replacement screw for the E/B adjustment saddle.
                                                                
    Other than that the neck is now sittin' pretty, and the shimming
    worked out fine.
    
    Thanks for the suggestions.
    
    				
    							Mark Jacques