Shimming a nut

[FortePenance]

'lo all. I've had my guitar for a while and I've noticed something. Even with the trussrod perfectly straight and the floating bridge parallel to the body, the action is still considerably lower at the first fret than the 24th. I'm guessing my best bet to raise the action at the first-fret end is a nut shim? If so, does anyone know how I could go around doing this? What materials to use etc, how much of it to use and general poohah. My guitar is an Ibanez RGT42DX with a Edge Pro II and neckthru equipped with 9s btw. Intonation has been set for E standard and it has been fret dressed.

oh and thank you!

[FortePenance]

bumpity bump

[Monkeyboy]

Shimming a locking nut..... I'm not surprised nobody has touched this thread :)

I can't find a picture of the rear of the headstock on an RGT42DX.... how is the nut attached? Does it have the two holes going through the neck? If it does.. then step 4 in this guide (http://www.jemsite.com/tech/1setup.htm#step4) is what you need. The guide tells you how to remove the standard shims, but it'll be just the same to add more shimming.

If it doesn't have the two holes through the neck, then it's probably glued in............ if that's the case.... I have absolutely no idea.

[FortePenance]

Wow, I was coming here just to bump this. Thanks for the awesome guide! :D

And yeah, s'bolted on at the back. I thought I would have to put the shim on the nut thing beneath the locking nuts.

[Copper72]

Hey FortePenance, If your not getting fret buzz at the nut end of the guitar I wouldn't shim it at all. I am definately not a luthier, but in all of my years of guitar playing I can't remember seeing a guitar who's action was the same from the first fret to the last. And in regards to truss rod adjustment, I've heard many times that there should be an extremely slight amount of bend around the seventh or eighth fret. This bend (again, barely noticable when you look down the side of the neck) is known as "relief". Although I must admit, while I do maintain "relief" in my acoustics, the neck on my electric is as straight as an arrow.

[FortePenance]

no i am getting fret buzz at the nut end of my guitar, and it's more noticeable on the bass side. Right now my neck has more bow than healthy because its the only way to raise the action at the nut atm (i have no shims).

[TomN]

http://www.allparts.com/store/nuts-saddles-locking-nuts-bp-0426-001,Product.asp

That's a link to some locking nut shims. I have used them with great results.

Here is something to keep in mind though. If it's buzzing when you are fretting any strings, it has nothing to do with the nut. If the nut is too low, you will get buzzing when hitting the strings open. If it persists when you fret it's either the not the nut, or possibly the nut and something else. If it goes away when you fret the string, it's the nut.

[FortePenance]

Thanks for the link. I'm not able to buy stuff from Allparts with ease though, cuz i'm in china. I'm thinking I might put down an order at IbanezRules though because I've been meaning to pick up a new Edge Pro trem, tremol-no and intonation tool for a while so combined shipping = win.

However, on the nut shims, I'm not actually sure if i'll use them, i've got the buzzing to a minimum now with the neck bow looking fairly good. It still does buzz a bit on the bass side but eh. Maybe I'll hit up the guitarstore/local luths, see if they can do a quick nut shim.