The screws on the saddles are screwed in almost all the way. As I mentioned last time, I looked around, and it seems like either shimming the neck (whatever that really means) or "shaving" the neck is what's called for. But I have no real idea what's involved in either. This thread on strat-talk was quite helpful. I shimmed the top of my neck using a NYC Metrocard, which turns out to be 0.35mm thick, versus a credit card which is around 0.82mm thick. To help myself understand what's going on, I created this picture using gliffy.
It was quite helpful to me in understanding what's going on. On the left, of the picture is the nut, and the line joins it to the bridge saddle on the right. The bump in the middle is there because the neck doesn't join up flush with the body, but rather the top of the neck is a bit above the body. I created the first diagram, then duplicated it twice and moved the nut down, then up to show the result.
What do I take away from all this? If everything is exactly right, then if the saddle is adjusted so that the contact point with the string is at the height equal to the sum of the height of the nut (defined as distance at the nut from the neck to the string), plus the height of neck above the body, then the distance from the neck to the strings should be constant along the entire neck.
If the neck is angled back, as in the second picture, the distance will narrow as one goes down the neck. And if it is angled up, then the distance will widen.
It does seem better with the 0.35mm shim, but not good enough. Next, I plan to do some careful measuring, then set the saddle height to where it should be and try to get an idea of the size of the required shim. I'm very tempted to contact Rob DiStefano, a well-known local builder who I bet could really get this thing into shape. OTOH, I'd really like to do it myself.
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