Anyone shim Floyd Rose saddles?

[ivan H]

Hi, a couple of months back I got a Jackson SL2 pro Soloist, great guitar, really thin, fast, stable compound radius (12"-16") neck that supports a low action & play real nice except for one thing, the Floyd Rose radius, which I believe is 10". This make the D & G strings noticeably high as you come down the neck, progressively getting higher the further down the neck you are. It has the R3 nut which their web page says is the only 12" radius nut, so its fine down that end. Looking online I found most people just live with it, but I find that unless I make a conscious effort I trip over (mainly) the G string when descending in a hurry. Looking into it I found that the ideal radius at the bridge for this neck radius is about 18.5". So I ordered some shims which only come in 0.2mm thickness & added 3 (0.6mm) under both E strings & 1 (0.2mm) under the A & B strings. Then lowered the bridge accordingly. Man, what a difference this makes. Now I can positively fly down the neck. Putting 3 shims under both E's makes them a little higher than ideal so I'll cut some different thicknesses out of some feeler gauges to try when I change strings. Just wondering if anyone else bothers to shim their Floyd Rose saddles to suit their neck radius? If you haven't tried it I thoroughly recommend doing it. While ordering the shims I also ordered the Allparts Floyd Rose intonating tool, called "the key." This little tool is not a gimmick & really does make accurate intonation a breeze. Cheers

 

[Bocc69]

My '83 strat has a floyd. It was the first guitar that i ever brought to a Luthier for set up.
When I picked it up from him, he told me that he had shimmed my trem. I wasn't really sure what he was talking about. When I got home and plugged in, I was ecstatic.... I then knew what a shim was all about. So, I agree....shimming a Floyd is kick ass!