Action and Intonation on Epi. Jr.

[BlueEpiphone]

Thank you for the kind comments you posted about the Junior's new paint scheme.

 

I'm back for more good advice. I've bottomed out of adjustment on my wraparound bridge and I want my playing action lower. I suppose I'll need to shim my neck towards the bottom heel in order to tip the nut end of the neck down. I did originally have a piece of sandpaper in the neck pocket. Is there a more suitable material to use for a shim?

Also when setting the intonation (as best as posssible) will tweaking the bridge height offer a little more fine adjustment once the bridge setscrews are set? Do you average out your settings or try for as many intoned strings as possible?

 

Thank You

[crust]

Some people use plastic coated playing cards to shim the neck. Put an ace of spades from a deck of bicycle poker cards in there for a shim. Adjust the height of the tailpiece/bridge to where you like it, then intonate the 2 E strings. When that is done, the other 4 strings will be what they will and the intonation will just "fall into place".

[Fringe Lunatic]

I'd use a joker, so I'd still have a full deck when finished. (sometimes I actually play with a full deck)

 

To the OP: keep in mind that string gauge will affect intonation accuracy, and one gauge (probably 10s ) may be better overall than another.

[BlueEpiphone]

Thanks again. I read that raising string height can improve tone but it's too high for me right now.

@ Fringe Lunatic: I think your quote about tone is worth considering.

 

Thank you!

[brianh]

Consider scraping out the neck pocket so that no shim is necessary. Here's a pic of a Jr. neck pocket before scraping / sanding:

 

 

and after:

 

 

(I thought it best to leave the paint on the sides to maintain a tight fit.)

 

I also cleaned up the neck on the back, just to get the max possible direct contact:

 

 

Note that I left the paint on the sides of the neck at the pocket for a tight fit as well....

[BlueEpiphone]

Thanks brianh, I'll try that.

[crust]

^^^ Interesting and relatively simple to do that. Use the joker card too, good idea.

[BlueEpiphone]

Done!! I took brianh's advice and scraped out the floor of the neck pocket. There is no mistaking the factory paint. It is much harder than the stuff I've applied. I left the stuff on the sides and the nearly credit card sized side gap is gone. I used two layers of playing card to line the rear half of the pocket. About 1 1/2 turns of the bridge screws and the height is now set. The intonation required 2 small adjustments and the E and e strings are set. I used my farmer method for the pickup height adjustment: stick a penny between the pup and string, fret the string at last fret and raise the pup intil the penny touches the string and then back-off 1 turn.

 

By the way, what is a good starting pup height setting? Will the pup's magnetic influence be observable with a tuner if the pup gets too close? My untrained earn cannot really detect the effect by ear (yet).

 

I thank you folks again for the advice.

 

@ brianh: that yellow finish is beautiful!

[brianh]

Will the pup's magnetic influence be observable with a tuner if the pup gets too close? My untrained earn cannot really detect the effect by ear (yet).

I've not heard that one before, but I suppose it's possible, although I suspect it would be unobservable on the typical tuner, would need a very accurate device like the Peterson StroboRack or something.