I literally just called them and said “hi I need your neck reset shim kit please” they said “ok” and just explained what it came with. You made it way more difficult than needed. You don’t need to feel guilty about buying parts for your guitar or explain anything.
Your experience represents a fairly recent change of approach by Taylor - they used to be very selective about who they sent shims to (at no charge), so the request had to be supported as discussed in the video (Taylor wanted to protect its dealers from lost work, and avoid warranty claims for botched resets by owners). Taylor also used to be very careful about what shims they sent you. Now, they charge for a shim kit and will send to anyone who orders it (I think it's around $50, currently). The video here where Taylor had to send a second, different, shim set confirms that Taylor doesn't bother doing the calcs for closest action anymore - they just send you a kit with 10 shims and let you work it out.
I hope this video gets views. I do setups on Taylors every day and I've developed methods that work for me. First thing I do it to take a reading of the action (treble and bass) under normal string tension and proper relief. Then i loosen the strings and peel off the sticker and first check if the bolts were tightened. If not, I first tighten the bolts, put the strings back to tension and take another reading of the action. Sometimes that is all it takes, but that's rarely the case (it's only the case if the neck heel bolts were really too loose). If the didn't fix it I loosen the strings and remove the neck, and take a note of the shim numbers. Then I consult my chart, which gives me an idea how many number apart the proper shims should be. I've compiled a chart, as I was tired f guessing, so the chart is something that I keep compiling as I work on Taylors. There is one situation that does require the saddle to be sanded. That is when the soundboard deflection is asymmetrical and I am not getting the proper treble to bass action. In that case I'll have to sand down one of the sides of the saddle.
Yes, in this case, if the bass side, for example, needs to come done but not the treble side, then correct you could modify the saddle. Thanks so much for the comment!
I had a Taylor 214 in 2003. It was all solid wood and had an ebony board. Fortunately, the neck and action were perfect, I never had to make any adjustments other than using light gauge strings. I was surprised when I looked in the sound hole and saw the bolts for the neck. I’m glad you got it sorted out. That’s a very nice finish on yours. I had a 6-something series Taylor in the nineties, with maple back and sides. It was an awesome guitar which I never should’ve sold! Great video man.
@@brandoncostner7437before 2007 or so, they were all wood. Built in USA but then they moved to Mexico on this series and then it was just solid wood top.
Folks, the customary factory shims should be a 2 on top (rectangle) and an 8 on heel (triangle, sort of). The difference is 6. If you need 12 up top then add 6 more to your heel. 12 top and 18 on heel.
With the video describes is exactly what I went through with Taylor… in Feb 2024. Pushing back for me to contact the vendor (I bought it online so a nonstarter right away) or a “local“ service centre that is not at all local to me. The tech insisted I a) install an untouched Taylor saddle (it was almost 40 bucks because all I could find was a bone wave saddle). B) detailed measurements of relief, action at the first and 12th frets c) Photos of the existing shims.. even then it took them three weeks to send me the new shims and three more weeks for them to actually get delivered.
Hey, just wanted to say how helpful this video. I am a beginning amateur luthier. I am at the end of my second build, which sports a bolt on neck I purchased from Lutheir Mercantile Inc. I thought I was done with this build until I started to string it up and found that my neck was canted slightly back such that it would have taken a ridiculously high bridge to match it. At the time the plan was to simply re-fit the neck. However, another luthier friend of mine reminded me that since the saddle has already been positioned removing material at the top of the heel would throw the intonation out of wack. So, I unbolted t neck and applied a couple of washers on the bottom bolt to see just how far it needed to be shimmed. Unfortunately, it's enough to leave a substantial gap at the bottom of the heel. So, like you I decided to try to manufacture a shim out of some ebony I had left over from the fingerboard. Like you, I found that the material gets so thin and the accuracy needs to be so precise that serious precision milling is required. I have considered multiple alternative options including various fillers or perhaps even using crushed turquoise (to match other instrument details) to fill the gap. But then I ran across this video. Sounds like Taylor shims might be worth trying. Is there any supplier I might contact other than a Taylor service center? Not sure how keen they would be to supply shims for a non-Taylor custom instrument.
Travis, thank you so much for watching. I’m so glad that you learned something and that you found this video helpful. The bad news is that the Taylor neck shims will not help you in this situation at all. They are proprietary shims that only work with their guitars. They also do not sell them at all, or give them out very readily. The only way I was able to get some was that I was able to prove that I was I Taylor customer by providing my serial number, and photos of my existing shims, and also by providing the measurements of my action. They were able to use this information to determine which shims I would need to fix the action. I’m not 100% certain, because as I mentioned in the video, I’m still learning on all of this, but I believe in your situation if you have an overly set neck, then you would actually need to remove material from the top of your neck heel, rather than adding a shim to the bottom. Have you contacted LMI for input or assistance? I know that in the past whenever I have purchased things from Stewmac and have needed assistance they have been very helpful. I bet that LMI would be equally helpful in helping you to solve your problem.
Look into stewmac blank bass neck shims, they are large and tapered to .25 .5 and 1 degree. I have a non taylor bolt on that needs shimming, I'm looking into getting some of these. They would need to be shaped but I don't see why they wouldn't work??? If they won't work hopefully I will learn before I purchase them
All instruments move over time due to the fact that they’re made out of wood, even expensive ones. Taylor (and Martin, and Gibson, I’m sure) have a warranty that would cover this adjustment being done, but there are no service locations within a reasonable driving distance from my home.
Excellent video. When you found the shins you needed, was the plane of the fretboard in line with the bridge? I’m in the process of taking my measurements to send to Taylor. If I run a straight edge down the fretboard, it hits roughly 2-3 mm below the top of the bridge. Just curious how yours ended up. Thanks!
You know, I honestly don’t remember. But I do know is that after I was done my Taylor finally played right. And it still does now, even months later I was playing it two weeks ago. I was thinking to myself, with the action was basically right on.
Hi. Thanks for sharing this issue. I am in a similar situation. Having bought an Academy 10 e last year and have it shipped home to my location (Mauritius island, indian ocean) i cannot send my guitar to any repair center nearby. My action is like 3mm on the 12th fret and i need to get the shims to do it myself. will try to mail Taylor explaining my case.
Yes. Just make sure to follow the steps I laid out. Take accurate measurements on both the treble and bass sides of the strings, then safely remove the neck, then check the neck shims that are currently installed. Provide all that to Taylor and they may help you. Remember to be very polite and describe your situation of not having a warranty shop nearby. Good luck and let me know how it goes!!!
@@eduardobedoya3928 sure you could say that. Guitars usually drift over time and need neck resets to bring them back into alignment. I think this was more a case of it not being set up correctly in the first place.
Actually yes. From what I can find, they recommend that whatever number you find you need for the fingerboard shim, you subtract 6 for the heel shim. So if you had a 10 for the fingerboard, then you would go with a four, or if you had a 2, you would go with a -4.
@@MillerCustomGuitarsThe way it works is you find the suitable heel shim first (to do the neck re-aligning) and the extension shim is always 6 less than that. So if you need the '30' heel (as I often do because my customers are always looking for very low actions) then the extension shim number will be '24'. I liked your video - very well presented and spot on in your information. The situation with Taylor is still strangely obscure; over here in the UK for years I was unable to find out how to get Taylor shims or learn how to use them. There might have been an approved 'process' but, for reasons that you explained in an earlier answer up this thread, it appears that they were trying to restrict shim distribution to 'Approved / trained Taylor technicians' or something like that. But at some point that seems to have changed. What's odd is to hear that people order a 'shim kit' for $50. The Taylor customer centre for us is in the The Netherlands and they told me that they would supply me with shims provided that I supply them with a full range of information & measurements for each guitar. They've been as good as their word: every time I get a Taylor in I go through that process and 7-10 days later a UPS package appears with about 6 different pairs of shims - at no charge at all to me or my customer. I'm happy they do this but here are a couple of things on my wish-list: 1) Don't make people request shims, supply a complete set with each guitar from new. Include instructions, links to the very good videos and cautionary notes about the technical skills needed. 2) Supply shims above the current maximum of '30'. The guitars that I used a '30' on recently will have nowhere to go in 10 years' time.
You can not buy the shims anywhere. If you have a used Taylor, you are just out of luck. I have tried all the ways described here and other sites to acquire these 'golden' shims but Taylor will not allow us to have them even though we are willing to pay their high prices. So it is just a big scam to make Taylor richer. They don't care about their customers . Every guitar owner has had problems, but Taylor makes it impossible to buy the shims we need. No other company is so arrogant. I'll sell mine at a loss and never buy another Taylor as long as i live.
You are partially correct. Taylor does not sell these shim. However, as described in the video I found that if you contact Taylor and tell them “i hav XX model taylor with XXXXXXXX serial number, and my current neck shims are this and this. My current action is this and I want to lower it to this.” Then they will ship you neck shims.
While it is true that sometimes you need to make shims, the ones that Taylor uses are precision machined to be tapered to specific tolerances. If you don’t know the specific tolerances you won’t be able to make the shims properly and your result will not work properly. This is not something that I made up, this is directly from Taylor.
thank you for sharing your story...... just wondering if the higher the number on the shim sets does it lower the action on the fret board? in other words if i have a 12 and 6 shim from the factory do i go to a higher set to lower the action or vice versa?
I literally just called them and said “hi I need your neck reset shim kit please” they said “ok” and just explained what it came with. You made it way more difficult than needed. You don’t need to feel guilty about buying parts for your guitar or explain anything.
Your experience represents a fairly recent change of approach by Taylor - they used to be very selective about who they sent shims to (at no charge), so the request had to be supported as discussed in the video (Taylor wanted to protect its dealers from lost work, and avoid warranty claims for botched resets by owners). Taylor also used to be very careful about what shims they sent you. Now, they charge for a shim kit and will send to anyone who orders it (I think it's around $50, currently). The video here where Taylor had to send a second, different, shim set confirms that Taylor doesn't bother doing the calcs for closest action anymore - they just send you a kit with 10 shims and let you work it out.
I hope this video gets views. I do setups on Taylors every day and I've developed methods that work for me. First thing I do it to take a reading of the action (treble and bass) under normal string tension and proper relief. Then i loosen the strings and peel off the sticker and first check if the bolts were tightened. If not, I first tighten the bolts, put the strings back to tension and take another reading of the action. Sometimes that is all it takes, but that's rarely the case (it's only the case if the neck heel bolts were really too loose). If the didn't fix it I loosen the strings and remove the neck, and take a note of the shim numbers. Then I consult my chart, which gives me an idea how many number apart the proper shims should be. I've compiled a chart, as I was tired f guessing, so the chart is something that I keep compiling as I work on Taylors. There is one situation that does require the saddle to be sanded. That is when the soundboard deflection is asymmetrical and I am not getting the proper treble to bass action. In that case I'll have to sand down one of the sides of the saddle.
Yes, in this case, if the bass side, for example, needs to come done but not the treble side, then correct you could modify the saddle. Thanks so much for the comment!
I had a Taylor 214 in 2003. It was all solid wood and had an ebony board. Fortunately, the neck and action were perfect, I never had to make any adjustments other than using light gauge strings. I was surprised when I looked in the sound hole and saw the bolts for the neck. I’m glad you got it sorted out. That’s a very nice finish on yours. I had a 6-something series Taylor in the nineties, with maple back and sides. It was an awesome guitar which I never should’ve sold! Great video man.
Wow you're sure it's solid? Didn't think they made 1 and 2 series with solid wood
@@brandoncostner7437before 2007 or so, they were all wood. Built in USA but then they moved to Mexico on this series and then it was just solid wood top.
Folks, the customary factory shims should be a 2 on top (rectangle) and an 8 on heel (triangle, sort of). The difference is 6. If you need 12 up top then add 6 more to your heel. 12 top and 18 on heel.
With the video describes is exactly what I went through with Taylor… in Feb 2024.
Pushing back for me to contact the vendor (I bought it online so a nonstarter right away) or a “local“ service centre that is not at all local to me. The tech insisted I a) install an untouched Taylor saddle (it was almost 40 bucks because all I could find was a bone wave saddle). B) detailed measurements of relief, action at the first and 12th frets c) Photos of the existing shims.. even then it took them three weeks to send me the new shims and three more weeks for them to actually get delivered.
Hey, just wanted to say how helpful this video.
I am a beginning amateur luthier. I am at the end of my second build, which sports a bolt on neck I purchased from Lutheir Mercantile Inc. I thought I was done with this build until I started to string it up and found that my neck was canted slightly back such that it would have taken a ridiculously high bridge to match it. At the time the plan was to simply re-fit the neck. However, another luthier friend of mine reminded me that since the saddle has already been positioned removing material at the top of the heel would throw the intonation out of wack. So, I unbolted t neck and applied a couple of washers on the bottom bolt to see just how far it needed to be shimmed. Unfortunately, it's enough to leave a substantial gap at the bottom of the heel. So, like you I decided to try to manufacture a shim out of some ebony I had left over from the fingerboard. Like you, I found that the material gets so thin and the accuracy needs to be so precise that serious precision milling is required. I have considered multiple alternative options including various fillers or perhaps even using crushed turquoise (to match other instrument details) to fill the gap. But then I ran across this video. Sounds like Taylor shims might be worth trying. Is there any supplier I might contact other than a Taylor service center? Not sure how keen they would be to supply shims for a non-Taylor custom instrument.
Travis, thank you so much for watching. I’m so glad that you learned something and that you found this video helpful. The bad news is that the Taylor neck shims will not help you in this situation at all. They are proprietary shims that only work with their guitars. They also do not sell them at all, or give them out very readily. The only way I was able to get some was that I was able to prove that I was I Taylor customer by providing my serial number, and photos of my existing shims, and also by providing the measurements of my action. They were able to use this information to determine which shims I would need to fix the action.
I’m not 100% certain, because as I mentioned in the video, I’m still learning on all of this, but I believe in your situation if you have an overly set neck, then you would actually need to remove material from the top of your neck heel, rather than adding a shim to the bottom. Have you contacted LMI for input or assistance? I know that in the past whenever I have purchased things from Stewmac and have needed assistance they have been very helpful. I bet that LMI would be equally helpful in helping you to solve your problem.
Look into stewmac blank bass neck shims, they are large and tapered to .25 .5 and 1 degree. I have a non taylor bolt on that needs shimming, I'm looking into getting some of these. They would need to be shaped but I don't see why they wouldn't work??? If they won't work hopefully I will learn before I purchase them
Great video! Thanks for the information.
Do the older, pre-NT necks, use shims, as well and are they any different from today's shims?
Great information, well done.
I dont have a Taylor, but it seems like an expensive guitar that should be playable from the factory.
All instruments move over time due to the fact that they’re made out of wood, even expensive ones. Taylor (and Martin, and Gibson, I’m sure) have a warranty that would cover this adjustment being done, but there are no service locations within a reasonable driving distance from my home.
Excellent video. When you found the shins you needed, was the plane of the fretboard in line with the bridge? I’m in the process of taking my measurements to send to Taylor. If I run a straight edge down the fretboard, it hits roughly 2-3 mm below the top of the bridge. Just curious how yours ended up. Thanks!
You know, I honestly don’t remember. But I do know is that after I was done my Taylor finally played right. And it still does now, even months later I was playing it two weeks ago. I was thinking to myself, with the action was basically right on.
Hi. Thanks for sharing this issue. I am in a similar situation. Having bought an Academy 10 e last year and have it shipped home to my location (Mauritius island, indian ocean) i cannot send my guitar to any repair center nearby. My action is like 3mm on the 12th fret and i need to get the shims to do it myself. will try to mail Taylor explaining my case.
Yes. Just make sure to follow the steps I laid out. Take accurate measurements on both the treble and bass sides of the strings, then safely remove the neck, then check the neck shims that are currently installed. Provide all that to Taylor and they may help you. Remember to be very polite and describe your situation of not having a warranty shop nearby. Good luck and let me know how it goes!!!
Is very new for a neck reset. Don't u think?
@@eduardobedoya3928 sure you could say that. Guitars usually drift over time and need neck resets to bring them back into alignment. I think this was more a case of it not being set up correctly in the first place.
Could be....how is the action lately on ur Taylor? Did u changed shims again?
@@eduardobedoya3928 it’s been good. Haven’t changed it again.
so what is your final height on the low-E at 12th fret?
It’s good question! I’ll go measure it and let you know
Does Taylor recommend that you have a specific spread between the two shim numbers?
Actually yes. From what I can find, they recommend that whatever number you find you need for the fingerboard shim, you subtract 6 for the heel shim. So if you had a 10 for the fingerboard, then you would go with a four, or if you had a 2, you would go with a -4.
@@MillerCustomGuitarsThe way it works is you find the suitable heel shim first (to do the neck re-aligning) and the extension shim is always 6 less than that. So if you need the '30' heel (as I often do because my customers are always looking for very low actions) then the extension shim number will be '24'.
I liked your video - very well presented and spot on in your information. The situation with Taylor is still strangely obscure; over here in the UK for years I was unable to find out how to get Taylor shims or learn how to use them. There might have been an approved 'process' but, for reasons that you explained in an earlier answer up this thread, it appears that they were trying to restrict shim distribution to 'Approved / trained Taylor technicians' or something like that. But at some point that seems to have changed. What's odd is to hear that people order a 'shim kit' for $50. The Taylor customer centre for us is in the The Netherlands and they told me that they would supply me with shims provided that I supply them with a full range of information & measurements for each guitar. They've been as good as their word: every time I get a Taylor in I go through that process and 7-10 days later a UPS package appears with about 6 different pairs of shims - at no charge at all to me or my customer.
I'm happy they do this but here are a couple of things on my wish-list:
1) Don't make people request shims, supply a complete set with each guitar from new. Include instructions, links to the very good videos and cautionary notes about the technical skills needed.
2) Supply shims above the current maximum of '30'. The guitars that I used a '30' on recently will have nowhere to go in 10 years' time.
Hey, did they charge you for the shims?
They didn’t, for either time they shipped me some.
I got 15 min in and still no instructions or explanation of using the Taylor Neck Shims
Yeah, I make long videos, lol.
There are chapter markers and you can jump to that part of the video if you want.
You can not buy the shims anywhere. If you have a used Taylor, you are just out of luck. I have tried all the ways described here and other sites to acquire these 'golden' shims but Taylor will not allow us to have them even though we are willing to pay their high prices. So it is just a big scam to make Taylor richer. They don't care about their customers . Every guitar owner has had problems, but Taylor makes it impossible to buy the shims we need. No other company is so arrogant. I'll sell mine at a loss and never buy another Taylor as long as i live.
You are partially correct. Taylor does not sell these shim. However, as described in the video I found that if you contact Taylor and tell them “i hav XX model taylor with XXXXXXXX serial number, and my current neck shims are this and this. My current action is this and I want to lower it to this.” Then they will ship you neck shims.
Sometimes you have to make shims for guitars and don’t let some loser tell you your going to fail. He don’t know shi7
While it is true that sometimes you need to make shims, the ones that Taylor uses are precision machined to be tapered to specific tolerances. If you don’t know the specific tolerances you won’t be able to make the shims properly and your result will not work properly. This is not something that I made up, this is directly from Taylor.
thank you for sharing your story...... just wondering if the higher the number on the shim sets does it lower the action on the fret board? in other words if i have a 12 and 6 shim from the factory do i go to a higher set to lower the action or vice versa?
I honestly don’t know “what” the numbers mean “to us.” I just know that they mean something to Taylor