A bolt on Epi Les Paul with a few high frets in for a setup. After addressing the problematic frets, the rest of the setup was fairly straightforward. But a bolt on Les Paul just feels wrong ...
![2015 Epiphone Les Paul 100 [7.0 lbs] :: setup](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1472703508169-8182F2AU2K7OMGRXSWTQ/20160803_2015_Epiphone_Les_Paul_100_body.jpg)
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bolt on
![Full contact neck shim :: 2015 Squire Jaguar [8.6 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1466717199622-XNF9LWHLVQQUHB3N1DL5/20160623_Squire_Jaguar_neck_shim.jpg)
The owner of this Jag was playing around with the setup and found the bridge height he liked that would allow enough down pressure to hold the strings on the saddle. At this height, the action was sky high making it tough to play. He brought it by the shop and I made a tapered full-contact shim to increase the neck angle over the body. These shims are much more involved to fabricate when compared to the common simple shim in the back of the neck pocket. Being a full contact shim, it eliminates any empty space in the neck joint and theoretically improves sustain. A full shim also better supports the neck and helps prevent the common fingerboard rise over the body (aka "ski jump") that can be caused by smaller step shims.
Also note that I had to add foam under the pickups in order to raise them up to the new neck set.
![Tricky truss rod :: 1999 Brubaker B-1 [7.8 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1455560769969-FBDI3QZPBKF3170QW03J/image-asset.jpeg)
A beautiful Brubecker with a bolt-on, neck-through construction. The fit and finish is super, super clean with builder-wound pickups. The only issue was that the truss rod is somewhat difficult to adjust. It's accessed between the neck pickup and the end of the fingerboard by a 3/16" allen wrench. The tricky part is that even using a ball-end wrench, the angle to mesh with the nut didn't give me comfortable leverage. I felt that I may slip and end up dinging the top. Luckily the guitar is a bolt on so I removed the neck to make the adjustment. The neck design is really slick as it slides into the body and is locked in place by screws in the back. The carve on the neck is slightly asymmetrical (more meat favored on the treble side) and super comfortable.
![New bone nut & saddle :: 2003 Garrison G40-CE [5.5 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1446562365470-86MF8M2X64EKX0HATBCU/image-asset.jpeg)
An interesting dreadnought cutaway in for a new bone nut and saddle. All of the braces are made of carbon fiber. Even the neck block is carbon fiber! The neck is a bolt-on and one of the inserts split the stacked heel and needed to be repaired. This guitar got two spots on the vlog - one video on the saddle and another on the nut.
A Garrison dreadnought cutwaway with a split heel. The neck construction is a 5 piece stacked heel and the heel cap laminate is split through the glue joint. This is a bolt-on where the lower threaded insert in the heel lands dead-center of this glue joint and has separated the two. I worked in some glue and closed the joint with a clamp.