Bridge shimming : possible problems?

Paulius Volkovas

When i bought a Biggertone (active Bigtone) bridge, i took it to the repairsman to install it .After he installed it the strings vere too high, so I asked him to lower the bridge and he did that, but he did it too much and when i took the guitar back i had to shim the bridge to get the right height for me. The repair guy gave me some thin wooden pieces to shim the bridge. I put maybe 4 or 5 layers of it under both sides of the bridge to make it approx 2mm higher.

What are the possible problems when shimming the bridge? How do i know i did it right? I got myself an ishell pickup, and i think i could put my old bridge back instead of this shimmed one. Do you recommend that?

Jeff Moore

The biggest issue is how the shims (or the bottom of an un-shimmed bridge) meet the top of the guitar.
There are braces under the top specifically placed to meet the feet of the bridge. They can be thin or wide (1/2" or bigger) and are oriented along the length of the guitar (the direction of the neck).
The bridge of course goes across the guitar.
What's important is that the contact of the bridge to the top hit squarely on these braces.
The braces should be under the middle of each foot of the bridge. If you know how to exactly locate them so that you know where on the top they are under, you can be sure that your bridge or shims are hitting the top above them nicely.
The problem for most folks is that they don't have a method to locate them, so let's assume that the guitar is built with the braces under the spot where the middle of each foot of the bridge crosses.

Make sure your bridge and shims contact the top nicely in that area.

Paulius Volkovas

Thanks for the tip Jeff