Did you find you needed to raise your action even more with 10s vs 11s? With shims I’m at a little under 3mm on my low E and a little under 2mm on the high E with 11s and I love the sound I’m getting. I can really dig into the strings and get a lot of volume and very little buzz.
Because this Dupont has a 20" radius, when the Big Tone was installed, a completely custom bridge had to be made for it, so I haven't had a need for shims at all on this guitar, even with it being furnace season here in western NY. I just measured the action at the 12th fret, and I'm at 2.4mm on the high E and 3.18mm on the low E. Honestly, I've not measured the action on the guitar until just now, but I absolutely love the way it plays. The guitar also has a copy of a 1953 Selmer neck, and I imagine the heft and shape there factors into how much I love this guitar.
ChiefbigeasyNew Orleans, LA✭✭✭Dupont MDC 50; The Loar LH6, JWC Catania Swing; Ibanez AFC151-SRR Contemporary Archtop
Posts: 355
I’ve always gotten the impression that wood veneer strips were too soft to efficiently transfer string vibration between the bridge and the top of the guitar. I reasoned that the softness would dampen string vibration transfer. For that reason, I prefer something hard like a cut piece of credit card or similar plastic. There are ID cards and other cards that are slightly less thick than credit cards. Obviously, I use the area of the plastic that is not display raised numbers, etc. Just cut something from the smooth section of whatever plastic you’re using and you can hide it pretty well underneath the foot of the bridge.
Real wood veneers are basically thinly-sliced pieces of wood, so I would think they function like the species of wood they're made of. (I could be wrong, though.)
There are things called veneer that may not be actual slices of wood, may have non-wood backing, etc., which might have different properties.
GouchFennarioNewALD Originale D, Zentech Proto, ‘50 D28
Posts: 123
Re shims: I make little 1” polished wedges from scrap ebony that are around 3mm on the fat side and taper to near-0. Those work well IMO, I give them away all the time to people I play with or see.
PICKS as been said repeatedly work well, they’re cheap and stackable and are of a precise thickness.
Comments
Thanks haha. I just wasn’t sure if the plastic from the card would react with the lacquer on the top overtime in a bad way.
Did you find you needed to raise your action even more with 10s vs 11s? With shims I’m at a little under 3mm on my low E and a little under 2mm on the high E with 11s and I love the sound I’m getting. I can really dig into the strings and get a lot of volume and very little buzz.
Because this Dupont has a 20" radius, when the Big Tone was installed, a completely custom bridge had to be made for it, so I haven't had a need for shims at all on this guitar, even with it being furnace season here in western NY. I just measured the action at the 12th fret, and I'm at 2.4mm on the high E and 3.18mm on the low E. Honestly, I've not measured the action on the guitar until just now, but I absolutely love the way it plays. The guitar also has a copy of a 1953 Selmer neck, and I imagine the heft and shape there factors into how much I love this guitar.
I’ve always gotten the impression that wood veneer strips were too soft to efficiently transfer string vibration between the bridge and the top of the guitar. I reasoned that the softness would dampen string vibration transfer. For that reason, I prefer something hard like a cut piece of credit card or similar plastic. There are ID cards and other cards that are slightly less thick than credit cards. Obviously, I use the area of the plastic that is not display raised numbers, etc. Just cut something from the smooth section of whatever plastic you’re using and you can hide it pretty well underneath the foot of the bridge.
Real wood veneers are basically thinly-sliced pieces of wood, so I would think they function like the species of wood they're made of. (I could be wrong, though.)
There are things called veneer that may not be actual slices of wood, may have non-wood backing, etc., which might have different properties.
Re shims: I make little 1” polished wedges from scrap ebony that are around 3mm on the fat side and taper to near-0. Those work well IMO, I give them away all the time to people I play with or see.
PICKS as been said repeatedly work well, they’re cheap and stackable and are of a precise thickness.
I can only play 10 on any guitar, 11 is too hard to play and my right hand tends to get stiff when I try to pluck harder