Feeler gauges are a foolproof way to do it, and they let you apply factory standard settings with enough precision to be useful, you're perfectly correct we're talking 1/1000 of an inch here so you'll never be able to achieve absolute perfection with these methods, they are an approximation.
Personally I also use the quick "press 1st/15th fret & check in the middle" method most of the time, as well as a metal ruler sometimes, but this takes a bit of practice and experience, so I recommend the feeler gauges for starting out.
Ymmv,
susiwong

Btw, ime shimming typically takes a single strip of standard veneer, ca 5 mm wide, at the end of the neck pocket, I rarelly had to use two layers.
And I never noticed any serious lack of sustain or tone either ...

Cheers Nix, I like it (and I am not just saying that to be nice as I am always straight up honest with friends always). It is surprising how well the hammer ons, slides and especially the string bends/vibrato track and i kind of liked that glitch/bleed at 26/27 seconds, Also when you play an open or low-down fretted note it sounds quite big and nasty which i dig loads (some huge drones and what not i should imagine are on tap ). You know what i will give one or both of them Moog guitars out plus try out the Roland latest unit with whichever guitar(s) they have that has the GK-3 pickup on. Im really into trying new things at the moment and whilst all this is not 'new' it is to me as i have, like susiwong been a straight up guitar player. Actually susi has a taste for more modulation and other effects than i do but i am not doing that much shred/twiddling Solos so am going to focus on other areas of my playing. To expand what i already have

I am putting together some of my stuff to send to a friend whom sent me one of his albums and if you want i would be more than happy to send the links your way dude (I don't release it or put it on soundcloud as i just have not gotten round to it So i just send links to people if they want to hear any of it). Let me know and i am going to give your stuff a good listen in your sig

All the bests, thank you for that and hope you get it tuned up/tweaked to exactly how you want it

Dean

The clip is interesting, you certainly hear some guitaristic tschniques.
Have you tried with samples, e.g. a piano ?
Used to own a cheapo GR-20, the latency, especially the latency difference between high and low notes, took all of the fun out of the playing for me. Traded it on again ...
Ymmv,
susiwong

Woah-1/1000th inch.
I have surely hacked away at this one.
hmm, it will come together, I'll call it a learning experience.
The problem with the GK-3 and GI-20 or GR-20 is they are so slow.
You can't play fast at all. That's why I have tried this one on.
If you want to use this method Dean, u can grab the soft, and your input as to how it plays would be very cool.
There is other gear needed though. A pickup for $150,a 6 input soundcard, and a breakout box for like $90(?).
That's cool you liked the demo. I would like to multitrack some of this stuff and get some nice rhythm going. It's pretty plain, I'll multitrack in future.
The speed of response is definitely better than my Roland GI-20, I had a GR-20 for a little too. The MIDI conversion is the same as the GI.
I'll have to google and try and find a youtube vid of the Moog guitar to hear it.
I will look into the piezos, surely bleed free is what I want. I have tried this with the GK3 pickup, but the Ubertar one works better for less glitches(it bleeds though, while gk3 doesn't).
Cheers
Dean-the Roland stuff would be fine for synth tones & drones, filter sweeps etc., but if you want to play synth lead, I prefer this one coz of the response time.
Other options for synth guitar are Starr Labs Ztar and Kitara(also KMI Stringport on Mac), but my one plays straight up like a guitar, no great adjustments to technique(KMI is the same, although I haven't tried it yet).
8D

Sounds interesting. I've was always interested in using a guitar to control soft synths, but it was both expensive and not capable enough. After giving up on 13pin MIDI guitars when I found out that they don't make the AXON any more I ended up ordering a Sonuus i2M Musicport. Hopfuly it'll be there when I get home today .

I think the feeler gauge idea is excellent and I'm kind of surprised I never thought of it I mean until cars went all computer I did all my own repairs, I have rebuilt both motorcycle and car engines so you would think that would occur to me

But then there is the machinist side of me and tbh I have always been fascinated by the ability to accurately measure the very, very small things* (miked my hair too many times to count .0035)

So for me a machinist scale is an essential part of working on anything and for those not famuliar with a machinist scale it's just a six inch metal ruler (see pic which also shows how anal I am about measuring ) with one edge being broken down to 1/32 of an inch and the other 1/64th of an inch. Because I have an awesome camera I am forever using a macro lens to be as accurate as I can. (I did this a lot when I built the dulcimer and had to drill very accurate holes at a compound angle). So between that and the fact that when I think feeler gauge I think dirty, greasy because mine is used for automotive work I guess that's why the though never occured to me, but I think I'll pick one up for my guitars.

Of course I use the same method as you but with two exceptions, in order to have a free hand (to hold the scale but I would still need a free hand with a feeler gauge) I use a capo and I put it at the last fret then measure the middle, again this is done with my magnifying goggles.

I like the sheets of brass they sell in hobby stores and I make picks from them (or have, they last a lifetime and I have one that's almost 30 years old), they size I use for picks is .015 but you can get smaller or larger, they are cheap and I have used them for shims. I also have used a piece cut off from an expired (laminated) drivers license, that time I cut out the part with my license number on it in case the guitar got stolen. Hobby stores also sell sheets of fairly hard plastic, people seem to forget that hobby stores are a good resource even for guitar repairs.

Like you I have never noticed a loss in sustain from shimming nor do I ever think about it or see it after


*in school we had this magnifying machine we used for inspection and also the grinding of lathe tool bits for single point threading. Single point when done properly is the best way to cut an accurate thread but it's done on a lathe instead of with a die. The accuracy of the the angle of the tool bit (as well as the angle of orientation to the piece in the lathe) is critical...the difference between a useless piece of metal and a very accurate thread (for instance the thread inside a micrometer is 40 threads per inch, if it were 40.1 threads per inch it would be a useless tool)

I use to use that machine for a lot of things, many of which were not machine shop related

Part of a machinist scale


I actually save pics like this in my song's folders as well as pics of pedal settings and amp settings

nix, not 1/1000 of an inch...wood is not that accurate. When I said a matter of thousanths I meant plural not single and with wood I would not count on accuracy any better than 1/64 of an inch or basically 15/1000 (.015 or .016 if you wish to round up from .015625) due to wood expanding and contracting

Oh OK.
I have digital calipers that display 100ths mm. I always liked to have the piece I was fitting to in lathework, it's best that way.
I also have a micrometer, good for 1000th mm or so. It's for measuring films.
I may get some shim material next week and play around with getting a nice mean action. I am not 100% happy with it yet.
More telling for the performance of the synth though is this darn bleeding hmmph.
I can try with samples, and also try and do a quick conversion to MIDI. It's fiddly getting the filters right, and the issue is the bleeding. I stick with just this wavetable osc until I get it perfect, and then look to MIDI, for synths and samplers.

amazon gave me a credit earlier in the month for some customer service issues so I went to look at feeler gauges and found with the credit I can get a new 6" digital caliper (not that digital matters) and the feeler gauges for 16 usd...order placed. All of the feeler gauges and some of the calipers free (of course no shipping charges because I have amazon prime with get free 2-day shipping)

Cool!
Let me know how well it works here if ya wanna.
That's sweet Hink, I have found calipers mighty handy.
hehe, when I was working as a design hand I think everyone in the factory was pinching my little steel rules. I must have gone through 8 of them. And my latest one has gone missing too.

I have a mic that I haven't touched in years, my scale as you can see in the pic above has been around a few years too...both from school and I graduated in 78.

My friend's son just got a peavy predater and he wants me to put the EMGs I put in a crap guitar of his in that and set it up so I'll use the feeler gauges then. His mother is one of my best friend's future Mrs. and he is an awesome mechanic so I'll show him how to use the feeler gauges to adjust the neck and keep it adjusted.

This is good because my friend also is the one place I can go to do some woodworking, he has a planer, drill press, tables saw, mitre saw etc in his garage (I have all the hand power tools I need) and now he'll owe me a favor...now back to designing that iso cab

Hink,
the capo is perfect.
Whenever I'm too lazy to search one I use the following quick'n'dirty method :
LH thumb 1st fret, RH little finger 15th fret, press down wherre the RH thumb is, around the 10th fret - I feel the distance of downpressing instead of using visuals, works fine for me.
And again for the newbies, always measure in playing position to eliminate the influence of gravity.
Ymmv in a Space Shuttle
susiwong

the space shuttles are getting great mileage now (they are all retired)

Allright then,
ymmnv,
susiwong

Nick thanks for the advise, I will get my toes wet with the roland stuff and if i think it will add to my arsenal then i shall definately investigate further into it and no doubt be asking questions/advice


Bring it on if it works well/Jet City don't beat you to it (?Well how long that would be). I could use a bit of cash saving but still gear satisfying projects to do John

All the best to all

Dean (Flat broke with no rainy day funds put away to plunder)