G&L Fallout Tribute Setup Question

[mikemjr12]

I'll start by saying I've already followed the manufacturer suggestions for setting up my Fallout tribute. When I did this, the setup was way too high. Not like, I prefer my action a little lower. More like, holy crap this guitar is going to break my hand high.

I'm decent at setting guitars up. Not great, but I've made enough mistakes and messed around with enough guitars to be able to make adjustments to improve the setup, but this Fallout is giving me some issues. It's a stock tribute Fallout in clear orange swamp ash body, saddle lock bridge, stock PUPs.

Right now, the individual bridge saddles are all as far down to the bridge as possible, and the action is decent, but the higher strings like B and E could come down more because it's uneven across the fretboard, but I'm out of room. I believe I have the truss rod set to it's ideal location. If I try to turn it clockwise, I start getting buzz around frets 1-3. If I go counter-clockwise, the action is way too high.

I'm seeing if anyone here has had a similar issue or has any insight as to what else to try. I'd rather pick the brains of the forum members. If I have to take it to a tech I will, but I'm not sure what they're going to do differently.

[goatofballstreet]

Shim the neck, this isn't an uncommon practice on most bolt on guitars. There's a lot of talk of material and how it could negatively affect sound but a thin business card in the heel works for me. Leo intended some of his Fender guitars to be factory shimmed, the jazzmaster and jaguar come to mind. Also the micro tilt adjustment allows you to adjust on the fly what you get with a shim.

[mikemjr12]

Thanks! Appreciate the response. Did some searching on Google and that sounds like that's the exact issue. Stew Mac sells some maple shims for a reasonable price. Think I'm going to give those a try.

[blargfromouterspace]

I'd suspect the nut is cut too deep if it's buzzing at the first and third fret. What's it like above there? Any buzz?

[mikemjr12]

No buzz when picking the open strings. I've adjusted the truss rod so that there's no buzz at the first couple of frets. The neck shim seems to fit as the issue. The neck pocket has some gaps and doesn't jut out very far from the pocket. Shims are in the mail so I should know for sure in a couple days.

[mikemjr12]

Quick update - ordered the 0.50 neck shim from Stew Mac and it works perfectly. Slides ride in without any additional trimming. Neck and action is very playable with plenty of range to make adjustments.