Just had an issue with a "partscaster" guitar, thought I'd share. I had a str*t put together from Mighty Mite parts about seven years ago, the luthier mentioned that the neck join needed a lot of attention - he got it dialed in and set up nicely but as the guitar settled in it started to develop string buzzes on the top frets, choking and rattles and I sort of fell out of love with it. I ended up twisting the truss rod adjuster until the neck relief was right but then I had to jack the action way up to stop it choking and the guitar was becoming unplayable.

So last night I decided to attack it properly. Strings off, neck off and what do I find, a neck shim. The guy had added a tiny sliver of thin card right at the neck join to angle the neck back (no microtilt adjuster in this one). Must have worked at the time but as the neck has moved and settled, it's caused a "rising crown" kind of problem. Binned that shim, got the neck back on, strings on, set the relief somewhere near right and WOW, all the buzzes disappeared and the action could be lowered to a really nice playable level all down the neck.

Obligatory youtube video of the beast ...

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