I have a '79 Strat that had a lose neck pocket (The sides). To fix it I had a luthier take some thick card stock like a 3x5 card and shimmed it. He cut it down to hide the cards and the neck hasn't moved once.

Hey everybody, sorry to reopen this case. Just wanted to get an opinion on my idea how I could fix this problem.

My guitar is set up good to begin with, the neck is reasonably straight, I have the action set to where I like it (just a tad higher than what Fender recommends) and the bridge is flush to body which I prefer with five springs and use Ernie Ball 10-46 gauge strings. And the intonation is easy to set.

The problem is with the neck pocket fit, I can't get the neck heel to be completely flat against the pocket floor. Which has me concerned because I'm paranoid if it's diminishing tone, sustain and volume, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about here. The neck heel parts from the pocket floor at the bottom where the micro-tilt disc(s) would be (I can slide a piece of paper across it!) which is very weird because the micro-tilt screw is countersunk.

My guess is that, the people at the factory sanded or cut the pocket floor too deep which is why the heel won't mate properly with the pocket floor. So I'm thinking if I got thin veneer paper (maple or ash) I could cut it to the shape of the entire pocket floor. My goal is to get the neck heel totally flush to the neck pocket floor. Looking forward to hear others' opinions, I'll appreciate any help, thanks.

Can you show us some close-up ?

Is it a new guitar you can return on waranty ?

No I bought it used in 2010, it's a 2004. Someone from another forum told me the bottom machine screw is possibly getting hung up in the body, not being able to pull the neck in tight. I might have to ream out the hole slightly with a drill bit, I'll keep you updated. Thanks, take care.

And no way am I getting rid of this baby, there's something about this guitar. It's worth going through all this trouble to get it right.

Machine screw ?? therea re only wood screw .

Probably right , These wood screw need to be set properly. Remove those four screw ( after removing string or loosen ). Put the neck flush to the body pocket. See why it not flush with screw.
If neck is flush hold it and put all four screw in their hole .

Mine's a 3-bolt neck joint, the top two screws are wood screws, the bottom screw is a machine screw.