This is a Great idea... if you've ever had to have an acoustic guitar neck reset done it is expensive , time consuming and hard to get right. This is really super for a working musician who may not have the time or money to fart around. Bob Taylor is a genius. Thank you Bob !!!
Bruce Wayne Gilmore problem is that’s theory but not reality. If Bob was being honest they would include 4 extra shims with each guitar. 1 measurement either way. Some of their service centers have some real clowns that don’t want to follow Taylor’s method. And like Bob says if you have someone who’s not authorized have them call us. Well now you call them then however long it takes to get the shim to your tech etc etc. By the time you get the shims you could have had a regular neck steamed off adjusted and reset. Every Taylor retailer should have them in stock for any diy who wants to buy them, but no they don’t make it that easy.
OK... assuming you want to fix it yourself and that you have a phone and 50 bucks (OK , $62.50 with shipping), call Taylor guitar at 800-943-6782. Tell them you want to buy the guitar neck reset kit with all the tools and shims ... it is $50. You will have it within days. It comes with a socket wrench for the two bolts that screw into the neck heel and a small wrench for the Allen screw that is attached to the fret board (be careful not to damage the wires going to the under saddle pickup if yours has one). It also has the tool to remove the pre amp system. Oh, and two sets of each shim from -20 to +30. You might need to buy some sand paper to sand a little wood off the shim ends if too tight, don't force the rectangular one in. (not too much, do it so the hole is centered... you'll see what I mean) . I reset mine 12 times til it was perfect... it's easy... If your action is high skip a few sizes because they are very fine adjustments. Look at the numbers on the original shims and write it down (trust me). If the action is high, you want to go from negative numbers toward positive. So say from -12 to -10 to -8 etc. The two different shims should be 6 values apart as explained by genius Bob Taylor. Good luck
@@30smsuperstrat Agreed with this.... I brought it to a certified warranty center and the guy insisted that I should shave the saddle down. Also fed me a line of bull about how much labour there is to resetting the neck. "Yeah, Taylors are better but there's still a bit of work to it. We should do anything else to solve the problem first, sand the saddle and nut down, etc." So I have a certified warranty center here but when I call them for shims I will be telling them there is no way I am bringing it there.
Yea, I'm going to implement similar systems into guitars I build. No more spending hours flossing neck heel face trying to get that gap off or a bunch of trials and errors. Not to mention later on needing more work to set the neck angle.
I solved my problem with my AD17's action. Went for the reset of the neck and found finger tightened only bolts. I tightened them and wow, what an improvement! Got tone and action. I was wondering if there is a specific level of torque that should be applied? I applied a firm tightness but not much more.
I've been playing electric guitar for 26 years and never owned an acoustic that didn't eventually develop a "belly" and high action. I gave up on playing acoustic guitars until i heard about Taylor necks. I'm about to pull the trigger on a 214ce deluxe :) It's reassuring to know that i can easily shim the neck myself if it becomes necessary in the future
It's a brilliant design because it makes the guitar very easy to do a neck adjustment vs. a glued joint. I don't notice any appreciable difference in sustain from one type of joint to the other.
I bought 114ce 1 week ago. Tried to lower the action by shaving saddle to max but still 1mm higher than recommended. Iam from Asia so no service centre to do this. :(
Dave, Buy a new saddle from Taylor. They are $19 plus shipping. On a Taylor, you never change the saddle height or the nut; they are fixed points... you just change the neck shims. and that is it. To lower the action you need the neck to tilt back a bit. When I bought the shim kit it was $50 plus shipping and came with tools you need to work on Taylor guitars. I found it to be a great value. Good luck
@@stealyourfacekev Call Taylor Guitar in California. It comes with everything you need to work on a Taylor guitar including the tool you need to remove the electronics should you ever need to do that.
Yea I don't bother getting shim kits. It will take several weeks to get them assuming I can convince them to send me some. Have a customer's brand new taylor with neck angle too low. What I ended up doing is putting business cards under the shim under the fingerboard, and then sanding an angle into the neck heel shim (more than what it already had, I took off about .006" by sanding). In this COVID world the shims will arrive... sometime next year. Last time I asked Taylor about shim kits they told me to talk to the Taiwan distributor. I tried them, they ignored me.
I bought my Taylor 410ma LOF in December 2000, It has never been worked on because it has never needed to be worked on. Except for the strings, it's original.
This Man wastes no wood and pretty much owns it all too. 3 scarf joints just in the neck alone. My question is? Why are soooooo many Taylor's needing neck resets ? Even after buying them new 😢
John, the neck angle is determined by the angular shim behind the neck heel where it contacts the body and works in sync with the square shim under the 15th to 20th frets on the neck Be well
The full (dealer kit) of shims from Taylor includes a selection of various dimensions of both shims, (and the tools too) That is, the fingerboard extension shims have various tapers also -that allows the neck angle to be adjusted, yet also correctly supported where it needs to be, under the uppermost frets. The solid fingerboard extension that Taylor use should not be floating, nor stressed downwards by the fasteners.
I would have thought for the money these things cost , the neck would be made to fit perfect before any shims are used , but of course that would require some skill, and just as a foot note 95%of fenders do not require shims , only some vintage strats and stuff where parts and so on have been swapped around
The idea is to use the shim from new so that the neck seating is consistent with when it comes time to reset the neck. The replacement shim has different pitch but same basic thickness so intonation is not thrown off. A strat you just raise or lower the bridge and adjust the saddles to match the shim. Not so easy on an acoustic
Over time the strings exert force that deforms an acoustic guitar. The bridge/soundboard raises and the neck angle raises. The normal way to fix this is to 'remove' wood from the heel/body joint. So, having a factory perfect joint would not allow for a reduction in shim thickness at the heel/body joint.
![KRK - ชนิสรา Ft.WanMai , N/A [Official MV] Prod. By Sakarin](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/C-WMwwYobcU/mqdefault.jpg)
This is a Great idea... if you've ever had to have an acoustic guitar neck reset done it is expensive , time consuming and hard to get right. This is really super for a working musician who may not have the time or money to fart around. Bob Taylor is a genius. Thank you Bob !!!
Bruce Wayne Gilmore problem is that’s theory but not reality. If Bob was being honest they would include 4 extra shims with each guitar. 1 measurement either way. Some of their service centers have some real clowns that don’t want to follow Taylor’s method. And like Bob says if you have someone who’s not authorized have them call us. Well now you call them then however long it takes to get the shim to your tech etc etc. By the time you get the shims you could have had a regular neck steamed off adjusted and reset. Every Taylor retailer should have them in stock for any diy who wants to buy them, but no they don’t make it that easy.
OK... assuming you want to fix it yourself and that you have a phone and 50 bucks (OK , $62.50 with shipping), call Taylor guitar at 800-943-6782. Tell them you want to buy the guitar neck reset kit with all the tools and shims ... it is $50. You will have it within days. It comes with a socket wrench for the two bolts that screw into the neck heel and a small wrench for the Allen screw that is attached to the fret board (be careful not to damage the wires going to the under saddle pickup if yours has one). It also has the tool to remove the pre amp system. Oh, and two sets of each shim from -20 to +30. You might need to buy some sand paper to sand a little wood off the shim ends if too tight, don't force the rectangular one in. (not too much, do it so the hole is centered... you'll see what I mean) . I reset mine 12 times til it was perfect... it's easy... If your action is high skip a few sizes because they are very fine adjustments. Look at the numbers on the original shims and write it down (trust me). If the action is high, you want to go from negative numbers toward positive. So say from -12 to -10 to -8 etc. The two different shims should be 6 values apart as explained by genius Bob Taylor. Good luck
@@30smsuperstrat Agreed with this.... I brought it to a certified warranty center and the guy insisted that I should shave the saddle down. Also fed me a line of bull about how much labour there is to resetting the neck. "Yeah, Taylors are better but there's still a bit of work to it. We should do anything else to solve the problem first, sand the saddle and nut down, etc." So I have a certified warranty center here but when I call them for shims I will be telling them there is no way I am bringing it there.
Yea, I'm going to implement similar systems into guitars I build. No more spending hours flossing neck heel face trying to get that gap off or a bunch of trials and errors. Not to mention later on needing more work to set the neck angle.
I solved my problem with my AD17's action. Went for the reset of the neck and found finger tightened only bolts. I tightened them and wow, what an improvement! Got tone and action. I was wondering if there is a specific level of torque that should be applied? I applied a firm tightness but not much more.
I've been playing electric guitar for 26 years and never owned an acoustic that didn't eventually develop a "belly" and high action. I gave up on playing acoustic guitars until i heard about Taylor necks. I'm about to pull the trigger on a 214ce deluxe :) It's reassuring to know that i can easily shim the neck myself if it becomes necessary in the future
It's a brilliant design because it makes the guitar very easy to do a neck adjustment vs. a glued joint. I don't notice any appreciable difference in sustain from one type of joint to the other.
thanks a lot for this video, how can we get these taylor shims in Italy
I bought 114ce 1 week ago. Tried to lower the action by shaving saddle to max but still 1mm higher than recommended. Iam from Asia so no service centre to do this.
:(
Dave, Buy a new saddle from Taylor. They are $19 plus shipping. On a Taylor, you never change the saddle height or the nut; they are fixed points... you just change the neck shims. and that is it. To lower the action you need the neck to tilt back a bit. When I bought the shim kit it was $50 plus shipping and came with tools you need to work on Taylor guitars. I found it to be a great value.
Good luck
@@brucew.5177 where did you get the shim kit from?
@@stealyourfacekev Call Taylor Guitar in California. It comes with everything you need to work on a Taylor guitar including the tool you need to remove the electronics should you ever need to do that.
The truss rod can be adjusted farther than what you are used to on an electric.
Yea I don't bother getting shim kits. It will take several weeks to get them assuming I can convince them to send me some. Have a customer's brand new taylor with neck angle too low. What I ended up doing is putting business cards under the shim under the fingerboard, and then sanding an angle into the neck heel shim (more than what it already had, I took off about .006" by sanding).
In this COVID world the shims will arrive... sometime next year.
Last time I asked Taylor about shim kits they told me to talk to the Taiwan distributor. I tried them, they ignored me.
I bought my Taylor 410ma LOF in December 2000, It has never been worked on because it has never needed to be worked on. Except for the strings, it's original.
This Man wastes no wood and pretty much owns it all too. 3 scarf joints just in the neck alone. My question is? Why are soooooo many Taylor's needing neck resets ? Even after buying them new 😢
Reason I bought a Taylor that and it’s sound of course ✌️
If the retanglular shim is parrellel in thickness how does this alter the angle?
John, the neck angle is determined by the angular shim behind the neck heel where it contacts the body and works in sync with the square shim under the 15th to 20th frets on the neck
Be well
The full (dealer kit) of shims from Taylor includes a selection of various dimensions of both shims, (and the tools too) That is, the fingerboard extension shims have various tapers also -that allows the neck angle to be adjusted, yet also correctly supported where it needs to be, under the uppermost frets. The solid fingerboard extension that Taylor use should not be floating, nor stressed downwards by the fasteners.
it isn't parallel. BOTH shims have taper!
my 12 string needs the neck tweaked....
Is this the same procedure for the Baby series
There is a different bolt on solution for the Baby Taylors.
@@marcushight6716 is it adjustable
Same concept, just not as many fasteners.
I would have thought for the money these things cost , the neck would be made to fit perfect
before any shims are used , but of course that would require some skill, and just as a foot note 95%of fenders
do not require shims , only some vintage strats and stuff where parts and so on have been swapped around
@shaun rish, i hear ya...and agree... But fender sucks compared to the Taylors I own... but your point is valid.
The idea is to use the shim from new so that the neck seating is consistent with when it comes time to reset the neck. The replacement shim has different pitch but same basic thickness so intonation is not thrown off. A strat you just raise or lower the bridge and adjust the saddles to match the shim. Not so easy on an acoustic
Over time the strings exert force that deforms an acoustic guitar. The bridge/soundboard raises and the neck angle raises. The normal way to fix this is to 'remove' wood from the heel/body joint. So, having a factory perfect joint would not allow for a reduction in shim thickness at the heel/body joint.
Bob Taylor borrowed (aka stole ) the neck system from Roy Noble of Little Rock , California.
Normand Boucher the original builder of Norman guitars in Canada made his acoustics with bolt on necks 50 yrs ago.
Next time, bring a microphone. And does this man know he's on camera? He disappeared and is mumbling to himself.
Blah blah blah, my 414ce still plays like a $300 cheap acoustic. Funny thing is, my “cheap Chinese” Guild F 250ce plays and sounds much better…….