I tore the Silvertone guitar down today. There was a problem with the middle pick up but as it turned out it was the switch.
The selector switch was just dirty and corroded, and after a good cleaning it’s OK.
This guitar has a two piece construction, with the neck bolted to the body, like all fender guitars. It needed the neck reset, because with the bridge adjustment all the way down, the action was still a mile high. OK it was 1/8” which is nearly twice what it should be.
I took it all apart and found that it had been shimmed up the last time it was apart, with a bit of birthday card and some drafting tape. Then the gap (There should not be a gap!) had been filled with a whole lot of mahogany furniture crayon. Most of it has been scraped out already in these photographs but you can still see the dark crayon.
I made a new shim tapered to approximately 4°, but this turned out to be nearly twice what I needed. Now my bridge is above the normal top of his travel, but the action is too low and the strings are buzzing.
I congratulated myself on a successful shim that I can disassemble and shave down a little bit until I get the correct angle. Better that than the other way, because you can’t add to the shim.
