Which guitar brand comes with saddle shims?

[fulfillingsoul]

Hi I have realised that certain guitar brands come with saddle shims. Which of yours do so?

Is this welcomed as a good intention of easy saddle height adjustment?
Or a non-purist detest that saddle must not have shims at all?

[Jeff M]

Originally Posted by fulfillingsoul

Hi I have realised that certain guitar brands come with saddle shims. Which of yours do so?

Is this welcomed as a good intention of easy saddle height adjustment?
Or a non-purist detest that saddle must not have shims at all?

Never seen that myself.
Shims are cheap. I can't see the inclusion or lack of shims as a deciding point in purchasing a guitar.
Akin to not buying a car because they don't include one of those little rear view mirror hang down air fresheners in the price.

Shims, theoretically at least, may not transmit the string vibrations to the top as well as a non-shimmed saddle.
Guitars where I have had to raise the action, I've just gone with a whole new saddle. Rarely have I had to raise a guitars action over time. Now, lowering it is another story.
Like shims, saddles are cheap. Keep the old one in case you do feel you need to raise the action at some point in time. Perhaps if the guitar is exposed to variations in humidity over the seasons. But again, my guitars live in a fairly stable environment.

[paul84]

I think Avalon ship with shims. I believe the idea is to make installation of undersaddle pickups very easy - just remove the shim, no need to reduce the saddle height.
Paul

[scr@tchy]

There are people who can cut a shim properly so it doesn't impact your tone, Colosi comes to mind. But I would think most would rather not have one, me included. If I were trying out guitars and I found one I really liked and it had a shim, I would still buy it and cut another saddle for it, it would only get better sounding after the shim was gone. Plus you would have a good excuse to experiment with different saddle materials.

[Jeremy]

My Breedlove came with an extra saddle and shims.

[fulfillingsoul]

Originally Posted by paul84

I think Avalon ship with shims. I believe the idea is to make installation of undersaddle pickups very easy - just remove the shim, no need to reduce the saddle height.
Paul

That is one logical reason

[taylorcc]

My Ovation 12 came with a saddle shim. I removed it for lower action.

[patticake]

at least some takamine saddles come shimmed.n i don't find it a plus myself.

[patchmcg]

Ovations always ship with 2-3 shims. Since Ovations are almost always acoustic electric, the design of the pick-ups pretty much mandates shims. The pick-up elements are integrated into a saddle assembly which makes adjusting the saddle itself nearly impossible. Looking at my signature line, I obviously don't have a problem with it.

[jmjohnson]

Stonebridge.

[Rich]

I bought a new Epiphone Masterbilt guitar that came with a shim under the saddle.

[noledog]

Both my Lowden and Avalon came with shims. Some were wooden strips with varying thickness and I also recieved a plastic shim as well with the Lowden only. Currently I have no shim in place on the Lowden, then on the Avalon I have a very thin wooden one in place.

noledog

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by fulfillingsoul

Hi I have realised that certain guitar brands come with saddle shims. Which of yours do so?

Hi fs…

Mine came with attachments to luthiers, so the shims if needed are available.

Ovation is the only guitar (including Applause models) that I ever saw with preinstalled plastic shims.

[fulfillingsoul]

My Lakewood came with ebony and maple shims under the saddle.

Was surprised to know that through my guitar tech whom I paid to do setup.
Turned out to be an easy job for him to lower saddle height without any sanding.
He did straighten the neck though and achieved better playability.

[JMAGFG]

My Ovation