Shims to raise action on a Rogue?

Jim Williams · Post by **Jim Williams** » 21 Apr 2014 9:12 am

I have a little Rogue RLS1. It is ok for a very short scale, but the string height is a bit low for my taste. I am thinking of shimming the bridge and nut to raise it a little. Would I be better off to use metal under the bridge, or is wood ok? Only need an eight of an inch or so.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 21 Apr 2014 9:37 am

I have a Rogue RLS1 that I converted to a lap steel sitar. I replaced the bridge with a cut Tele bridge, like the one on the GE Smith Tele. I'm pretty sure I replaced the nut as well with a solid brass nut.

I would think using shims might affect tone. Can you raise the saddles on the bridge? If you decide to go the way of shims, try quarters under the bridge, or some solid piece of metal.

Jim Williams · Post by **Jim Williams** » 21 Apr 2014 11:14 am

I might be able to get a little bit of raise with the bridge Mike, I'll give that a try. The best thing would probably be to put string throughs in it and a straight angle bridge and nut, but I'm not sure I want to do all that right now. It's amazing how close Chinese can come to building an actually building decent little steel and then screw it up with a shortie scale and the wrong kind of bridge, which probably cost more than a straight bridge would have.

Same thing with the Indy steels for sale cheap on ebay now.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 21 Apr 2014 1:44 pm

Thinking about it now, Jim, why don't you try slipping a quarter underneath 2 saddles, so use 3 quarters and see if it makes a positive difference to you. You should just be able to loosen the strings and lift the saddles enough to slide the quarters under. Then proceed to raise the saddles as needed.

People have used quarters to add a little more meat to the tone of a Fender Deluxe 8--sometimes the tone is super thin on the upper frets because the bridge is kind of skimpy.

Jim Williams · Post by **Jim Williams** » 21 Apr 2014 7:13 pm

Mike, I got it out and had a critical look at the strings...it turns out the three bass strings were actually a good bit lower than the other three. I raised them to the same level as the others and it plays much better now. Gave me a bit more height and reduced the tendency for the strings to rattle. The whole thing still feels so tiny compared to my other steels with 22.5 inch scales and much wider string spacing though. Would almost like to just gut it and build a more standard guitar on the body. I could probably modify it to get at least another inch of scale length, make a new fretboard and widen the string spacing...then I would have a $200 $79 Rogue then I guess. Probably not a good idea from an economic standpoint though.

John Burton · Post by **John Burton** » 22 Apr 2014 9:49 am

here's something I did on a similar steel awhile back.

Just took off all the saddles and screws and put in a little piece of aluminum angle. Works fine. String tension keeps it in place.
I never thought the strings were to low on my Rogue though. I just did this to try something different/simple.
The best change I did to my Rogue was replacing the nut (IMO).

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 22 Apr 2014 11:41 am

these are very basic instruments. it really wont matter what you use.