Neck Pocket Shim?

[Jujo]

So I got a Cobra over ebay recently and I upped the strings from 10's to 11's and that whacked it out. I couldn't get it to feel right. I'm no expert but I've been setting up my own guitars for about 7yrs.

So I took in to the shop for the benefit of more experienced hands. They looked it over and said depending on the action of the truss rod, they may have to shim the neck pocket to get it right. That spooked me pretty good. I know shims are accepted practice, but I'm spooked because it's an Anderson. Should I be worried?

[tom]

the only reason a shim would be necessary would be if the action could not go low enough because the saddles bottomed out on the baseplate. i would expect the neck to want a little more tension on it with .011's. i'd need a better definition on whacked out to help more.

[Jujo]

Yea that's about right Tom. When I put on the 11's the neck bowed. I tried adjusting the rod and moving the saddles and I got it to an acceptable level, but it still didn't 'feel' right. I had to move the saddles down on the wound strings but it then felt out of balance when playing...just played kinda weird. The 11's were sticking in the nut causing tuning probs as well, so I just decided to take it in. I'm not going to mess around with precision nut slots. These guys have done work for me before and it was all good, so I trust them. But the shimming idea kinda freaked me out.

[tom]

in theory, all you should have had to do was put more tension on the neck to get it in the same position it was in with the .010's. the action should have been the same. if the strings were hanging up in the nut, that would need to be set right before lowering saddles.

[Jujo]

I see. At least I had sense enough to know I was in over me head! Thanks Tom.