From the first picture it looks like the shim is at the bridge side of the neckpocket; from what I can tell I’d say remove the shim and check once. also when adjusting the truss rod never go by measuring; go by feel. I think you’ll be sorted. And do the truss rod adjustment yourself; you can do the whole operation yourself. Do this at home, plugged into your amp and hear the tone change, will get clearer and fuller, especially on the high E string above the 12th fret!
Loosen the strings so there’s little or no tension; undo the bolts just enough for the shim to slide out; tighten and tune-up. Then adjust the truss rods. Fret the low E at the 17th and 1st fret, there should be a gap at the 7th fret. As long as it’s not touching the 7th fret; there is no standard on how much relief there should be, try & adjust, try & adjust… to get it where you want it. And you can losen your claw as well.
I guess you can do these procedures when your changing out your claw. I could be wrong but I think your luthier is not very good. He should be able to take your instructions and get it done. Doesn’t sound like he’s used to folks who know what they want; most luthiers suck at setups as it’s a very personal thing, unless they are really passionate and knowledgable, rare cases though.
edit: also from the pictures due to the nature of the machine bolt system I don’t think the neck is properly seated due to the shim. A guitar of this quality should never need a shim. The YJM is practically a Custom Shop neck, nitro n’ all.
It’s definitely worth breaking out the screw drivers & hex key to do this your self, please start doing your own setups, you’ll be much happier and satisfied with the results. Man up and go for it. You don’t need a mechanic to do this; it’s not rocket science and you can’t break anything; just think and then act.
edit: if you run into any issues; we are always here to help, hell we can even get on a video call and sort this out once and for all.
I uploaded another pic that’s more level
We saw a small shim towards the headstock end of the neck pocket. I will remove it entirely when I install the claw. I’ll also try loosening the TR some more…
Mike is a good tech he knows his stuff, but this is Guitar Center, after all, they are limited in terms of what they have on hand, which is nothing!
Why doesn’t a tech have access to shims and screws to adjust guitars? You are right though he doesn’t like situations where he doesn’t feel he knows what to do… hes not a fan of the yngwie strat, and doesn’t understand the preferences.
The guy who sold me the guitar on Reverb had it setup like a Jackson, with 10g strings and super low action. Hes the one who probably put the shim in…
Stay tuned. God bless!
I’m curious as to what you think about the shim being at the headstock end, in light of the new pic I uploaded?
What bearing could this be having on my guitar currently?
From pics the shadow makes it look like the shim is on the bridge side. Also by looking at the pictures, there the shim looks non consequential if anything, I still say loosen the claw and truss rod and you’ll be home. You can do both yourself.
Got it. Would it be worth it just take the shim out since it’s not a full shim? Better transfer?
Solid! Try it both ways.
Yeah, looking at that, two things jump out at me - one, there’s very little shimming going on at all, and two, what I can see suggests the shim is at the BACK of the neck pocket (there’s a miniscule gap there but not at the front of the neck joint), which would increase neck angle and make your issue worse. It’s possible the shim shifted as the neck was reinstalled, and it’s no longer at the front.
The “vibrational transfer” argument is, well, it depends who you ask. Some guys think it’s very important, and then on the other side of the coin you have Eric Johnson, who’s about as type-A as they get and also known for his tone, who try to limit the vibrational transfer - in his case he uses nylon shims to deaden that connection as much as he can.
Given the lack of clear agreement, my thought has always been I’ll do whatever it takes to get the guitar to PLAY well, and not worry about transfer. The major argument for removing the shim is that right now you appear to have it shimmed to increase neck angle and it’s possible simply undoing that shim would be enough to get your action up to an acceptable point. If it does, great. If not, at that point I’d re-shim, being careful to make sure that when oyu bolt the neck back down, it’s shimmed on the headstock side to decrease neck angle.
I wouldn’t touch the truss rode just yet - unless you have too little neck relief and notes are choking lower down on the fretboard, then adding relief is going to give you more uneven action across the neck, it WILL be higher in the middle of the fretboard, but it’ll still be low in the upper registers, and potentially you’ll start to have choking issues in the middle of the neck, as the highest fret (21?) is higher relative to the bridge than the 12th, due to the more pronounced curve of the neck.
Hi Drew, thanks.
I think you’re right in that the shim might have shifted when reinstalled as I clearly noted it was at the top of the pocket near the headstock end.
I plan to remove it, when i install my new brass claw.
I’m happy with the guitar as far a playability and sound, but if I could raise the action a bit more , I think it’ll help both above areas…
Best,
Nick
I’m telling ya. your luthier is a clown.
What’s with the hostility bro? He pretty much did what you suggested and he recommended the shim which drew also did.
Hey sorry bro was very drunk 
Please accept my humble apologies. Hope your playing hard.
Ha, np.
I installed the brass claw, replaced the defective tuning peg.
I removed the shim that was on the back of the neck. I tried the new .5 stewmac shim, but it made the action ridiculously low… I guess I had it the wrong way.
In the process I broke a few high e strings…
Waiting to resume work in a day.
I’ve included some quick sketches of what the previous shim and current shim situations are…
Let me know which direction I should go in.
Thanks
You want the top option.
Think through what the shim is doing. Right now, the amount of existing neck angle in the neck is such that the saddle screws are maxed out and the action is STILL lower than you’d like. So, what you need to do is to have the shim reduce the neck angle, by bringing the headstock end of the neck higher relative to the body. The top option is a ramp that slopes upwards away from the body, which is what you want to do.
The drawings help - thanks!
Thanks! Hahaha.