X-160 Rockabilly "improvement"

Here's a tidbit I discovered for the Corona-made X-160 (with it's increased neck angle) -- I added a TV Jones DeArmond shim that I had laying around under the bridge pickup and strung it up with pure nickel .11s. The shim raised the pickup by about 3 mm and this helped balance the signal between neck and bridge pickups as well as "improve" the bridge pickup's tone. I have improve in quotes because it's better for me, but YMMV. Basically, the sound is a little less nasal with a bit more midrange and more bite. The main thing is that the balance between the two pickups is so much better even though it doesn't have the low end punch of the Dynasonics in my Gretsches. I'm not sure if shimming is necessary for the Westerly-built models as it's been many years since I had one in my hands and I simply don't remember any details about them.

I did this on my Corona X-160 years ago before I sold it. It really did help the tone which was pretty uninspired.