This is mostly a post to tell people to get their guitar set-up properly rather than trying to do it themselves without any knowledge or training in the field. One of the guitars that IO recently purchased which is beautiful had a 'wannabe set-up guru' previous owner.
Well, let me tell you...I could feel the potential in the guitar but I knew something wasn't quite right. I was going to have my set-up guy check it out anyway but this made it a necessity. The previous (or one of the previous owners) had decided to shim the neck because...well...who knows why...some people think that they can set things to 'suit their style' and they think it makes them 'more of a pro' if they adjust some things themselves.
The bottom line is that some things about a guitar are SCIENCE not preference. It is really as simple as that.
This guy put a part of a guitar pick in between the neck and the body at the neck joint either thinking that he could get a better action or thinking that the neck/body angle was out. Anyway...put that with the intonation being out and pickups being at the wrong height and it made a beautiful guitar into a very average guitar.
I guess the big message here is know what you are doing before you do it. If you don't know and you aren't in training then get someone who DOES know to do the stuff.
That being said...I wonder if the previous owner would even THINK about selling the guitar if it was set-up like it is now...what an ultramaroon!!!

the only change in setup i remember pulling on one of my old guitars was to change the angle of the pickups in relation to the strings on a cheap strat style guitar i had. basically i had read about how hendrix was just taking factory righty guitars, replacing the peg for the strap and just flipping the strings but nothing else, so the angle of the pickups would be inverted for the strings so in effect it would kind of dull the typical fender twang on the highs and add more bass to the lows. or something like that

Interesting...I'm sure that the bridge saddles would have been adjusted too though as the intonation would be out but cool story though...Hendrix was a different cat that's for sure. One of his techs used to swap out gear for him when he wasn't satisfied with it and often would use the first one again after a few changes and Jimi would say "yeah that's better" not knowing that it was the one that he initially didn't like be it an amp...pedal...or whatever...
He was so hard on guitars and gear that they often had to try to piece something together for him to use.
Here is the guitar he burned at Montreax...
http://community.webshots.com/album/500133715OCVsxe

Rumour has it that Dwezil Zappa will part with it for $1,000,000.00

yeah i realize that technically the bridge and saddles 'should' be readjusted to compensate but i don't think they bothered with hendrix since most of his strats ended up in pieces by the end of the show.

as for the zappa / hendrix strat i remember reading a story about how dweezil got his hands on it a long time ago hehe. something about him about asking his dad for it after realizing the significance of the instrument and finding it being used to prop up a staircase or something along those lines .