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Post subject: bent neck on MIM
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 5:51 pm
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Since my #1 is under the knife I got my MIM to start playing it (haven't played it in a while... ok a long while). I put Sperzel locking tuners on it for the heck of it and strung it up. After 10 minutes of playing it various strings start going flat. I put five springs on it, bridge is flush against body. Another thing to note is I am getting alot of fret buzz up and down the fret board. The neck seemed flat but definately not bowing up. The b string always had a bit of an open buzz, I just figured it was the nut. As I was playing, I also noticed my high E was really close to the edge. The strings are no longer spaced evenly either. All shifted towards the high E. So I took it to the local tech, thinking maybe the nut, saddles, and truss rod might need attention. After a close examination we discovered the neck is bending towards the high E. (If you lay the guitar back flat on a table and look down the edge fo the finger board on the high E side, about the 6 fret to the head is bending) The tech was really surprised and said the only thing to do is a new neck or new guitar. However, after calling to other guitar stores to see if anyone had a connection for a used neck I talked to another tech and after explaining what the neck was doing he told me that adjusting the truss rod would fix that and acted like it was no big deal. I was under the impression that the truss rod just adjusted the concavity of the neck.

So which is it? Do I need a neck or just find a good tech to fix it? Anyone had experience with this?
Thanks in advance


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Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 6:24 pm
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Are you sure the neck is bent and not out of alignment because that will cause the strings to fall off one side of the fingerboard? You can fix that by loosening the mounting screws just a little bit then hold the body against you in like a playing position and with you free hand pull the neck in the direction you need to go. And since the screws are only slighty loose it should stay where you pull it to until you tighten the screws back taught. If that don't work you may have to loosen the screws a lot hold it in place and tighten thats when you'll wish you had three hands.

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Post subject: bent neck
Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 8:24 am
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cvilleira wrote:
Are you sure the neck is bent and not out of alignment because that will cause the strings to fall off one side of the fingerboard? You can fix that by loosening the mounting screws just a little bit then hold the body against you in like a playing position and with you free hand pull the neck in the direction you need to go. And since the screws are only slighty loose it should stay where you pull it to until you tighten the screws back taught. If that don't work you may have to loosen the screws a lot hold it in place and tighten thats when you'll wish you had three hands.

im officially impressed.
i was going to say that his neck is probably warped. but i failed to look at that perspective.
it does make sense.


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Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 10:14 am
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I never heard of a headstock bending down before. I have encountered funny shapes in necks (concave on one bit convex on another) and been able to get it a bit better by completely slackening the rod and leaving the guitar unstrung for a few days with it clamped at certain parts of the neck. However i've never got a perfect result and while i have noticed improvement i ended up getting rid of the guitar.

Cvilleira's diagnosis and solution seem more probable than a down turned headstock, unless you left the guitar detuned for a couple of years.

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Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 10:19 am
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cvilleira wrote:
Are you sure the neck is bent and not out of alignment because that will cause the strings to fall off one side of the fingerboard? You can fix that by loosening the mounting screws just a little bit then hold the body against you in like a playing position and with you free hand pull the neck in the direction you need to go. And since the screws are only slighty loose it should stay where you pull it to until you tighten the screws back taught. If that don't work you may have to loosen the screws a lot hold it in place and tighten thats when you'll wish you had three hands.


Yep - I've had to do this with both my Fenders when they were new.

Bass or treble string falling off the board by the 15th fret.
It's a bit like choking a chicken.

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Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 2:26 pm
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You guys are great. While it didn't solve the problem I think I found the actual problem. I did as cvilleira suggested. However, after playing it the neck would move back and the strings go flat. With the screws tight the neck can move just enough up and down in the pocket. There is a gap between the top of the neck and the neck pocket. I folded a buisness card and slid it in the tightened the neck. this helped but not enough. What is the next step?


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Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 2:31 pm
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bluesdown wrote:
You guys are great. While it didn't solve the problem I think I found the actual problem. I did as cvilleira suggested. However, after playing it the neck would move back and the strings go flat. With the screws tight the neck can move just enough up and down in the pocket. There is a gap between the top of the neck and the neck pocket. I folded a buisness card and slid it in the tightened the neck. this helped but not enough. What is the next step?


Personally, I would bring it into a shop and get it fixed there, even though I have lots of experience fixing guitars....... :oops: :wink: :lol: Just bring it into a shop and tell them to take a look at it. They will fix it there.

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Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 3:13 pm
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If its that bad take the guitar back to where you bought it. If you bought it new, if not you need a luthier to create a series of shims to fit around your neck pocket, to hold the neck in place. If your in the uk get forum user ceri to do it, he's handy with a bit of wood.

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Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 7:44 pm
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You have done ok on it so far but if you are not comfortable take it to someone but not the shop that told you to just replace the neck. I have done a lot of these repair were I would just remove the neck and reistall and shim if needed. It does not take much at that point to make a drastic change in the neck! I have seen guitars with playing cards there. I took one guys guitar to do some work on it and he had used lottery card.

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Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 8:10 pm
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I'm pretty handy but I know my limits. It just seemed logical to put the card there. If that is the correct avenue I will try a bit more and take it to a diferent place with a recommended tech to get another set of eyes on it. I have had the guitar since 1993. It always had tunning issues but I had other guitars. And the tuning issues then were tolerable for a mex strat and bridge... nothing like now.


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