hi guys, I don't know if this belongs here or in the regular Strat forums, Mods feel free to move it if this is not the place, Thanks.


Well, the problem is that I took my guitar to get set up and the tech told me the neck is twisted in a weird way. It's twisted in an "S" shape, that means that when he sets it up so that it won't buzz on the lower frets, it buzzes on the upper frets and so on. He's done almost everything he can to solve this but no luck. The only option left is sanding the neck and gettinga fret job, but he recommend I buy a new neck because it'll be almost the same price and he cannot guarantee the work will be 110% perfect.

How can I solve this? can Fender sell me a John Mayer neck? do you guys know the specs on the John Mayer neck and is there a "normal" fender neck that'll have the same specs?

I'm in Europe (Spain) where and how can I solve this?

thank you

If you just bought it new it should be covered under warranty. Take it back to where you got it and get them to replace the neck or replace the guitar.

I have to disagree with your tech. If in fact you do have the, "S" thing going on, the neck can be clamped and heated to where the glue joint which joins the fingerboard to the neck will loosen. This will allow the fingerboard to slide into a straightened state because of the strategic placing of the clamps pressuring the fingerboard to do so. Once cooled, the glue joint will have resolidified, thus realigning the fingerboard to a straigntened state. The reciprocal pressure from the neck and the fingerboard along with the glue and the truss rod would eliminate this problem from returning. I've done this with MANY Fender necks and have never had one relapse.

Wood breathes so if that piece of fingerboard has a proclivity to "S" warp, mere sanding of it will not stop the grain in the wood from doing whatever it is that its going to do. Meaning, even if you do take away the hump and/or dip, the grain will continue to move in these two respective directions and eventually, the problem will return. Also, to eliminate an "S" warp by mere removal of material from the fingerboard will involve quite a bit lost fingerboard which can and usually does, create other problems.

If your guitar didn't have the separate rosewood fingerboard such as a one piece maple neck, neither of the above two remedies would be appropriate or effective. In this case, the only thing that could be done would be to file the frets with warp and all in the board so that the frets themselves would be even. Yet, even at this, per the prior paragraph, the grains would continue to do whatever they are going to do.

As to whether Fender will sell you or issue a warranty replacement, the procedure in the US for such a situation would be extremely lenghty and annoying at best with no guarantee of success. So, in Europe, I can only presume that such an issue would probably be infinitely more difficult still. Your best bet is to e-mail Fender, explain your situation and if they will do anything for you, they will tell you how to proceed.

One more thing: I would get a second opinion on this whole "S" diagnosis if I were you.

Good luck!

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You dig?

What he said. Sage advice here

But yeah if you did buy it new your music dealer can take care of it for you.

Is he saying the neck is twisted or the fingerboard has a hump in it, or curved. If the neck itself is twisted you could take the fingerboard off and put a new one on and it will twist again with a nice straight one on it. If its a matter of sanding out a hump thats different. But if the maple part of the neck is twisted you might as well get a neck. The cost of a new board 30 to 40 then cost of heating off the old one 70 + 30 to glue on then 220 to fret it plus add a good nut. I have never been able to get the glue on the neck to let the board move. I have to steam iron the neck heel the slip a straight razor in there then iron some more then tap the straight razor in with, well I use a toy block which I keep some around for things like tapping . I then take that razor and tap it up the neck with a rule steam heating as I go. It takes me 30 to 45+ minutes to pop off a fingerboard. I guess If I had a industrial iron it would be quicker. I can't think of a way you can shift a board unless you free up the whole thing from heel to nut.

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