ok so I just got a Birdseye maple neck blank.I got the neck pattern traced onto it but when I was doing that I noticed that the blank is bending is that normal for it, to get through the mail to me like that?-I have a picture that is showing the bend, you can see on my desk what im talking about and lastly? how am i able to fix this?

p.s on the pictures go from the first to the fourth picture to get the board from the left all the way to the right side


website for pictures-http://img146.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=027zp.jpg

I don't know if it's normal for it to do that. I've yet to order a fretboard or wood for a fretboard. In order to straighten it, you would have to run it through a jointer and a planer which could eat away most of your wood. You might want to send it back for another piece or try to find some way to correct the bow. Personally, I think you would always have problems with that piece unless you get it stratightened correctly.

Hi hotshot991: some questions. Where did you buy the wood from and where do you live? Are the two places far apart? How have you stored it since getting it and for how long? Was it perfectly straight when you got it, and so has this warp only occured since you've had it?

Some info. (Putting aside situations where stress is placed upon it) wood warps when moisture evaporates from one side faster than the other. This frequently happens when it is stored flat on a hard surface: for example, leave a plank of wood on a concrete floor for some weeks and come back to discover an upbend in it.

Contributory factors include a significant change in humidity between the place the timber was seasoned and the place you presently have it - meaning there is a difference in the moisture content of the wood and the environment in which it is now. Bringing it from an cool warehouse into a dry, centrally heated house is a classic way to warp wood. A further possibility is that it just wasn't seasoned fully when you bought it, meaning more moisture needed to come out of it before it was ready.

I am in no position to judge which of these it might be, though telling us the producer would be helpful.

The bad news. If you are very clever about it it is possible to straighten warped wood. However, some people (John Suhr for instance) have concerns about the stability of all figured timber, and personally I would never feel confident about a neck made from wood which had once warped. I think you simply have a bad bit of wood. I'd see if the seller will accept it back in exchange for another piece. There may be some useful stuff we could discuss about how you should store your next wood prior to using it once you receive it.

By the way, with friendly respect to dvlsadvc8t (above), machining the warp out of it on a planer/jointer is not the solution here, even if the blank were big enough. If the wood is unstable it is unstable: there is no reason why edges that are made true on a machine will stay that way for any time. Timber needs to be stable before it is machined, and then it needs to be stored and used correctly.

On a happier note: please tell us more about your neck making activities. Lots of people here are very interested in this stuff. To date I believe I am the only person who has so far built necks in public here on the Forum: I'm finding that lonely and I want some company! Here's some of mine, just for shucks:



Cheers - C

Oh yeah Ceri, I agree with you 100%. I was just saying that is the only option that I know of if he absolutely had to use that piece or wanted to. I agree with you that I wouldn't dare think of using that. I would be scared that the tendency would be for it to warp some more and there's not enough glue to hold that down. We're on exactly the same page. I reread my post and see that I didn't make that clear. Thanks for pointing it out.

BTW, I've finally started routing bodies so hopefully pretty soon I'll be up and running with knowledge to do necks. Then you won't be the only one on here and it won't be so lonely.

Nice necks BTW. I love 1-piece maple necks.

Im about to answer your questions but this is birdeye maple for an evh Frankenstein project.Im just thinking is ive seen some people that have horrible warps compared to mine.I went on the Gibson forum and they told me to soak that middle in water for a very short second then put it upside down on a desk and put weight on it but not very much and let it dry and it actually helped a lot.Im thinking now all it will be is just getting a truss rod into it and that would fix it, its not completely flat but its not enough of a hump to hurt the making process and in terms of length when I cut it out im gonna have it pressed down flat so im cutting it to exact length.

Excellent!

Remember, we love threads about this stuff, if you feel up to it. Don't forget to take tons of photos of every step of the process. Itching to see!

Good luck - C

Hi again hotshot991: thing is, even if you've got the blank flat again by that process it is a temporary fix. With no disrespect to whoever gave that advice on the Gibson forum, it is not good methodology. The minute something changes about that blank's circumstances - carving material off it for example - it might warp again. Trussrods are not the solution to this. They don't exist to reinforce necks the way carbon fibre inserts do: they are only there to counteract the tension of the strings.

If you really wanted to sort this blank to the best possible before starting work on it there is a serious, grown-up way to do it - but it is a shedload of hassle. You can bend wood into any shape you want, but the fibres are springy and will tend to want to bend back if you don't do something to "set" them in the new shape. Clearly with your blank the fibres want to take up that bow and that might keep happening, unless...

The way to reset wood is with steam. You build a box that is bigger than the blank but not much: it wants about an inch or so clearance all the way around inside, with the blank resting on spacers or dowels or something so that it isn't touching the inside of the box anywhere. Then you take a hose, join one end to a hole in the box and the other to a source of steam: a wallpaper stripper or a saucepan of boiling water with a hole in the lid or some similar arrangement. You then fill the inside of the box with steam for about 15 minutes, with the steam circulating around and touching every inch of your maple blank. It has to penetrate deep, not just touch the surface, like the brief wetting you described.

Then you open the box up and working extremely fast you clamp the timber firmly into the shape you want it to be; in this case, flat. The steam will have softened the resin and wood fibres and you are now resetting it into a new shape. A bit like liquefying gelatine in the kitchen and then pouring it into a mould. You're recreating the matrix of the fibres. You'll be amazed how bendy that thick bit of timber is when it comes out of the steam but it won't stay that way for more than a minute or two. And use thick gloves: that wood is too hot to touch!

A friend of mine is a boat builder and I have seen him bend very big thick bits of wood from straight into the tight curves of boat's ribs by this method: you wouldn't believe how pliable great heavy bits of hardwood are made by steam. Once they have reset in the new shape they ain't ever going back.

In my own humble experience just this year I tried steam bending a Strat drop-top. My method was very make-shift, I learnt a lot and will do it much more efficiently next time. But in case you're curious here are a couple of pictures. The top after steam bending. That forearm contour is now set in that shape and won't spring back, unlike if I just glued it from flat:


The top clamped in place with the forearm contour held firmly whilst gluing:




And the finished job:


(This was all a repair on a badly damaged body.)

I bet all of that seems like too much trouble to you, but it is the only way you are going to be sure of making your blank OK to work on without risking wasting all that work on a dud piece of timber.

Frankly, that's all too much effort for one neck blank, isn't it? I'd see if the supplier (again, who were they BTW?) will exchange the blank for another. If not, I'd just bandsaw it into strips to use as nice birdseye fingerboards in the future and buy a new blank for my neck project. And check it for straightness the minute it arrives and then store it carefully till it has acclimatised to local temperature/humidity conditions before starting work.

Good luck - C

ok well after 3 days now the hump is staying the same its not warping more, that's got to be a little relive that's its not changing but the hump now is about 1/16 of an inch rising from being flat so is that good?

All this time I overlooked that this was a neck blank and not being used for a fretboard.

That was great work on that top Ceri.

Thank you kindly!

Cheers - C

No.

Up to you, but I wouldn't risk pouring all that building effort into a piece of timber which had already given advanced warning that it might not be stable. It has shown you its intent: you'll be kicking yourself if it bends on you more as you go along. An EVH neck is meant to perform like a screaming hot chilli pepper. Be a shame if it turned out to be a comedy banana instead.

Birdseye maple is one of my favorite figures, so I do understand how you're feeling. You've found a pretty piece of timber and you want to get cracking, and now some guy you've never met from far away is spoiling it for you.

What can we do to make it better?

You haven't told us where the wood came from or where (approximately) you are. But in case it get's you're juices running, howsabout this - nice wood at sensible prices:

http://www.birdseyemaple.com/tonewoods.html

Or look at this:

http://www.gilmerwood.com/instrument_wood-necks.htm

Some tasty stuff there. $35 for one birdseye neck blank or $65 for three. Not bad! And those sets they are calling "blister figured hard maple" look interesting too.

It ain't all bad: there's more fish in the sea and it won't break the bank.

Best of luck - C

Edit: dyslexia (the one word I don't have difficulty in spelling...)

it came from Kendallville, IN, United States

it came from Kendallville, IN, United States and i live in lakeland Florida

Ah-ha. Quite a difference in those two climates, especially at this time of year, and even more if your supplier stores their timber in an unheated warehouse at outdoor humidity levels and you have brought it inside.

That might explain why moisture is suddenly trying to get out of the wood's surface. If it has laid flat on a hard surface then that moisture can only escape from the top side of the wood: the two sides are now not even in moisture content and the timber curves accordingly.

When we bring wood from a cool location to a warm one it is a good idea to store it for some weeks on little spacers to let air circulate underneath, and put some more spacers on top and something heavy on top of that to keep it flat and straight. Imagine a miniature version of this:


Little blocks or even dowels would probably be good enough for spacers for a small billet like neck blank, and put it in a cool, temperature stable part of the house. You just need to let moisture evaporate evenly from all sides of the wood at the same time. Otherwise the fibres behave pretty much like those in paper do if you spill some water on it and then it dries out. Comparable process.

I know from painful experience how heartbreaking it is to see a fine piece of timber warp and spoil!

The one thing you might try is to just lay the wood flat the opposite way up to what you've had it. See if moisture now evaporates from the other side and that brings it true again. If so, then store it the way I've suggested and leave it a few more weeks to stabilise. Worth a shot.

Cheers - C

Howdy!

I too know the anguish of having timber warp when it shouldn't.

Ceri has left some excellent advice here and though i have limited carpentry skills I second the motion for returning the timber or buying a replacement neck blank.

I'm currently designing my first batch of Big Hairy Guitar necks and after much scribbling have settled on the headstock design.



So at some point next year you can expect something on building a neck from the Big Hairy Guitar Factory!


Ooooh! I'd love to hear more about your routing if you get a chance!

Enjoy!

Andy

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Pending Greatness