Perhaps you should wait....I know...I know...The suspense is deadly but a couple years ago when I asked Matt D'Ambrosio as to why building an acoustic was not done in the winter, his response was that it was too difficult to control the humidity factor in the winter when it is so dry.....
Either way good luck.......
I'm off to work and today I can finally cut those Maple and Walnut slabs for the new Strat and Tele project..... ( Yes I will upload pics on the thread as I promised )

Jah does also point out a good point about steam/moisture on a finished neck, I thought about that but didn't comment on it...

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

So far so good. This looks like an excellent start, to my eye.

Some thoughts...:


It is not moisture as such that does the work but heat. When people steam bend timber the steam is just the method of distributing the heat across the surface of the wood at the right temperature.

Lignin (or lignen) is an organic polymer and is found in the walls of the cells of wood. It becomes plastic at about 90C / 194F. Given that steam is above 100C / 212F it is a useful vehicle for carrying heat to timber - but it is not vital. For instance, when we were bending the ribs in violin making we didn't use moisture at all, just the heat of the bending iron. Then again, I have a friend who is a boat builder and using steam boxes he can bend huge timbers into amazing curves for the ribs of boats - they turn to rubber with the heat. But again, the steam is just there to carry the heat to where it is wanted.

My neck (in my post above) straightened only over several weeks because I could only subject it to moderate heat, so the fibres of the wood stretched and compressed extremely slowly, and very little.

The ideal would be to clamp the neck as Mr X has done and then heat it to about 95C / 203F in a big oven for about 15 minutes. Then let it cool slowly and see if it has worked. You could do that several times, taking it a little further each cycle. If it does work this would be the best chance of re-setting it, because the fact it has warped in this dramatic way suggests there must be an underlying instability in its timber: the fibres need to be loosened and re-set, a bit like melting and re-setting gelatine.

Got a really big oven with an accurate thermostat, Jeff...? Otherwise, we need another method to expose the neck to heat.

Good luck - C

PS: can anyone find that video of a Fender factory tour that shows the guy bend-testing necks on a rig? It is eye-popping to see just how much you can bend a neck without damaging it...

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Oh, by the way, the only thing that is worrying me about the heat method is the glue holding the fingerboard on. I'm guessing Fender use aliphatic glue for that, but I don't know at what temperature it starts coming unstuck.

It would be a shame to straighten the neck - but have the fingerboard fall off! 'Course, then you could glue it back on, but...

This all needs to be carefully considered.

Cheers - C

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ok, you have convinced me! I was thinking the moisture went into the fibers of the wood making it more elastic. Now I see it is just the means of transferring the heat. I still wonder about branches I have found water logged on the bottom of the river not far from my house. The water is cold but these branches are like rubber and can be bent to extreme curves and if tied and dried will stay that shape. Does water work as a fiber lubricant at all in the process?

So now I am moving the rig with the neck on it to my furnace room. We have radiant floor heating in this house in a cement slab. the furnace room has the boiler in it and is always quite toasty in there. I will do one week in there and then check the neck. The scary thing is is knowing how much pressure to put on the neck while clamping it???

I want to thank for all your input!

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

It's a good point. I don't have the technical words for it so this will sound lame, but I think it's a different kind of softness. Just for instance, I was recently trying to bend quite small strips of hard maple. I tried everything including soaking and even boiling the wood but it didn't work. Boiling just discoloured the maple and steaming it did a bit too. Heat was what did the job. Heat - and crafty carpentry. (More on that... later.)



Plenty! Since the neck is currently in frontbow you will need to bend it at least straight if not a tiny bit the other way to get it not to curve like an archery bow when you put strings on.

Don't worry, it can take it. Neck wood is strong. This is not the vid I was thinking of, but check what the guy is doing to a neck at 2.12 in this film. Somewhere there is a video with a much more extreme example, but this will do:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHdQLaoDOoU

Cheers - C

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Just for an example, it only took 55 lbs of pressure, and about 120 degrees-F of dry heat to bend my neck back into shape. I had to be patient, and it took a while. But that's all it took in reality.

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how long again??? My neck is not in the furnace room. Maybe I will use my blow torch on it. l might be chard from one end to another but at least usable!!!!!

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

I'm not sure about the exact days. But it was about a week and a half outside in the sun covered in a black t-shirt. It was about 105-degrees outside on those days.

I still think a torch would be too much. The reason I did things this way was because I didn't want to damage the finish, or as Ceri pointed out, have the glues holding things together come apart.

That must be one heck of a bow. I've pulled somewhere around 3/8" of a bow out of a neck using the truss rod before. Of course, that's starting from fully loosened. What wanted to happen at first was more of an S-type shape, but eventually after a couple weeks, the headstock side pulled straight to the middle portion. Then when loosened, both portions evened out to the heel.

But I have also tried that to no avail as well. Only to have the neck want to keep the S-curve. In that case, I lose my patience and opt for getting a new neck.

One thing I have noticed about guitar necks is that Flamed and decorative grained necks look nice and pretty and all, but they can be very finicky to keep straight. Straight grained necks might not look as awesome, but can be much easier to manage. A couple of my straight grained necks haven't needed a truss rod adjustment in years.

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Ok, I have my Ultra neck on the bend in a heated room. I want to mention that I have procured a very nice 2005 American DX neck in rosewood that I will put on the Flamed Ultra Build #1. I am waiting for the neck to arrive any day and will take picts of the swap-out. Then I will take the rosewood Plus that is on the Flamed Strat and put it where it was going to go, on Build #2, so i can finish that up! More to come soon! I will keep you posted on the reshaping of the Ultra neck as well!!!!

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

If it was covered in black it could have easily become warmer than the average outside temperature. Black absorbs heaps of energy- I wish I knew how many heaps exactly. I am sure there are studies on this dark matter (geddit? )


Mr X, great thread. Shame about the neck. I have a thing for ebony fretboards.
I'm sure it'll all be straightened out soon…

Cheers all-

Nutter

Ok, have something happening again on this build. As you may recall, I had neck issues. The Ultra neck is still in the clamps in the furnace room and last I checked looks like it might be usable down the road. For now I pulled the temporary neck used on the Ultra Flamed Build #1 and am going to use it on the Mystic Black Ultra Build #2 (as planned.) Here is the neck, which is date correct for the body BTW. It is a New Old Stock 1996 neck.




Here is the body. Check out the dates:




There was one problem with this near mint Mystic Black body. There was a chip in the front of the arm bevel. I washed the body down with some prep-solvent and then took some thinned down black automotive lacquer and put some very small drops in it with e dental tool. I did this for a whole week till the spot was higher then the face of the body. You need to use very tin paint when doing this to get it to adhere properly.




I wet sanded it with some fresh #1200 grit and then follow up with #2000. Then buffed it out. Here is the results! Even under the closest inspection, you can not see where the chip was at. this body is now dead mint looking. Tomorrow i will put the neck on and also show you my new neck for Build #1.

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

Great job Mr. X!! I can't even tell where you touched it up! Glad you're back on the build my friend!!

Ultra FLamed Strat BUILD #1
Ah, My new neck came in. This is to replace the Ultra neck I was going to use. I instead picked up this nice 2005 American Deluxe Neck which follows the ambiance of the Plus and Ultra guitars with a roller nut, and same shape and radius. It is not Ebony but has nice dark Rosewood with abalone inlays, which do like nice with this body. Also the headstock has a bit darker tint and the chrome Fender logo compliment the Chrome everything else on this guitar.




The fit was made in heaven and the guitars looks very nice, better than before with the Strat Plus neck IMHO:




Here are fer close ups. Do you like it. And it plays super nice and the neck fit nice and snug. The back plate is not on as well.




More to come on BUILD #2 MYSTIC BLACK

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

BUILD #2 MYSTIC BLACK

I have the New Old Stock 1996 Plus neck in hand and am now going to get it mounted on this Mystic Black body. I am excited to get this finished up. And again, the fit was again perfect:



I really think this neck looks better here, where it belongs, than on the Ultra Flamed Strat. I installed brand new Schaller Locking tuners are well, just so everything looks like new. It is coming together. Next posts I wil finish up wiring the guard and jack, and decide on a bridge---- American 2-point of the Fender Floyd Rose II locking bridge??? UMMMM... This will need one last final hand polishing as well.

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

Those are such beautiful guitars!! I'd love to have a Plus or Ultra!

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2010 American Deluxe Strat Sunset Metallic - Lindy Fralin Blues Specials in the neck and middle, Dimarzio AT-1 humbucker in the bridge.
PRS Custom 22 with solid rosewood neck
Mesa/Boogie Electra Dyne 1x12 combo
DRRI