Well, as I've mentioned in another thread my '89 Strat's original RW fretboard neck has a bit of a bow in it, and the "bi-flex" truss rod is maxed out. I've had the neck off the guitar, and it seems to have settled a little with no tension on it, enough to make me think about putting it back on, but I'm afraid it will just bow again as soon as I throw strings on it. The Road Worn neck I have on is nice, but I'm not crazy about the tall frets, and I like the Rosewood look/sound a bit more for this particular guitar. I'd like to save this neck if possible. Anyways, I was looking up neck heat treatments, and came across this website:

http://www.warpedneck.com/testimonials.html

It's $75 + shipping to get a bolt-on neck treated. I'm thinking about giving it a try, what do you guys think? Has anyone tried this service? I figure for $75 it may be worth it if it gets the original neck back to a point where it can be played.

i am no expert on the matter, but if the wood of the neck is truly warped, you cannot un-warp wood. a warped 2x4 will always be a warped 2x4. of course a guitar neck is more complex then that. if the neck is somehow bent/bowed & due to tension or bad truss rod, that is probably different. good luck.

See, I'm not sure if it's actually "warped". It was definitely in good playing shape this summer when I bought it, but developed a bow when the weather changed. Normally I have to do a slight adjustment to all of my guitars when the weather switches over, no big deal right, but that's when I found out the truss rod was maxed out. The opinion of the luthier I took it to was that Fender didn't put enough threads on these dual-action rods on the tightening side, and he had seen a lot with this same problem.

At any rate, I've heard the heat treatment thing only really works on RW necks anyways, because it softens the glue holding the board on while the maple is straightened out, and then allows the glue to re-set with the neck in it's new position. Is there anyone out there who can shed more light on this? Like I said I'm definitely open to give something a try, but I just want to know if it's complete b/s or not.

Yes you can heat treat a rosewood fretboard neck. You are correct in that the glue joint will soften and slip when clamped straight (or even backbowed if it's really bad). Then you let it cool down and reset. After this, the neck will hold it shape for a while. If the wood itself was done moving, the neck is forever fixed. If the wood continues to warp, then you will eventually have to have the neck treated again in this manner.

For $75 its worth a shot.

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Bill

Ask the guys in the tdpri guitar building forums. I asked about this for a Jackson neck and improvised. My flat piece to clamp the neck to was a post of my auto lift. I was extremely careful with heating and would do some time in heating and then leave it and then come do it again. I didn't have the patience to completely fix the issue, but it took more than half the bow out of it. Enough for it to be able to set up.

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2002 mim Telecaster
Jimmie Vaughan Stratocaster
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6 non-fender guitars
2 kids (not for sale)
1 wife (uh....no comment)

I was thinking you saw the issue I had on my thread regarding having an 1996 Fender Ultra neck that had a really bad bow in it? You can see the big gap in the middle (bowed concave in the face between the 20th to the 1st fret)? Ceri show how he fixed a back bow on a neck he had. We wondered if indeed a front bow could be fixed and like your neck my truss rod (bi-flex) was also maxed out. I have to disagree that a 2 x4 can't be bent back. i have a 2 x 6 that was in my shop and had a really bad bow on one end. This fall I put blocks on both ends of the bend in the board and set the pick-nick table on the high side on edge on top of it. it is straight now! So ummmmm... this did give me hope about this very expensive Ultra neck!



Here is what I did and got the idea from Mr C (Ceri on the Forum) and my pick-nick table experiment! I put the neck on a heavy rectangular steel pipe with wood shims at the 1st and the 21st frets and then clamped this sucker down and left it in my furnace room in my house for nearly a month.




Here is the neck as of today. It lays flat except it has a slight back bend now which the truss rod and strings on the guitar will pull in to shape. I feel confident about it. The proof will be when it is actually placed on a body. Below is what it looks like now. So there is hope!




AGAIN, A BEFORE PICT:

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Xhefri's Guitars
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So how long has it been since you took the neck out of the clamp? I definitely saw your thread, cool build btw. If there was some DIY to fix this I could be confident in, I'd definitely be down. I'm just not sure I really have the ideal conditions (I live in an apartment). I was actually trying to research DIY guitar neck heat treatment, and I came across this place where I can just send the neck apart from the guitar to be heat-treated. I think I'm going to give this neck one more try with strings to see if it's settled to a playable state, if not, I think I'll give these guys a try and see if it's a permanent fix.

Been out of the clap for about 8 days and I sat it on the table tonight ad still very straight, in fact a slight back bow which I am sure the truss rod will correct. I have not put it on a body yet because i am still working on 3 other guitars! The furnace room was pretty warm as it is small with a boiler in there with radiant floor heating. Ceri gave me that idea. I really bent it with the clap if you look at the pictures. Good luck!

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

Clap??.
I must have read the post 10 times before I worked out what the clap was.
Still laughing to my self.
keith

I have an outright neck heater for warps such as these and I assure you, the aforementioned procedure (with minor variations thereof) works. As has already been stated however, the fingerboard and the neck must not be one solid piece of wood for this to be successful. And yes, $75 is pretty much the, "magic number" for these types of repairs.

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You dig?

Cool. Well, I just tried stringing it up with the RW neck one more time to see if it was really as bad as I thought, and even though the neck looked ok with no tension, it started looking like a ski jump before I even had the whole set on. I'm going to give this a try. I guess I have nothing to lose, except $75. It'll be well-worth it if I can play this neck again.

LOL, one of the problems with posting using an iPad late at night. Those onscreen keyboards and sweet spelling checkers can end up giving one some type of disease!

Paris, have you had to straighten necks before? If so, what has been your success rate. Up until this experiment I did, i always thought a warped neck was history. My mind has been changed! Do you have a pict of this heater device? Would love to see what you are talking about.

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

If you haven't yet: tuning down half a step might help! Sounds better, too!
Kinda SRV feel!

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

I have actually tried it. With Super-Slinkys the guitar can be set up to be "playable" like that, but it's not fun and the strings are way too light for Eb. Frankly I'd rather just keep the non-original but perfectly playable Road Worn-series neck I have than deal with something that doesn't feel right to me.

I just sent the neck out today. Called the place and the guy told me there's a one-week turnaround on their neck heat-treatment repairs, and he assured me the neck would be playable and adjustable when I get it back. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed!