Straight....yet curved..?

[SnuffdaCrimeDog]

I few days ago I wipped out my old Fender P-bass, it been awhile since ive used it so I was scoping it out to see if everything was cool. I sighted the neck and too me, granted I dont have the best trained eye for such things, but anyway I could have sworn my neck look like it had a substantial inward bow, I played it felt fine, measured the relief by pressing down at the 1st fret and the 14th fret on the all the string relief was fine. Yet, I still sighted a pretty substantial inward bow. So I took into my friend who works at guitarcenter, he actually taught me bass and weve been pretty close ever since. I usually do all my tech stuff myself, but I dont like messing with my neck, just something I dont like to do. I told him I saw an inward bow, and he looked at it and then looked at me funny and said...."You necks straight" By now im think Im losing my mind so i look at it again I still see curvature to the neck. I take it home and play it sounds fine action feels fine. but I still seeing this bow everytime i look, now am I just retarted which could very well be the case, or am I overlooking something that normal on all necks?

[thebassclef]

Finger Board Radius. Maybe? Curved lines will give an optical illusion of other curves.

[EADG mx]

Dont trust your eye. It's too imprecise for a thing such as relief. There's a special ruler used to measure relief.

And maybe, don't use the 14th fret, use the first and last fret and measure at the 8th.

[SnuffdaCrimeDog]

Originally Posted by thebassclef

Finger Board Radius. Maybe? Curved lines will give an optical illusion of other curves.

That makes alot of sense(not sarcastic)

Originally Posted by EADG mx

Dont trust your eye. It's too imprecise for a thing such as relief. There's a special ruler used to measure relief.

And maybe, don't use the 14th fret, use the first and last fret and measure at the 8th.

Uh, I didnt necessarily use my eye,I used a credit card,which ive been told numerous time is the size gap you want for the strings to vibrate properly without buzz. And at the 14th and the last fret I get the same gap.