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Ski Jumped El Toro neck off to warpedneck.com

dune

dune

Gold Supporting Member
Jul 5, 2019
1,488
3,418
Utah
#1
I hate the idea of leaving any bass being unplayable if it can be made good. So, I finally decided to send the ski jumped neck from my '83 El Toro down to warpedneck.com in Denton, Texas.
I'm also sending them one from the Ray4 I used to get body shape and dimensions for the builds I just completed. I know the Ray4 neck is worth less than the cost of the fix, but I just hate throwing away an entire bass and I haven't been able to find a replacement. Additionally, if they can get that one back to playable, they can do anything. It may simply be too far gone. When I pulled it off the bass originally, I forgot to loosen the truss rod and only realized months later that it had backbowed this badly. Duh. Probably won't make that mistake ever again though.

The truss rod caused some cracking in the fretboard under the first fret. Assuming that they can bring it back, I don't think the cracks are going to be an issue, but we'll see. It has been unplayable for decades, and while it looks great hanging on the wall, being able to play it again would be really nice. It may also simply be too far gone, but I hope not.

Not really sure how obvious the issue is in this one, but the truss rod is loose in this shot.
el toro neck relief.jpg

First fret cracking. It's even lifting a bit on the bass side, which is on the right in this shot.
el toro first fret crack.jpg

The badly backbowed Ray4 neck.
20250129_213634063_iOS.jpg
 
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#7
Never heard of them before. Their prices seem too good to be true, nothing implied other than if they are a good shop, they might want to evaluate their pricing a little ( $75 for either an attached or detached neck? ). For anyone as much of a non-Luthier than me, it sounds like a great deal. And a steal!
 
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#8
CryingBass said:
Never heard of them before. Their prices seem too good to be true, nothing implied other than if they are a good shop, they might want to evaluate their pricing a little ( $75 for either an attached or detached neck? ). For anyone as much of a non-Luthier than me, it sounds like a great deal. And a steal!
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I think being in a relatively lcol area (Denton, TX) probably has something to do with it. If he was on either coasts it would probably cost double that.

You can barely get a basic setup done for $75 here.
 
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#12
Warpedneck straightened out my unplayable '79 Stingray all maple neck that had mid-rise hump, up bow that fully tight truss rod could not correct, and lifting headstock. It's not perfect now, but it's WAY playable and saved its vintage value. I recommend this 2 week turnaroundt and not expensive service.
 
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#17
MVE said:
Just curious, why would you try heat-bending before just pulling frets and re-leveling?
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In the case of the old El Toro necks, the fingerboard is of the "veneer" type (not really veneer, but the underside is radiused as well as the face so the material is very thin) so there's not much to plane.

In the case of any neck, though, It's a way to straighten a neck without removing material so, theoretically, without losing stiffness or strength. It can also be done successfully without removing the frets thereby avoiding additional work and cost. While I have nowhere near the experience of the Warpedneck.com folks, I've heat-straightened several necks with good long-term success and in every case it was a lot less work than de-fretting, leveling and re-fretting.
 
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#18
MVE said:
Just curious, why would you try heat-bending before just pulling frets and re-leveling?
Click to expand...
I assuming you're asking about the El Toro, since that wouldn't be applicable given the massive backbow on the Ray4 neck.

When I was still on the road and gigging with it nightly, the truss rod on the G&L had been maxed for quite awhile and I still needed aircraft warning lights the action was so high. In kind of a last-ditch attempt to make it more playable, I took it to a great tech in the Quad Cities who had an Erlewine neck jig. He pulled the frets and planed the board to the point where the slots for the highest frets now go all the way through it. Even then fret leveling wasn't enough. I also remember him telling me how stressed out he was trying to see if he could get any more turn out of the truss rod. At this point in time, with the strings off and the truss rod completely loose, it's even worse. Even taking some of the frets down to the rosewood still wouldn't be enough.

I'm not going to be surprised if they call and tell me they can't fix either one of them, although when I explained the situation on the phone, he thought the El Toro probably was, but possibly not the Ray4.
 
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#20
Matt O said:
Interesting. What process did they use? I have a 66 P neck with a ski jump, trying not to yank the frets and plane.
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I assume that they're going to be using silicone heating mats. I looked into ordering some and doing it myself, but they're pricey enough (for quality that I could have trusted) that it didn't make sense to buy them for just 2 necks. Not to mention I have ZERO experience doing it. I've been reading good stuff about warpedneck.com for years.
 
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