Trying to fix a front bowed graphite neck

From the photos I've seen, there should be a truss rod adjustment at the top of the headless area. If not, it may be near the base of the neck.

 

Yes, that is the correct way to write brother-in-law. I have nothing for you about the neck though.

 

What model Steinberger do you have? If graphite-necked, I doubt if you'll find any truss rod / relief adjustment system. This is true of any early composite offerings including Zon, Status, Modulus, Vigier, etc. Steinberger Synapses and NS Design models do have truss rods.

Riis

 

contact these guys

 

I would be very, very surprised if any of the traditional techniques had much of an effect on the graphite neck.

If you haven't already, try stringing with the lowest tension strings you can find.

 

Do not clamp it and try to bend it back into shape. Won't work.

I have an old Modulus Graphite bass that experienced this sort of issue a number of years ago. Luckily I'm the original owner and Modulus at the time was honoring their lifetime warranty for original owners, so I sent it back to their factory for repair. What they tell me they had to do was:
- remove the fingerboard
- plane the top surface of the neck (that the fingerboard attaches to) so that it was level relative to the path of a taught string tuned to tension
- add some additional carbon fiber reinforcing pieces to (hopefully) prevent this bowing from ever happening again
- re-attach the fingerboard to this newly levelled surface

The repair worked great, and mercifully the bass has been fine ever since.

But yeah, you can't bend carbon fiber and expect it to hold the new position.

 

so what happened there?

sadly i have to agree, i've seen plenty of solid graphite necks with too much upbow and no way to fix it.

as for the clamping thing, i suspect you'd have to apply heat to actually retrain the neck to straightness, and i have no idea how you'd do that to what is essentially plastic without deforming it. (there may be a good way, i just don't know it.)

 

It's probably possible to straighten a composite neck using heat, but it would be tricky and risky. The thing about plastic is that when you heat it enough to allow it to start to deform, then it will deform in any direction. Trying to get to stretch only along the back length, to slightly straighten it, without also squashing or twisting it, would be hard. Possible, but you'd have to be very careful.

 

Not sure if this guy is still in business:

Graphite Guitar Systems (Jerry Dorsch)

13043 195th Ave Sw, Oakville, Washington 98568
360-273-7744

 

lame.

still, did you email or call? there are places where it's kind of "old school" and you have to call to get anything happening. (lindy fralin is famously one of these).