Not where the truss rod is. The empty space at the end after the truss rod. I understand that I don't want to do anything to inhibit the movement of the truss rod.
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Trying to fix a worthless Bass
- Thread starter Markshan
- Start date
Heat treating worked for me on an old Yamaha neck with similar problem.
Options for neck with too much relief?
On a side note, I see a new market for Xray companies - luthiers!
Options for neck with too much relief?
On a side note, I see a new market for Xray companies - luthiers!
Truss Rod looks o.k. in x-ray, it is in place and in one piece 
But! Even from the photo it is clearly visible the neck has severe bow and most likely huge ski-jump. It simply needs straightening, the best option is thermal treating done by warpedneck.com or something similar done at home.
Only after the neck is straight again you should do any cosmetic repairs or/and fretwork.
But! Even from the photo it is clearly visible the neck has severe bow and most likely huge ski-jump. It simply needs straightening, the best option is thermal treating done by warpedneck.com or something similar done at home.Only after the neck is straight again you should do any cosmetic repairs or/and fretwork.
Yes. The bow is what took me down this path and the ski jump is where there is rod channel but no rod. That area is very vulnerable and that is why I had the idea of injecting some sort of epoxy there once I get it straightened.Truss Rod looks o.k. in x-ray, it is in place and in one piece
Only after the neck is straight again you should do any cosmetic repairs or/and fretwork.
How much do you think these xrays cost? And were they covered by insurance?
It's good to have access to the equipment. They cost exactly ten minutes of my lunch break.
This is the answer.
Instead of making a curved rod groove they place that shim on the rod to give the fulcrum for the truss.
No expensive tool fixture to the cut the channel required. Low costs yield better profit.
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Thank you for affirming my suspicion. I really don't know much but that is how it seemed to me, if for no other reason than because it seemed much to carefully placed to be an accident.
Not exactly. The ski-jump normally appears near 12-15 fret position because this is the place where transition from neck heel (thicker part) to the neck profile (thinner part) happens. And it is the place where most of the string tension forces apply. The TR doesn't do much in this place, but that empty TR channel just adds to this spot weakness. You can eject some epoxy there but it won't straighten your neck, this needs to be done prior injecting. The most reasonable and cost-effective is thermal treatment: you heat the neck to 80-90C, straighten if or even back-bow a bit (I tired it to a leveler beam) and leave for couple of hours. Easy fix, however, you need a source of a constant heat, and unfortunately bass necks do not fit into normal ovens
Sounds like we are on the same page. I ordered a couple 100w ceramic heat lamps from Amazon.Not exactly. The ski-jump normally appears near 12-15 fret position because this is the place where transition from neck heel (thicker part) to the neck profile (thinner part) happens. And it is the place where most of the string tension forces apply. The TR doesn't do much in this place, but that empty TR channel just adds to this spot weakness. You can eject some epoxy there but it won't straighten your neck, this needs to be done prior injecting. The most reasonable and cost-effective is thermal treatment: you heat the neck to 80-90C, straighten if or even back-bow a bit (I tired it to a leveler beam) and leave for couple of hours. Easy fix, however, you need a source of a constant heat, and unfortunately bass necks do not fit into normal ovens
Make sure to heat the entire neck. Be extra aware not to overheat the surface.
Don't want any burned spots. That said, the neck has a thick gloss finish that I intend to sand away if I can successfully straighten it, so that at least buys me a bit of margin for error.
Turnaround
Commercial User
Be exceedingly careful with the heat lamps. The binding on the neck will melt easily - I know that from experience.
I've often had pretty good luck by using a manual control heating pad using the low heat setting. After clamping the neck then wrapping the heating pad around it and using a couple of shoelaces to hold the pad tight to the neck. Low and slow has worked for me a couple times.
Turnaround
Commercial User
And your heating pad was hotter than 130F? The temperature to bend wood is above 150F, closer to 185F. A home heating pad will give you second degree burns if it reaches these temperatures.
So life has been quite busy and I haven't had a chance to work on this in a while. I decided to forgo fireworks tonight so that I would have a 6 hour window at home to heat this thing up for a while. What you see is a 2x4 wrapped in a towel under the middle. To each side of that is a hot pack. Then there are four clamps. I went with two on each side because as you may recall the neck isn't just bowed but it is also twisted. So the treble side at the heel is torqued down a little tighter than the other three clamps. Hanging above it is two 100 w ceramic heat lamps. Whatever video I saw this in the guy had mounted sockets to a board, but I actually felt like using a boom mic stand was genius. I can feel how hot the neck is getting and move it lower if I think it needs more heat or move it up if I think it's getting too much heat. I'm watching The binding to make sure it doesn't melt as @Turnaround suggested. You may notice two little bamboo sticks at each end. I put those there thinking they would help me adjust the twist in the neck. They did help somewhat in as much as I was seeing the movement as I was adjusting the tension, but I realized that plan was imperfect because I can't be sure that they're both sitting in exactly the same spot on the radiused neck. So between the clamps I have just over a foot of exposed wood so the way I checked the twist was to rock a ruler at each fret edge the same way you would work one of those little fret tools except a foot long. Once it seemed like it had the same amount of play at each edge I figured that would hopefully be the spot that would correct the twist. Then after baking for 6 hours I'm going to take away the heat sources and leave it clamped there for a week to give the glue and the wood fibers plenty of time to adjust to their new position. I literally just put the heat on this, wish me luck.
By the way, if anyone else is looking for a 6 mm truss rod nut, I bought one on line from a moped shop in California. They were very cool and the thing works great. Highly recommended.
m6 long n slender LOW profile allen NUT - also handy m6 truss rod nut
