Underbow on a vintage Kramer

[freeslicefattyj]

Hey guys,

I have a 1978 Kramer dmz5000. They have aluminum necks and no truss rod. I had the bass looked at and appraised by a well known guitar and bass collector, and he said the underbow in the bass can not be fixed. Anyone know if there's anything I can do to fix this? It's still very playable and I love it but I'd like to get the action more under control. Thanks.

 

[knuckle_head]

It would be an investment, but if it were to have a new fret board put on it you could carve the necessary relief into the board itself.

...my $.02

 

[202dy]

By under bow do you mean that there is not enough relief?

The neck can be fixed with the application of heat and clamps. Since it is a vintage instrument, replacing the fingerboard should be avoided. This is a job for a pro.

 

[jrfrond]

I have a Kramer DMZ guitar, and I can tell you that these aluminum ecks are milled into a T-shape with wood inserts on the back to kill some of the cold, raw aluminum feel, and I don't think there is anything you can do to straighten it out. BTW- the fingerboard is ebanol.

If I were you, I'd leave it as it. Perhaps the neck could be brought under control via compression fretting, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

[LastVisblCanary]

for those who have no idea what these are (like me)

basic info:
http://www.vintagekramer.com/alum.htm

reviews:
http://www.metalnecks.com/index.php...8bef70039cddc80/fuseaction/guitars.models.htm

heres a discussion of the problem your speaking of:
http://www.kramerforum.com/forum/archive/index.php?t-6906.html

from that forum:
"Steve EZ
03-21-2006, 11:12 AM
Since I've bowed thousands of Kramer Aluminum necks, I can tell you it is a little tricky to get it right. I'm not even sure it woudl all come back to me right away so I woudl be confident bending anyone's pride and joy. There were mor ethan a few where I had to get really rough and put soem major pressure on a small area to get the thing staight and it was always a hold your breath kind of thing waiting to hear the wood insert or ebonol fretboard pop off. :-x

Sometimes the boars would crack at the fret slot and require some Krazy glue repair work. The real concern is that the older the neck the more brittle the materials. It requires overbending to impart the right change to the aluminum lattice structure so the thing looks like it's made of rubber when it's on the press."


if it was possible to remove the neck, remove the wood inlays/inserts, and remove the ebonal without breaking any of it - you could do a stress releaving heat treatment/cryogenic treament on the neck to help reduce brittleness issues. but chances are theres now way that is possible on with the wood and ebonal being that old.

 

[Pilgrim]

One thought comes to me - time and heat can do things that short term treatments will not. If you are brave and want to create a setup that would put some bow on the neck, set up a couple of heat lamps about 18" to 2 feet away from the loaded area and leave it under slight load for a couple of months, MAYBE you could move it a bit. I'd do this from the back of the neck, not the front. I know this will move a wood neck, but I'm not sure whether aluminum would yield at all or not.

But I would not do this unless the bass is difficult to play. If it's a matter of fine-tuning, I'd leave it alone.

 

[BillyB_from_LZ]

How about using higher tension strings?