Custom s-type guitar neck has warped - what to do, and where?

willo

About 20 years ago I commissioned a custom guitar from a chap who was building guitars in Wales. It was a strat but with a number of specific changes to make it easier for me, who had primarily been a Gibson/Epiphone player to that point:

- Rosewood board, maple neck, satin finish
- 22 frets
- Gibson scale length
- LP neck profile & radius
- Custom contoured heel, matched by the body.

Unfortunately my local tech advised me last week that this neck has finally warped and that this is the cause of lots of my notes fretting out/buzzing. The playability is now just not enjoyable for me. So I am thinking about what to do - and whether its possible to fix it or if it needs replacing. If the latter, then I need a new custom neck because the screws and heels don't match any of the stock Fender/Allparts type replacements, and I don't know how much that would cost, or who could do it.

So, any thoughts welcome: does a situation like this need a new neck, if so, where is a good place to get a custom one done and what should I be anticipating price wise?

Thanks in advance!

fretmeister

Shuker or Feline will be able to both assess the existing neck or make a new one. 

Funkfingers

It is possible to order screw-on necks that are not pre-drilled for the anchoring screws.

It is possible to custom order necks with the scale length and profile of your choice.

Depending on the extent and direction of the warpage, it should be possible to have your existing guitar neck altered. We are talking fret removal, fingerboard planing and a full refret, levelling and crowning. 

BillDL

When you say "warped", which do you mean?:

A. It has a permanent rotational twist either clockwise or anticlockwise when looking down the neck, or,

B. It is permanently in a convex hump or concave bow, or has a mixture of the two along the length of the board, and it can't be corrected with the truss rod, or

C. The neck is in a sideways bend like a banana where it affects the alignment of the outside strings along the edges of the fretboard.

It's important to know the difference.  From your description it could be A or B, but probably not C.

If it's rotationally twisted, then (as mentioned by @ICBM in some previous posts) this can be caused by the stress of the tensioned truss rod, especially if the adjustment nut creaks against the metal washer and doesn't spin around on it.  I have an SG guitar that when I tighten the trusss rod it creaks and begins to twist the neck.  If I manually twist it back the opposite way using the headstock it creaks back to straighness again and stays that way.  If it was left permanently rotated like that I suppose it would probably take on a permanent twist.  I keep meaning to try and get some waxy lubricant in there so that the nut can rotate better without gripping the washer.  If your neck is rotationally twisted, which way is it twisted?  If the twist is very slight the frets can be dressed away more in some parts than others to correct or reduce the effect of the twisted neck, or more radically the frets can be removed and the board planed to remove the twisted surface.  When selectively dressed away you would obviously end up with some frets lower than others or the fretboard, and in the case of board levelling you would have differing thicknesses of board (and binding if fitted).

If your neck has a permanent hump and the truss rod is completely slack, then either heat pressing it straight again sometimes works, or else if it is very slight the selective fret dressing or planing of the board might correct it.

If the neck is in a permanent up-bow and the truss rod adjustment is at its maximum and can't pull it straight, frets with wider tangs can sometimes be hammered into the slots to force the fretboard and neck straighter or straight if a heat press doesn't correct it.  Alternately the same drill with selective dressing away of frets or planing the fretboard can work.

If there are undulations in the fretboard the only realistic way to address it is by pulling the frets and planing the board flat.

If the neck is bent sideways like a banana (a "crook" twist), then this is by far the least common issue and it's pretty much impossible to use a heat press from the side, so the neck is most likely uncorrectable and scrap.  If it was very slight and the strings were just a bit closer to one side in the middle of the curve than desirable and a bit further in from the fretboard edge than you would like on the other side, then I have seen this remedied on a bound neck by replacing the binding with thicker material on the concave side and planing it straight and planing off the excess binding on the apex of the convex side, but this changes the neck profile up at the neck to fretboard transition, requires a refret, and the different thickness of binding looks odd.

Heat pressing a neck sometimes doesn't work in the long term because whatever may have induced the bow or hump (eg. the wood grain and shrinkage) can keep happening, but in general if it works it will correct it for long enough to have been worth the money.

It would probably cost you almost as much to have the neck heat pressed and the frets levelled, or frets selectively dressed away, or frets pulled and board planed level, as it would cost to have a new custom neck made.

I don't mean to question the judgement or skills of your "local tech" in a negative way, but how exactly did he/she describe the issue and what possible remedies were suggested to you?

WezV

There are a few things to consider before replacement... but generally wood that has warped will want to do so again.   

Often you can get things playable with work on the frets and/or fretboard, even if it isn't perfect

ICBM

What BillDL said. There are always options unless the neck is bent sideways - in any other case, the most extreme solution is to remove the fingerboard, plane the neck flat and fit a new board - possibly thicker, to make up the missing depth if you’ve had to remove a lot of wood from the neck. But unless it’s quite severe, even that is probably more than you need to correct it.

WezV

ICBM said:

What BillDL said. There are always options unless the neck is bent sideways - in any other case, the most extreme solution is to remove the fingerboard, plane the neck flat and fit a new board - possibly thicker, to make up the missing depth if you’ve had to remove a lot of wood from the neck. But unless it’s quite severe, even that is probably more than you need to correct it.

CF bars can be added at the same time, and may even prevent the need for a board replacement

willo

BillDL said:

When you say "warped", which do you mean?

...

B. It is permanently in a convex hump or concave bow, or has a mixture of the two along the length of the board, and it can't be corrected with the truss rod, or

...

If your neck has a permanent hump and the truss rod is completely slack, then either heat pressing it straight again sometimes works, or else if it is very slight the selective fret dressing or planing of the board might correct it.

Heat pressing a neck sometimes doesn't work in the long term because whatever may have induced the bow or hump (eg. the wood grain and shrinkage) can keep happening, but in general if it works it will correct it for long enough to have been worth the money.

It would probably cost you almost as much to have the neck heat pressed and the frets levelled, or frets selectively dressed away, or frets pulled and board planed level, as it would cost to have a new custom neck made.

I don't mean to question the judgement or skills of your "local tech" in a negative way, but how exactly did he/she describe the issue and what possible remedies were suggested to you?

 Super helpful - thank you.

No worries. The tech I use is local, convenient and good, but he's only set up for small repairs (setups, pickup changes etc) and advises if there is stuff beyond the tools and small workshop he has.

For clarity's sake, there's a permanent hump (option and we discussed heat pressing (and I think re-planing?) but I'm of the opinion that for all the hassle and time, there's a pretty decent chance I'll just get a new neck. This would also let me address some of the things I want different on a guitar after two decades' of my taste changing (truss rod access, tuners, nut material, fret types/sizes etc, even the carbon rods @WezV mentioned).

Beyond that, the greater issue regarding the diagnosis is my memory of what we discussed - it's not great. But all the above makes sense to me.

Roland

If you want to deal with the repair yourself then the advice above will get you there. Paying someone else to do it will probably cost more than buying a new neck.