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Old 12-18-2017, 05:53 AM
hat hat is offline
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Default Warped neck correction

Over the weekend, I picked up a very nice old Harmony H165 - all solid Mahogany 000 sized guitar. The neck has some warp to it, as should be expected. My question is this, what are the general guidelines as to how much correction can be accomplished with compression fretting versus heat and reverse clamping pressure? I suspect this one is going to need to be clamped for a while.
Also, does anyone have any ides what Harmony used as their 'steel reinforcement' ? is it a T bar, or square tube, or just flat bar stock?
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Old 12-18-2017, 06:15 AM
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fazool fazool is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hat View Post
...The neck has some warp to it, as should be expected....
Why expected?
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Old 12-18-2017, 06:17 AM
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Also, if the neck is stable and has no truss rod anyway, might you not also remove the frets, reshape (with a radius sanding block) the fingerboard and then refret it? I would think this might work if the warp is small.
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Old 12-18-2017, 06:33 AM
hat hat is offline
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Also, if the neck is stable and has no truss rod anyway, might you not also remove the frets, reshape (with a radius sanding block) the fingerboard and then refret it? I would think this might work if the warp is small.
That would work, however the warp is not that small. I am afraid that I would end up with a very thin fretboard at the ends if I tried that. I will need to so some sanding on it any though. At some point someone sanded cross grain between the frets! I guess it was a mis-guided attempt to reduce some divots in the fretboard. So I will be pulling the frets, and doing some sanding anyway.
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Old 12-18-2017, 08:27 AM
ruby50 ruby50 is offline
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My daughter owns a repair shop (brooklynlutherie.com) and she has a chunk of oak - about 2-1/2" X 2-1/2" IRRC - that she uses with a heat blanket available from the supply houses. She uses a thin shim at the ends, depending on the amount of bend, to over-straighten (1/8" or less), and clamps it all together, brings it to full heat for a while, then lets it cool before taking it out of the clamps. She finds that those with hide glue seem to work better than other types, but all work OK. With much bend, she also finds she has to fill the saddle slot and re-cut it for intonation.
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Old 12-18-2017, 02:43 PM
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These had a straight steel bar in the neck.

If it's significantly warped - it is probably a sign that the bar has come loose in it's groove... Perhaps the groove was cut too deep allowing the neck to move more than it was designed?

If it also needs significant fretboard work - you may think hard about replacing the fretboard and add a double acting trussrod.... That way - you start off with a nice fresh unmolested fretboard....

I recently added a double acting trussrod to an old Stella while I was replacing an old destroyed fretboard that a previous owner turned to a pile of splinters.... I really like the generous fretboard radius and modern frets. Being able to dial in neck relief makes a huge difference.
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