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  #1  
Old 07-23-2020, 02:06 PM
MC5C MC5C is offline
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Default twisted neck

I was building a bass for a friend of mine last year, had an accident and put it aside till now. I had bought a Warmouth neck for it, truss rod and dual steel rods in it, and left it as recieved, which violated their warranty (needs to be finished with an approved hard lacquer within 30 days). It has a monumental twist to it, around 10 degrees, and I'm trying to decide if I pull the fretboard, heat-straighten it, maybe install dual truss rods, and try to salvage it, or if it's $250 worth of firewood. My instinct is it just wants to be twisted, and I won't successfully force it back. Thoughts?
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Old 07-23-2020, 03:02 PM
charles Tauber charles Tauber is offline
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I'd suggest it depends upon a few factors, including the construction of the neck, the type(s) of wood and how they are cut/sawn.

I know its not what you asked, but I decided decades ago that I didn't much care for Warmouth's policies and chose not to deal with them. I have a couple of necks that I partially made two decades ago that never got finished: they are as straight now as when I last worked on them. The insistence that an approved finish must be applied to the neck within 30 days of receipt is, uhm, "odd". Not something I'd buy into. Many do, however.
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Old 07-23-2020, 04:59 PM
Carey Carey is offline
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Ten degrees of twist sounds like a real tough job to fix, and get it to stay fixed.
What's the neck material- maybe maple? Sounds like the wood's not happy,
and likely won't be.
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Old 07-23-2020, 06:12 PM
mirwa mirwa is offline
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Steam it, straighten it, drop a couple of carbon fibre rods into it, it will be a super straight neck

Steve
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Old 07-23-2020, 06:32 PM
RoyBoy RoyBoy is offline
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I'd say your instinct is correct. 10 degrees is a mammoth amount of twist. I'm guessing we're talking maple here which is not a very stable wood for a neck (hence all the mahogany necks you find). Still, I'm shocked. The two maple Warmoth necks I've used in partscasters are fabulous and their quality control is ranked very high by the fellow builders. Sorry about the washout neck but glad you've recovered from your accident. Stay healthy. -RB
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Old 07-24-2020, 08:28 AM
MC5C MC5C is offline
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It's flat-sawn one piece maple with an applied maple fretboard. It already has two steel rods plus the truss rod, and while stiffening rods are great in bending, they don't do much in twist. It's a massive twist, if the heel is flat on a table the headstock should also be flat, it's a quarter inch or more up on one side at the nut. My feeling is it just wants to be twisted, and it was made with improperly seasoned wood. I'm going to cut the fingerboard off and salvage it, make a new neck. They won't tell me what kind of glue they use to glue the fretboard on so I don't feel like trying to un-glue the fretboard. Should have made the thing myself in the first place, but I got lazy. As far as the finish is concerned, I used to have a Schecter parts-caster with an unfinished neck, it was 20 years old and beat to hell, it had a straight neck.
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Old 07-24-2020, 08:43 AM
redir redir is offline
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Necks don't even really need a finish on them and in fact some people like them raw or with just a bit of oil finish. Does Warmoth specifically say nitro? What about shellac or Tu-Oil and so on?

How would they even know hat you didn't finish it 30 days after you got it?
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Old 07-24-2020, 04:07 PM
John Arnold John Arnold is offline
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Quote:
My feeling is it just wants to be twisted, and it was made with improperly seasoned wood.
I agree. Flatsawn maple is not known for stability, in spite of its adoption by Fender and many who replicate them.
I am a big believer in using older wood that is actually 'seasoned', meaning subjected to many cycles of temperature and humidity swings. This removes internal stresses that can cause warping and twisting after the wood is shaped. While the kiln drying process should always involve a normalization step to remove stress, it is by no means universal.
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Old 07-31-2020, 10:23 AM
Scott R Scott R is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RoyBoy View Post
I'm guessing we're talking maple here which is not a very stable wood for a neck (hence all the mahogany necks you find). Still, I'm shocked.
Maple has worked on Strats and Teles for almost 70 years
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