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so i have been working on an electric guitar over this last summer along with a couple other instruments, i was pretty much done and all i had left was the fret job, finishing, and then assembly. and then in a moment of stupidity i left the neck sit in the truck for a couple of days.. BAD IDEA. i probably would have been ok because normally i do a 3 or 5 peice laminate and it hasnt been all that hot recently, but i did a 1 peice neck on this one and now i remember why i had stopped doing doing them. in any case i drove out to the shop today got the neck out of the back of my 89 burb and went to start the fret job. after i had installed the first fret i noticed that the neck was wobbleing back and forth on my bench.. i thought at first maybe it was uneven on the bench or that there was a wood chip or something under it but neither was the case perplexed i picked up the neck and glanced down the length and to my distress there was a big old twist down the length. this was the first time i had ever dealt with a twist so i hit the web to find what solutions might be out there, the consensus among most people seemed to be scrap it and buy another (or in the case of a luthier build another) i really didnt want to go through all that again, it was practically finished, so i tried to figure out a way that i could fix it. what i wound up doing was taking a 2" thick board of rock maple, and since the neck was fender style i was able to clamp the heal and the headstock so there were flat against the board, i then layed a towel over the fretboard and took a houshold iron put it on full steam and moved it up and down the length of the neck letting it set for a couple of minutes between each move. as it sat there i could faintly here what sounded like it might be the fibers moving past eachother and readjusting, after maybe a half hour of moving the iron periodically i took it off and let the neck set for a while, and when i loosened the clamp on the heal it remained flat against the board and so it seems to have worked. i am leaving for a weding in a couple of days so i am going to leave it clamped until i get back and hopefully after i sand down all the burrs the curled up from the steam it should be as good as new. i am not really a repair guy, i started buidling when i was 16 and that is all i am really familure with, so for all i know this might be common knowledge, but since i had such a hard time finding any kind of info on the topic suggesting something other than scrapping the neck i thought that i would share. it might be hard to make it work for other styles of necks but at least for your typiical bolt on electric neck it worked pretty well and was not all that time consumming

P.s just realized how long this was sorry i took so many words to say that .

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~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/

I'm not a repair guy either, so can't offer an enlightened point of view on your repair.
Glad it seems to have worked, just have to give it time and see if it stays fixed.

Joe

kindling.
it's gonna move again.

I agree.

well i'll wait a while and see, i was hoping that wouldnt be the case but at least i tried though.

_________________
~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/

That is an unstable piece of wood and will go back to where it wants to be with any humidity swings in the future. So i wouldn't be too quick to finish it. If it was me, i'd scrap it.

If it's a stable twist that won't move anymore you can re-radius the fretboard and re fret it.
I've done that to old Fender necks with great success. I also have a solid ebony neck that twisted up on me a few years after I made it, I guess it wasn't quite dry when I made it. I pulled out the old frets, re-radiused it, and re-fretted it, it's still perfect. That was about 5 years ago.

It depends on the piece of wood. If it was stable before you left it in the car, the heat probably dried it out a little more and it changed dimension a little, and acquired a new memory of where it twisted to. Best to let it do what it's gonna do for a few weeks without trying to straighten it out, then re-radius it true again, and then let it sit for a while. If it continues to move around scrap it, but at least you tried something.

I use those 18 inch long aluminum radius beams from Stew-Mac for this type of job. They're awesome!

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Well if the low E is twisted down at the nut....that could in time lead to uncomfortable wrist playing...however if it is / was twisted upwards on the low E...just leave it if it comes back. Some dudes pay big bucks to have an ergonomic neck build.

Torzal Natural Twist Guitar




http://littleguitarworks.com/instrum...r-twisty-sixy/


blessings
Padma

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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yeah i'll be honest i am really not much of an expert on this stuff, it was stable before i started working it for sure, it had been in my shop for a couple years plus i got it from a cabinetry shop from the pieces that are not big enough for them to use for much (they throw away some really nice stuff sometimes, got some free quilted cherry once), so it was probably seasoned when i got from there, but i know that working the wood can cause a release of pressure and stuff. but still, it was straight until a few days ago, and had been sitting in my shop for over a month since i last worked on it till i grabbed it last week. it is possible that i just didnt notice the twist before, but im pretty sure it just showed up. i'll just wait a little while before i do anything i guess and see what happens.

_________________
~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/

The heat from the car probably softened the fretboard joint which allowed unequal string tension to twist the neck. This is fairly common. Using heat to untwist the neck is the only possible solution in extreme cases. And it may be a permanent fix, maybe not, only time will tell. However, if it re-twists, you can try the heat treatment again. However, I would recommend un-twisting it a little past flat to allow some spring back.

padma, i like your thinking. mayble i'll look into that.

_________________
~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/