Repair And Restoration
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Strange Fender neck with some problems.
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Strange Fender neck with some problems.
Hello fellow looths!
I recently had a customer come in with a ’71 Fender neck that is a fusion of the 60s and 70s style. It has a veneer fretboard, no skunkstripe, 4 screwholes, 70s style tuners, 70s headstock logo, and it seems like it has a poly finish on the back of the neck, and nitro (with cracking) on the front of the headstock. Can anyone tell me if this combination is possible or could it be fake?
Another thing is, even without the trussrod head off, it has a terrible back bow. Is it possible that there is still tension on the rod? And is there any way this can be fixed? I don’t really like the heating and tensioning method of trying to get a proper straight neck, but it feels like there is no other option..
Any advice is welcome!
Cheers,
Job Heesakkers
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5 Replies
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If fake, replace? If not, I’m a total proponent of heating method. Almost every bent neck coming in to the shop has been back bowed do to lack of humidity here in the desert. Of course single action truss rod will not fix. Is the truss rod functional (nut does tighten up?)? If it is, I’d heat it. Easy fix if works. I use two heat lamps and I’d heat the neck to 250 degrees (hadn’t had anything fall apart, including thin vaneers at that temp). I’d over bend it to an up bow twice and a half what the measurement is of the back bow above flat. Pics of a successful neck re-bend. The neck was maple . This one had the finger board off but have done a few with fingerboard on , including one with thin vaneer. It was 1/4″ back bowed. I over bent it to up bow past flat 5/8″. I took nut off truss rod so no pressure on neck. I heated it to 250 and let sit for a week (some people say fine to go after 24 hrs.) I tightened truss rod to snug before releasing from clamps. Worked great. Also: Note reflective sheetmetal under neck. Heats up neck from below. Got that from Scott St. Dennis. Thanks Scott!
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Hey Tony, thank you for your info, and sorry for the late reply. I don’t spend much time in the loothgroup..
You have an amazing setup! The sheetmetal underneath is genius! I have to build something like that for myself.
In the end I did do 2 heat treatments, overbowing a tiny bit. The trussrod was working, but didnt change the bow that much. Once I got it out of the heat treatment after a few days, it was almost perfect! I’m very happy with the results!
Thank you again for sharing!
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Great Work. The hope is that the glue joint softened and slipped and then when the glue re-set, it helps hold the neck in bent position. Now, if it’s a one piece maple neck and no fretboard, ya, it may return to former position as no glue joint to re-set and hold in new position. Cool!
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When thinking about fakes, it’s always important to ask what the profitability of the fake is. I know 70s instruments have appreciated past what one would guess is reasonable, but still, there are better ways to commit fraud.
That being said, if it is an original, do the frets look original ? If not, someone could have refretted it and put a bunch of compression into the neck. The only remedy for this is a refret and it’s impossible to know until you try whether it’s going to work or not.
Heat setting bow into the neck doesn’t seem as sketchy to me as heat seating bow out of the neck. You could try it. You could also just clamp it into bow for a few days. Sometimes it’s just that the truss rod has hung up inside the neck. This can usually be freed just by flexing the neck by hand.
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Hey Ian! Thank you for your info, and sorry for the late reply. I dont spend much time on here.
It was definitely refretted, the owner told me and it was obvious. In the end I did use the heat treatment and it worked like a charm! It just always feels a bit sketchy to me because I feel like it’s gonna warp right back again, but I think that’s just in my head… I’ll do this more often!
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