How To Fix A Warped Neck.

[eclipse666]

I spent almost 10 minutes trying to find out how to fix a warped acoustic guitar neck and came up empty handed... does anyone have a link or want to spend the time to tell me how to fix a warped neck?

(oh yeah I have hardly done any repair work on guitars... just changed pickups)

[Devon Headen]

What do you mean by warped? Necks can warp many different ways. Got any pictures?

[eclipse666]

I don't own a digital camera but the action at the first fret is 2.5mm and the action at the fifteenth fret is 6.5mm. I hope that helps.

[Devon Headen]

Sighting down the side of the neck, does the neck look straight? Sound like you need a neck reset. Definitely not a job for beginners.

[mledbetter]

check the top of the soundboard too.. if there is a "wave" to it, and your bridge sits on top of the wave that will screw up your action as well. Some soundboards can warp that way. But like devon said, sight the neck. if it looks like a banana then you have warpage.. if it's straight, then check the soundboard. If the soundboard is straight then you probably just need your neck reset. If your neck is curved, but only up and down (no twist) then you just need your action lowered some, in which case:

1) could be a simple truss rod adjustment, you could probably try this, just detune your strings enough to get your hand inside the sound hole and turn your truss rod adjuster 1/2 turn (clockwise).. tune up and see if that helped. If you need more, repeat, but this time, only 1/4 turn.. if you need more, repeat doing no more than 1/4 turn until it's right.

or 2) you could see if the saddle needs to come down some. You can take your strings off and sand the bottom of the saddle to take some height off of it.

[Devon Headen]

I was thinking saddle until he said 6.5mm. I'm not much into metric, but unless I'm way off, that's just really high action. Just check everything we've said, and report back. What kind of guitar is it? Depending on the problem it might be a good one to practice on and not worry about screwing up.

[mledbetter]

I was thinking saddle until he said 6.5mm. I'm not much into metric, but unless I'm way off, that is really high. Much higher than a saddle could cause. Just check everything we've said, and report back. What kind of guitar is it? Depending on the problem it might be a good one to practice on and not worry about screwing up.

←

I wondered that too.. but a centimeter isn't as big as 1/2 inch.. so think .65 cm.. that's not even a quarter inch.. that just sounds like high action to me.. but not damaged guitar or neck action.. When i was about 4 i stood on my brothers acoustic guitar.. right on the sound hole.. the top warped and the action was about an inch high at the last fret! (i inherited that guitar as my first learner guitar.. probably deserved it..)

I think 6.5 mm is not all that high.. esp if it's an inexpensive acoustic.

* i did a conversion.. 6.5 mm would be right at 1/4 inch.. that's a truss rod or saddle adjustment probably..

[eclipse666]

Ok thanks, this helped. I just had to turn the truss rod 3/4 of the way. The guitar is a midranged acoustic. It is pretty old and I don't think the company exists any more "Quinn"?

Edited May 5, 2005 by eclipse666

[JohnJohn]

Have you put a straight edge on the board,(both bass and treble),and adjusted the truss rod so that the neck will flatten?This will show if or where the neck is warped.

Also put the edge across the sounboard in front,(neck side),of the bridge and below it.

If you sight down the neck it won't be very accurate for dimensions,but if you do that and look at the neck/body join you may spot a hump in the fretboard.

Quite often as the top shifts the fretboard may hump as well.Some places will raise the action to try to get around this,but if the to humps or dives then the problem will become obvious after tackling this.

Whatever the source of the problem is this isn't something you want to tackle as a first repair,(sorry),this kind of thing should be taken to a reputable shop to be evaluated.

Edited May 12, 2005 by JohnJohn