Archtop Neck Warp Repair

[Maurits]

Hi guys,

I've recently bought myself a 50-something year old archtop for cheap with the idea of me fixing some things which could use improving. It was reasonably playable if 1 cm. action is your thing, but overall sucked.

My plans were:

-reset the neck(already removed with dovetail intact (1-0 for me ))

-new tuners

-make/buy (most likely buy ) compensated bridge (original is basically a fretted piece of bridge-shaped wood)

-maybe new tailpiece

-straighten neck

-refret

All of these are for me quite do-able (fretting should be interesting) except for one. The only real problem is the straightening of the neck. The warp it has isn't too bad, and my idea was leaving the fretboard on and just plane it, radius it, reslot it and refret it wth the neck still in one piece. Maybe even try my hand at inlaying the thing.

So my question is: Is this do-able/a recomended way of doing this? If so, great. But if no, how should I go about doing this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Photo's are to follow if I take up this challange.

Thanks in advance, and please don't laugh at my incompetance,

Maurits.

[ccbryan]

Hi guys,

I've recently bought myself a 50-something year old archtop for cheap with the idea of me fixing some things which could use improving. It was reasonably playable if 1 cm. action is your thing, but overall sucked.

My plans were:

-reset the neck(already removed with dovetail intact (1-0 for me ))

-new tuners

-make/buy (most likely buy ) compensated bridge (original is basically a fretted piece of bridge-shaped wood)

-maybe new tailpiece

-straighten neck

-refret

You'll have at least one potential issue that I can see. If in straightening the fretboard you plane/radius the slots away, you'll have a very hard time reslotting accurately with the fretboard attached to the neck. I would even say that if you lost more than 1/5 of the slot on each side reslotting would be iffy. If you take the fretboard off you'll be able to get it flat and firm and jig it so your slots will be straight across.

If you can straighten the fretboard and keep your slots, then I really don't see a big problem. With an archtop the loss of a millimeter or two off the fretboard can be compensated for easily at the nut and bridge.

Chandler