Bass Guitar Neck stuff

[amishsixstringer]

Yo, I have a Mexican Jazz Bass from Fender that has a pretty wicked bowed neck. It's only a couple years old and it's been like this forever. The truss rod seems to be set really tight already, and I'm afraid I'll break it with much more force. It's so warped that any tiny bit of adjustment I could get won't do anything anyhow. With all the string tension off it's straight. I have heard of putting shims under the neck where it meets the body to angle it a bit and perhaps fix some of the action, but it seems like this could kill sustain. The bass sounds...eh decent, but it's what I have right now, and I'm a guitar player, so I tend to care to my gibsons and marshall stuff before the jazzy. I don't really want to buy a neck. Is there anything I can do? Thanks

Neil

[lancebug]

Sell it on ebay. "plays better than my original 1962 J-Bass. Straight neck, good action."

[Catfish]

Is the truss rod tight when the strings are off?
Try taking the strings off, loosen the truss nut and then tighten it back up to see if it is just a bad spot in the threads.


Catfish.................

[???????]

you could spend a few $$$ to have a competent luthier do a heat treatment to straighten the neck back out. In my experience this works great. I've had it done to 2 of my guitars that had slightly warped necks when I bought them... now they're golden.

[AGCurry]

Shims will not help a bowed neck.

Is the truss-rod adjustment on this neck done at the heel or at the headstock? If heel, remove the neck from the body.

Enlist the help of a friend.

Sit down. Holding the ends of the neck, with the fretboard facing away from you, put the center of the neck against your knee and pull the ends toward you. You should be bending the neck so as to induce "negative relief."

Now have your friend turn the truss rod adjuster. Not too much.

If he still encounters significant resistance, give up. You can try the heat treatment suggested by brad347, but it may cost more than the neck is worth. Perhaps a replacement neck would be a better deal.

[trask]

you could spend a few $$$ to have a competent luthier do a heat treatment to straighten the neck back out. In my experience this works great. I've had it done to 2 of my guitars that had slightly warped necks when I bought them... now they're golden.

I was just gonna say that!

damnit!

[RefD]

be glad it's not like the MIJ Jazz i bought in '92.

it's rippled like a candle left in the sun and NO amount of adjusting will fix it.

still playable and in tune, just not easy to play.

at all.

in fact, i really $hould replace the neck.