Heat blanket or bar for neck straightening

[RayS]

Hello Forum ,

I have an upcoming job of straightening a somewhat warped neck that has been stored, either too much humidity or not enough.

I've searched the net for solutions and short of removing the fretboard have found these 2 videos on applying heat over extended time periods. They do address different issues .

Any comments from experienced members would be appreciated and this one .You'll have to watch on YouTube though.

Ray

[Woody Sound]

I have heard of this before, so it does exist. I've heard it referred to as "heat pressing." But I know nothing about it. I also don't know how long it lasts.

[Freeman Keller]

I've not tried it and would worry about the long term stability. I would ask at the repair subforum at OLF before doing anything. Remember that when you bend sides or wood binding you typically take the wood to about 350F where it goes into the kind of plastic state and holds the shape as it cools.

Can you pull the fretboard and plane the neck flat? You'll probably have to reset it anyway.

[John A.]

Hello Forum ,

I have an upcoming job of straightening a somewhat warped neck that has been stored, either too much humidity or not enough.

I've searched the net for solutions and short of removing the fretboard have found these 2 videos on applying heat over extended time periods. They do address different issues .

Any comments from experienced members would be appreciated and this one .You'll have to watch on YouTube though.

Ray

One of my guitars needed a refret and also had a maxed out truss rod. The luthier I took it to thought that refretting with larger fret tangs would straighten the neck and bring the truss rod back to life, but that if it didn't he would do a heat press. He told me he does it often and that it's reliable and long lasting. Refretting wound up doing the trick on this guitar, so I never put the the heat press to the test, but based on what I was told I'm pretty confident it works well.

[RayS]

One of my guitars needed a refret and also had a maxed out truss rod. The luthier I took it to thought that refretting with larger fret tangs would straighten the neck and bring the truss rod back to life, but that if it didn't he would do a heat press. He told me he does it often and that it's reliable and long lasting. Refretting wound up doing the trick on this guitar, so I never put the the heat press to the test, but based on what I was told I'm pretty confident it works well.

I know a bit more about the issue today and it seems that the neck actually has what I've seen called an "S shape " What is an 'S-Shaped' Guitar Neck — Haze Guitars. This article has a good description of this issue.... Essentially a hump around 3-4 4th frets and a valley until the neck area where fretboard lifts up again into another kinda hump....Not sure how to proceed, although Gerry Hayes (haze guitars) has replied to my message and he has not used heat but refretted after levelling the neck. There is a pic on his linked page...That might be the way to go...I was thinking applying heat to bring the valley back up and then level the fingerboard....

Need to ponder a bit more I think...until I get the guitar in my hands......

R

[garybaldy]

Only from what I've been researching recently in respect of the (budget) Fasan I have:
There is a heat clamp that was made by Aria but the few that are still available are hellish expensive.
Some guys on YT have made their own by putting heating elements in an aluminium rectangular hollow section.
They achieve a temperature of 50 - 70 celsius which is, apparently, enough to soften the glue between the neck and fretboard.
Some use heat blankets (the ones used for painful joints?) or clothing irons or rice filled socks heated in a microwave.
The aluminium bar seems a good system being that it can be clamped directly to the neck and you can see what shape you are achieving with constant heat - needed for at least an hour.
As far as I'm concerned I would really like to try this technique without spending too much money. I have no time constraints - retired!
I really don't want to be making an electrically heated bar.
I have some steel section which is suitable but my idea, which is possibly quite ridiculous, is to completely fill it with a cement mortar so it's like a mini storage radiator.
To initially heat it up I thought I'd try wrapping it in a heat blanket (which can get pretty hot when you're sitting on it for a while) or use an iron.
Clamp the heated bar on to the neck and maintain the temperature with either the blanket, iron or sock plus extra insulation in the form of a cloth.
Monitor the temp with a digital thermometer with probe.
And just hope it works.
Otherwise it'll be a TR install but not by me!

[Alter]

It does work if done right, i had a classical guitar with way high action that a luthier friend put through this procedure. He clamped the guitar and spent a lot of time heating the neck with a tool, then readjusting the clamps.