Cheaply Fix Guitar or Bass Neck Bow
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- čas přidán 23. 05. 2019
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These techniques work for both guitars and basses. Any of the tools that you don't already have can be easily found at Harbor Freight and the like. The washers can be found at any hardware store or even Walmart.
This video is exactly what I needed to fix the bow I had in my 5 string's neck. There was such a huge gap between the strings and the fret board that it was making it nearly impossible to tap and hammer on. The action is beautiful now. Just spent the last 2 hours blasting some brutal riffs.
Awesome! Glad I could help. Rock on!
Help me
Hi, Don here from Hamilton NZ on my Wife's tablet-SUSAN, thanks this just the assistance I'm needing at the moment, Iv'e always done my own maintenance & setups & always nice to get another angle on this Very Important Adjustment, always needed from time to time 😊😊😊
Glad I could help. It's been a while since I made that video and I still play that bass all the time. But the bow is creeping back in. I think it might be time to make a new neck.
This is the right way to go. I've seen other videos where heat is applied to the neck in order to fix it. No way! Great step by step explanation video. Kuddos !!!!
Thanks for watching!
Great tips, I used the bushing trick in the past for my Fender Jazz Bass 1978 and it helped a lot
Seems to still hold up. Thanks for watching.
EXACTLY the type of video I was looking for. Thanks!
Glad I could help. Thanks for watching!
Really well presented and explained.
Thank you for watching. Hope it helps.
This video is a literal God send!!! My Squier affinity Jazz bass is mildly bowed towards the headstock and I've already tried tightening the truss rod to the max. I mean, it's my understanding that a maximum adjustment like that is more than enough to straighten that neck back, and yet the sucker only budged a tiny bit. While still being playable, the terrible action differences resulted in having to press harder on the strings, and I'm still learning to build strength in my fingers individually so I'd get calluses and feel worn out after under an hour of practice. As of now I've loosened the truss rod all the way thinking the problem was coming from the strings all along (after all putting them in tune is what makes the neck bow like a banana for some reason). I've ultimately blamed the recent freeze we had for bending the neck and it has me wondering if a method like this would be more suitable than rehumidifying it with oils and what not.
Glad I could help. Thanks for watching!
Loosen strings, tighten truss rod, 1 quarter turn, tighten strings to pitch, check neck relief,
Loosen strings tighten truss rod, 1 quarter turn, tighten strings to pitch, check neck relief, ...repeat Loosen strings, tighten truss rod, 1 quarter turn, tighten strings to pitch check neck relief.....repeat
kapo, first fret, and finger last fret, check neck
relief....
This is gold! Subbed!
Glad I could help. Thanks for watching!
@@HandlebarWorkshops just did this on my 2010 squire modified vintage fretless bass, but used blocks on each end and a clamp in the middle. Neck bow fixed
this will fix it for now,
but over time, the string tension pressure and truss rod pressure will compress the wood
thanks!! Huge help!!
Glad I could help. Thanks for watching!
Great job awesom great skills man a quick question what's the reason to appear a bow in a bass and not to respond as well the truss rod properly thanks a lot appreciate your help greetings from Mexico City
Trees use the wood to absorb and move water all around the inside of the tree. Once we cut the tree down and make something out of the wood, it still absorbs moisture out of the air. Uneven absorption will cause the wood to move in (usually) undesirable ways. It is going to happen.
To mitigate that movement in guitar and bass necks, builders use a truss rod to help keep the neck straight even as the wood moves due to environmental humidity.
If the truss rod is not working, either you need to add washers, as I did in this video, or the cavity that holds the truss rod has been enlarged (probably from too much over tightening) and the truss rod is actually spinning as you turn the nut. If that is the case, then either an experience luthier needs to remove the fret board and fix the rod, or you need a new neck. In most cases, a new neck is much cheaper.
Great Video. My question is don't you want the slight back bow before installing the strings which would change the neck position?.
Usually, you want to start out with your neck as flat as possible before adding string tension. That way, you can use a fret rocker to see if you have any high frets and knock those down with a file. Some luthiers will have the frets from the 15th fret or so filed progressively shorter to the end of the fretboard to allow for string vibration without buzz when fretting the higher strings. The neck needs to be dead flat to get that right.
Adding the strings will cause a bit of relief, which is good for the string to vibrate without buzzing. Then it's a matter of dialing in the truss rod to fine tune the amount of relief to get the action to a point where you're not pulling a note sharp by fretting it, but also the string is not buzzing on the frets as it vibrates.
Copyright free music! 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😎👍
My next video is going to be all Hot Cross Buns. 🎶😊
I think my new Ibanez SR300E is running into the same problem as my Squier only now it looks like it responds better to adjustments than the Squier. The headstock end of the neck is slightly bent forward while the rest of the neck gradually becomes straight, which causes the strings to curve at the top and not appear to be all that straight until basically the 12th fret. Playability is fine because I naturally dig into the strings, but slapping and tapping is not going to happen without hearing the strings smack the last twelve frets. I did make an entire setup today and it looks like the problem has been reduced but my action still has to be high. I will see what happens tomorrow and tighten the rod again with strings on (I've found taking just one string off to give the wrench room to turn works best).
Yeah, my Squire is still not where I'd like it to be, but playable. Since I don't gig or play bass more than once a week, making the action any better is way down on my priority list.
@@HandlebarWorkshops yeah I've recently performed with the worship team at church and while it was annoying to have to retune the strings and raise the action a little it was playable the whole way through.
Ditto to MinusMan2011. Very good instruction, thank you.
Thank you.
Great video, it taught me I was doing all wrong... just a question: I want to replace strings with a high gauge and I need to know whether it's a good idea to tighten the neck really hard so I can get as a low action as possible, I must point out that neck is ok, I can get it straight with standard string gauges but it's a 20 years old neck with fair use, thought with not so much play on the truss rod, thanks so much, I appreciate the help.
Put the new strings on and look at how the neck responds. If you do need to adjust the truss rod, then go ahead and do it. No need to try to predict it before hand. Don't worry, you won't break the neck.
The more immediate concern when increasing string gauge is if the nut will need to be re-filed to fit the thicker strings. If the nut slots are too thin for the strings to lay in the nut properly, the strings will sit high on the nut and you'll never get good action and it will cause tuning issues. Phil McKnight from Know Your Gear has some great videos on how to properly file a nut. The process isn't that difficult, but too complex to describe in the comments.
@@HandlebarWorkshops Thanks so much, I'll try and will comment!
If I was you, I would stick with standard string gauge, nothing more than
45-65-85-105, and more preferably
45-65-80-100
Oh, quick question. Is clamping the instrument down with the level a must for this to work, or is that just better for getting faster results? I seriously doubt my step dad would be okay with using his stuff in such a way, and I'm hoping that adding the washers is all I would need to do (it's only a slight up bow at the first four frets anyway).
Try the washers as a first step. If that doesn't do it, then you may need to figure out how to clamp the neck to a straight edge. It doesn't need to be a level. A fairly straight 2x4 would work, too.
This is Great its the same bass I have so its great that I'm able to fix it!
Well, I'm sorry that your bass has bowed that much. I know they're Squires, but still... WTH, Fender?
But thanks for watching and glad I could help.
Thank you! Does this procedure help for a long time? I mean, you don't heat the neck, will it stable angle for the rest of life?
It's held up for me. It's still not perfect, though. The action is still a bit too high, and I don't think I can get it any lower at this point. I may make a completely new neck at some point. That sounds like fun.
Oh boy, my Squier's trussrod nut won't come out of the hole, because it's actually smaller than the nut. But I definitely need a washer, as the nut has already submerged deep into the neck.
Not sure how handy you are with tools, but I would trust myself to drill out the truss rod hole to get the nut out. If you don't think you're good enough with a drill, please do NOT do it.
I figure the worst that can happen is that you end up buying a new neck (which is sounds like you may need to do anyway). At least you tried to fix it cheaply before dropping the cash.
Did it stay or did it bow again after a while? Thanks!
2 years after this video, and still the same as it was when I filmed the video.
Thanks for watching!
Hello. So the only way I can get a straight neck with the strings on is with a backbow with them off .. and I'm afraid of something bad happening. Any suggestions
No. I'm sorry if that is what I implied. Some necks stay perfectly straight whether the strings are on or off. It all depends on the wood used for the neck. I don't mean different species of wood like mahogany or maple, but even two necks made of the same wood can be different. It all depends on the density of the wood, how the wood was dried, how the wood was carved, which part of the tree the wood came from, etc.
If you can't get the neck to be flat any other way, then this is a valid way to address the issue. What I show here is more of a last step.
Hi,
washer diameter? I have the same problem in the same bass of the video. Thank you.
Whichever size fits. I think I used #10 washers here, but I'm not sure what the diameter was. Some manufacturers maybe different.
How to find the right truss rod adjustment tool for my Fernandes Bass?
Truss rod adjustments come in 3 different styles. First, like mine in this video, is the regular nut that requires a socket to adjust. Most common are the ones that use Allen keys or hex wrenches. Finally there are some where the adjustment is near the bottom of the fret board (right near the guitar body) and looks like a wheel that you use some small metal rod like a screwdriver to turn. A quick google of a Fernandes Bass doesn't show any images of what you may have.
4 washers is about 1/4 of an inch,
how many threads in the bolt are in contact with the threaded truss rod?
The threaded portion of the rod protruded from the nut, so more than enough bite. That is why I needed the 4 washers, so it wouldn't bottom out on the threaded portion. It was compressing the wood, but I was hoping that the wood had already compressed to the point where it couldn't compress anymore. But that was not the case. The bow has come back in the years since I've fixed it, but still not as bad as it was.
does this type of work fit the warped neck of a cheap Glarry bass guitar
I'm not sure what kind of truss rod is in a Glarry Bass. If it is anything like this Squire truss rod, then it might help.
But what do you mean by warped? Is it just a bow or back-bow? Or is it twisted like going into a turn of a racetrack? If it is twisted, this will not help. There is no way to fix a twisted neck - it needs to be replaced. But replacement necks could be almost as expensive as a new bass.
My truss rod nut won’t come out or back off any further…. I might have to clamp it in a slight reverse bow
Sometime there is a wooden hollow dowel painted black that must be removed.
I got a squire Jaguar bass but the action is sooo high and I have no way to fix it
Is the neck bowed like a banana? If not, you may need to look at another video to set the action. I don't have a video for that, but there are many that do. Look at Phil McKnight at Know Your Gear. He's got some good videos on how to set up a guitar/bass.
@@HandlebarWorkshops thanks! Will do!
Well , a slight bow is acceptable my friend, but not too much.
This was too much. In fact, even after the fix it's still too much. But at least it is now playable and the intonation isn't too off the higher I play up the neck.
I'm more of a guitar player. I only pick the bass up maybe once or twice a month. I paid $80 and put in a little bit of elbow grease, and now it works for my purposes. If I were an actual bass player, yeah, I'd definitely go another route.
When loosening the truss rod to take the nut out it becomes immovable and won't release the nut itself 😶🤔
Some newer instruments have dual action truss rods that will make the neck bend one way or another. It may be one of those types of truss rods. Do some research on your bass. Check the serial code to find out when it was made and Google around see if yours has a dual action truss rod (also called double action or two way action).
@@HandlebarWorkshops it is that kind of rod as it turns out 😔
I tried this but now I can't get the nut back on !!!
Unfortunately, that can be a bit fiddly. Can you have someone hold it upside down so that the rod is in the middle of the hole? Then you'll have clearance on both sides to get the nut started.
@@HandlebarWorkshops Was able to add relief to the neck with wood blocks and C clamps !! to get enough back bow !!!
@@Minkah60 Yeah! Whatever it takes. It would be trash otherwise, right? You can't make it worse.
My trust rod seem ti have washed. No alien key can fit in
Yeah, I've since learned that not all truss rods are made the same way. You will probably need a 'nut driver', which is like a screwdriver with a socket on the end. You will need to find the correct size to fit the nut on your truss rod.
It's a squier mate you don't need to be selling the "fender squier" marketing thing like
LOL! But it's a "FENDER"!