Warped Neck Repair

[Obsessor Of 41]

So I really fucked up on Spring Break this time. I took my bass guitar on break with me because I can't go a day without practicing and didn't take the proper precautions. I left the guitar out in the daytime with the balcony doors open, moist air from the ocean blowing in, long story short the neck is now slightly warped, enough to cause buzzing. I need to get this repaired immediately. It's a five string, Schecter Stiletto, how much can I expect this to cost me and should I just seek out the closest guitar repair shop? Don't want to mess this up anymore then already, so I need some advice.

[don_diego_675]

Ok, here's what you do. You're going to want to take it to a repair shop. Hopefully you have some good repair shops around you. If you do, they'll know enough what to do.

I'm a bass principle at Berklee, and I've had quite a few things like this happen to me. The biggest fear I have for your bass is that the moisture from the sea air got into it, which means there is salt in the wood. That might not be pretty. I believe the stiletto has a maple neck (there's a chance I'm wrong), and salt + maple = bacteria in some cases.

Now, they're going to have to do one of two things. They're either just going to have to tweak your truss rod a good bit, or they're going to have to heat the wood in the neck to make it maliable and reshape it. If they do a standard setup (truss rod and bridge adjustment), it should cost you from $45-$60, and if you need the neck heated, you're looking at around $100.

If you need any more advice, my email is matt@mattodonnell.com

[JG2121]

Do what don_diego says. Don't make the same mistake I did and try to fix it yourself.

[Rob]

The salt was going to be my comment as well.

My advice would be actually to talk to guitar dealers along the coast, as you won't be the first with this problem. Additionally, drop emails to some luthiers to get some advice. A simple truss rod adjustment simply won't be enough- you're going to put yourself at the end of the adjustment, leaving you with few options down the line. The salt will make the neck brittle. My guess is that the neck will need to be steamed, both for cleaning and for reshape. It's going to be very, very costly, in any case. If you go for the quick, truss-rod solution, put away your nickles and dimes as you'll be buying a replacement in the near future.

[don_diego_675]

It's not necessarily going to need steaming so much as 125 degrees of heat electrically charged into it for the wood to be maliable. I went through this with a Fodera, and I did it all myself. The truss rod is only just putting off the heating process. My Acacia is going to be in need of that soon. That's what I get for having a 9-piece neck with purpleheart fingerboard, I guess.