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how does a neck quot;warpquot;? and can things like tunning down and back up between songs cause this?

The force of the strings pulls the neck in one certain direction. A truss rod (angled piece of metal) inside the neck pushes on the neck in the opposite direction to counteract the tension and keep the neck straight. On most guitars, you can adjust how much the truss rod pushes on the inside of the neck. There are a lot of factors that can change the shape of the neck. Humidity can cause the wood to bend more easily or stiffen. Changing string gauge will increase or decrease the pull of the strings on the neck, causing a forward or backward bow if the truss rod is not adjusted. Using a lower tuning decreases the amount of tension on the neck. If you keep your strings in a lower tuning a lot without adjusting the truss rod, the tension of the strings and truss rod will not be equal and your neck will take on a backwards bow. The best thing to do in this situation is pick one tuning and string gauge that you want to use with the guitar. Get the guitar setup for that tuning and string gauge and leave it. If you don't change string gauges or tunings much after that, your neck should stay relatively stable. The only thing that will affect it is changes in humidity (which happens when the seasons change).

thanx two head but i was wondering i only down tune half a step to eb and i think i might stay there, should i still get adjusted

It depends how supercritical your action height is. If you have a very low action then slight changes in tension will be noticeable for two reasons: firstly, the reduced tension on the neck causes the neck to bow backwards very slightly from its default setting, reducing the available arc relief, secondly because the string is operating at a lower tension (just over 10% for E flat) and so requires more relief to accomodate its wider arc envelope.

If you don't have a low action this is not such an issue, but you are still better off having the guitar set up for the tuning you have decided upon.

Tuning down a half step shouldn't toss your setup.

Generally, I think necks warp because of quot;badquot; wood.

You can abuse a guitar of course, but generally, I think the guitars I've owned that have had the neck go sour were made from wood that wanted to twist or warp right from the get go.

i agree, there are some necks that have grains that will naturally head towards warping. In general, fender necks tend to warp because of the way the headstock sits.

It's important to recognize the difference between a bowed neck and a warped neck. A neck will bow because of unequal tension, but that's easily corrected for by the truss rod. A warped neck can't be straitened as easily because the wood is actually bent, not just being pulled.

Yea, three things. No, ahalf step shouldn't F*** you up too bad. Necks bend, whick is different from necks thst warp. Last, some of it depends on what guage your strings are. Superheavy on a Fender Strat (well, any fender really) = bad Superfine on a Gibson SG = bad, so if your guitar is set up to take a certain guage of strings, dont change the guage without getting the neck adjusted.

I had a fender neck go sour on me once...but it sorta seemed like it wanted to go that way from the get-go, as has been said. Sometimes ya just get bad wood.

Can you fix a warped neck?

If so, how?

You can in some cases, it involves pressure and heat...hopefully someone else can be more specific. :


Originally Posted by motorboy29

Superheavy on a Fender Strat (well, any fender really) = bad

I am impelled to disagree.

In my experience Fenders necks can cope with pretty much anything you throw at them.

I used to know an ambidextrous guitarist from Alaska called Dave Salmon who used .013 gauge strings at concert pitch. I use .011 - .052 gauge myself and never had any problems.

Fender don't use quartered wood, true, and this is the most common cause of neck warping but string tension is rarely an issue unless combined with other factors such as neglect and environmental factors like humidity.