Greetings TB'ers
So back story: I bought an SX J-bass an American Swap Ash body with a Canadian Tiger Maple neck with no finger/fret board. Really nice looking bass. Sounded okay, played okay. So tweaking needed to be done! First, new pups. Quarter Pounders! And they delivered. Then adjust the neck. This is where the story turns dark <warning for the faint of heart!>.
I am a novice at best when dealing with more than action height and intonation so adjusting the neck was new to me. I loosened the neck too much and put a nasty bow into it. Then by chance a new bass came into my life and the SX became an after thought.
Fast forward six months and the neck was really bad on the SX. Off comes the neck and out comes the clamps. I set up a jig and clamped the heck out of the neck. Let it sit for a few 3-4 days and nothing. The neck was still very bowed. This went on for over a month and the neck never seemed to straighten out.
Then I watched a video that talked about the 'Roasted' neck and body technique. In it they mentioned that you must be careful when doing the roasted technique as the moisture in the woods can dry out too much and make the wood brittle. They also went on to talk about the chemical structuring and so on that I didn't understand. But what I did take away from it is the heat could help my bowed neck.
My jig is portable so I turned on the oven and hung my neck horizontally across the oven and cooked it 30 min. a day for four days. No scientific reason just though any more time than this could cause burning or discoloration.
To my astonishment the neck was just a nice bit convex!
I let the neck settle for a few days. While it was doing this is dress some fret edges from a few sprouts.
Saturday I put the neck back on the body and it plays as nice as any bass that I have ever played. It is a keeper now!
The next upgrade will be with wiring and pots. I think I will go with an already made one!
Thanks for reading
So back story: I bought an SX J-bass an American Swap Ash body with a Canadian Tiger Maple neck with no finger/fret board. Really nice looking bass. Sounded okay, played okay. So tweaking needed to be done! First, new pups. Quarter Pounders! And they delivered. Then adjust the neck. This is where the story turns dark <warning for the faint of heart!>.
I am a novice at best when dealing with more than action height and intonation so adjusting the neck was new to me. I loosened the neck too much and put a nasty bow into it. Then by chance a new bass came into my life and the SX became an after thought.
Fast forward six months and the neck was really bad on the SX. Off comes the neck and out comes the clamps. I set up a jig and clamped the heck out of the neck. Let it sit for a few 3-4 days and nothing. The neck was still very bowed. This went on for over a month and the neck never seemed to straighten out.
Then I watched a video that talked about the 'Roasted' neck and body technique. In it they mentioned that you must be careful when doing the roasted technique as the moisture in the woods can dry out too much and make the wood brittle. They also went on to talk about the chemical structuring and so on that I didn't understand. But what I did take away from it is the heat could help my bowed neck.
My jig is portable so I turned on the oven and hung my neck horizontally across the oven and cooked it 30 min. a day for four days. No scientific reason just though any more time than this could cause burning or discoloration.
To my astonishment the neck was just a nice bit convex!
I let the neck settle for a few days. While it was doing this is dress some fret edges from a few sprouts.
Saturday I put the neck back on the body and it plays as nice as any bass that I have ever played. It is a keeper now!
The next upgrade will be with wiring and pots. I think I will go with an already made one!
Thanks for reading
