I recently rescued an acoustic guitar from my Grandmother's basement, ready to be thrown out with the spring cleaning. It's dirty, warped, and with totally rusted strings. Now, I didn't take a 'before' picture, and I thought about it, but I didn't think I would be blogging about the process. I could only think about how I didn't like my camera and the photos it took wouldn't be worth it, but here I am!
Some research alluded me to believe that it is a Vibra Model 55, which had a truss rod underneath a sticker saying Steel Reinforced Neck. Alas, after some more inspection, I found out that it is a Model 18/6 , of which I couldn't get any information about, and peeling off the sticker revealed NO truss rod.
I should stop and say I've never done anything like this before. I haven't even re-strung a guitar. Doing a loose Google only revealed that heat and humidity are the most common perpetrators of a warped guitar neck, everything else suggested seeing a professional to fix anything.
First I cut the strings and give it another inspection after cleaning it up some. I see that at the base of the neck where it attaches to the body on the bottom, the wood has separated from the bottom panel. This makes sense, as the bow is in the direction of the strings that were on it, and this would have resulted in the force pulling the neck away from the body in that direction. I gently applied some pressure to push it back in, and I could hear some bad noises coming from where the fret board attaches to the body on the opposite side.
Now comes the brainstorming. I figure allowing the neck to absorb moisture would allow it to be reformed into its original shape without breaking. Further Googling shows that the fret board should generally be very straight. A friend of mine told me a small bowing is okay, too. I have the flat surface of my desk, and I have access to some clamps which I can affix it to. The body, which would normally be positioned in the way, I figure I can leave hang off the end. It would still have to be 'eased' into a less bowed form, but I can work on that after the neck's been more straightened out.
I decided to soak a towel in hot water and wrap it around the neck of the guitar and the top part of the body. I did this for six hours total, changing it once at the three hour mark to re-soak the tower and give it another small dose of heat. I've been wringing the towel out so it is damp, not sodden.
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| Wrapped neck with damp towel for 6 hours. |
After the wait time, I wanted to put it under some pressure for over night and the next day. In the last picture, the bow is observable, with the points of contact being the nut, the clamp, and the bottom of the fret board. The body of the guitar is not resting on the desk at this point, the neck is the only part with force applied to it.
As of this writing, having all the previous activity happen yesterday, Sunday, I've taken off the clamp, re wrapped the neck to soak for three hours and will be applying the clamp for overnight, possibly several days. I am only intending to increase pressure on the neck gradually, in the order of millimeters every day or so, depending.
I'd love to hear any recommendations on how to work this! After getting to it, it seems that the most of the bow is actually caused from the bend of the body away from the neck where the wood separated. That's what I'll be looking at after straightening the neck, I have good carpenter's wood glue for the task, some clamps, and weights, for when I get there!
