Twisted or Bowed Neck. What's it worth?

[Johnbob]

***Not sure if I should have posted this in the Fender section or the Projects, Mods & Repairs section since it falls under both categories. I figured it was more of a project***

I have an American Fender 62 Vintage reissue Jazz bass (the stack knob version). The neck has slightly warped over the years. I can't tell if it's a twist or a bow but something is definitely funky about it for sure. I was thinking of ordering a new neck from Warmoth to my specifications. The total for the neck build will be around $250 and I was hoping that selling the old neck might help pay some of the cost. Although I know that not many people will want a warped neck, I'm sure someone out there with experience with this type of stuff could fix it. Does anyone have an opinion of what it might be worth? Everything else about the neck is nice, frets, etc. and it is a genuine US made Fender neck. You can find a bunch of aftermarket Fender necks on Ebay in the $150 range but I have noticed that these necks (US 62 Reissue) do seem to go for considerably more so I figured it must be worth something, right? 

[Denis]

You may want to follow this thread and see if this is something you would want to try on your neck.

http://bassoutpost.com/index.php?topic=5759.0

[dadagoboi]

Before you spend $250 on a neck from Warmoth, you might have someone who knows Fender necks take a look at it, a lot less than $250 could make it right.  A bow and a twist are easy to discern, a bow is in one plane and a twist in two.  There are a few solutions for a bow, a twist may not be salvageable.

I paid $300 for my Fender '57 CS neck but it came with the box and neck sock and had never been installed.  What yours is worth is pretty dependent on how you describe the neck and choose to reveal about it.

[Johnbob]

I actually had a guitar tech who worked at Fender take a look at it and they tried a few things and it would be a little better for a time and then it would go back. I can't remember if they said if it was a bow or twist because it was over a year ago and the bass has just been sitting in a case ever since. It's at my studio but I will probably go get it some time in the next week so I can look down the neck and hopefully be able to see for myself if it is indeed a bow or a twist.

I remember them trying a few different things like shimming the neck, letting it sit for a long period of time with the truss rod loosened up and also something to do with sitting it in a room where the temperature was at a certain level. Not sure what level that was though. I have had a few of these basses (US 62 reissues) and my friend also had one and the necks have always been a problem (at least for me and him). They are just really thin necks and I don't maintain them and adjust them as often as I should so I guess I am partly to blame. Maybe the things the person from Fender did actually did fix the neck but then I, again, didn't maintain it just like before so the same problem occurred.

I like that the Warmoth necks have the steel or graphite bars in the neck to help keep it stable. I know it adds a bit of weight but that doesn't really bother me. Anyway, although I have made some effort to repair it I haven't really done anything too extreme to try to fix it like maybe remove the fretboard to re-level the surface. That's something I don't really know how to do.

I will say that if I was to put it on Ebay I would definitely present it as a "project" and I would definitely describe it as honestly as possible. I would never try to pull a fast one and act like nothing was wrong with it. I would make sure that I specified that it "might" be able to be fixed since I don't know for sure. I have seen some pretty incredible projects on this board where people have saved guitars that I never thought was possible. So who knows for sure.

[dadagoboi]

I have that same stack pot Jazz neck and mine requires a lot of attention.  Spacers on the truss rod have solved the problem so far.  It has LaBella flats on it, used to have Chromes.  It's stayed straight for six months or so.

Steve says the heat treated Squier Jazz neck has remained straight under tension.

It might make sense to loosen your strings slightly after you get done playing.

[drbassman]

TI strings always help as they are low tension.  I use them on all my basses.  Often, you don't need to tighten the rod much at all as they are so gentle on the necks.

It's a crapshoot as to whether or not a fix will work/hold.  The few I've worked on didn't respond to heat, so I left them in their natural slightly warped state and sanded the fret board to bring it all into the same plane and on another I took the fret board off, flatened the neck with a plane and installed a new board.  So, it really depends on the condition and responsiveness of the neck.