How to fix neck up bow?

[Keyser Soze]

If its a fine line, then its a crack.

Breaks make much bigger lines.

[Joe Kerr]

Originally Posted by EADGBE

Isn't there a fine line between creaking and cracking?

I have never broken a neck before or caused a crack.
I have fixed several of them including my own this way
since 81..

I watched how its done.
It paid off for me as I do all my own work now
and I have built them from scratch as well.

I dont take my bodies or necks out of a cnc either
I make them the same way the factory did in the 50s.

I need a chiropractor for real though tonight.
my spine has a back bow.
lol

I was there when SRV walked in with his busted at the headstock
that was #1 boys and gals...


The master put his hand on Stevies shoulder and with a stern face said
YOU ****ED IT UP SON.

I laughed so loud stevie started laughing.
He had tears steaming down his face it was his favorite guitar.
I could not help but laughing at that..

He said what happened and Srv said Jimmy told me I could get more
sustain if I held the headstock against the wall while I was playing..
It snapped the headstock off like a pencil....
It was just hanging there with the strings still on it.....

The master had to pry literally pry it out of his hands.
They fixed that and I was also there before he came to get it back fixed.

They even put the ciggy burn exactly in the same place...
I was hooked on repairing and building guitars right on the spot...

Ive done it since then...

Stevie did start laughing I said do not worry if these guys cant fix it
no body can.

They did. I had my nose on it and so close I had to squint to see
the repair they did a maple sandwich on the headstock and
you could not even see the break from the side ...

I said I know what I want to do from now on out.

[Zero]

You could try standing on the middle of the neck while it's supported off the ground on either end. I had heard about this but thought it crazy. I have a backbowed neck that I planed straight but now with strings on it, when I engage the truss rod it seems to stick. Even when backing the rod nut off (CCW). I took the neck off and stood on it like I said, and it went back to normal. I had every intention of breaking it by the way, I was so pissed off. It flexed but didn't break. I weigh 130 lbs though.

[Bob V]

I think we're talking at cross purposes when saying the neck "bows towards the strings." Which part is doing the "bowing" - the middle or the ends? BTW a cello or violin bow, when tensioned, is an example of back-bow since the bow is convex when viewed by the hair. I envision "relief" as being where the fretboard is concave, the nut and heel are going up and the middle of the neck is staying down, where there's more room between the string and the middle of the neck around the 7th fret or so. As you tighten the trussrod the relief lessens as the neck straightens, and if you go too far the neck goes into "back bow" and the fretboard becomes convex. So if we stay with "relief" and "back bow" terms we might get somewhere.

The smart thing the OP did was to make sure his trussrod was working even if there's a limit to what it can do. Sometimes in the life of a guitar some dope thinks the trussrod is a way to lower the action and cranks it down way too far. The neck sits like that long enough and the backbow can take a set. Even worse, on slanted-headstock guitars like Gibsons, the half-moon washer can jam against the trussrod, damaging the threads or the rod and freezing everything so it can't be loosened anymore. You can suspect this if you loosen the nut completely and nothing happens at all.

The thread's kind of resurrected, so I hope the OP has it sorted by now. But there's one other thing to try before using brute force (dunno about the "creak" part, but it's okay to give a neck a little persuasion of the relief is really out of whack). On an American Standard Strat or Tele (not a Made in Mexico or Highway One) there's a "biflex" trussrod where you can back off the trussrod nut and if you keep turning it starts to get tight again and it will start to correct for backbow. This works because there's a metal plate, kind of like a half-moon washer but it's actually rectangular, above the trussrod nut but buried under the string nut. Your allen wrench passes through the walnut plug, thorugh this gate or plate, and then engages the trussrod nut where it can be brought back out until it bears against this plate. This is a variation on the theme of a two-way trussrod.

[AndreiR]

Joe Kerr, Thanks a lot for your advice! I almost gave up on my Les Paul Tradition, that developed a back bow. I had to put 13 gauge strings in order to compensate the bow. It was a bit hard for my style of playing.
And today, I followed Joe Kerr's advise -- and, it worked! I restrung it with a new set of 10 gauge strings and it plays perfectly fine!!! I played it all day, just couldn't put it down. I love this guitar -- now it's like it used to be years ago. It totally made my day.
So thank you, Joe Kerr, again for your help!!!
I am really really Happy!!!