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I have a 17 year old Samick acoustic guitar, not a flash one, but possessed of a really lovely huge bass tone that I haven't been able to find anywhere else...I consider it irreplaceable. By the time the guitar was about two years old, the neck had developed a pronounced spiral warp - looking from the bridge down the neck, it's a counter-clockwise twist, about 2.5mm (1/10th of an inch for you imperios) travel at the E6 side of the nut.
I have compensated by raising the action at the bridge enough to prevent buzz. The truss rod has a normal effect on the neck, the twist stays relative to the bridge.
I have considered repair options for this for ages, and I've decided that I'd
a) like to have a crack at this myself
b) like to get an idea if the following is a valid approach to take:

Removing the fretboard, possibly using one of the methods detailed here, and planing wood off either the back of the fretboard or the neck under the fretboard.

As the wood in the neck has settled so consistently into this twist position, my feeling is that trying to fight the twist/warp with clamps/steam/suchlike is likely to prove impermanent. Taking wood out of the neck or fretboard is likely to lessen the strength of the neck, but not by a significant enough amount to worry about. Hence my preference for the surgery. Has anyone on the board done something similar? Am I barking up the wrong tree? What would be the best approach for a DIY solution?

Cheers in advance.

I have a project w/ similar issues that i will be starting on soon. If i learn any sort of easy trick, I will post it.

In talking w/ the nice luthier at my local shop, he had just fixed an old yamaha acoustic w/ a hump in the neck at the spot where it joined the body. He had simply pulled the frets and nut, then planed the fretboard level and refretted (which it needed anyway) and installed a much improved bone or corian or something nut (the old one was plastic). So he was able to make 3 repairs in one efficient days' work.

I am guessing this could work for you. Removing 1/10th of an inch shouldn't weaken the neck much, and I think if the trussrod and everything is doing it's job, you probably don't wanna deal with prying up the neck.

Quality input - not removing the fretboard at all does make much more sense. Appreciated!

If the bass tone is what you like about the guitar, then the body is responsible for that. Order a pre-fab acoustic neck from Stewart Macdonald and replace the neck......

That jogged my memory - there's a luthier over in my part of the world that has a copper-bodied dreadnaught-size archtop sitting in a shop window here in Wellington for $5K.

Lawyer-dollar unicorn pussy, but interesting nonetheless. I've got some pics of it at home I'll post later if anyone's interested.

skinny honkie wrote:Lawyer-dollar unicorn pussy, but interesting nonetheless. I've got some pics of it at home I'll post later if anyone's interested.

Please. :)

Nice. I bet it sounds fantastic.