Dried and bent neck

[krankenstein]

you can fix it. The place you brought it to doesn't sound like they have the expertise. it will take a while to get the humidity back to where it should be, then I would use an oil treatment. If the neck is lumpy it can be sanded, if the neck straightens out, then a fret job would do wonders. I have an old ebmm that I fight all the time. The truss rod does nothing so I have to keep 10s on it to keep it straight and prevent it from back bowing. The string gauge is a factor. In the summer the neck is pin straight so 9's or a mixture of 9's and 10's work. (10-13-17-26-32-42)........ In the winter, it's a different animal and it's 10-46. I keep my guitars in a dedicated space at 50% and they are in their cases.

I always go back to this table on the Elixir web site to help with the string tension numbers.

View attachment 18147

I do agree that string gauge is a big factor here. I checked my gallery, in November 2022 I went to 10 52 (drop C), before 10 52 I used 10 46 (standard) for almost 10 years without a problem. 10 52 stayed there for some months, I didn't use fusion too much during this period. Then again I tried to go back 9 46, maybe around spring or summer and this happened.

 

[dean701]

I do agree that string gauge is a big factor here. I checked my gallery, in November 2022 I went to 10 52 (drop C), before 10 52 I used 10 46 (standard) for almost 10 years without a problem. 10 52 stayed there for some months, I didn't use fusion too much during this period. Then again I tried to go back 9 46, maybe around spring or summer and this happened.

as stated by others, humidity and temperature are the big time factors at play here too. there are many tricks you can try to get it right. it all depends on how much the guitar means to you. it could take many months and perhaps some money to get it right. many videos online show heating necks with a heat gun as a means of correction. I would shy away from them but I'm all for getting the neck humidified and bending it back gracefully. Putting on 13s and tuning high (F#) for me when the neck has moisture or the reverse if needed (loosening strings to C) I would make a plan in your head on where you want to stop. at the end of it, it may not ever play like you remember it or you could spend all your time screwing with it instead of playing. just my 2 cents. It could always be wall art.

 

[Eagle]

Truss rod didnt help in the end so I raised the nut height with proper shim. It's playable and feels good with amp atm. Otherwise still buzzing in the middle frets

Your still describing something that needs a truss rod adjustment.

 

[Eagle]

Scallops are fun.but it takes a long time to do.

 

[krankenstein]

Your still describing something that needs a truss rod adjustment.

I didn't want to tighten too much so I left it at this level. In some point I can show it to an another luthier, possibly ask them to put new frets too

 

[dean701]

The nut height has nothing to do with middle fret buzz. As soon as you press down on any fret the nut is out of the equation. Relief, saddle height and localized fret issues are your main 3

 

[dk_ace]

Truss rod didnt help in the end so I raised the nut height with proper shim. It's playable and feels good with amp atm. Otherwise still buzzing in the middle frets

When you say the truss rod didn’t help, what exactly did you do with it? Everything you describe is fixed with a truss rod adjustmwnt

D

 

[krankenstein]

@dk_ace @dean701 E and A strings were completely laying on the first 2 or 3 frets, that was the main problem with the guitar. It was unplayable that way, I tried to fix it with truss rod and it didn't help, increasing the nut height was my only option. I didn't want to do it in the first hand because I wanted to keep the action as low as it was before. So I wasn't trying to eliminate buzzing completely. In my opinion truss rod didnt work most likely because unnatural bending only happened to minor area, closer to the neck. I put there max relief but strings were still on the frets, then straightened the neck yet problem continued. As last I increased the nut height, it ruined the action (way more than acceptable levels), then I lowered Floyd Rose to balance it. Lowering the Floyd increased buzzing more than before. Otherwise I was getting buzz from worn out frets anyway.

In the end it's playable yes, but it doesn't feel very comfy as it was offering before.

I needed to know if it's permanently damaged or if it's fixable. If it's fixable I can gladly invest more like new ss frets etc. even though I spent less than 300 bucks on this 10 years ago

 

[Eagle]

I didn't want to tighten too much so I left it at this level. In some point I can show it to an another luthier, possibly ask them to put new frets too

LOOSEN IT you problem is and always was the truss rod is over tightened.

 

[krankenstein]

LOOSEN IT you problem is and always was the truss rod is over tightened.

I loosened it completely and let it stay for 3 days, neck up bowed way too much but still didn't fix the main problem. Then I added shimmer to the locking nut, tighten the truss until neck became straight.

 

[Riffraff]

I saw this video about this girl that bought one of Stevie Ray's early guitars several weeks ago. The guitar had a very similar neck damage issue. They brought it to a Nashville guitar tech who wasn't sure it was repairable at first but was able to fix it. He goes into some detail about how he did it 9:48 in the video below.

 

[Eagle]

I loosened it completely and let it stay for 3 days, neck up bowed way too much but still didn't fix the main problem. Then I added shimmer to the locking nut, tighten the truss until neck became straight.

So you got way too much relief. Yes? Then you adjusted it to almost red level. Yes? You can't shim a locknut to fix a neck that is backbowed. Fix the neck THEN sort the nut out.

 

[dean701]

Like I said, if the guitar means a lot to you, it's fixable.
You can get the humidity back, then re-evaluate.
In the end any neck can be torn down, the frets pulled, the board can be sanded and refretted. It's up to you.

there are plenty of videos on yt to do everything nowadays. I'm a fan a of the stewmac videos and their tools, not their prices.

About 10 years ago I invested in all the tools and I just do everything myself now.

 

[krankenstein]

Like I said, if the guitar means a lot to you, it's fixable.
You can get the humidity back, then re-evaluate.
In the end any neck can be torn down, the frets pulled, the board can be sanded and refretted. It's up to you.

there are plenty of videos on yt to do everything nowadays. I'm a fan a of the stewmac videos and their tools, not their prices.

About 10 years ago I invested in all the tools and I just do everything myself now.

I will invest in all those tools as well, before that I will bring this fusion to more people and see if there's one who's willing to work on it. I'll wait until the end of the summer.

It's very good piece of gear, can easily compete with USA made Jacksons. So spending extra 500$ won't bother me.

 

[krankenstein]

Update on the fusion's situation

Last week I got the Schaller 0.1mm (5x) shim, 47nF capacitor for the new 500k pot, new strings etc. and we were able to find enough time to finish things up.

I didn't just fix the problem on the neck also changed the old bridge pickup (active reflex red) with passive Seymour Duncan TB5 custom. Pots changed, everything got rewired, strings installed. Only annoying part was that new pots didn't fit in the holes, I needed to enlarge them with a file. Luckily after having the file it took only 15 mins. As for the shim single 0.1mm piece did the work. I put 10-46 Ernie balls, tuned it, tightened the truss and tuned again.

Action is now almost perfect, neck looks fine, buzzing still but same amount than 10 years ago so not so bothering. I remember why I was using this one more than my other Jacksons.

Next step will be changing single coils. After that fixing the cracks on the fretboard and installing new stainless steel frets.