Significant backbow on a new Tele neck

[delwood]

Hi all, new member here

I received my Tele neck last week from Warmoth - vintage style, 7.25" radius rosewood on Maple. I ordered it with a vintage nitro tint which unfortunately is quite a bright orange. I have now gone over that with a nitro tabacco and it's warmed it up and now looks great.

So I thought I'd start to fret level and dress and I notice now that the neck has a really quite bad back bow, with the truss rod fully loosened. Unfortunately I did not measure this before I refinished it - I wasn't expecting a brand new neck to have problems.

I notice that the neck has two red sticker dots - one on the back of the heal and one on the end. Is that a quality control thing - am wonderin if it failed QC but for some reason was sent anyway.

I'm going to leave it slackened off for a couple of days just to see if it finds its way back to normal (the document that came with the neck states that it actually should have a machined in relief bow).

Anyone have any idea if this will correct itself or is fixable? I'm concerned that Warmoth will just say warranty invalid because I've applied a finish, although if this doesn't correct itself it's clearly a manufacturing issue...

Thanks!

 

[ragamuffin]

Can the bend be compensated with the trussrod? Why fully loosen it?

Unfortunately Warmoth is picky about taking anything back that has had ANY work/modification done on it

I haven't seen or heard about red sticker dots on the heel before

 

[docteurseb]

I'd reach out to them first.
I presume you applied nitro on top of Warmoth's nitro finish instead of completely stripping the finish off the neck and re-finishing it ? Their warranty works whether you or they do the finish, as long as it's a hard finish (no oil, superglue, thing wipe-on poly, etc...) so you should be covered.

 

[delwood]

Thanks guys.

Yes, it's a hard finish and nitro on nitro. I just put a couple of amber coats on because it was literally bright orange. Sounds like actually that won't be a problem warranty wise. Actually, reading the docs Warmoth do say the warranty is void if you *don't* apply a finish.

@ragamuffin, no it's a backbow. Fully loosened the neck should have a forward bow (relief). Right now fully loosened it has a serious backbow, indicative of some kind of manufacturing problem most likely. It should not have got through QA like this - it was ordered and made during the Covid lockdown so it's possible just a case of Warmoth running on a reduced staff.

The docs state that "... this neck is warranteed to be free of defective materials and workmanship for a period of one year from date of purchase". So hopefully Warmoth will honour that and replace it. I'll let you know what they say!

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Might need to be heat treated, but they'll confirm that, contact customer service.

 

[delwood]

Yep, dropped them an email. Thanks - will report back.

Here's a pic with a straight edge. This is with the straight edge touching the fretboard up by the nut. At the far end it's about 1mm back bowed. It's too much to try and fret level out as it'll take off way too much material.

Might be a case of fret slots being just a bit too tight and causing a curvature. Anyway, unusable as is and I don't really have tools/skills to get into heat bending it.

 

[Cactus Jack]

If the backbow can not be corrected I would return it. Obviously, do not attempt to level the frets, you will SOL at that point.

Regarding the red dots, I do wonder if that's a QA thing. I just received a neck with the wrong provide stamped on the heel, and noticed the serial number had a hand written "X" by it. Due to the backlog demand, maybe a few things are going out the door which shouldn't. Good news is Warmoth will take care of you.

 

[stratamania]

The dots are a colour code related to the finish on the neck. The warranty as you have added additional finish may be an issue as Warmoth has already applied one.

A vintage rod is a single action rod and can only add relief. Some vintage necks were made with the frets causing slight curvature. It may be that with the neck under string tension and the rod adjusted it all falls into place. But to be certain to get advice contact Warmoth for their take on it.

https://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Necks/NeckConstructions.aspx

 

[JohnnyHardtail]

That bow looks like a real problem to me.  I don't believe the truss rod can correct relief and fall-away in the region of the upper frets.  I'd attempt to return it or you will, IMO be likely to have ongoing issues.

 

[delwood]

Thanks for the info about the dots.

>> The warranty as you have added additional finish may be an issue as Warmoth has already applied one.

Looks OK actually. I'm not looking to return it (I still need a neck!) and Warmoth has a 12-24 month warranty on defects. This is clearly a defect - necks should not have a backbow with a slack trussrod. I don't believe anyone could argue that my applying two coats of nitro could cause that.

 

[delwood]

Quick update - as I think you guys thought would be the case, perfect customer service response:-

Hello Dean,
The stamp on the back that says a hard finish is required is applied in production because they don’t know which necks are going to be finished by Warmoth and which are being shipped without a finish.  If you ordered a finish from us, you don’t need to add a secondary finish.

Regardless, let’s get the neck back here for a Warranty inspection.  If the backbow is confirmed we will repair or replace it for you.

Please package the item(s) safely and return them to this address::

It's a shame because it'll be another 10-15 weeks UK turnaround I suspect to get sorted, but stuff happens...

 

[stratamania]

Thanks for the info about the dots.

>> The warranty as you have added additional finish may be an issue as Warmoth has already applied one.

Looks OK actually. I'm not looking to return it (I still need a neck!) and Warmoth has a 12-24 month warranty on defects. This is clearly a defect - necks should not have a backbow with a slack trussrod. I don't believe anyone could argue that my applying two coats of nitro could cause that.

I am sure it looks fine and I would not suggest that adding more finish would cause such a thing. My comment was that it may have presented a problem warranty wise, but I see Warmoth have asked to look at it which is great news.

 

[stultzies9]

For Cactus Jack, you really might want to call Warmoth about speculations like this before you post things on a forum. Much like the "Warmoth just opens a precut nut bag and installs it" post you made a few weeks ago. As I understand it, if there's an X on the bottom of the heel, it usually means that that order was cancelled before the neck was finished with production, not that it was a defective neck, but again, before you post these kinds of things, just call. They can answer these questions for you before more misinformation goes out.

 

[delwood]

Just a note to say all sorted now - Warmoth customer service were very good.

Sent the neck back to them, they took a look and emailed me to say yeah it's not good. But the good news is it was fixable (which was great as I'd already applied a finish to the neck and was really happy how it came out so didn't really want to have to do that again).

Got it back a couple of days ago. It had a sticker on it saying "heat press" so I guess that's what they did to resolve it. Has the right slight forward bow as you'd expect/need.

Yesterday I got it levelled up (still not perfect, but I would say within typical tolerance that I've seen), fret levelled and dressed. On the guitar last night and setup and started playing it this morning. Very nice neck - feels good and has a nice bright ring to it. With perfectly level frets and a tiny amount of relief it's playing nicely with a med/low action and no fret glitching anywhere. That's the secret with 7.25 radius - has to be levelled absolutely flat and that's why I had to send it back to get the backbow fixed otherwise it's impossible to set it up right.

Overall happy now - I would say these necks are a little on the thin side. Thinner than a regular similar Fender and I think I prefer just a little thicker, but it's quite playable and not causing any pain or tendenitis or those kinds of things you can get on a thin neck.

Only major issue I had is by mistake Warmoth had marked it as a new sale when they returned it, so the USPS guy tried to charge me import duties a second time. I refused to accept the first delivery and had to email around with UPS and Warmoth to get that resolved. Bit of a pain and lost another week on the delivery side, but ultimately it at least all got sorted.