Unwarping a neck?

I got a bass neck for a build for my kid an it has a bit of a twist.

Any acceptable fixes for this craptastic thing?

I'm thinking of just clamping it to a table or something for a week in the Arizona sun. Any other ideas?

The only thing you can do if its not too bad is remove the frets and nut and sand it down to get it level. If its worse you got to remove the fretboard and redo the whole thing. If you dont know how to refret after the leveling it will cost you more than its worth. I would just hit up ebay and get a new one cheap. I got a bran new Kramer for 20$ the other day. Its never been mounted and is in mint condition. Theres buys to be had but you got to scan regularly. You can save the one you have to parctice refreting on or pull the frets, Level it, Fill in the fret grooves and make yourself a fretless bass,

Yeah, I did my first refret last year on a Hondo, but at least that was a quality instrumenthttp://img3.harmony-central.com/acapella/ubb/icons/icon10.gif

Talking

I built a body around this donated neck and got the electronics and hardware ready to go, so it is looking like a wash!

I think I'll scan the Craigslist. My kid is only seven so it can take a while--he's a lefty so there's the rub.

I wouldn't say its a wash yet. Unless its really really bad, it sounds like it may be worth trying to level out the wood and give it a refret. Thats pretty cheap to do yourself if you already know how. And if you do screw it up, chock up to a learning experience and you are no worse off than you are now.

Yeah I'd give it a try. I had one neck that was backbowed about 1/4 inch. I had my buddy run it through his belt sander. The suckers flat as a classical guitar neck now but it made for a nifty project. You need to leave enough wood to get the frets seated + some extra.

For folk guitars some guys really into restoration take the neck, suspended between some wood blocks and clamp reverse pressure on it then heat it up. If the fretboard was set with bone glue it sofrtens the glue and allows the bow back to occur. Then when it cools it resets somewhat to that shape. It would have to recieve hot air heat for a good while to do the job. Dont know if putting the whole rig in a box with hair dryers would get it hot enough but maybe someone here has done it. Softening bone glue usually requires deilling and injecting super hot steam. With a cheap neck god knows what they used to glue it on. Japaneese Earwax?

Like I was sayin', I live in Tucson AZ, so if I left it out on the patio in the sun (heats up the ground to 120 or so) or even left it clamped in the back car window for a couple days, that might work.

You got it. Loosen the truss rod completely, go several turns beyond loose so the neck will have room for expansion. I wouldnt worry bout backbow. If you get it tamed, Start off using light bass strings like 45 ~100 to start. You can then put some tension on the truss to straignten it out. What I find comonly happens is people dont check the truss and the bottom string will warp the neck more than the light. You can try some custom strings or buy individuals and build your own set with a heavy top like a 55 and 100 bottom. Use those strings for awhile to see if the twist corrects itself then go back to a normal set. Keep checking the truss. Sometimes you can get them near perfect with proper tension. Luckily you can get a beginners bass to sound pretty good in the lower registers even with a large relief. Once/or if he gets fluent with it he can always upgrade.