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Permalink Reply by Marcus Darwell on April 10, 2015 at 4:30am

Nope! But if you set the neck with the arch of the bow facing up, the string tension MAY pull it straight.......

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Permalink Reply by Scott aka Farmer Ted on April 10, 2015 at 5:04am

If the neck is to be setup as a slide guitar (no fretting notes), the bow doesn't matter really. But if frets are to be installed, here's something interesting: a little bow (aka "relief") is okay. Matter of fact, a properly set-up guitar will have a slight bow in the neck, and will not be perfectly flat like some may assume.

If you prepare your neck and fretboard to the glue-up stage, place the neck with the bow upward (ends up, center down), glue the two pieces and clamp together as to make it flat while glue is drying. Once dry, remove from clamps and look at the neck again. Most of the bow should be gone, and once installed and strung up to play, the "relief" I mentioned should be such that the action is very playable.

Lots of Youtube videos explaining what I mean about "relief".

Good luck.

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Permalink Reply by ce24 on April 10, 2015 at 5:28am

Thanks for the tips...I just realized that the wood is 46" long. when I just use the 26" mark on a flat table the bow is considerably less...1/16 or less bow.

cheers ce24

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on April 10, 2015 at 8:37am

That is good news. wood is never perfectly straight anyway... If y user adding acoustic strings, that could add as much as 70lbs of pull anyway.

I agree with the above comments: slight bow should be concave side up if possible, and gluing the fretboard should help it stay straight. Heck, I screwed up a neck by accidentally bowing it by a bad clamp job!

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Permalink Reply by ce24 on April 13, 2015 at 4:28am

surely I could clamp it after soaking to remove a slight bow. I mean with a block under the ends and clamping it to reverse the bow. I use to build dog sleds in Alaska and we would steam and bend for runners and handles. So I think it could be done w/o steaming? what do you think. BTW If anybody wants to know how to make a quick cheap steamer for wood bending I could post a how to if there is enough intrest.

cheers ce24
clarifiction: I spent 10 years in bush Alaska 700 miles from the nearest road in a small Eskimo village teaching school....hence the Dog Sled building.

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Permalink Reply by Scott W on April 13, 2015 at 2:53pm

Good advice about the bow, but I am wondering about a 3/4" fingerboard. Generally you can find trim boards at big box stores that are only 1/4" thick. I am not sure what your plan is, but if it were me, I would use a thinner fretboard. Just a thought.

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Permalink Reply by ce24 on April 13, 2015 at 4:54pm

I probably mistyped....the neck is 3/4" nd thefretboard i 1/4 ".

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on April 13, 2015 at 4:58pm

If you clamp and glue it straight, you can sand or plane it straight....  poplar is pretty soft anyway...  You're not building a Stradivarius...  

Besides, you'll build one... then another... and another....  I'm working on #34 and 35 now...

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Permalink Reply by ce24 on April 14, 2015 at 3:06am

yeah this is fun...my 2nd build .... first neck and I did my first scarf joint yesterday..... fun stuff.

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