LeftyBassist.com

2001 Warwick Lefty Double Buck Neck Replacement
Hello fellow lefties,If this is a bad idea or the wrong place to post this please let me know, I do not want to waist anyones time here I just thought this might help sombody else or just cool to watch it play out that's all. I’m going to document the progress of a replacement of a bolt on neck from a Warwick 5 string lefty Double Buck from 2001. I want to start out by saying this has been a learning experience for me. I have made a trade with another member hear and to keep reputations clean and our friendship intact I will not mention what the money and the other bass involved was in the trade. The other member here is a super cool guy and I will hopefully do more selling and trading back and forth with him for years to come. We are friends and this will hopefully help another bass player in the future that is my only wish. I’m 40 and have owned plenty of cheep basses and at least 20 high end instruments and I just want to share with anyone who might be interested my progress and my own mistakes in my dealings and basses from Warwick. My first Warwick was a FNA Jazzman 5 string and I will try to find pictures from my vault and attach pics of that bass as well. I had truss rod issues with that bass as too. I had that neck replaced years ago from the music store I buy most everything from and it was an easy trade out. Now in reference to the current bass, we made our trade I found it needed a set up in a bad way for my taste. The Double Buck I just got had way too much relief and was really a forward bow. Now I am a player not a luthier but I can make simple adjustments with a fare amount of confidence. This needing more than a simple twist of the rod I took to a friend here in central Pa who is a part time builder of guitars and does re-fret jobs and building of guitars and necks so his knowledge far exceeds my own. He found that after turning the truss rod it was either snapped or striped inside the neck. Again this is just to tell you about what is going on not to place blame on anyone. I wasn’t there with my guy at the time he discovered the problem but he knows what he is doing for sure. Now even I know the basics of truss rod adjustments. Loosen the strings 1/16 to 1/8 turns and then let rest for a few hours before going at it again. Also from most of the blogs and threads on Warwicks it’s recommended to actually bend the neck slightly to where you want it then adjust the rod so it’s not doing all the work. Anyway anyone may add comments or corrections as I stated I’m no authority on any of this. After all the research I could do on the subject my conclusions about truss rods in Warwick necks are this and this is only my opinion. They use a good truss rod, it’s not made out of plastic it’s the real thing. The issue here is as we all know Warwick necks are a bit big a bulky and have more wood mass than most other necks and the two I had issues with are made of ovangkle a pretty sturdy wood. I believe when a Warwick neck gets a bit far off either way the truss rod that it comes with might need to be a bit more over built to compensate for the strength and mass of an average Warwick neck. Be very careful if you own one and if you are getting worried about it if you are adjusting it, stop and take it to an authorized service center. I am taking it to my shop and he is sending it back to Warwick in Germany for a new neck that will be stamped with the same serial number on the bad neck I have now. This is going to cost me $600 to $700 to have done because I did not have it done by a Warwick dealer. Dana B. Good is no longer the broker for Warwick here in the US. It is now Hanser House Group; so far these guys were very responsive for me and said it will be done in 4-6 weeks so here are a few pics of the begging of my story. As is proceeds I will add more pics and info. If you think this sucks or I suck I’ll stop this saga. Just let me know if you guys are interested in me taking this through to the end result. I just thought it cool to do a mini documentary. I wish I would have seen this it might have saved me $650 or

Just a few more break down photos. I wanted to show the bass was and is in excelent condition and was not abused as far as I can tell by anyone.

step #2 : O.K. just got back from West Chester and after having the neck removed from the bass for 12 hours without string tension and the problem was apparent. The neck was like a banana. It had a severe forward bow and between the 7th to the 1st fret it twisted pretty badly as well. My buddies at the shop asked me where I bought the bow and arrow. I told them when the strings were on you really couldn't see the bow and it was just forward a bit and looked like it could be corrected with a set up. That's when they reminded me that taking it to a proffesional is always the best idea and they would most likely have been able to spot a problem and would have saved me some $$$$.

Difficult to read such a long stretch without any paragraph breaks, but interesting nonetheless! Thanks for sharing

I used to find my bolt on Warwick Thumb prone to bowing over short periods of time too. Aesthetically, due to the lack of any sort of lacquer finish sealing the neck wood, this is fairly common with basses that have oil finishes/exposed wood.

I do all my own setups, and I've gotten quite good at it, if I do say so myself. I had tweaked the truss rod on the Thumb to the point where it felt like it was as tight as it could go and my fear was over-tightening and running the risk of stripping the rod. My solution on any bass I've encountered with this issue, whether it's "correct" or not, is to apply manual downward force to the headstock to manually straighten it. I then hold the neck in position while tightening the truss rod further. You'll find the truss rod has a bit more distance to turn when doing this without the feel of over-tightening pressure.

The result was problem solved on the Thumb, as well as the majority of other basses I've owned exhibiting this problem, all with fully functioning truss rods now.

I have heard that before about unfinished necks. I think I'm going to rub the new neck down with the Warwick beezwax all the time!

Well I never thought I would ever get this neck back from Warwick or put back together but it is done. I have seen the top of the mountain and it is good. I must report I have heard all the chatter about Warwick "baseball bat necks" and I have had a few but this time when I sent this back for replacement I contacted Hanser House Music first (Danna B. Good is no longer the broker in the U.S.A.) and asked them to have Warwick give me back one of the newer "thin line" bass profile necks. Holy molly this is the thinnest most comfortable butter ball neck I ever grabbed. Forget anything you have ever been told about Warwick necks this thing is the polar opposite. It is killer. I have a Roscoe 6 that was sent back to Roscoe to be shaved down and it feels just like that and Warwick PLEKs all their stuff now. I pre drilled the holes and had this thing back together in 30 minutes. The best thing that ever happened to this bass is the neck breaking.