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ok, y'all. Grace, my lovely '70 Univox has a history of neck troubles.

its misaligned towards the treble side when i got it, so i had my guy set it up proper, and he showed me how to do it myself.

so recently i noticed that its back, after being straight and loverly for a while. so i re-straightened it, rescrewed the nuts while applying pressure in the desired direction, but it didn't help

any tips?

It's a bolt on right? Time for a new neck?

Because the bass strings are under higher tension, it's inevitable that all necks skew/twist.. Some builders build up the thickness on that side to compensate, but most don't.

devnulljp wrote:It's a bolt on right? Time for a new neck?

on an old-ass univox?

Which Model is it?
I have a 76 gimme, not sure you can just get necks for em since the bolt on in mine has 2 bolts on the back and 2 screws under the neck bucker.


You could always keep the high strings at high tension for a few days and leave some slack on the bass side see if it corrects itself.
Neck twist is hard to remedy.

you could also try lighter strings/flatwounds

Lay Books on it in a slightly humid room... be fucking careful.

it currently has flat wound strings.

and i think there might be some confusion.

its not like... twisted, its more tilted, like... its not straight up and down.

Gearmond wrote:it currently has flat wound strings.
and i think there might be some confusion.
its not like... twisted, its more tilted, like... its not straight up and down.

So more like it doesn't sit tightly in the neck pocket?

Oh, like you need to shim it?

it's pointing off towards one side of the neck pocket. this can be a little difficult to deal with because overtightening the neck bolts can bend the neck plate (assuming one is present) or mash the plate into the wood of the guitar body, neither of which you want (particularly in a vintage guitar). my suggestion, off the top of my head: take the neck out and put some powdered violin bow rosin in the pocket; this should give added adhesion and perhaps help keep the neck from moving. if you want to get more interventionistic you could scuff or sand the finish inside the pocket and/or on the neck heel to create a rougher surface which would slide less easily. you may have to go to lower-tension strings, though.

This says to me the the holes in the body are too big, if they were a better fit then it couldn't move.

What dubkitty says is very valid and good advice.
If you want to go more drastic... scuff the neck and pocket, apply glue, bolt back together and let sit a while. Or glue dowls in the bodies holes and redrill.

dubkitty wrote:it's pointing off towards one side of the neck pocket. this can be a little difficult to deal with because overtightening the neck bolts can bend the neck plate (assuming one is present) or mash the plate into the wood of the guitar body, neither of which you want (particularly in a vintage guitar). my suggestion, off the top of my head: take the neck out and put some powdered violin bow rosin in the pocket; this should give added adhesion and perhaps help keep the neck from moving. if you want to get more interventionistic you could scuff or sand the finish inside the pocket and/or on the neck heel to create a rougher surface which would slide less easily. you may have to go to lower-tension strings, though.

the funny thing is that this happened after i tried a tuning that was essentially drop-c more or less.

my current plan was to take some material to compensate the angle at the base of the pocket, so it wouldn't tilt. so basically a shim