S curved neck

[KVL]

I don't wanna buy something used on flea-bay or craigs and not know how to look for this so, how do you guys look for neck straightness... particularly an S curve

 

Look from bridge to nut

Look from headstock to body

Straight out from the eye or at a downward/upward angle

 

What am I really looking for

 

I googled "s curves" and I got some really hot bodied ladies with wonderful S curves, but neither my wife nor IT dept mgr really approve... LOL!

[CheapShoes]

I do a few things.

1. Play it fret by fret up the neck and look for any oddness in action or buzzing that isn't in the usual expected locations for a truss rod adjustment.

2. Set it body down on the floor and standing upright, look down the fretboard towards the body. If the neck is twisted you'll see a lean in the headstock one way or the other, relative to the frets and body, and not flat dead center.

3. In the same position, rock the neck back and forth while looking down the 22 frets. You might see a strange humpy area somewhere along the frets.

4. Check that the strings sit more or less in the middle of the neck across the neck from nut to heel. That is, they aren't real close to the edge on the low E and way in from the edge on the high E.

 

There is some starters anyway... Goood luck.

CS

[Bluemans335]

To check neck straightness, I get in good light and hold them up to my eye, and look from the body out towards the head. You can easily see if it's not straight on both sides. Some guys hold them so that they look from the head to the body, but that's because they got in the habit of checking Fenders which have the bodies and necks in the same plane. You don't need to do that with the angled necks on Gibsons and Epi's.

 

I've had dozens of guitars over the years, mid-price imports bought online (usually used), and only seen a couple with true neck curvature prrblems. It's not common at all. Once in a while I have to tweak a truss rod, but that takes 5 minutes (and that's what truss rods are for). The majority don't require that and are fine as is.

 

If a guitar's in nice conditions, no scratches, belt rash, chips, gouges, odds are it has no issues. When they've been banged around, they obviously haven't been given any TLC, and that's where you usually run into problems with something: electrical shorts, rust, cracks in the wood, warped neck, etc. Why buy a beater?

[bigneil]

I too look from the body down the neck to the headstock.

 

not only am I looking at the curvature, but I also look to see if the headstock is level with the body...

 

if not this can idicate a twist in the neck.

[Spamonkis]

Not buying guitars online is one of my soap boxes. I guess it is a matter of how well you expect a guitar to play. If it cannot be set up to play AMAZING, I don't want it. And any guitar from any manufacturer can have serious neck problems. I have seen Mike Tobias, one of the most selective high end custom builders in the industry throw a guitar he built IN THE TRASH! So yes, you need to check the neck before you buy. Here is what I do:

 

With the guitar tuned to pitch, look straight along the edge of both sides of the neck (body to headstock and/ or head to body). What you are looking for here are humps or dips in the fingerboard WOOD (not the frets). What you want to see is a straight line, or a smooth curve that is the same on both sides of the neck. If there is a lot of curve, you may want to have them adjust the truss rod to be sure it will straighten out and do so evenly on both sides before you buy. You may see uneven frets; you have to ignore that, they can be hammered/ filed even if the wood is straight (of course this costs money if you cannot do it yourself).

 

God bless, Spamonkis

[KVL]

Thanks for all the tips so far. It just occurred to me that as I may buy/sell guitars over time, that I should probably know what to look for.