Straightening the neck on an old accoustic

[datter]

Hey all, I have a very old (and admittedly very cheap) accoustic I've had since I was a kid. It's probably about 30 years old at this point and though it's in good shape for what it is, the action on it is very, very high.

It appears that the string tension over the years has caused the neck to get a serious bow to it. Now as I said above, this is a very cheap guitar but it's got some sentimental value and I've been wondering if there is a way to fix this neck bow a nd make it more playable. It doesn't appear to have a truss rod of any sort so I may well be out of luck, but I thought I'd ask here to see if anyone had any suggestions.

Thanks
datter

[martinedwards]

If there's no rod, then I SUSPECT that you've got a nice wall hanging decoration

I suppose if you were desperate you could take off the fingerboard, cut a slot, FIT a truss rod then re assemble it all again, but that's a BIG job and while it might be worthwhile on a 1890's Martin, I think maybe not for a 70's noname........

[datter]

That's what I was afraid of. I'll give it some thought, but the old beast may remain hanging on the wall.

Thanks
datter

[seekir]

Dan Erlewine describes a method of straightening rodless necks by softening the glue between the fingerboard and neck with heat, then clamping the neck to straighten it and leaving it in the clamps as it cools and the glue re-hardens. I believe this is done with heat lamps, and perhaps the neck should be clamped with a slight back-bow as it cools. I believe he uses multiple heat lamps directed at the fingerboard which should probably be closely monitored as the heating process progresses to limit excessive heating of the neck. I think this method is a bit iffy, achieving the correct degree of correction would seem fairly challenging, and the permanence of this kind of fix might be a question. It might be more successful with a lower tension nylon-string guitar.