Guitar Neck Bow

[Tuneman]

Does anyone know the proper shape and proportions the bow on a guitar neck is supposed to have?

[Fuzzboy]

In my opinion: Straight.

I don't like necks that bow. It's pretty much whatever works for you.

[black_biff_stadler]

Gotta go w/ Fuzzboy on this one. Far as I know any bowing compromises your intonation meaning a whole slew of issues with staying in tune. I tune my guitar(these days anyway) by going low E, high E, B by playing a B5 made up of an open B with 2nd fret on high E, then open G off the G on the high E's 3rd fret, and continue using these open-string octave shapes until I finish with the A and check the low E one last time.

I used to use the "5th fret=open string below it"(4th fret in the case of G/B) and then "5th fret harmonic=next string's 7th fret harmonic"(once again except for the G/B) until I settled on my current approach.

A slight degree of bowing may be okay but it all starts reminding me of Yngwie Malmsteen's scalloped-fret technique which is awesome if you can properly execute it but a potential nightmare(be it the bowing or the scalloping) if you don't really know what you're doing whether it be the act of modifying your guitar or the subsequent playing with the modified axe.

[TheCor]

I set my necks up with a very slight bit of bow (called relief), which helps minimize fret buzz when you set your action low, and doesn't affect intonation negatively.