Where is the best place to buy a guitar body?

[uOpt]

Re: Where is the best place to buy a guitar body?

The Warmoths are good and have very tight neck pockets and don't change shape after the fact. I can easily lift my Tele on the neck without putting any screws in.

I used to refuse to buy their Strat bodies because of the trem route with double overhang. I forgot whether that is fixed with their new line of vintage spec bodies or not.

Wood quality sound wise? My guess is as good as yours.

[Luke Duke]

Re: Where is the best place to buy a guitar body?

Pm me, I build guitars like you are looking for, I can show you how to do it so that it doesn't look like you took the sander to it.

Scott made me a strat that is pretty awesome. Great stuff from USACG!

[Jeff_H]

Re: Where is the best place to buy a guitar body?

A nitro finish will cost you a minimum of $500 these days. When I built my strat the nitro finish cost more than the neck, raw body and hardware combined (and I did all Callaham hardware).....but it's what I wanted and it was worth it.

I had a forum bro do mine, but I'm not sure he or any other forum bro's are spraying nitro anymore....I did mine almost 5 years ago. I'd have to check the vault, but I "think" when I arranged the nitro finish for the "Forum Tele" we gave to Seymour at UGD in 05', we paid $600. We had Dawn at Naked Body Guitars in NYC do the finish and she is one of the best in the country.....and that was pricing 6 years ago. I doubt she would do it now for that price.

My strat build was a Musicraft body and it was stunning and perfect. Warmoth also does very nice stuff. I've heard USA Customs does nice work too, but you don't have as many options all the way around like you do at Warmoth. I would imagine that the thin Warmoth Poly is close enough tonally to Nitro as to not mater, but it won't age like nitro. Of course, most modern nitro is formulated not to crack and yellow like the stuff used in the 50's and 60's.

[Ayrton]

Re: Where is the best place to buy a guitar body?

I've heard USA Customs does nice work too, but you don't have as many options all the way around like you do at Warmoth.

Not that it matters much for this thread, but you actually have more options with USACG. I have never had Tommy tell me there was something he would not do or try to do.

Warmoth is great, but I was able to get a custom Tele neck from Tommy (USACG) exactly the way I wanted it and it was not something that USACG "normally" offers.

You really can't go wrong with any of the better builders.

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Where is the best place to buy a guitar body?

Usacg.

usacg

tommy at usacg is about the nicest person i've ever talked to.

Before this past year's christmas, my mom called tommy to order me a mahogany body blank and a gift certificate to help me get started with my guitar building.

He told her that he thought it was so cool that a mom was taking an interest in her son's guitar building aspirations, and asked her about me. When my mom told him that i wanted to build a perfect guitar for my newborn son, then give it to him when the time was right, tommy was super glad and excited to hear about it, and told my mom that he just thought that was the coolest thing and that he was excited for all of us.

He even asked her, who knows nothing about guitars, whether she thought i would do an opaque or transparent finish, and she guessed transparent, so tommy told her that he would hand-pick a really beautiful slab of mahogany for her/me.

At christmas i got the slab, and it was, in fact beautiful, and man, it was light and resonant - a slab that was really begging to become a guitar. Huge thanks to tommy for picking a great slab.

Fast forward to yesterday - i called tommy at usacg and ordered a neck for this guitar project. I told him i had a gift certificate and mentioned that i was building a guitar for my son.

"you must be hunter! Your mom is so cool!"

i could not believe it. That is amazing customer relations / customer service.

After i told him all the specs of the very weird neck i wanted, he told me the price, and i figured he had already applied the $100 gift certificate. Then he was like "minus the $100, and that brings us to $xxx."

he did not charge me any of the upcharges for the weird / premium stuff (e.g. Ebony fretboard) i ordered, and, in fact, he knocked off some of the price just because he was excited about the project and was feeling good. I paid less than the base price for a 2 piece neck for a heavily optioned, very custom neck --- and then got $100 off that, thanks to my mom.

At the end of the call, he asked me to say hi to my mom for him, and gave me his phone number and told me to call him if i had any build questions, or was just at the hardware store and couldn't figure out which kind of lacquer to buy. Can you believe that?

Amazing customer service.

He has a customer for life right here.

-hunter

[sosomething]

Re: Where is the best place to buy a guitar body?

Hunter, we get it. The USACG guy is into your mom.

"Say 'Hi' to yer motha for me."

[uOpt]

Re: Where is the best place to buy a guitar body?

I just wish USACG wasn't so messy. The reason why I never bought anything there is that I tried to get some of the web displayed things on occasion and they were always already sold.

The shipping cost was also 2x of what Warmoth charges.

[Stef]

Re: Where is the best place to buy a guitar body?

I used to refuse to buy their Strat bodies because of the trem route with double overhang. I forgot whether that is fixed with their new line of vintage spec bodies or not.

double overhang trem route? What's that? I guess there is a problem with a vintage tremolo bridge and that trem route....?

[uOpt]

Re: Where is the best place to buy a guitar body?

double overhang trem route? What's that? I guess there is a problem with a vintage tremolo bridge and that trem route....?

A correct route for a 6-point trem has a thin overhang of wood on the top towards the back of the tremolo.

The Warmoth Strat bodies also have a small overhang to the front. That means wood is missing between the 6 screws and the trem cavity. This is no doubt caused by them making a universal partial trem route first and only later punch out the top when they know which trem the customer wants.

I posted photos of this in some other thread.

[The Dali]

Re: Where is the best place to buy a guitar body?

Andrew, what is your budget? Maybe I missed that - if so I'm sorry. The budget will dictate the body you can get. Is Nitro really that important for your girlfriend? Does she currently play guitar?

I would look on ebay for something finished. Remember, when you buy some of the cheaper bodies (Mighty Mite) you might still have to drill some holes - like the bridge.

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: Where is the best place to buy a guitar body?

Andrew, what is your budget? Maybe I missed that - if so I'm sorry. The budget will dictate the body you can get. Is Nitro really that important for your girlfriend? Does she currently play guitar?

I would look on ebay for something finished. Remember, when you buy some of the cheaper bodies (Mighty Mite) you might still have to drill some holes - like the bridge.

I'm willing to pay whatever, this is for her birthday which is in 7 months. I just wanted to get some parts together early so I am not rushing 2 weeks ahead of time. Yeah she plays guitar and she constantly talks about how beautiful different guitars are and they are always worn down... these are some of her favorites....

[The Dali]

Re: Where is the best place to buy a guitar body?

Why not look for a Highway 1?

BTW, yes, she sounds like a keeper!

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Where is the best place to buy a guitar body?