UberMetalDood
New member
Allow me to introduce my very first Warmoth build. I have some comments as well as some questions. It's a rainy day so there was not enough sunlight to capture good pictures, so I'll try to post some better pics later. Despite a few little snafus, it came out very well and I am TOTALLY satisfied with the TONE.
Dealing with Warmoth is like having a dial-up internet connection - slow. Everything I bought was "in stock" and "ready to ship," but man to they take their time about things. There were a couple of things that I didn't anticipate and may have caused me to compromise the overall a bit. The headstock was routed perfectly for the tuners, but the tuner screw holes weren't drilled which made it impossible for me to achieve a 100%, perfect tuner alignment. It's probably about 98.5% straight so I'm not bothered by it. Still, it should have had the tuning screw holes drilled.
Here are the specs:
Alder 4.0 LB body w/Ice Blue finish
22 fret maple neck, vintage tint + satin finish, stainless steel 6150 frets, (fat) boatneck contour, compound radius
Schaller locking tuners
Aged pearl pickguard
Dimarzio Norton DP160 double cream (which SDUGF hates - sorry 'bout that
) bridge humbucker
Dimarzio Chopper DP184 cream neck humbucker
Wilkinson VS100 tremolo
I'm using some various, mix-matched left over electronics underneath the hood until my CTS + Switchcraft stuff arrives. The 5-way switch is a left over S1 super switch which I couldn't really figure out, so right now only the bridge pickup is working. The volume and tone controls aren't working for some reason but I'm going to rewire everything once my electronics parts come in.
QUESTION 1: I ran a wire from my 2nd tone pot to the back and soldered it to the trem spring bracket. Is there a better way to ground it? My pickups are noisy right now, but I don't think it's a grounding issue because the noise doesn't go away when I touch it. I'm thinking that it's the freaking S1 switch deal that's all soldered up with weird connections.
In order to install the tuners, I fastened the nut by hand and used a metal ruler to even out the bottom of each peg. If you examine it closely, you can see that they're not absolutely perfectly straight, but I don't think anyone would notice without a careful examination. All things considered, I think it's as straight as any amateur can possibly make it. So far, it tunes great, stays in tune, and harmonically tunes fairly with my BOSS TU-12 tuner.
QUESTION 2: If you drill holes for the tiny tuning peg screws and it doesn't come out perfect, is there a way to "fix" it so that it doesn't look like it has been fixed, or is it a one-shot thing?
QUESTION 3: My tuners are not staggered,so is it necessary to have a string tree? If so, is the string tree only for string tension or does it also have something to do with tuning?
I was underwhelmed with the neck finish. I ordered the vintage tint with satin finish, and I like how dark the tint came out because it looks like it has been toasted in the sun a bit, but the satin finish sucks. It's dull without any shine, and so thin that if you scratch the headstock when putting new strings on, it scratches through the finish. It also feels weird when playing because it feels good on the back of the neck, but it's not a smooth feeling on the fingerboard. When I bend strings or do a vibrato, it feels like the strings roll over a bit rather than just sliding on the fret wire.
Fortunately, despite the disappointing finish, the neck itself is top-notch. I love the truss rod adjustment, and the neck is straighter than any I have ever seen. The fretwork is flawless. However, there is one weird aspect of this neck. The boatneck contour is fat, but it's also a compound radius neck. The contour feels more like a fat V shape, and it's a weird feeling to play with the compound radius because it kind of goes from a fat V shape to a standard contour near the upper frets. This is actually a great feature for me personally because I have a habit of hooking the inside of my hand around the neck, so this neck kind of forces me to have better thumb placement.
The frets are smaller than I expected and they have kind of a brassy color, so I'm not 100% sure they put stainless steel frets on there. All of the SS frets I've seen have a polished silver color. I used some steel wool to shine them and rub off any finis that might have gotten on them, so I can see that the actual the color of the frets is kind of brassy.
The significantly contributes the the tone and sustain of this guitar. It has amazing sustain, a snappy but warm tone, and the frets do not add any brightness at all which is my experience with stainless steel frets.
QUESTION 4: Is there a way to make the finish shinier? I have heard that Carnauba wax (such as Turtle wax for cars) or lemon oil are good for bringing some shine to the finish. Is this true and are those substances safe for the finish?
The body is extremely good, perhaps better than any Fender body I have ever owned. It's very resonant and has a beautifully balanced tone. It's very lightweight, and the way they cut the universal route allows room for long pickup screws. The finish is great. I have knocked it around a bit and not a single dent or scratch yet. I wish my phone took better pictures, but it's a rainy day and there's not enough sunlight to capture the perfection in the body finish. Inside where the wood is unfinished, you can tell by the grain patterns that it's spectacular cut of alder. It's absolutely top quality and I don't think you can buy better anywhere.
I was very considerate of my choices for body routing, pickups, and pickguard configurations. I opted for a universal route because I like the flexibility of being able to install any kind of pickup I want, because it reduces the weight a tiny bit, and because I think boat routes gives bodies an almost chambered quality. I chose a two pickup HS pickguard that's different from my usual HH configuration because I wanted to have an almost single coil sound but with the power and beef and low noise of a humbucker.
Let me say that the custom pick guard is outstanding - the best quality. I recently had to pay $65 to order a G&L pick guard, but it wasn't as precise as this one. Unfortunately, the pick guard holes weren't drilled into the body so I had to take great pains to do it my self.
The Dimarzio Chopper was my choice for neck position because it's probably my favorite single-size neck humbucker. It doesn't have a 100% humbucker sound so you get a tiny bit of strat quack and single coil edginess. It's not as hot as a Tone Zone S or Super Distortion S, but it has enough power to keep up with a moderately hot bridge humbucker, and maintains a lot of dynamics.
The Norton was an obvious choice for bridge position. I wanted something similar to a JB in terms of output and tone, but with a better EQ of midrange and bass, and a bit more versatility from clean sounds to thrash metal. The Norton is the answer. It's comparable to a JB in most respects. Where the JB can be a bit spiky, the Norton is just a bit smoother, but it retains a magnificent crunchiness. The JB has tight bass, and the Norton is nearly as tight, but slightly more substance in bass and low mids. The Norton has a superior feel and pick response. The JB is very nice for clean sounds because it's edgier. The Norton has the same high end as a JB except slightly warmer, so it's not as glassy as a JB which lends itself to great clean blues tones, but it lends itself very well to perhaps jazzier tones. The array of harmonics is just incredible.
I never use a middle pickup. In fact, I have a couple of guitars which have middle pickups and I disconnected all of them and replaced the 5-way switches with 3-way switches. I only left the middle pickup for looks because I didn't want to spend money on pick guards.
One of the things that was important to me in this build is to have simple, MINIMAL wiring with high-quality components. I know CTS pots are great and everyone uses them, but I opted for Bourns 250k potentiometers because I have some in a Les Paul and they seem to have a better taper, clearer sound, and more durable. I plan to wire my 3-way switch so that it only switches from bridge to neck, and splits both pickups in middle position (not that I will use it or think it will sound good, but for something different in case).
QUESTION 5: Do I need a capacitor for both tone pots, or just between the volume and tone 1? As far as I know, the capacitor is to keep the pots from losing tone when you turn them down, is this correct? Do they make a big difference or it is enough to have good quality potentiometers?
Well I'll post some better pictures soon, and some more when my build is 100% complete.
Dealing with Warmoth is like having a dial-up internet connection - slow. Everything I bought was "in stock" and "ready to ship," but man to they take their time about things. There were a couple of things that I didn't anticipate and may have caused me to compromise the overall a bit. The headstock was routed perfectly for the tuners, but the tuner screw holes weren't drilled which made it impossible for me to achieve a 100%, perfect tuner alignment. It's probably about 98.5% straight so I'm not bothered by it. Still, it should have had the tuning screw holes drilled.
Here are the specs:
Alder 4.0 LB body w/Ice Blue finish
22 fret maple neck, vintage tint + satin finish, stainless steel 6150 frets, (fat) boatneck contour, compound radius
Schaller locking tuners
Aged pearl pickguard
Dimarzio Norton DP160 double cream (which SDUGF hates - sorry 'bout that
) bridge humbuckerDimarzio Chopper DP184 cream neck humbucker
Wilkinson VS100 tremolo
I'm using some various, mix-matched left over electronics underneath the hood until my CTS + Switchcraft stuff arrives. The 5-way switch is a left over S1 super switch which I couldn't really figure out, so right now only the bridge pickup is working. The volume and tone controls aren't working for some reason but I'm going to rewire everything once my electronics parts come in.
QUESTION 1: I ran a wire from my 2nd tone pot to the back and soldered it to the trem spring bracket. Is there a better way to ground it? My pickups are noisy right now, but I don't think it's a grounding issue because the noise doesn't go away when I touch it. I'm thinking that it's the freaking S1 switch deal that's all soldered up with weird connections.
In order to install the tuners, I fastened the nut by hand and used a metal ruler to even out the bottom of each peg. If you examine it closely, you can see that they're not absolutely perfectly straight, but I don't think anyone would notice without a careful examination. All things considered, I think it's as straight as any amateur can possibly make it. So far, it tunes great, stays in tune, and harmonically tunes fairly with my BOSS TU-12 tuner.
QUESTION 2: If you drill holes for the tiny tuning peg screws and it doesn't come out perfect, is there a way to "fix" it so that it doesn't look like it has been fixed, or is it a one-shot thing?
QUESTION 3: My tuners are not staggered,so is it necessary to have a string tree? If so, is the string tree only for string tension or does it also have something to do with tuning?
I was underwhelmed with the neck finish. I ordered the vintage tint with satin finish, and I like how dark the tint came out because it looks like it has been toasted in the sun a bit, but the satin finish sucks. It's dull without any shine, and so thin that if you scratch the headstock when putting new strings on, it scratches through the finish. It also feels weird when playing because it feels good on the back of the neck, but it's not a smooth feeling on the fingerboard. When I bend strings or do a vibrato, it feels like the strings roll over a bit rather than just sliding on the fret wire.
Fortunately, despite the disappointing finish, the neck itself is top-notch. I love the truss rod adjustment, and the neck is straighter than any I have ever seen. The fretwork is flawless. However, there is one weird aspect of this neck. The boatneck contour is fat, but it's also a compound radius neck. The contour feels more like a fat V shape, and it's a weird feeling to play with the compound radius because it kind of goes from a fat V shape to a standard contour near the upper frets. This is actually a great feature for me personally because I have a habit of hooking the inside of my hand around the neck, so this neck kind of forces me to have better thumb placement.
The frets are smaller than I expected and they have kind of a brassy color, so I'm not 100% sure they put stainless steel frets on there. All of the SS frets I've seen have a polished silver color. I used some steel wool to shine them and rub off any finis that might have gotten on them, so I can see that the actual the color of the frets is kind of brassy.
The significantly contributes the the tone and sustain of this guitar. It has amazing sustain, a snappy but warm tone, and the frets do not add any brightness at all which is my experience with stainless steel frets.
QUESTION 4: Is there a way to make the finish shinier? I have heard that Carnauba wax (such as Turtle wax for cars) or lemon oil are good for bringing some shine to the finish. Is this true and are those substances safe for the finish?
The body is extremely good, perhaps better than any Fender body I have ever owned. It's very resonant and has a beautifully balanced tone. It's very lightweight, and the way they cut the universal route allows room for long pickup screws. The finish is great. I have knocked it around a bit and not a single dent or scratch yet. I wish my phone took better pictures, but it's a rainy day and there's not enough sunlight to capture the perfection in the body finish. Inside where the wood is unfinished, you can tell by the grain patterns that it's spectacular cut of alder. It's absolutely top quality and I don't think you can buy better anywhere.
I was very considerate of my choices for body routing, pickups, and pickguard configurations. I opted for a universal route because I like the flexibility of being able to install any kind of pickup I want, because it reduces the weight a tiny bit, and because I think boat routes gives bodies an almost chambered quality. I chose a two pickup HS pickguard that's different from my usual HH configuration because I wanted to have an almost single coil sound but with the power and beef and low noise of a humbucker.
Let me say that the custom pick guard is outstanding - the best quality. I recently had to pay $65 to order a G&L pick guard, but it wasn't as precise as this one. Unfortunately, the pick guard holes weren't drilled into the body so I had to take great pains to do it my self.
The Dimarzio Chopper was my choice for neck position because it's probably my favorite single-size neck humbucker. It doesn't have a 100% humbucker sound so you get a tiny bit of strat quack and single coil edginess. It's not as hot as a Tone Zone S or Super Distortion S, but it has enough power to keep up with a moderately hot bridge humbucker, and maintains a lot of dynamics.
The Norton was an obvious choice for bridge position. I wanted something similar to a JB in terms of output and tone, but with a better EQ of midrange and bass, and a bit more versatility from clean sounds to thrash metal. The Norton is the answer. It's comparable to a JB in most respects. Where the JB can be a bit spiky, the Norton is just a bit smoother, but it retains a magnificent crunchiness. The JB has tight bass, and the Norton is nearly as tight, but slightly more substance in bass and low mids. The Norton has a superior feel and pick response. The JB is very nice for clean sounds because it's edgier. The Norton has the same high end as a JB except slightly warmer, so it's not as glassy as a JB which lends itself to great clean blues tones, but it lends itself very well to perhaps jazzier tones. The array of harmonics is just incredible.
I never use a middle pickup. In fact, I have a couple of guitars which have middle pickups and I disconnected all of them and replaced the 5-way switches with 3-way switches. I only left the middle pickup for looks because I didn't want to spend money on pick guards.
One of the things that was important to me in this build is to have simple, MINIMAL wiring with high-quality components. I know CTS pots are great and everyone uses them, but I opted for Bourns 250k potentiometers because I have some in a Les Paul and they seem to have a better taper, clearer sound, and more durable. I plan to wire my 3-way switch so that it only switches from bridge to neck, and splits both pickups in middle position (not that I will use it or think it will sound good, but for something different in case).
QUESTION 5: Do I need a capacitor for both tone pots, or just between the volume and tone 1? As far as I know, the capacitor is to keep the pots from losing tone when you turn them down, is this correct? Do they make a big difference or it is enough to have good quality potentiometers?
Well I'll post some better pictures soon, and some more when my build is 100% complete.
