Finished stringing up the new Warmoth strat today. It has a maple top/swamp ash body, in a color Warmoth calls 'Black Cherry'. The neck is wenge, with an ebony fingerboard and satine (bloodwood) stripe. The dots are coral stone. Frets are SS medium jumbo. Wenge necks are pretty heavy in the low mids. The tuners are locking Schallers, saddles, nut and string trees are Graph-Tech. The bridge is a Super Vee Bladerunner.
Pickups are a Classic Stack Plus, Five-Two, and Custom 5 (helps with the rather abundant low mids of the wenge). It has a Megaswitch, so the switching is:
1. Bridge
2. Middle + Bridge split
3. Bridge split + Neck split
4. Middle + Neck split
5. Neck
It is wired with a master volume, a tone for the SC pickups, and a tone for the HB. I used 3 YJM Low Friction pots, since I use all 3 all the time, sweeping through their range for effect.
Wenge is weird wood- the sawdust flakes off like pepper flakes..and it can cause rashes, and breathing problems. I got both before I read up on it. They use the saw dust to stun fish in fish farms. It is safe as a neck, as long as you aren't cutting into it.
Hows it sound? Surprisingly warm for a Strat, but it has that initial 'pop' at the beginning of notes which I love.
Thank you Warmoth, & SD for making this happen. Soundclips will be in a future blog.






Pickups are a Classic Stack Plus, Five-Two, and Custom 5 (helps with the rather abundant low mids of the wenge). It has a Megaswitch, so the switching is:
1. Bridge
2. Middle + Bridge split
3. Bridge split + Neck split
4. Middle + Neck split
5. Neck
It is wired with a master volume, a tone for the SC pickups, and a tone for the HB. I used 3 YJM Low Friction pots, since I use all 3 all the time, sweeping through their range for effect.
Wenge is weird wood- the sawdust flakes off like pepper flakes..and it can cause rashes, and breathing problems. I got both before I read up on it. They use the saw dust to stun fish in fish farms. It is safe as a neck, as long as you aren't cutting into it.
Hows it sound? Surprisingly warm for a Strat, but it has that initial 'pop' at the beginning of notes which I love.
Thank you Warmoth, & SD for making this happen. Soundclips will be in a future blog.





