Thinking about building a Tele from Warmoth. Thoughts? Experiences?

Scott_F

Flushologist
Staff member
I've never paid much attention to any of the guitar building stuff, but I want a tele and don't particularly want to dish out a ton on it. I'm looking at Warmoth because I've got a set of Duncan Antiquity P90's and think a Tele body/neck would make a nice home.
 
Re: Thinking about building a Tele from Warmoth. Thoughts? Experiences?

Go for it. I've had nothing but good experiences with their products.

Erm. I've only completed one build, but have a Tele body on hand (poplar, routed for h'bucker at the neck) that doesn't look like it'll cause any issues.
 
Re: Thinking about building a Tele from Warmoth. Thoughts? Experiences?

Did you have them finish them for you or did you do your own finish?

Go for it. I've had nothing but good experiences with their products.

Erm. I've only completed one build, but have a Tele body on hand (poplar, routed for h'bucker at the neck) that doesn't look like it'll cause any issues.
 
Re: Thinking about building a Tele from Warmoth. Thoughts? Experiences?

Honestly,I'd try eBay 1st.
Trading Post,too!

Depends on spec(s) of course,but you may run into one relatively cheap.

.02

edit:
Stunning,as always,Chris!!!
:headbang:
 
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Re: Thinking about building a Tele from Warmoth. Thoughts? Experiences?

I've never bought a Warmoth tele, but I am the current owner of two Warmoth Les Pauls and one Warmoth J bass. I'm the former owner of yet another Warmoth J bass that was sold to the owner of two other Warmoth Strats. I love Warmoth, I have nothing but good things to say about their consistency in build, fit and price. Their options are through the roof, I love their compound radius necks and the choice of neck profiles (I love the 59 roundback for guitars) are nice too.

I finished one body myself and ordered the others finished by them. They do good work. The first body I ever ordered from them had a blemish in the finish (run the looked like a drip in the lacquer) but they allowed me to return it after minimal hassle (they take some pride in their work which made me even more comfortable to buy from them).

I like Spike over at Warmoth. He treats me good, do some research and know what you want, or feel free to ask him some questions. Either way, you should be pleased in the end and if you are not they will let you return it. They have great tonewoods for necks and bodies but I play on neck woods like wenge, bubinga, indian rosewood, etc. (they donot require a finish and feel great when playing).

I do not currently have one with P-90's. I currently have all duncan pickups in all my Warmoths though and they sound great. Basslines in the J bass (and had them in the J bass I sold), alnico II pro set in my doublecut LP and a set of Jazz humbuckers with a classic stack single coil sized humbucker in the middle of the jazz buckers on the chambered LP. Beautiful guitars + great pickups = great tone.

That's my .02
 
Re: Thinking about building a Tele from Warmoth. Thoughts? Experiences?

I built a cabronita out of a warmoth body with a mighty mite neck and fender hardware. Turned out super nice.IMG_2066_zps89926d38.jpg
 
Re: Thinking about building a Tele from Warmoth. Thoughts? Experiences?

The Jazzmaster I have in the Fender Non-Strat/tele poll is one of their bodies, with their finish. Excellent finish, very clean. I'll be finishing the Tele body (wish me luck!).
 
Re: Thinking about building a Tele from Warmoth. Thoughts? Experiences?

Rolling your own can lead to addiction. First, it's nothing special, just a cheap tele to experiment on. Then a Cabronita because you want to try the *****tron type pups. And then it's a chambered and contoured body, because you're hooked :)

971266_10200885095263614_1410916303_n.jpg
 
Re: Thinking about building a Tele from Warmoth. Thoughts? Experiences?

I still have various Tele parts from them that I never painted and put together.

I like my current neck for this project much better than the first one. Current one is a simple round back with single truss rod and 12" radius. Previous one was a side-adjust double truss rod with their deep v profile and brazilian rosewood board. The compound radius didn't have the frets put in as flat as I wanted and I like the sound of the new neck better. But then I've never been a fan of rosewood so there.

Still, I recommend going with their vintage options, no heavy truss rods, no compound etc.

My neck finish will be music man style, so no extensive lacquer involved.
 
Re: Thinking about building a Tele from Warmoth. Thoughts? Experiences?

Warmoth make good stuff but I personally prefer USACG for fender style stuff. Their necks are through the roof good
 
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Re: Thinking about building a Tele from Warmoth. Thoughts? Experiences?

Personal thoughts...

A Tele with P90's is not a Tele...

Warmoth...no thanks. I hate their necks and dislike their bodies, their finish work is not so great IMHO.
 
Re: Thinking about building a Tele from Warmoth. Thoughts? Experiences?

Rolling your own can lead to addiction. First, it's nothing special, just a cheap tele to experiment on. Then a Cabronita because you want to try the *****tron type pups. And then it's a chambered and contoured body, because you're hooked :)

971266_10200885095263614_1410916303_n.jpg

what wood is that?? that thing looks amazing. what pup is in the neck and bridge??
 
Re: Thinking about building a Tele from Warmoth. Thoughts? Experiences?

I've never paid much attention to any of the guitar building stuff, but I want a tele and don't particularly want to dish out a ton on it. I'm looking at Warmoth because I've got a set of Duncan Antiquity P90's and think a Tele body/neck would make a nice home.

I've made two so far - one jazzmaster w/ strat bridge and one telecaster style with a bigsby bridge.

First, they do make good stuff - the bodies I've gotten from them are awesome. BUT, always check usa custom guitars web specials first. They have the same quality bodies as warmoth but often times as much as $50 cheaper ($99 vs. $155 for warmoth's cheapest in stock-er).

I've never purchased a neck from warmoth - that's because the first one came from USACG (another web special on the cheap) and the second one I believe was a musikraft (had it sitting around for some time so idk if it really is)

You can also get cheap necks on the bay. I've found a $139 neck that has the fat baseball bat contour and a 9.5" radius (which is my favorite w/ the action I use), which is considerably less than the $157 warmoth charges.

They say that you need a double-adjustable truss rod, because what if your neck is so far backbowed that you actually have to dial in relief going the other way, even with string tension? Also something about the 14th fret popping up after 20 years. I'm sure the double adjustable truss rod is wonderful on the small portion of necks manufactured so poorly that you need to dial in more neck bow (rather than less) but I highly doubt the QC people at Warmoth would let such a neck make it all the way into a customer's hands.

Anyway, once you decide to put a guitar together, be careful. You can spend just as much money building a guitar yourself than just buying one. I got a finished esquire body on here for $80 and it's still going to be nearly $400 for a one pickup solid body guitar before its all said and done. You need to remember all of the little ancillary bits that end up driving the cost so high.

What kind of tuners do you want? You're going to need some pickguard screws too. What about electronics? Are you going to need a special (4-way) switch? Strap buttons, string guides, shielding, pickguards, paint, and a nut (more than a few necks come without one pre-installed) can easily add up to over $100 before you know it.

Also, remember that while you can have someone like warmoth finish the guitar for you, it's like $30-40 in paint from the guitar reranch vs. like $130 for warmoth to paint it for you. If you really don't care about having nitrocelluose vs. polyurethane, you can put on a good poly finish with less than $20 in paint and materials from lowes or home depot. If you want it to be immaculate, you're probably gonna need to get a pack of 1000-2000 grit sandpaper from your local autoparts store and some rubbing and buffing compound.

Another benefit of poly finishes is that you don't have to wait like a week before it's ready to wet sand. You can go from bare wood to wet sanded and buffed in a weekend. Some people swear by nitro and to be honest that's all I've ever used but plenty of people use poly and they don't seem to have any problems or the like.

For the neck, I wouldn't recommend buying a finished neck. Tru oil is cheap and a single bottle can do like 3-4 necks if you apply it thin enough.

Another option for a base/finish is shellac - you can buy different tints from luthier's mercantile international, and you dissolve the flakes in a bowl of denatured alcohol (be careful though, that stuff will eat the paint off of most things if you spill it) and then you take some cotton balls and place them in a square of fabric made from an old t-shirt, then you take a rubber band and tie that around the cotton balls so you have this kind of pillow that you use to apply the shellac. Then before you dip the pillow in the solution you take a single drop of olive oil or some other oil to lubricate everything. Then you make swirling motions as though you're polishing the instrument - what happens is the dissolved denatured alcohol carries fine particulate shellac onto the face of the guitar and then evaporates, leaving the shellac.

A bonus of the shellac finish is that it's the same thing they use on jelly bellies. It's also the finishing technique they use on high-end violins and the like because it lets the wood 'resonate the best' although I don't know how much of a difference it makes.

I've finished one neck in shellac and tru-oil (jazzmaster) and another came with a sprayed on shellac finish. The french polish finish is going to be a lot smoother than the spray on (kind of like satin vs. gloss) but the tru oil finish wipes the floor with both of them. I mean, it's like if teflon had just enough drag that you could tell how far you had moved up or down the neck just on feel.

To conclude, if you choose to build a guitar, you're looking at either a lot of time, or a lot of cost, or a kind of low quality build. It's a ton of fun, and I wouldn't sell either of the guitars I put together for any amount of money, but just be well aware of what you're getting into before you do.

TBH if you just want to hear the pickups you're probably better off getting a cheapo depot guitar and just chiseling out the wood to route for the p-90s. If you want to spend a few weeks looking at parts and don't mind doing some drilling and/or finish work you can probably put something together for like $375 or so. (~$180 for the neck + hardware, ~$120 for a cheap but decent solidbody + paint, ~$75 for the hardware)
 
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Re: Thinking about building a Tele from Warmoth. Thoughts? Experiences?

Warmoth...no thanks. I hate their necks and dislike their bodies, their finish work is not so great IMHO.

+1

I've bought from warmoth, and had good experiences with the company, and the people who work for warmoth. That said, If I was looking to build a guitar, they are the absolute last place I would go.
I dislike their necks alot, not a single shape they offer is even remotely comfortable (to me). The up-charge for a straight radius is off putting (can't stand compound), plus the over all construction just feels cheap. Definitely not worth the price they charge, not to me at least. Also not a fan of their bodies. All I've had were incredibly heavy, and very dead sounding. Also, having something finished by them is definitely not worth what they charge...Unless you like a super thick, plasticy, toy like finish.

All in all, they don't make a bad product. Just not one worth what they charge. For $700-800, you end up with something at about the same level as a MIM classic series guitar...Factor in a couple hundred more for hardware, electronics, and pickups...and you could have bought a used MIA tele, or a used Reissue.

But, I can HIGHLY recommend MJT, USACG, Musickraft, and Guitarmill as alternatives. All are leaps and bounds above warmoth, and generally cheaper. You can get a Full kit from MJT, including all hardware, and plastics (just need electronics and pickups), for less than getting just a Finished Body+Neck from Warmoth...And get a great, thin, nitro finish. Add pickups and electronics, and you'll end up with something on par with a Nash, for less than a grand.
They use Guitarmill Bodies, and a few different suppliers for necks (I recommend Getting a musickraft neck, they have more options than warmoth, and don't charge massive amounts for most of them, and just make an all around better neck). Their finish work is incredible. They'll age it to whatever degree you want, or make it look like new. An they're great guys to deal with, good communication, and the wait times are not bad at all either.
 
Re: Thinking about building a Tele from Warmoth. Thoughts? Experiences?

that thing is a beaut. if you dont mind what did the body cost ya?
 
Re: Thinking about building a Tele from Warmoth. Thoughts? Experiences?

Ive assembled quite a few parts guitars. I would go Warmoth. Just be prepared to spend as much as you would, say, on a Fender deluxe Tele, WITHOUT thE HARDWARE, and then spend that much more on premium hardware, and youll have a guitar that is better than an American Deluxe, but you cant just pick cheap stuff off of Warmoths bargain basement/showcase pages and expect to have a gem. Expect a Warmoth finish to be like the older Fender finish , which isn't bad, just a little thick to avoid finish damage. I wouldn't hesitate to pay for a Warmoth finish, and again, you get what you pay for here, in terms of cosmetics.

Warmoth parts range from budget all the way up to the price point of a Fender Custom Shop guitar. One of the big selling points is you get to choose the grade and quality of your tonewood, so yes, you can get anything form MIM, American Std., American Dlx, or up to an American Custom Shop quality guitar body and finish. Like most everything else,only your pocketbook sets the limits.

One of the biggest factors in choosing a Warmoth is the availability of very expensive exotic tonewoods and very expensive premium tarditional tonewoods , like premium low weight Ash and one or two piece lightweight Swamp Ash bodies and premium quartersawn, or up 5a figured birdseye or highly flamed Maple necks ( with fret size and neck size options), as well as highly figured bookmatched quilted or flamed bodies ( I dont think they do much Spalt) with exquisite finished bodies in resplendent bursts or other finishes.


The only thing that disturbs me about all my Warmoths, is that no matter how good the wood, how good the hardware, and how great the sound and playability is, you'll have some dyed in the wool ignorant geezers who take one look at it, and think its a piece of cheap junk compared to a even an American Standard Fender because it doesn't say "Fender" on the headstock.
While its true that at the premium level, probably, IMO, only Fender has the deep pockets to recourse the finest wood , for both necks and bodies, and a master luthier Custom shop assembled guitar will be much better than an assembled parts guitar...for a regular standard and even deluxe guitar, It pisses me to no end, but i just bite my tongue.

I say if your gonna make one, make something special, Like CofA's Tele, or my Walnut /Rosewood Strat ,or a normal Ash/Alder Tele with Warmoths premium wood( call them , and talk it over, they will tell you what wood they have that is their best), and then leave the whining to the ponks who got the cheap stuff.
 
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Re: Thinking about building a Tele from Warmoth. Thoughts? Experiences?

Finish it yourself, get your hardware elsewhere, and do a lot of the work yourself. You can save a lot by doing it that way. If you have someone paint it and assemble it and all that, you'll spend as much as what it would cost for a nice American Standard.

I love their necks. Never had a problem with them. Their specs meet my needs. The boatneck contour is my fav. Compound radius is super comfortable in my hands. I plan on getting another neck down the road for a Tel-Gib Esquire I'm going to do out of walnut. Cutting and shaping the body myself. One for me, and doing one for my father-in-law.
 
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