Warmoth project; advice welcome.

S

sturm

New member
I wanted to post this here and not in the P/U lounge but im not sure how to change it so I just posted it here too

I posted some questions before that were answered and now Ive got a general idea of what Im looking for. So its tax return time again and I should be getting a good chunk of change (hopefully I dont end up spending most of it fixing my car, because if I dont Im going to start putting this together. Heres what Ive got so far

To help out heres what Im looking for /equipment
-Not looking for real hard rock/metal sound Ive got other guitars to cover that and Im kinda tired of that sound anyway
-Want a good vintage tone nice and warm and but that can still cut and sound clear (too much mud in most of my other guitars
-covered or uncovered p/u doesnt matter to me
-Body weight does not matter
Equiptment/Amps
-Marshall DSL or my solid state Ibanez combo
-Just about sold all my effect pedals by now, they were mostly for metal/hard rock anyway. Do still have a Boss MT-2.

Mustang body . Most likely it will be Black Korina cause its very close to Mahogany in tone

As for pickups (suggestions very welcome here mostly for the neck) I want a Seth Lover in the bridge and Im not sure if I want to make it a set or put an Alnico II Pro in the neck. Im pretty set on the Seth in the bridge. Still up in the air on the pots/wiring options/volume-tone set up/switches. Im not up to speed on all that stuff, most of my guitars are volume/tone/tone strat set ups. Im more of a refinish/woodwork kind of guy (worked at an antique shop for a while doing restoration work)

One of the questions that I think was solved was the trem option. Im leaning towards a Wilkinson

Neck will be birdseye/birdseye probably 3A (gonna spend some serious cash on this anyway might as well get the best). It will have a small strat head with locking Schaller Tuners . Also thinking of having an Earvana nut installed and considering stainless steel frets because of extended play life instead of usual Nickle Silver (Im only 23 and I would like to give this guitar to my kids some day.

Any suggestions would be great
 
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Re: Warmoth project; advice welcome.

Your choices of pickups and woods seem perfectly to fit your description of the tone you want.

I would suggest a longer scale neck, but I don't think you can do that with the Mustang body.

I tried an Earvana nut once, and never really got it to work well. Open chords sounded better, but power chords and barre chords sounded wrong.
 
Re: Warmoth project; advice welcome.

I'm also looking into doing a Warmoth project. MattPete looks like you got some really nice ons done. Any more pics? How good does this stuff fit together? Is any finishing requied to the frets once its put together? I'm pretty good with setups and adjustments but don't have the stuff to do fret dressing. I would love to know how "finished" these necks are from a real player whos used them.
 
Re: Warmoth project; advice welcome.

I'll take some shots of my different Warmoth's and post them tonight.

As far as frets go, they were great right out of the box. No fret work needed. I've heard of some people who have needed light fretwork done, but so far I'm 3 for 3.

They only prep I had to do was some light sanding in places.

On one of my guitars, the finish created a very tiny lip around the neck pocket. I had to sand down that little lip of paint around the rim of the pocket so that the inside was smooth and the neck would fit. This lip was tiny -- probably less than 1 mm.

The inside surface of the control cavity in my VIP was a little rough. This extra roughness made the top just thick enough that the screws holding my 5-way switch didn't reach. More accurately, I couldn't get the top of the switch close enough to the top of the control cavity, and the roughness wouldn't let it reach the screws. A few minutes of smoothing with an old screwdriver did the trick.

I think that's the only prep work I had to do. Neck holes, bridge holes, and tuning machine holes came pre drilled. I had to drill for the pickguard and control plate, as well as the small tuning machine locating screws.

Really, if you (1) are good with an electric screwdriver, (2) know how to solder, and (3) know how to set up a guitar, you can assemble a Warmoth.
 
Re: Warmoth project; advice welcome.

My Warmoth was sweet outta the box, I just had it set-up so i could get an expert's touch...haha

-X
 
Re: Warmoth project; advice welcome.

DirrtyCraig said:
I'm also looking into doing a Warmoth project. MattPete looks like you got some really nice ons done. Any more pics? How good does this stuff fit together? Is any finishing requied to the frets once its put together? I'm pretty good with setups and adjustments but don't have the stuff to do fret dressing. I would love to know how "finished" these necks are from a real player whos used them.
Click to expand...


Here's some pics:

MattPete's Warmoth guitars

The pictures of the VIP were taken on a bright sunny day, whereas the others were taken today, when it was overcast. The colors on the strats are off, and I wasn't able to make a good color correction in Photoshop.
 
Re: Warmoth project; advice welcome.

My Warmoth franken-strat turned out pretty well, but I had to pay $80 to get the frets levelled. 2 were high on one end or the other, and 1 was just too high. My bad luck I guess.

Any resemblance to MattPete's Warmoth is purely coincidental. We just both have good taste ;)

site1015.JPG


Not a bad quilt for the "Showcase" huh?

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, my opinion is that you should avoid the "Warmoth Construction" necks and get either "Vintage" or "Modern Vintage" from Warmoth. You will be limited in terms of fingerboard radius, # of frets, etc., but personally I believe the tone should/will be better.

YMMV, general disclaimer from my attorney Ima Shyster, Esquire applies, and not meaning to bash anybody's products.

Chip
 
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