Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

[Xeromus]

Since it's so hard to find a good strat nowadays, and I know exactly what I want in a guitar, down to a T, I think I may go the warmoth route and make a project of it. When you guys have a completed guitar, how does it feel, sound, play? Does it have mojo or does it end up a plank of wood with electronics?

 

[Curly]

Re: Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

I've finished 5 Warmoth projects

Mojo is partly a matter of Serendipity, and really comes after several years of playing, IMO, but my guitars are all very "gig worthy"

you can take a look at my site, and see these projects

If you PM me, I'll help you as much as possible, but let me dispell one myth right off the bat - it's not about saving money(you won't), but rather getting exactly what you want.

 

[Fresh_Start]

Re: Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

If you know exactly what you want and are reasonable handy with a drill, screwdriver and soldering iron, building your own guitar is really satisfying. My Warmoth frankenstrat both sounds and looks much better than anything I could have bought for the money (assuming my time is worthless ).

The main thing that I would do differently is to spec a "Vintage Modern" construction neck instead of the "Warmoth Construction" neck that I got. After an unintentional A/B comparison with a Fender MIM neck, I believe that the thicker fretboard and double expanding truss rod in the Warmoth Construction sucks some of the highs and potential tone out of an otherwise great guitar. (Others are welcome to disagree with my humble opinion on this.)

I strongly recommend three books if you don't already have them (or a lot lutherie experience):

Guitar Player Repair Guide by Dan Erlewine can't be beat for set ups, making a nut, and tons of other stuff I never would have thought of.

Make Your Own Electric Guitar by Melvyn Hisc*ck may not be absolutely essential, but it's really great for figuring out trade-offs, selecting hardware, control layout and stuff like that.

Guitar Electronics for Musicians by Donald Brosnac is essential - a bit quirky, but it's full of good info, schematics, etc.

Warmoth makes really good quality bodies, and their prices on parts are also competitive. They are the "market leader". However, you should also take a look at USA Custom Guitars, especially if you are building a Strat or Tele clone. (Warmoth makes a much wider variety of body shapes.) USACG focuses on Fender-like guitars and has more of a small-shop feel to me. YMMV

Oh, unless you spray cars or furniture for a living - or are a true glutton for punishment - I'd recommend having someone else put the finish on your first guitar project. Warmoth does it in-house and USACG bundles their product with a finisher called "Roxy". If you want to get some idea of what's involved in finishing, check out The Guitar ReRanch. Read "ReRanch 101" about 3 times, then visit the forum. If that doesn't scare you off, dive in! (My first finishing project has taken forever and been really frustrating, but I've learned a ton and the final product is turning out well at last.)

Last but not least, Callaham Vintage Guitars makes great vintage-like hardware for Fender-clones.

OK, so this is way more than you wanted to know, but what the heck. Hope it helps,

Chip

 

[Curly]

Re: Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

I concur with every word Fresh Start said.

 

[TattooedCarrot]

Re: Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

I've built two, they are high quality and if you want anything other than a regular strat (like me), then Warmoth is the way to go.

 

[Buckeyedog]

Re: Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

I haven't but there seems to be too many choices for me. I've gone there and started with a strat body, then onto the neck and they've got a million choices on this radius, that radius, this thickness, fret sizes......I just don't know enough about all that stuff to make a determination. Then you've got bridges, tuners, etc. Seems to me you have to really know your stuff before you build one of these.

 

[Xeromus]

Re: Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

wow, impressive guys. I have a good background in painting and finishing, but I'd have warmoth do the paint. I'm also good with electronics/soldering, and wood working. I think I might give this a shot. Do you mind if I ask you guys from time to time for suggestions on options?

 

[DirrtyCraig]

Re: Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

Hey Curly,

Man those are some beautiful guitars. May I ask what you have in them money -wise not counting pickups?

 

[rspst14]

Re: Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

I'm in the process of putting mine together right now. I'm just waiting for the Earvana nut to arrive next week, and then I'll have all the parts. I can't speak for the finished product, but I can say that Warmoth does great work. The body and the neck had a nice tight fit, but not so tight that I had to do any sanding to make them fit. The woods are beautiful, the fretwork was excellent, and their prices are reasonable. I've heard USACG does equally impressive work, but they are more expensive and offer fewer options. One thing I might suggest is that when you order the neck, ask them for a Fender-style nut slot. I'm not sure, but I've heard they will do that if you ask them. Greg from Warmoth sometimes replies to these topics, maybe he can confirm if that's true? Warmoth uses a much shallower nut slot, which can make installing a nut a bit trickier if you've never done it before. I tried to install an Earvana nut in mine, and I got it sanded to fit the slot perfectly. But by that point, it was so thin that when I screwed the top on, the nut base snapped in half. So I had to order a new base, hence the delay in getting mine finished. I'm going to get a tool from Stewmac that can be used to deepen the nut slot, but if I had to do it over again, I would've asked Warmoth to cut the nut slot deeper. Other than that, everything has worked out fine. I've started with the wiring, and I should finish it up next week hopefully. I have some pictures of the parts if you're interested in seeing them before I put it all together.

Ryan

 

[Stirt]

Re: Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

Warmoth uses a much shallower nut slot

I'll check in to into this for you.

I believe that the thicker fretboard and double expanding truss rod in the Warmoth Construction sucks some of the highs and potential tone out of an otherwise great guitar

I remember when I first went to work at Warmoth and was taking orders on the phone all day. The amount of people raving over the tonal upgrade of their Warmoth neck over the stock one was astounding. I asked Ken Warmoth what he thought made his necks apparently sound better. He said he only uses good wood and that it sits around for years before he uses it. Also, he said that there is more metal in a double expanding truss rod design which theoretically does two things. It increases the sustain much like a thick metal bass bridge does for a bass, and it can raise the resonate frequency of the neck ever so slightly.

By far, what we hear from customers over and over again is that our double expanding truss rod construction necks "sing" and have slightly more highs than a standard Fender neck. I have two full Warmoths that I play with professionally every weekend and my experience has been the same. We also have Vintage Modern and Total Vintage construction necks built with the vintage style truss rods for the purists also on our menu, but as far as the double expanding truss rod design sounding bad, well, it's 75% of our neck business and has built a pretty enormous reputation over many, many years for sounding great. I don't know how many Warmoth necks are out there but it has to be a staggering number by now.

Anyhow, just my 2 cents worth.

Gregg-
Warmoth

 

[Curly]

Re: Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

Hey Curly,

Man those are some beautiful guitars. May I ask what you have in them money -wise not counting pickups?

I'd say it takes about $1K.

you just can't do it as cheap as the big companies when you're doing it one at a time.

I'd recommend getting a finished body from the Showcase if you want to save a little, and find what you want. I also got a nice Clapton neck from the showcase ... my favorite Warmoth neck so far. I had them install a nut, and it came out well. I've read comments that others weren't happy with the precut nut, but mine came out VERY nice.

 

[MattPete]

Re: Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

Here's my 3 warmoth guitars:

http://users.adelphia.net/~mattspeterson/

The antique white/tortoise pickguard is not complete in those pictures (the pickguard is just laying on the guitar with the stickers still on it, no electronics, no nothing). It's swamp ash with a maple neck, rosewood fretboard, and a tiltback headstock with a Fender shape. It has APS in the neck and middle and Twangbanger in the bridge. The pickup selector is a 4-way tele switch that selects: bridge, middle, neck, and bridge+neck in parallel. The 3-way toggle switch selectively adds the middle pickup to whatever is selected in the 4-way switch. The 3 positions on the middle switch are: up= parallel, middle = no middle pickup, and down = add middle in serial.

Overall, it's a great sounding guitar and plays fantastic.

 

[rspst14]

Re: Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

I'll check in to into this for you.

I could be wrong, I'm not an expert on the details of Fender guitars. It just looks a bit shallow to me compared to the Fenders I've seen. I do like the flat bottom nut slot on Warmoth necks, it makes it easier to install a traditional nut because you don't have to worry about filing the bottom to match the neck radius. When I tried installing the Earvana nut, I had to file the nut to 1/3 of its original size, and also had to drill small holes in the nut slot to allow the screws to pass through. Earvana claims most guitars don't require this, and if they do, they recommend using a thumbtack to make a small hole for the screws. In my case, I had to actually drill holes because the screws extended well into the fretboard. That's what leads me to believe that Warmoth uses a shallower nut slot. When I finally went to screw the top part on, the damn thing snapped in half. :smack: I tried to glue it back together, but then the holes were too big for the screws, and the top part wouldn't stay firmly screwed to the base. So I'm going to see if I can deepen the slot a bit and then try again with a new nut base.

Ryan

 

[jmv]

Re: Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

Well, i've never made a warmoth guitar, although i have played one of my freinds before.

I know warmoth makes some good stuff... but consider this. Most of this comes from a PM conversation between me and Robert_S. a long long time ago... i'll see if i can remember all of it.

With warmoth, you can be reasonably sure you will get a good guitar. Probably 60-80% of all the wood is good. However, there will be some certain amount, lets say 10-15%, that just has no tone. A plank that was cut from the same tree as another but 2 feet away may be complete junk, whereas the other is a good peice. Likewise, you can get some really phenomenal wood, lets say again 10-15% of the wood is actual great wood. You see, great, awesome, wonderful, all those words are VERY overused on the internet. The amount of actual GREAT wood out there compared to your 'good' wood is very small.

Its kinda like the fine crystal analogy... if you take good crystal glasses, and rub the rim, they will sing beautiful music... but try that with your everyday plastic cups. Good luck. Some things are just condusive to good sound.

See, with my les paul, i played at least 50 other guitars that were 'just like it'. However, none of the other guitars were as alive as mine. I can feel it vibrating through me when i play... it truly is an excellent guitar, at least for me.

With warmoth, chances are you will get a very nice, good guitar. But getting a truly GREAT, last-you-for-a-lifetime guitar probably isn't going to happen.

Not trying to knock warmoth or anyone whos built them... they're a GREAT way to get exactly what you want, which is very appealing... but you never know exactly what you're getting.

 

[TattooedCarrot]

Re: Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

I think of Wwarmoth as an alternative to a custom shop, not an alternative to production. If you're getting a regular spec strat, just get a strat. But if you want your choice of woods, colors, bridge or pickup configuration, neck wood choices, fret sizes and all that outside of what's offered on a standard production guitar, then Warmoth will get you there cheaper than a custom shop order. And Warmoth is really for only Fender spec stuff, I wouldn't be interested in a bolt-on 25.5 scale Les Paul.

 

[Xeromus]

Re: Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

I think of Wwarmoth as an alternative to a custom shop, not an alternative to production. If you're getting a regular spec strat, just get a strat. But if you want your choice of woods, colors, bridge or pickup configuration, neck wood choices, fret sizes and all that outside of what's offered on a standard production guitar, then Warmoth will get you there cheaper than a custom shop order. And Warmoth is really for only Fender spec stuff, I wouldn't be interested in a bolt-on 25.5 scale Les Paul.

I was interesting in building a mahogany body strat, maple neck with ebony fretboard, hard tail, loaded with cool rails and a distortion. Medium jumbo to jumbo frets. Not by any means your run of the mill strat. That's my dream strat right there.

 

[Young Angus]

Re: Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

Warmoth stuff are awesome, and if you're not confident enought to put it together yourself just get a pro to do it for you like some guitar tech. Thats who put together the warmoth strat i just bought and its the best strat ive ever played!

 

[rspst14]

Re: Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

Well, i've never made a warmoth guitar, although i have played one of my freinds before.

I know warmoth makes some good stuff... but consider this. Most of this comes from a PM conversation between me and Robert_S. a long long time ago... i'll see if i can remember all of it.

With warmoth, you can be reasonably sure you will get a good guitar. Probably 60-80% of all the wood is good. However, there will be some certain amount, lets say 10-15%, that just has no tone. A plank that was cut from the same tree as another but 2 feet away may be complete junk, whereas the other is a good peice. Likewise, you can get some really phenomenal wood, lets say again 10-15% of the wood is actual great wood. You see, great, awesome, wonderful, all those words are VERY overused on the internet. The amount of actual GREAT wood out there compared to your 'good' wood is very small.

Its kinda like the fine crystal analogy... if you take good crystal glasses, and rub the rim, they will sing beautiful music... but try that with your everyday plastic cups. Good luck. Some things are just condusive to good sound.

See, with my les paul, i played at least 50 other guitars that were 'just like it'. However, none of the other guitars were as alive as mine. I can feel it vibrating through me when i play... it truly is an excellent guitar, at least for me.

With warmoth, chances are you will get a very nice, good guitar. But getting a truly GREAT, last-you-for-a-lifetime guitar probably isn't going to happen.

Not trying to knock warmoth or anyone whos built them... they're a GREAT way to get exactly what you want, which is very appealing... but you never know exactly what you're getting.

I would say that this is the case with any guitar. Certain companies are better than others in this regard (Hamer being the best in my opinion,) but just because you buy an off-the-shelf-guitar doesn't mean that you're guaranteed a winner, just like building it yourself to your exact specs doesn't always guarantee that it'll be the guitar of your dreams. I'd say Warmoth's stuff is as good as or better than Fender's.

Ryan

 

[Fiber-Optics]

Re: Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

Warmoth stuff are awesome, and if you're not confident enought to put it together yourself just get a pro to do it for you like some guitar tech. Thats who put together the warmoth strat i just bought and its the best strat ive ever played!

But that defeats the purpose of having a project guitar!! :laugh2: J/K Yeah, if you are ever in doubt you prolly could just ask a local tech. I was considering a SG warmoth project but then decided not to because you prolly wouldn't be able to get true SG sound with a bolt on neck fftopic: but that is besides the point.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Who has built a Warmoth strat? Comments?

my all-white Warmoth Strat is awesome. It fits my hand like a glove 'cuz i got that extra-fat neck and the body is a lot lighter than on my Fender, so i can really thrash out with it. I just wanted a white, non-glossy, easy-to-look at finish so I went and got a can of white primer, a can of white satin finish, and a can of white enamel (whatever THAT means) and sprayed 'em all on, and all of my friends say it looks sweet.

Sure I probably could've gotten the same tone with a Tacocaster with the same pickups but it wouldn't have the same look, and that feeling every time I strap it on like "MY CREATION"

I totally see how the trem "Frankenstrat" got so popular

-X