Warmoth has ruined me for production guitars

[Sean6247]

I appreciate @twoheadedboy and his view concerning resale and the effort necessary to sell different brands of guitars. While I have sold many guitars, I don’t go into a guitar (built or bought) with an exit strategy in mind. I guess I am just more romantic about it and mostly envisioning the potential of the instrument. I really like getting custom shop options and quality for 1/3 of the price.

 

[twoheadedboy]

I appreciate @twoheadedboy and his view concerning resale and the effort necessary to sell different brands of guitars. While I have sold many guitars, I don’t go into a guitar (built or bought) with an exit strategy in mind. I guess I am just more romantic about it and mostly envisioning the potential of the instrument. I really like getting custom shop options and quality for 1/3 of the price.

I wish I could go into guitars without an exit strategy in mind. The fact that I can't is probably a personality flaw. I like variety, but I don't like to accumulate guitars, so I buy guitars knowing that I will probably sell or trade them within a year. That pattern seems to be limited to guitars, so that's good I guess.

 

[Frank Lee]

Man, you’re singing my song. I generally lean towards Fender designs; but at this point, no Fender or Fender-inspired production guitar is exactly what I want... they all require mods (in some cases, significant mods) to get where I want to go. Unfortunately, though, Starcasters and Jazzmasters are my favorite styles of all, and Warmoth only takes care of one half.

 

[BEACHBUM]

I haven't built a complete guitar with their parts but this mahogany/ebony neck did wonders for my American Standard.

 

[TattooedCarrot]

I've used Warmoth off and on for years, but my favorite necks were Musikraft. However I recently picked up one of each and I think I like the Warmoth (59 profile) better. Musikraft seems different than my previous necks and I really like the Warmoth 59 profile.

My only complaint about Warmoth is the local maple they use tends to have a lot of obvious streaks in it and I don't care for that.

 

[daacrusher2001]

I built one partscaster - USACG neck and Allparts Body. It was decent, I played it for a number of years. I wouldn't say it was great tho'...It became my test guitar for pickups, and I did a fair amount of setups on it to try different things.

I would love a dual P90 Tele - I never see any for sale. I have thought about a Warmoth build but I have never done a full fret level so not sure it'd work for me. I don't have the tools I need to do one. Still...I'm thinking about giving it a try and if the frets need leveling I'll either get the tools I need or bring it to someone.

 

[BEACHBUM]

I built one partscaster - USACG neck and Allparts Body. It was decent, I played it for a number of years. I wouldn't say it was great tho'...It became my test guitar for pickups, and I did a fair amount of setups on it to try different things.

I would love a dual P90 Tele - I never see any for sale. I have thought about a Warmoth build but I have never done a full fret level so not sure it'd work for me. I don't have the tools I need to do one. Still...I'm thinking about giving it a try and if the frets need leveling I'll either get the tools I need or bring it to someone.

I never had to level mine they were fine.

 

[Sean6247]

Every guitar which comes into my possession gets the frets leveled. The Warmoths usually get very little fret material removed, but get leveled just the same.

 

[Longer]

Yes, my first build turned out to be the greatest Strat ever made.
I still have it, along w/ some other nice builds... and also along with a few I’d never buy if hanging on a wall somewhere, ever.

 

[Alan Wolf]

I built one partscaster - USACG neck and Allparts Body. It was decent, I played it for a number of years. I wouldn't say it was great tho'...It became my test guitar for pickups, and I did a fair amount of setups on it to try different things.

I would love a dual P90 Tele - I never see any for sale. I have thought about a Warmoth build but I have never done a full fret level so not sure it'd work for me. I don't have the tools I need to do one. Still...I'm thinking about giving it a try and if the frets need leveling I'll either get the tools I need or bring it to someone.

The two Warmoth builds I’ve done needed very little leveling; I played both of them about a week before doing it, to let everything settle in, and also to get a sense of how my leveling changed the feel. I think in both cases, only about 4 frets needed any attention, and the flat spots I had before crowning were still very narrow.

I think stainless are easier for beginners to work with, also, as they react slower to sanding and filing, so even if you’re being a bit too aggressive you have a better chance of noticing.

 

[BEACHBUM]

I think it also depends on the action you are comfortable with. If you like a medium or slightly lower action leveling becomes less important. If you like it right down there with a set of 9's then it's pretty much mandatory.

 

[OotMagroot]

I'm thinking about getting a Velocity flat top mahogany body and a mahogany Vortex neck with dark Indian rose wood fretboard and 24 3/4" scale.

Two humbuckers. A switch for each pickup to switch between either/or/both coils, and a 3 way switch. Hardtail. Locking Tuners. Vintage Strat mount bridge. 1 V and 1 T.

Tru-Oil finish.

All done!

 

[k tone]

I’m currently waiting for a standard thin, SS frets, 1 11/16 nut, maple/ maple Vintage Modern Tele neck and a Fender Vintera WRHB neck for a Tele Custom build. Everyone says that the Standard Thin neck is to thin. I have one on a Strat build and in the 1 11/16 nut size it’s comparable to the 59. I like it better than my boatneck which is pretty huge.

1 11/16 nut width is awesome. Whe don’t more companies offer it? That’s the primary reason I went to partscasters.

Even though it’s only 1/16 diff it makes a huge difference.

 

[Frank67]

Eight Warmoth guitars an counting (5 Strats, 2 teles, 1 weird). Doesn‘t get better for me than that and I have/had it pretty much all.

 

[Tone_Terrific]

1 11/16 nut width is awesome. Whe don’t more companies offer it? That’s the primary reason I went to partscasters.

1 11/16 = 1.6875 in. = 43mm
Pretty common actually.
I find that to be the minimum comfortable size, too.

 

[k tone]

All of my name guitars (Strat Deluxe, MIM Tele) feel narrower than my Warmoth. I also like the strings not as close to the edge of the fretboard. It suits my ham fisted playing style.
My Les Paul Trad feels beefy and wide.

 

[Mark Robinson]

I’m really cheap, pretty handy and have a paint booth at work. So I’ve built a few, for myself and for friends. They are as good as the paint work, hardware and setup, put into them, but you have to build to keep or to gift. You’ll never get the cashish back out.

I do have some unique feature sets, Telecaster with a Wilkinson Convertible, LSR nut, Sperzel gears, no trees, and EMG pickups, hollow, but no F holes.

Lightened HSS Strat, rear routed, big V neck, 15 inch radius, also with the Convertible , LSR nut, Sperzels..

These two guitars work well, but taught me that I prefer a heavier body.

There’s also a guest guitar here, Tele with Bigsby, Filtertrons, that a departed friend built, with some learners mistakes, bad neck angle, awkward control layout, neck dive, but it sounds killer once it was shimmed and re-organized electronically, controls wise. I also built one for my daughter and her guests to play when they are over.

Since those, I’ve built a few “used parts” guitars, Fender bodies, Musicraft or Warmoth or Mexican Fender necks, it’s fun.

I’ve assembled about 100 custom guitars for a friend with a store,. We rarely use Warmoth, but they’ll double bind a Tele body with an arm ct, nice! I really enjoy putting them together, setting them up and seeing how they play, hearing them roll.