Warmoth Quality Control

[Devine]

Anyone had Warmoth put a guitar together? How well do they do? Ever hear of any lemons? Do they charge for labor?

Thanks.

-Devin

[eelblack2]

I have three complete Warmoth guitars and a 4th neck on my old Pacer and a 5th unused at the moment. Im almost certain you will have to get the final assembly done locally or just do it yourself - if thats what you mean by "Do they charge for labor?"

I have found thier products consitantly excellent and never had an issue at all. I think what most people find irksome about Warmoth is that you get exactly what you ask for. If you ask for good tonewood combinations, you will get a good sounding guitar, if you ask for odd or uncommon tonewoods, you are rolling the dice a bit.

To give you an idea of the stuff Ive tried and I love, here are the Warmoths in my collection:

Swamp Ash Strat Body - clear finish, H/S/H, recessed OFR, Maple neck/Ebony FB - no inlays, reverse strat headstock - neck profile Wolfgang - nut width 1 5/8

Alder Strat Body - Trans Green FM Top, H/S/S, recessed OFR, Maple/Rosewood FB - dot inlays, CBS headstock -neck profile Standard thin- nut width 1 5/8

Alder Strat Body - Trans Honeyburst Quilt Top, S/S/S EMG DG-20 set, Wilkinson Tremolo, Maple/Ebony FB - no inlays, Reverse Strat headstock with matching Quilt maple veneer - neck profile Standard Thin - nut width LSR Spacing (I think thats 1 11/16 cant remember atm)

Maple/Maple Explorer headstock - heavy Birseye - OFR Nut Route

Maple/Rosewood FB - OFR NUT Route - reverse Strat headstock - neck profile Boatneck - unused atm

[Devine]

Great. Thanks. That's the kind of thing I wanted to know.

I can put the guitar together myself, but I was just curious if things like book matching the headstock or finishing the body incurred a labor cost on top of the listed price.

Did you put the guitars together yourself? What extras did you need that Warmoth did not offer? Soldering, wires, screws? Any trouble fitting the neck to the pocket at the correct angle as a result of construction? Pick-up routs were properly done? Any intonation problems after completion?

Thanks again.

-Devin

[eelblack2]

Yes I put them together. The neck pockets are incredibly tight. Once the neck is seated into the body, you can literally pick up the body by the neck without any screws in. The routing is excellent on the three bodies I have. I want to build a 6 string Warmoth Gecko bass next I think and maybe a baritone OFR strat after that.

In regards to extra charges, yes, almost everything from Warmoth is ala carte. You get the basic routes for bodies, (pickups, bridge choice, control cavities, neck pocket) but almost everything else is extra. Thier finishes are excellent also, but they are typically at an extra cost unless you buy the body already painted from the Thrift Shop or whatever they are calling it these days. Necks come standard with peg routes but almost everything else is ala carte as well. Finishes extra here again.

When you build your guitar, try to look at the picture as a whole before you jump into ordering parts. What you thought was a 350 body and a 180 neck will be a lot more once you get all the parts together and work options. My EMG strat was about 350 for the body and 180ish for the neck, but by the time I purchased all the parts seperately and had all the customs added like Stainless Steel frets, gloss, matching headstock quilt veneer, the project came to about 1200 bucks with the EMG set that I purchased seperately. Its not any cheaper building a custom Warmoth guitar as opposed to an off-the-shelf Fender but you have complete control over the parts this way. Once you have everthing together make sure you get the frets dressed as the very last step.

p.s. Intonation was excellent once the project was complete. Make sure you have them do all bridge routing and set the posts where applicable.

[Devine]

Great info. Thanks.

-Devin

[Paul Secondino]

I have the benefit of seeing alot of parts from warmoth because I know two luthiers well and have hung out at their shops alot.

Generally www.usacustomguitars.com offers a more thorough product as far as strat/tele bodies go. My current luthier prefers usa custom guitars over warmoth because of the better customer service and a few other issues which I wont get into here.

As far as warmoth goes, they do offer alot more body shapes and extras. So that's a consideration. I only feel like I need to mention one thing though. Warmoth has some very bogus charges. If you want a neck with a compound radius, there is no extra charge. If you want a neck with a straight 12, 14, 16 radius , warmoth charges extra. This is rediculous. It's simply because Warmoth would rather make compound radius boards all day long.

My best advice is do alot of research. If yo uhave any other specific questions, let us know.

[wallopwallop]

http://www.machinehead.co.uk/images/workshop/mablg.jpg

Can't comment on Warmoth myself as I have no experience of their products. However, I just wanted to share the link above to show what can be done. This was built by Barrie Palmer at Machinehead Music (UK Shop) using Warmoth parts. I think it looks pretty sweet!!

[Devine]

That usacustomguitars tip was a goodie; I like the fact that they offer a more AANJ-like body than Warmoth. Any other outfits that do similar things?

I'd like 24 frets, but don't want to sacrifice a neck pickup.

-Devin

[chris101]

Does it really matter how tight the neck to body fitment is? (assuming the neck is bolted down really tight). Ive seen a few Jems recently that had a gap between one side of the neck and the body.