Beginner friendly build?

[Knthn]

Hi! Been playing guitar for a while but absolute beginner when it comes to building them. I’ve been wanting to build my own Warmoth tele for a while but do not want to start with anything too advanced.

I saw Aaron’s recommendations for new beginners on youtube, suggesting top-routed and fixed bridge guitars without too many fancy or exotic features.

I will opt for a classic tele fixed bridge but I don’t like the look of teles without pickguard, what are the challenges of building with pickguards?

Does it also make sense to order an unfinished roasted swamp ash body and do a couple coats of oil instead of getting it finished? I like the raw and grainy feel of swamp ash but don’t want to take risks on my first build.

Thanks in advance!

 

[johnnyj]

hi and welcome to the forum.

it basicly all is matter of preference, but if you want it easy, i would not recommend doing the finish by yourself. warmoth finishes are really good, so if your build does not require operations at the body for whatever reason, i would go with their finish. this on the other hand is rather a polished professional finish like you know it from factory guitars, not a grainy one where you can feel the wood profiles. in case you want to chose to finish it yourself, i would either recommend wudtone finish or crimsonguitar finish that is applicable without crazy tools and will give at least mediocre results if you mess it up a bit. advantage of doint it yourself is that it will drastically reduce the ordering time. if you dont want color but natural look, things get ofc even easier.

for the neck this is a different story, warmoth offers many woods that dont require finish at all and this is indeed also a nobrainer that you can do at home with tru oil if you chose to do it.

for pickguards on a tele i dont see all too much challenges, you only have to make sure to not select 720 mod and make sure that your body pickup configuration matches your pickguard.

for bridge configurations, i would suggest to find the system you want to realize and then discuss culrpits here in the forum, in the end it is a customized guitar and should work for you.

 

[Rick]

Your instincts are good. If you like the feel of swamp ash then plain oil is the way to go. Pickguards present no issues that a sensible person cannot overcome. If you hit an issue with soldering just bring it to your local tech. Same if you hit an issue with set up. Go for it! Enjoy the journey.

When you see a swamp ash body in the show case you like pounce.

 

[NedRyerson]

Doing finishes as a beginner, I would not start with a Warmoth. Lots of learning (aka mistakes) that occurs despite how dedicated one might be to watching videos and reading instructions. Buy any common import kit guitar for that, or even a cheap unfinished project body from Reverb. Much less painful to make finishing mistakes on something $100 - 200 than a $300 - 400 WM body. The kits are also a good way to practice wiring & assembly techniques.

While I understand and empathize with the desire not to mess up your first build, messing up is part of the game. You don't learn otherwise. What matters is the degree of the mistake and what you learn to fix it. Those of us who've built multiple bodies continue to learn and grow. It's not a one-n-done process. Luthiers who've been in the game for 30+ years will still learn something every time (rather, they should or else they're not a very good luthier).

I was very proud of my first kit-build. But my mistakes were many because I tried to shoot too far, too high for my skill level. I didn't know enough about wood characteristics and color techniques, and that's after consuming as much learning material as I could find. The guitar still plays very well and is one of my favorites. But appearance-wise, I really want to completely strip it down and redo it.

As for your question about the pickguard, the main challenge is aligning the screw holes. And when it comes to screw holes for any application (not just pickguards), always drill a pilot hole first. Do not cut corners on this, do not attempt to "save time" by just marking and letting the screw do the work.

 

[aarontunes]

Your instincts are good. If you like the feel of swamp ash then plain oil is the way to go. Pickguards present no issues that a sensible person cannot overcome. If you hit an issue with soldering just bring it to your local tech. Same if you hit an issue with set up. Go for it! Enjoy the journey.

When you see a swamp ash body in the show case you like pounce.

All this.

 

[teleme01]

I have a different take on putting together a warmoth, 1st off, it's a piece of wood, not a holy artifact. Unless you want a professional finish, do it yourself, if you mess up a little you can sand it back and restart. How else can you learn?

2nd, I got my first electric guitar in 1976 and played all my life, didn't build 1 until 2017. During the process, I learned how to setup a guitar and now the warmoth guitars that I built are setup and play better than any of the Gibson guitars I ever owned. And the parts, wiring, pickups are all better than what comes stock on a guitar under the $1000 price range.

3. let me say that a pickguard gives a lot easier setup on pickups height over wood mounting, however you can accomplish the same with a pickup ring.

Happy building, you can't put all your idea on 1 project so you will end up doing another, and another, etc. Welcome to the obsession.

 

[Spud]

What you describe, you can accomplish. Jump in!

 

[Knthn]

Thanks everyone for the informative replies, I think I will go with a finished body and pickguard. I’m looking forward to getting started with it!

 

[stratamania]

Just go for it.

Here is a build thread for you which may be useful and welcome to the forum.

Natural Ash Tele

If you saw the out of the box thread yesterday the discussions of tea and a T type guitar continues in this work in progress diary thread. I will try and give some tips as I go so it may be useful to someone at some point. Here is the out of the box thread for reference...

unofficialwarmoth.com

 

[sdeeg]

you can't put all your idea on 1 project so you will end up doing another, and another, etc. Welcome to the obsession.

Truer words have never been spoken (typed)!

The idea of going back to factory guitars seems like such a compromise. Now when I walk into the guitar store I look and think .... hmmm, I can build something like that but I'll change this, and that, and I'd like these other things, etc. etc.. So, instead of lusting for some specific instrument, I'm now driven crazy by the multiple design ideas in my head, which in some ways is worse.

The only really hard thing about working with Warmoth is the wait after you place the order!!!

 

[MoreSpaceEcho]

I see the OP decided to go with a finished body, but for other n00bs reading, IMO/E if you can stain a piece of wood, you can totally do the finish yourself. I wouldn't attempt a painted finish myself, I really don't think I could make that look acceptably good, but dyeing/staining is fun, creative work, and you can't really screw it up that bad. Worst case you can just dye it black, another black guitar's never a bad thing.

Putting them together requires care and patience but none of this stuff is rocket surgery. It's pleasant, satisfying work, even when it's annoying, and at the end you get an amazing guitar you can play for the rest of your life.

 

[MoreSpaceEcho]

Also, just to be clear: I'm definitely NOT saying that any old DIY'er can do a fancy dye job with a glossy finish that's gonna look anywhere close to what you'd get from Warmoth. I certainly can not! I couldn't even make red on flame maple look good (that guitar ended up, you guessed it, black).

Just saying stain/dye is much more doable for a novice than paint would be.

 

[teleme01]

I have learned from my experience that its impossible to get a professional finish when there are 15 cats living in your home. I am thinking of naming my guitars the hairy collection. That said they all play great.

 

[Hodgo]

The Tele is a perfect starter. The nice thing about the pickguard is it’s pretty well indexed by the control panel and neck heel - it fits snugly around both points, so lining it up is a no-brainer. Once you have it lined up against those two points, check for an even gap around the upper horn and that the bridge plate is parallel. Easy peasy.

Just a pointer: no matter who finishes it, there’s a lot of opportunities for you to damage your new finish during the hardware install and setup. A good example of this is setting the intonation or drilling the pickguard holes. It’s not hard, but one quick slip of the drill or driver and you will have a scratch. Use tape liberally to cover surfaces while you have sharp tools nearby.

Last but not least - no matter how close you are to getting that next “thing” finished, make sure you don’t rush. Almost all of the mistakes I’ve made were done in a hurry! Great builds take patience.

 

[Ma77]

Thanks everyone for the informative replies, I think I will go with a finished body and pickguard. I’m looking forward to getting started with it!

This is what I would do Warmoth does a great finish, but if sometime you want to finish your own go for it

 

[Scab Pickens]

If you want to keep it simple, you could even do a single pickup to start with. I covered the neck pickup route on my latest build with a "no neck" f-hole pickguard. Emerson Custom pre-wired Esquire harness simplified the wiring.

 

[Knthn]

Also, just to be clear: I'm definitely NOT saying that any old DIY'er can do a fancy dye job with a glossy finish that's gonna look anywhere close to what you'd get from Warmoth. I certainly can not! I couldn't even make red on flame maple look good (that guitar ended up, you guessed it, black).

Just saying stain/dye is much more doable for a novice than paint would be.

Thanks! I think a light black or dark blue stain with oil finish looks great on swamp ash. Sounds easier than I thought initially.