Recent content by Cactus Jack

Happy holidays to all. I hope everyone is happy & healthy! Thought I'd share a some family pictures as I'm gifting a few guitars tomorrow for Xmas. I apologize for not keeping up on my build threads, I've been pushing hard to wrap up the last two builds. Please share pics too...always good to...

After finding out Hipshot is not a drop in replacement I turned to Kluson. Their bridge is not only a drop in replacement, it's about 2/3's the cost of the Hipshot. I was worried about purchasing an inexpensive bridge, but I was incredibly impressed with the product. The packaging was excellent...

One of my favorite aspects of building "partscasters" is literally pulling parts out of the drawer and making them work. For instance, the pickups I'm using for this build came out of a Strat pickguard. As such, the leads were too short for the rear route cavity.  No worries! I've been...

The more I mess with the neck the more insanely awesome it becomes. It’s an amazing piece of timber. I realize the specs are non-standard, but it was also relatively inexpensive. I’m pretty sure it was a customer return, and I just got lucky.

Yes! Another reason to buy more tools! Thanks for the suggestion.

In my opinion Warmoth excelled at crafting necks. I’ve been consistently impressed with the wood selection, profiles, and all other options. Bottom line, Warmoth necks are excellent. With that said, Warmoth is a parts company, not a finished instrument company. As such, if you want the...

This is my 6th rear route Warmoth body, and I've run into the same issue on all of them. A stock switch is too short, and won't fully engage in positions 1, and 5. I've used Fender, CRL, Oak Grigsby, and it's the same result. My solution, which has worked like a charm on my other builds is to...

I went with solid Basswood for this build as I wanted something light. I haven't weighed it, but it is noticeably lighter than some of my Tele bodies. I know Basswood is looked down upon, but I reached out to Tom Anderson to get his opinion. Based on the pickups he said Basswood is what he'd...

Tele neck screws are generally the way to go. Remember you're not screwing them all the way into the body, just enough to acheive the pickup height you're looking for. However, if the screws are too long, make a run to your local hardware shop and get the same type just shorter.

I worked on the neck this morning. Burnished her from 220 - 2000 then cleaned her up a bit. The neck feels like glass and the chunky flame really pops. The neck has a 3D psychedelic look due to the incredibly deep chetoyance, but unfortunately I can't capture the effect in the pics. Before &...

Ahhh...very smart on your part. Yep, I went standard, but will figure something out.

How did you install the Hipshot bridge? Did you simply angle the screws?

I ended up purchasing a Hipshot bridge and it is not a drop in replacement for the Fender American Standard route. See the pic and comments in the first post of my build thread. https://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=32509.0

Build thread started here: https://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=32509.0

I'm on my penultimate Warmoth build, and this one is going to my son. Being the only boy in our family, and the only Non-Tele body style in our collection, we've appropriately named his guitar the Outcaster. This is a fairly straight forward build with a few fun twists such as: satin black...