I think everyone who has ordered custom stuff from Warmoth know how agonising the wait can be. In my case whilst waiting for the Mooncaster I couldn't hold myself together any longer and so decided to do a scratch build with timber I had hanging around. I've accumulated a lot over the years from here and there for wood turning, house renovation etc. So about 7 weeks into my wait I added a second neck to my order from the showcase with the intention of building the body from scratch. It was a roasted maple superwide warhead with ebony fretboard, stainless fret wires and azurite dots.
I started building the body before my order came, specs:
2 piece 35mm thick ash body. built up to 45mm thick with 3mm wenge veneers. I routed cavities in the upper and lower bouts before veneering. The whole body then bleached, a thin white dye applied and then finally waxed with black boot polish to sit in the grain (similar to liming, but in black!). Then completed with successive coats of finishing oil and wax, which I feel much more comfortable with than the lacquered / poly finish used on the Mooncaster that makes me worry i'm going to scratch it every time I pick it up. Controls are 1 volume, 1 tone, pickup selector toggle and 2 mini toggles which select series or parallel on each pup. I had decided to do this one as cheap as possible, Hence the unbranded pickups and the Les Trem II - the cheapest tremolo I could find.
Once my order came I jumped onto the Mooncaster, but have been able to return to this one recently.
When I joined the roasted maple neck to the body it just didn't look right - too dark. So I took a huge gamble and bleached the neck and applied white dye as well. I like the match a lot better now, although it still looks dark in the photo. I've tried to give the neck and Body a 'worn-in' look.
I am reasonably pleased with the outcome although it's far from perfect. Next time i'd do a deeper cut for reaching the bottom frets (it's a 24 fret neck) and put more thought into the shape of the guitar as the body looks too long.
I'm really happy with the way it plays and have been able to set it up with a super low action, just trying to get used to those slippery stainless frets.
I guess you can tell that Ive been afflicted with a serious case of GAS , but for me it's equally about the enjoyment of the build. I've learnt a lot from this project and am already dreaming up the next - which i'll try to post from the outset this time around - fear of failure stopped me posting this one earlier, I kept thinking I'd mess up one of the critical operations such as routing the neck pocket or getting the bridge in the correct position etc...
I started building the body before my order came, specs:
2 piece 35mm thick ash body. built up to 45mm thick with 3mm wenge veneers. I routed cavities in the upper and lower bouts before veneering. The whole body then bleached, a thin white dye applied and then finally waxed with black boot polish to sit in the grain (similar to liming, but in black!). Then completed with successive coats of finishing oil and wax, which I feel much more comfortable with than the lacquered / poly finish used on the Mooncaster that makes me worry i'm going to scratch it every time I pick it up. Controls are 1 volume, 1 tone, pickup selector toggle and 2 mini toggles which select series or parallel on each pup. I had decided to do this one as cheap as possible, Hence the unbranded pickups and the Les Trem II - the cheapest tremolo I could find.
Once my order came I jumped onto the Mooncaster, but have been able to return to this one recently.
When I joined the roasted maple neck to the body it just didn't look right - too dark. So I took a huge gamble and bleached the neck and applied white dye as well. I like the match a lot better now, although it still looks dark in the photo. I've tried to give the neck and Body a 'worn-in' look.
I am reasonably pleased with the outcome although it's far from perfect. Next time i'd do a deeper cut for reaching the bottom frets (it's a 24 fret neck) and put more thought into the shape of the guitar as the body looks too long.
I'm really happy with the way it plays and have been able to set it up with a super low action, just trying to get used to those slippery stainless frets.
I guess you can tell that Ive been afflicted with a serious case of GAS , but for me it's equally about the enjoyment of the build. I've learnt a lot from this project and am already dreaming up the next - which i'll try to post from the outset this time around - fear of failure stopped me posting this one earlier, I kept thinking I'd mess up one of the critical operations such as routing the neck pocket or getting the bridge in the correct position etc...
