Any experience with buzzy necks?

Johnhamdun

Junior Member
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Hey Guys (First Post!)

I was talking to the shop near my house about having them set up a warmoth neck on my Fender and they warned me that the neck might turn out with a buzz between the 7 and 9 (that is what they have seen in the past). Does anyone have any experience with this (or any other buzz on the warmoth necks)? I would really rather not pay a couple hundred dollars for a neck that does perform.

Also, does anyone know about how long it takes necks to arrive if they are custom built (not showcase)?

Thanks guys
 
Just realized that this is the completely wrong section to have posted my question under, but any help would still be appreciated.
 
That's where the bad buzz is on my neck. I'm hoping that it can be remedied soon.
 
Johnhamdun said:
Hey Guys (First Post!)

I was talking to the shop near my house about having them set up a warmoth neck on my Fender and they warned me that the neck might turn out with a buzz between the 7 and 9 (that is what they have seen in the past). Does anyone have any experience with this (or any other buzz on the warmoth necks)? I would really rather not pay a couple hundred dollars for a neck that does perform.

Also, does anyone know about how long it takes necks to arrive if they are custom built (not showcase)?

Thanks guys

What's the source of the buzz? I'm guessing a high or low fret, in which case you'll have to have the frets leveled and dressed, as W always recommends.
 
Are you sure the guys at this shop know what they're doing?

I've bought about 20 Warmoth guitar neck and a couple of bass necks of a wide variety of woods and have yet to see any issues at all.

Out of the box, it's not uncommon to need to do a very slight truss rod adjustment, if needed, typically less than a 1/4 turn. You should have a metal straight edge to check the neck relief before bolting on the neck if you're doing guitar assembly. Once you have the neck mounted and string the guitar you need to wait a day or so with the strings at tension and recheck the neck relief.

Once properly set up; the double expanding truss rods are so stable I've yet to have to to a neck readjustment and the oldest one is 2 1/3 yrs old.
 
I'm on my 9th Warmoth neck, and have yet to have a single problem. I guess I'm lucky, too.

And any shop that tells you that many or most Warmoth necks have some strange built-in defect are doing you a huge favor. They're letting you know that you don't ever want to spend a dime there, because they don't have a clue.

 
"buzz from 7 to 9" isn't very useful and the shop should be giving you more info than that. WHY did the Warmoth necks they've seen buzz? That's the question. I haven't bought as many as some, but so far I'm 3 for 3 on great straight necks and no need for fretwork. The product in general is superior in my experience, although given the nature of musical instruments, there will always be duds. I recently did a total strip and refinish of a Fender American Standard Strat and it was interesting to see how much better the wood and tighter the tolerances were on my Warmoths. I would say that the cheapest necks in the closeout section are at least equal to Fender American quality.
 
They did not mention the source of the buzzing but I should be by there sometime tomorrow afternoon and will ask them.

This all sounds great though. Does anyone have any opinions on the effectiveness of the variable radius on the neck?
 
Oh, custom order necks take between 4 and 10 weeks depending on whether you want binding, custom inlays, and finish, and who knows what else. Patience required. The 10-16 radius is good, maybe a bit overhyped but there's nothing wrong with it. You don't really notice it in normal playing. Draw a 10" and a 16" radius circle yourself and see how similar they are across 2" of the arc. You can see the difference if you look closely. I wish they didn't charge extra for straight radii but it's not a big thing either way.
 
Johnhamdun said:
Does anyone have any opinions on the effectiveness of the variable radius on the neck?

I think all of my necks are the compound radius, so it just feels natural to me now. Granted, I am 95% a rhythm guitarist, but when I'm noodling at home, I've never noticed anything odd about them as far as bending stings and such. Folks who play nothing but single notes may have a different opinion.
 
Buzzy around the 7th to 9th fret area, eh? Only two things come to mind. 1) Never heard that one before and I thought I heard everything already.  2) If it were true, Warmoth probably would have fixed it after 29 years and a million necks. That would make sense, right? 

Hey, have you heard the one about the guy who put a raw Warmoth body in a baking pan, added Wesson oil and stuck it in the oven at low heat? Yep, he was trying to do his own oil finish. He called in for a warranty claim - bad glue. True story.  (I got a million of them)  :laughing7:                   

 
Can someone shed some light on "leveling and dressing frets?" So this is something i should do when i get my stuff? Just so i know what to tell my luthier...
 
juliancs said:
Can someone shed some light on "leveling and dressing frets?" So this is something i should do when i get my stuff? Just so i know what to tell my luthier...
There are two approaches to this. First option is to assemble your guitar, do the setup or have it done, and if you are not happy with the action you are able to obtain take it to your luthier to do a fret job. The other option would be to take either your parts or the assembled but not set up guitar to your luthier and have him do the assembly and/or setup. Then you should ask him to check the frets and level/dress them if required. If you think that you want to go either wey, talk to your luthier first so you know how he feels about these things. Some people don't like to clean up what they consider to be a mess somebody else made, and often they will charge you more than if you just let them do the complete job.
 
Hey, have you heard the one about the guy who put a raw Warmoth body in a baking pan, added Wesson oil and stuck it in the oven at low heat? Yep, he was trying to do his own oil finish. He called in for a warranty claim - bad glue. True story.  (I got a million of them)   

Oh my gawd!  That's great.  As someone who has to take the phone calls like that where I work, I can empathize, granted my calls are about 6-10 dollar sandwiches.  Anyway,  I may not have purchased as many Warmoth necks as these guys, but the two I do own were just about perfect right out of the box.  I was expecting to have to have some fret work done, but on mine a slight truss rod adjustment and I was off and running.  I've got to say that the guys at that shop don't really sound like great guitar techs to me.  My guy loves a challange and has never found a problem he couldn't work out, at least with any of the stuff I have brought him!
 
I currently only have one Warmoth neck, but it was about perfect out of the box.  Just a slight truss rod adjustment to get the proper amount of relief and that was it.  There are no buzzes or dead spots anywhere on the neck.  It was a custom order neck and took right at 8 weeks to arrive.  I have a second one on order and so far it has been 8 weeks (however it is getting a finish applied).

 
ByteFrenzy said:
juliancs said:
Can someone shed some light on "leveling and dressing frets?" So this is something i should do when i get my stuff? Just so i know what to tell my luthier...
There are two approaches to this. First option is to assemble your guitar, do the setup or have it done, and if you are not happy with the action you are able to obtain take it to your luthier to do a fret job. The other option would be to take either your parts or the assembled but not set up guitar to your luthier and have him do the assembly and/or setup. Then you should ask him to check the frets and level/dress them if required. If you think that you want to go either wey, talk to your luthier first so you know how he feels about these things. Some people don't like to clean up what they consider to be a mess somebody else made, and often they will charge you more than if you just let them do the complete job.

Well he is assembling the guitar anyway, because I've never drilled a hole in my life. So I guess I'll give him a pack of strings and just tell him to set it all up with a nice low action? :/
 
After just receiving my first Warmoth neck, I can say that there are no dead spots at all.  Very nice right out of the box.  I'm letting the strings work on the neck right now, then tomorrow I'll do the set up.
 
Mine buzzes a little, but I have the action set low (1.9mm at the body fret; 2.4mm is "medium") and it hasn't been levelled yet, which will probably nail it.

I needed to *tighten* the truss rod about 1/4 of a turn with no. 10 strings; maybe they ship them ready for no. 9s, maybe it's random.
 
Note to bass players/builders; just finished doing final setup on my first bass (link below); a little bit different kettle of fish apparently...

The JBass neck was completely level across all frets out of the box, but after a day and a half of having tension on the strings it needed more than a whole turn on the truss rod to get the relief set completely level again. No buzzing, but without the additional adjustment the action was mostly too high.

http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=3511.0
 
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