Carve top #4 Gib Replacement

[swarfrat]

The upper bout is too bunched up is what I think you're seeing. It's a bit too straight leaving the body and then all the curvature happens all at once. But I also understand it's a difficult job because it's largely a legal rather than artistic problem. Coming up with something that looks good is much easier than something that 1) looks good, 2) looks LP-ish, and 3) will keep the lawyers at bay.

Ultimately #3 is an unsolvable problem, you just have to do a good enough job to make money for now. Without a binding contract in place, it's all up to the whims of G, and the mortgage payments of their lawyers. After a while, they get hungry anyway no matter how good a job at reasonable effort you do.

 

[Wolfie351]

It's the irregular radius of the top and cutaway that kills it, I don't think I'll be buying.  The LP totally loses it's sexiness without those smooth curves.  But, I have no doubt Warmoth did everything they could to keep it as close as possible so no disrespect intended.  It's too bad other manufacturers can get away with it but W can't.

 

[Re-Pete]

OK.  It is good.  Not to be negative but it looks like a les paul with a pointed horn Johnny A style.  What took so long??  Did any of the other dimensions change??  Any chances of getting F Holes in those things?

Has the carved top curvature changed to a flatter arch?

 

[Xplorervoodoo]

I like it.  I'm almost wishing I had've waited before ordering a body blank, but there's always the next guitar...  :laughing7:

 

[Orpheo]

The upper bout is too bunched up is what I think you're seeing. It's a bit too straight leaving the body and then all the curvature happens all at once. But I also understand it's a difficult job because it's largely a legal rather than artistic problem. Coming up with something that looks good is much easier than something that 1) looks good, 2) looks LP-ish, and 3) will keep the lawyers at bay.

Ultimately #3 is an unsolvable problem, you just have to do a good enough job to make money for now. Without a binding contract in place, it's all up to the whims of G, and the mortgage payments of their lawyers. After a while, they get hungry anyway no matter how good a job at reasonable effort you do.

actually, I love the upper bout. looks nice, a bit more modern. but the horn. I simply don't like florentine cutaways.

 

[Jeremiah]

I think the upper bout looks fine on its own and the lower horn looks fine on its own, but somehow they don't quite go together right.

I'd have to wait til I've seen one with pickups/hardware and neck to know for sure whether I like it.

 

[Updown]

I'd have to wait til I've seen one with pickups/hardware and neck to know for sure whether I like it.

You may be correct there ....
:redflag:  need a pic with at least a neck on it. (like the others)


But  :icon_scratch:  I still can't get my head around that the top bout, and I don't think I ever will, sorry guys & gals.

Out of all the NEW models (that's 4 now) ....  only the one dose anything for me.
This one ... #2  http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=21974.0

I like the way the top bout lines up with the lower bout.
I don't mind the pointed lower bout (that's after some viewing) ..... well I do have an SG anyway  :icon_biggrin:

Still ...  I take my hat off to Warmoth  :icon_thumright:  for the latest Bodies in, I'm sure a difficult time for them. 

ccasion14:

 

[Orpheo]

I have it on my facebook for people to comment on and BOY... it's being commented a lot. so every time i click to read a reply i see the picture. it's starting to grow on me. Maybe they hit a winner with this one? not sure. but I do like it more 'n more.

 

[jay4321]

I like round bouts and I cannot lie
You other posters can't deny
Buy an LP shape with a little bit o' paint
and a matching neck that's straight
It gets strung, wanna pull out my pick
Show my riffs to that Hannah chick

Man this Warmoth GAS is spreading
I'm hooked and I can't stop shredding
Oh Tonar, that last job's nice bro
Think I need to go nitro

nevermind I'm going back to sleep, what was that

Just thinking this new shape will be a tough sell for me. If it were a little more distinct from the original design I think I'd like it more. When this close I feel like it should be the actual shape, or it will look like a slightly deformed bad copy. A sharper cutaway or something more pronounced would have been my preference I think. Just being honest.

Would have liked to have seen some other candidate designs shown in the forums for feedback. I kinda wonder if there's a better design that didn't make the cut.

 

[bagman67]

TO be frank, it seems to me that the basic, fundamental problem most folks have with this design is that it's not an LP.  Which is the whole point - it's supposed to be clearly, unambiguously NOT an LP, so Henry and his hellhounds won't come down on the big W.  Taken on its own merits, without respect to what it's trying NOT to be, I like it pretty well, but mostly I'm a Strat/Tele guy from way back.  So my problem with it is not that it's not an LP, but that it's not sufficiently similar to the main competition with the LP.


Go figure.

 

[Orpheo]

No not really. Not for me anyway. It tries to be a les paul while not being a les paul. I was hoping for something a bit more creative and unique, like Frank Hartung's guitars. not his superunique carve, but the overal shape. something like that.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

Yeah, my problem isn't just that it's not an LP. It's that it isn't an LP but is still trying really hard to be one. I was hoping for a nice new singlecut design, not a sufficiently-different LP.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I'm not trying to read too much into it from an LP purist standpoint.
"W" simply cannot make the LP anymore, done deal.

It pays homage, has classic LP apointments while being something different too.

I think it has a bit of an ESP EC series vibe, which is fine for me.  I think a recessed PRS control layout option would complement it nicely.

 

[sixstringsamurai]

I like round bouts and I cannot lie
You other posters can't deny
Buy an LP shape with a little bit o' paint
and a matching neck that's straight
It gets strung, wanna pull out my pick
Show my riffs to that Hannah chick

Man this Warmoth GAS is spreading
I'm hooked and I can't stop shredding
Oh Tonar, that last job's nice bro
Think I need to go nitro

nevermind I'm going back to sleep, what was that

Just thinking this new shape will be a tough sell for me. If it were a little more distinct from the original design I think I'd like it more. When this close I feel like it should be the actual shape, or it will look like a slightly deformed bad copy. A sharper cutaway or something more pronounced would have been my preference I think. Just being honest.

Would have liked to have seen some other candidate designs shown in the forums for feedback. I kinda wonder if there's a better design that didn't make the cut.

:icon_thumright: :laughing7:

 

[Death by Uberschall]

The lower cutout is fine for me. You can mix that with rounded bodies and be fine. The upper bout near the switch is what seems out of place because it not pointed or perfectly rounded, its the in between look that throws it off. If that upper shape was imployed on the big end of the body (top & bottom curves) or if the big end of the body was slanted one way or another it would fit in better. But that's just my opinion.

It does remind me of the ESP/LTD Lester.

 

[stubhead]

TO be frank, it seems to me that the basic, fundamental problem most folks have with this design is that it's not an LP.

Exactly. We have had the "right" shapes pounded into our brains hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands of time, and ANYthing else is therefore "wrong." This is all just a projectile-gush of human nature. Another of those classic shapes is the "jazz bass", and there have been people like Wahl and Lakland who have tried to tinker with it - and anything you do more than a few millimeters off, it gets hideous. It's WRONG!

If you were like the greatest design engineer in the world and you designed an absolutely beautiful face, with two ears in the middle and a nostril on either side, people would be all like

EEEEEW! 
EEEE-EW!

And if Ibanez had started making the RG in 1952, and in 1985 some guy named "Leo" was wandering around trying to hawk this.... this... thing called a "Telecaster", well I'd be a monkey's uncle.
$200,000 vintage '53 Ibanez RG's.....  ccasion14:

 

[Jumble Jumble]

That's kinda true, but kinda wrong. I don't like this very much, but I do like PRS's singlecut, and in fact I even like the Parker Fly. Neither of those is because of its familiarity.

I think my problem with this is that it's too much like an LP, without being an LP. It's in the guitar equivalent of the uncanny valley. It's almost familiar, but it looks off. It's a shame. The main impression I get from it is that it looks like an LP that's been altered enough so as not to be infringing - it's not creativity that brought this forward as with the other new carve tops, it's the desire to work around a problem of legality, and it really shows.

 

[Cagey]

That's kinda true, but kinda wrong. I don't like this very much, but I do like PRS's singlecut, and in fact I even like the Parker Fly. Neither of those is because of its familiarity.

I think my problem with this is that it's too much like an LP, without being an LP. It's in the guitar equivalent of the uncanny valley. It's almost familiar, but it looks off. It's a shame. The main impression I get from it is that it looks like an LP that's been altered enough so as not to be infringing - it's not creativity that brought this forward as with the other new carve tops, it's the desire to work around a problem of legality, and it really shows.

Perzactly.

It's spiteful, rather than innovative.

 

[Ddbltrbl]

All I can say is I like it a lot better than that "Velocity" thang! :dontknow:

 

[Frank67]

For me it works and i'll be really happy to build one. Look, with a bolt on rather than a set neck it couldn't really be a Les Paul in the first place. I like the shape and for me it doesn't have to be an exact LP replica (I actually have a Gibson Alex Lifeson LP with floyd roe tremolo and piezo bridge - and yes, this is a real LP too!). But it is LPish but will be more comfortable due to the extra comfort cuts that Warmoth allows us to make and the a nice neck with the great compound radius and a fretboard that G doesn'provide etc etc .... It'll be really nice! Let's think positive


PS: that velocity shape also didn't do it for me.