It's time to share the results! It's been a long time since I received all parts, but now I've got it finished and it's appeared to be cool guitar!
I was after Andy Timmons tone, so I decided to build some alder superstrat with easy access to higher frets and Soloist fitted my needs just well! Neck was a tough choice: I wanted it raw, so I ordered Canary neck, and I wanted it fatter that standard thin, something modern, so Wolfgang back contour looked like good choice. Many warmoth owners said that Canary sound like maple. It's not true It's definetely warmer, punchier with a softer spark in the highs.
Ok, this is just a small intro. Let's see all the specs and I'll tell how that guitar feels and sounds!
Body: Beautiful light 2-pieces Alder with quite rich figure for that type of wood. H-S-S: H- for rocking and S-S for getting some strat tones. Matte transparent finish.
Neck: Canary on Canary Warmoth Pro Strat neck, Wolfgang back countour, 6150 SS fret
Hardware: all black Wilkinson tremolo and Sperzel locking tuners. Black tusq nut, I ordered several nut blanks, tools for sloting and on the second try I mastered a nice nut
Electronics: Suhr Doug Alrdrich bridge pickup, DiMarzio The Cruiser bridge for Middle and Neck (just as Andy Timmons got). Master volume, master tone and a few switches: series-split-parallel switch for bridge pickup; forced bridge pickup on switch (got the idea from Surh guitars it turns off all the pickups and connects bridge pickup directly to the output, you need just push the push-push tone knob); and I wanted to mix bridge pick up with a neck one, so I added a switch that adds bridge pick up to the whole mix.
Feel
It feels really good! Warmoth did a great job on the neck! It's smooth, frets sit perfectly, wolfgang contour is solid, but very comfy. Canary looks awesome! Warmoth Pro construction is 100% stable! I set up it once and after 4 months (when I took off and on the neck several times) it's stable and has same relief.
SS frets feel also great!
Body arrived with a small dent on the lower horn, but I didn't mind The body was awesome. Tap tone was clear and rich, the body itself was very light, but resonant. Contoured heel feels also very nice. Access to the last frets is really easy!
Sound
When I assembled all the guitar parts, I was very surprised with the tone! I have another guitar: it's a high quality Japan Schecter superstart (very similar to Suhr guitars specs), it has Ash+quilted maple top body and maple+rosewood neck. It has mid-scooped bright and shiny tone. So I built Warmoth guitar to get warmer tone and I got it for 110%! High-gain riffs, soloing, even just unplugged strumming sounds terrific! It's punchy, juicy, it has nice low-mids and mids. My luthier said that its tone is like something between strat's and gibson sg's one. And that's perfect But it's appeared to be not exactly like Andy Timmons' Alder+Maple signature Ibanez guitar It's appeared to be a bit warmer But it's ok AT used to play Mahogany+Maple guitar before.
The Cruiser pickups sound a bit fatter that true single coils, but much thinner than humbuckers. Electric Gypsy by AT shows its tone quite clear.
Suhr Doug Alrdrich pickup fitted this guitar just perfect. I tried it on my Ash schecter and didn't liked it. Gibson 498T fits Ash better. But Alder+Canary+Suhr DA sounds just right! I love to play some heavy rock and pop-punk riffs and Suhr does it great!
All in all I'm very happy with my first build! Warmoth rocks! I will definetely build another project someday. But for now I'm happy with what I have I hope my review was helpful for those who are seeking for their tone. It's a true journey