deciding what to get for the first warmoth build!

Laptopkoen

Junior Member
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Hey! So .. yeap .. I'm just about there .. almost ready to hit the buy button .. yet I'm further away from a definite conclusion than ever!

I pretty much have the woods down; chambered korina body (black korina or whatever) and a goncalo alves / ebony warmoth pro neck, 59 roundback contour. Did i mention it's gonna be a strat? (Something magic about the word .. the second I finished writing than sentence a glass lamp fell off its wire and hit the floor, shattered.

First issue: The headstock .. now .. I'm pretty sure it's gonna be a CBS headstock. Thing is, I think I read somewhere that the bigger headstock = more mass = more sustain. Plus it looks cool  :icon_biggrin: - Also I heard that if the headstock is reversed, the high strings will be shorter, and so, easier to bend. Again, I think it looks cool. Problem is, with a reverse headstock, the low strings get longer, and thus they lose some of their tone.. sounds silly to me :)tard:).. but I dunno .. what do you think?

Secondly, there's the issue with the bridge. Either I'm gonna get the new 6-screw wilkinson tremolo, and a tremol-no, or a callaham hardtail. The hardtail has more tone and sustain (though some might argue the strat tone is attributed to the tremolo, though personally I believe it's in the pickups), and more tuning stability. But on the other hand, the tremolo offers more diversity in playing (tremolo-fun) .. and with the tremol-no it could basically turn into a hardtail in an instant. (Springs look really cool in the back too). My worry is though, that a tremol-noed tremolo does not equal a hardtail, and that a true hardtail might have even more tone .. and sustain. (This reminds me of that topgear episode where James May had to review some italian car without using the words soul and passion  :toothy12: (he failed)) Again, what do you think?

Third and last I'm having real trouble deciding which pickups to get, or more specifically, how to wire them. First I wanted H-S-S with a coilsplit humbucker, later H-S-H, still with coilsplit humbuckers, but then I discovered these: http://joebarden.com/main.php?section=Products&pageID=HB%20and%20HB%20TwoTone - Joe Barden TwoTones. Basically they claim to be humbuckers that .. well I don't get it, maybe you can make some sense of it by reading the article.. anyway they offer true single coil tones (noise free, like joe barden single coils, that are really humbuckers) AND humbucking tones. So what I was thinking was .. why not wire 3 of these babies in an H-H-H setup? In this case I'd want the classic strat knobs, 5-way, master volume, neck tone and then untraditionally, bridge tone (this guitar will be nothing but tradional though). The tone for the neck would push pull to simultaneously split all three pickups, so now you're basically dealing with a strat (S-S-S). The bridge tone would then push pull to turn the bridge pickup on/off, regardless of the split, to allow for les paul middle positions (neck and bridge humbucker) and a tele midposition (neck and bridge singles). Will this be possible?

Excuse me if there are some spelling mistakes in there .. I can't be arsed to go through it again can I?  :headbang:

Thanks in advance - have a happy new year everyone!

:help:
 
Laptopkoen said:
Did i mention it's gonna be a strat? (Something magic about the word .. the second I finished writing than sentence a glass lamp fell off its wire and hit the floor, shattered.
Perhaps a tele would be better :p
 
Laptopkoen said:
Sounds like you guys didnt care to read more than the first block of text  :sad:

Important stuff first.  Headstock shape is CRITICAL to world domination.

There's endless debate over sustain and trem/hardtail.  I think it has more to do with a quality bridge (of whichever sort) and a good piece of wood.

Pickups... Barden doesn't make crap.  However, telling someone your opinion on pickups is like telling someone your opinion on female parts.  My advice would be to route the body for HHH or the swimming pool route (if it has a pickguard) and to try out tons of pickups before you order if it doesn't have a pickguard.  

All your wiring options are possible.

edit:  I'm current wiring my strat to have Tele pickups in the bridge and neck positions wired through a 3 way Tele switch with a defeat switch in the volume knob slot  to turn it all on/off.  I'm putting a P-90 in the middle wired with its own defeat switch (between the other defeat andt he 3-way switch), and a volume knob in the first tone knob slot and SPX in the second  tone knob slot for mid boosts.

What I'm saying is:  Get creative and don't be afraid to think big if it's something you'll make use of.


-Mark
 
I wouldnt worry too much about the reverse headstock and what not for tone. a lot of it is still in the amp and the pickups and so much else. any warmoth you put together is going to sound good! and play even better.

as far as the bridge goes I might be biased (all but one of my guitars are trem) but I would get the trem and block it. you always have the option to switch back and forth and thats not so with a hardtail.
 
slashgnr88 said:
as far as the bridge goes I might be biased (all but one of my guitars are trem) but I would get the trem and block it. you always have the option to switch back and forth and thats not so with a hardtail.

That's a great point.  Almost all my Strats are blocked trems.

-Mark
 
hey again !

Well, as far as the headstock goes .. it probably makes more sense to go for looks rather than any sort of impact on tone  :doh:
Electronics .. Joe Bardens are really expensive .. maybe I'll work something else out

Bridge - Well I'm leaning toward a hardtail right now ..  :-\
 
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