fender contour heel

[stubhead]

That if 36 frets were standard, we'll all be bitching about not having 37.

 

[Cagey]

Hehe! Yeah. "Don't make me pull this car over!"

 

[Strat Avenger]

If anything is a "half-assed attempt to contour the heel", it's the way that Warmoth and others (Warmoth was not the first to do it that way) do it. Having to use two screws that are long and two that are short, all the while retaining that square corner that still meets the palm of your hand, is in no way superior or more attractive than the Fender Deluxe method.  Ibanez produces the most comfortable heel for a "bolt-on" guitar, but there is very little wood there to support the stresses involved. I have seen many Ibanez guitars that were cracked in the heel area of the body.

The Fender design provides the best combination of comfort and strength/stability.

Additionally, since Warmoth is in the "replacement parts" business, it stands to reason that they should offer 'replacement' bodies for the Fender Deluxe Strat.

 

[pabloman]

For an upcharge.

 

[Ace Flibble]

But, I gotta say the dual truss rod makes for an incredibly stable neck. Set it and forget it. I've had necks here that lived through daily changes in temperature and humidity as much as 30 or 40 points, and they just laugh at it. Rock solid. So, I tolerate the extra weight. It's worth it. Once a guitar's built, I never want to work on it again. I just wanna have fun.

I can't say I've actually ever had to adjust any neck much. Ones that have seen 40+ years of abuse, sure. But I can't remember the last time I had a neck that was made in the last twenty years causing me much trouble in terms of excessive truss rod adjustment. I mean hell, I've got three all-Warmoth Teles, one with a VM neck and two with Pro necks, and the one with the VM neck gets put through far more abuse than the other two but I can't remember the last time I had to adjust anything on it, despite all my tuning changes string gauge changes and the general torture it's gone through; it definitely sounds and feels better than the other two to boot.

I get the point of the double truss rod and in theory it's all good, but in practise I've just never had any trouble with the normal rod to begin with. If it ain't broke...

Ibanez produces the most comfortable heel for a "bolt-on" guitar, but there is very little wood there to support the stresses involved.

Eh, I can think of several companies that do it a little nicer. Washburn, some of the Gary Kramers, ESP and Schecter on some of their custom shop models. Mayones are the absolute kings of it. You play one of their bolt-ons and it's hard to tell you're not playing a neck-through from just the feel of it. I'm addicted to building parts guitars but if there's one thing that could make me kick the habit it'd be a Mayones endorsement. Those guys make hardcore guitar pornography.

For an upcharge.

Which would be fine. With Fender it's a $50 upcharge now. Warmoth's current slanted heel is a $35 extra, and most other similar companies do it for about that too. Offer the Fender-style clipped corner heel for the same price or a touch more, everyone's a winner. Hell, it's got to be cheaper/faster to produce the Fender one anyway since the lower cutaway/horn/whatever you want to call it doesn't have to be rounded off differently either. Hey, they can even fleece us charging another $15 to drill the one mounting hole in the Fender contoured heel position too, and I'd still happily order a bunch of them. And no other company is doing it so finally Warmoth would have a completely unique option that could be a real selling point.

('sokay Warmoth, no need to thank me, just send the cheque to the usual address :icon_biggrin

 

[stubhead]

('sokay Warmoth, no need to thank me, just send the cheque to the usual address :icon_biggrin

I'm still waiting for my check for the short-scale basses, after busting hook 'n' crook to make a short-scale out of a regular-scale one. I'm sure the check's in the mail, and they promis... oh wait. Different forum! :cool01:

Those Mayones are just gorgeous, BTW. I'd heard the name, but never looked for them before. Around these parts though, I think I might see just a bit of ribbing if I showed up with a Polish guitar that... ummm... is there any way to even SAY that name that doesn't sound like "mayonnaise?" :toothy12:
http://www.mayones.com/en/dokumenty/guitars

There's actually a centuries-long history of making great musical instruments in places like Poland and Czechoslovakia, and they still have some old-growth forests tucked away. Most of the school-priced brass instruments are Czech these days.

 

[Cagey]

The Poles and the Czechs both get a lot of spanking here in the states for some reason I'll never know, but as countries they have a much higher median IQ than we do in the US. Contrary to popular belief, they're some clever little rascals. My own personal experience has borne this out as well. Most of the Poles I've known have been genius-level intellects.

 

[vtpcnk]

>IMHO They do offer the Pro without the double truss rod, it's called "vintage modern."

but not for conversion necks. all conversions are only 'pro'.

 

[Ace Flibble]

Point of interest, I just noticed that the new Squier - yes, Squier, made in China - Jim Root Telecasters have the contoured heel. I knew the Mexican-made ones did, but it's quite amusing that the Squiers do to. So Fender has their Mexican factory pumping them out and their China joint doing it too now, but you've got to slip the Fender Custom Shop an extra couple of notes to get it done. Talk about nickel 'n' diming. Gotta love that outsourced slave labour, I guess.

is there any way to even SAY that name that doesn't sound like "mayonnaise?"

'May-on-ez' is the correct pronunciation, I believe. Though I've heard it pronounced 'My-own-ass' as well, which raises many questions.

But yeah, it's a bit of an unfortunate name. I can't pronounce half their model names either, and until six months ago their site was full of broken English. Every time I pick up one of their guitars though, damn... they really know what they're doing. Everyone sneers at them when they hear they're made in Poland, but for my money they deserve more respect than anyone. It's about £2,000 to get a hand made neck-through model from them. That won't get you even half a Gibson or ESP custom shop guitar and it'll only land you about a third of one of the properly hand made Fender custom shop models, and if my experience with them all is any indication I'd say Mayones still do a better job at any price.

I had an order with them a year or so ago for a custom neck-through 7-string that I had to cancel to divert funds to a Warmoth body (well, needed to pay bills really - but the body was a nice consolation prize :icon_thumright, which I really regret. I'm now constantly stuck in a battle in my head between more parts builds or re-ordering from them. I think I'm going to make one more Tele and one more Jazzmaster, then I'll buy the 7-string. Maybe a VIP first. I'd like another Thinline too. Then I'll definitely buy the Mayones.

Well. Perhaps another carved Tele.

 

[Cagey]

Mmmm.... Carved Teles....​

 

[Rickgrxbass]

Mmmm.... Carved Teles....​

Indeed. I'm GASsing for a G&L ASAT deluxe right now, but this new strat build kind of put the kibosh on that for now...

 

[Cagey]

G&L makes some really nice stuff. My next youngest brother has a pretty good-sized pile of them, and every one is drool-worthy. I had one years ago that I loved to death - I think it was an SC-3. It's what converted me from Gibson-based designs. Can't remember why I got rid of it. Probably something shiny came along, grass is always greener, and all that.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

G&Ls are awesome and elicit the usual brand snobery for not being a Fender from someone that doesn't know any better.  They're more Fender than Fender.

 

[stubhead]

An awful lot of the inventors and innovators in guitar and amp designs were perfectly horrible businessmen. People like Leo Fender, Bill Lawrence, Seth Lover, Les Paul, they just wanted to stay in their workshop and fiddle with neat-o stuff and they didn't understand why so-called "sharp businessmen" would pretend to be their friend long enough to screw them out of their OWN NAME.... It happened to Leo Fender twice before he caught on, and nowadays the even half-smart ones set up a "consultant" type relationship like what Lawrence did/does with Fender, they forego a cushy salary/big office/organized JOB for a few pennies out of every instrument sold. The Fender "Custom Shop" employs people like Ron Thorn on a piece-by-piece basis, he does inlays for them but you can still purchase an entire Thorn-built guitar too. If you sell your car, or a baby or two. And 3 grand is a bargain for a Fender copy guitar, huh - only $160 extra for quarter-sawn maple!
Good thing babies are cheap... :evil4:

http://www.thornguitars.com/socal-htm/home-socal.htm

 

[Ace Flibble]

G&Ls are awesome and elicit the usual brand snobery for not being a Fender from someone that doesn't know any better.  They're more Fender than Fender.

But it goes both ways, as frankly you just proved. Fender guys say G&L aren't the real deal and G&L guys won't shut up about them being the ''real'' Fender. Same with Gibson and Heritage.

I don't know why anyone bothers. If theres a guitar or brand you like, great. No need to try to turn it into a jab at other companies.

 

[Strat Avenger]

We also have "Wayne Guitars", and "GJ2".  Why didn't these guys just keep their original businesses (along with their own names)??

 

[bagman67]

We also have "Wayne Guitars", and "GJ2".  Why didn't these guys just keep their original businesses (along with their own names)??

In the criminal defense business, we call it "ineffective assistance of counsel."

 

[stubhead]

Well, some of these guys were quite frankly, conned. Bill Lawrence's ex-business partner is "DBA" as "Bill Lawrence USA"; CBS told Fender they'd keep up the quality, let him keep designing, then locked him off in a corner once they'd secured ownership. But you're right, there's a whole new generation of guys who sold off their own names to investors, like Grover Jackson, Wayne Charvel and Dean Zelinsky. And then they saw that there was still money to be made out of the 1980's historical re-creation market, so they came back in.

Typically, "inventors" sign a non-compete agreement that keeps them from undermining their own name's product for a set number of years. It's no different than what Ronco and Ron Popeil went through, although you might argue that the original Deans, Jacksons and Charvels weren't so much "inventions" as just the same bits from different places screwed together with a certain skill level then lacking in Fenders and Gibsons. Nowadays, the knowledge of what it takes to make a great guitar is so widespread they're pretty much just adding to the glut - every "game-changer" or "radical new way to sound vintage" looks like a minor-league tweak, to jaded ol' me.

 

[Cagey]

Jaded is right. Not ignoring history or the evidence of your senses can be quite tiring, not to mention disappointing. In other areas, Peter Norton was a hero until Symantec ruined his name. Rockwell wrecked Allen-Bradley, Westinghouse destroyed Numa-Logic, Hewlett-Packard is just a giant clusterfuk, Sears, Roebuck & Co. is a joke, on and on.

 

[AutoBat]

The McDonald brothers & Ransom Eli Olds both went back into the industry in which they sold their namesakes. Ransom sold his name as Oldsmobile, his most famous post model was the REO Speedwagon (yes, it was a real automobile)