Fender Loaded Gen 4 pickguard won't fit in my new Warmoth roasted swamp ash body

Maurice

Maurice

Newbie
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19
Hello all,
I have just received my Warmoth roasted swamp ash body along with my roasted maple neck, I have a Fender Gen 4 noiseless loaded pickguard that I bought from The Stratosphere. Just tried to fit it in but of course it will not fit in due to the fact that these pickups are taller than non noiseless single coil pickups. Being new to guitar building I didn't know about the difference in pick up height and the Stratosphere doesn't mention it in there description. The pickup pockets on the body are 3/4" deep and if I measure from the back side of the pickguard to the top of the wiring that runs over the top of the middle pickup it measures a full 7/8" and that is with the pickups sticking out a little shy of 1/8" above the top of the pickguard. If I router the pickup pocket out 3/16" to get the pickguard to sit flush on the body that would only leave about 1/16" of wood before opening into the back side tremolo pocket. Don't know what to do about this and hoping someone would know what to do about it or maybe I should send it back and go with pickups that will fit without having to alter the body.
HELP!!!!!!
On another note I want to use a filler on the body before putting an oil finish on, should I seal with a shellac or other sealer prior to using a water based grain filler, want to keep the natural look of the roasted swamp ash.
Some input would be greatly appreciated, my first build and I don't want to mess it up.
Cheers
Maurice
 
Damn that sucks, my chord brogression. my heart just threw up for you. maybe 7/8" is deep 'nuff? have you tried aproximatifying how high the strangs would be? or called the Big W? this kind of info should probably be stickied in one of the subforums here. Call it, like "Fender Gen 4 noiseless, more like Gen 4 Useless". There's gots to be somebody here whose encountered this particular imbroglio. Like why didn't anybody tell me when i tried to follow Milli Vanilli on twitter that it was a fake account?
 
Welcome Maurice, let's look at this by the numbers:

How tall are those pups? You have 3/4", (.750"), pocket depth, and guards go anywhere from about .060" to around .100" thick, so say average about .080". Then, they will need to be adjusted closer to the strings than the 1/8", (.125"), you say they are set at now. I measured my Strat, and they're about 7/32", (.218") above the guard, and my pups are lower than most set theirs at.

So, you have .750" below the guard, plus ~.080" thickness of the guard, plus ~.218" above the guard. Therefore a pup could measure ~ 1.048" thick, and still fit.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a height spec for your selected pups on the net, but using your measurement we get: Pup w/ associated wiring, 7/8", (.875"), thickness of the guard is unchanged at ~.080", and you say you have ~1/8", (.125") above the guard. That makes the pup and the wiring ~1.080" tall, a difference of only ~.032". So, if you set your pups higher by about 1/32", (.03125"), for a total of .156", they would just about fit. And like I said before, my Strat pups are set lower than most, at .218".

Three things I might suggest. One, see if the wiring can be moved so it's not sitting directly under the pickups. If so, you'll gain the thickness of those wire. Two, if you have another Strat, measure the height of the pups to give a more accurate measurement of what your actual setting will be. If yours are set high enough, they'll fit as is. Three, raise the pups a bit, tape your guard in place, (if your not sure if you are going to keep it), mount the neck and the bridge, throw some strings on, and and fire it up. See where you need the pup height to be for your liking.

Any of these options would be easier than routing out the control cavity. Personally, I'd start with a phone call to The Stratosphere. If there's a problem with these pups fitting in standard Strat control cavities, I'm sure they've run into it before. Good luck with your build!  :icon_thumright:
 
Mah boi Steve be like "pickup fit? hold my ranch"

giphy.gif
 
Hey Big Steve
thanks for the input, makes sense, first thing Monday a.m. I will be calling the Stratosphere and see what they say, then I will try what you suggest.
thanks again for the help
Regards
Maurice
 
I’ve dealt with stratosphere they have always made it right.  I’m betting it’s a wire.
 
I'm with Rick. That problem occurs quite often. Enough so that I made a wiring template out of an old Strat pickguard so I'd lay out the wires during assembly in such a way as to miss all the barriers between cavities. Some wire ties can come in handy for that as well.
 
You probably just need to adjust where the wires are running and adjust the pickups in the pickguard to approximate something closer to what they will be when the guitar is set up.
 
Something to check.  Is this by chance a W Vintage Strat? I ask as that specific model does have shallower pup routes.
 
Hello
Tried calling Stratosphere this morning no answer, waiting for a call back, my Warmoth body is a std strat with the pickup cavity of 3/4" depth I am assuming that this would be the same depth as an Americam made Fender body, would anyone know if I am right in assuming this?
Regards
Maurice
 
I've seen some fenders with a shallower depth so 3/4 I believe is normal.  You didn't say in your post, or maybe I missed, but how tall are you pups?  Can you take them out and take a picture next to a ruler?  Also, did you call Fender, whenever I called them I was able to get a human.
 
Those 4th generation noiseless are indeed too deep for just about anything except the Fender bodies they originally came in.
 
That does not sound promising.  If worst comes to worst, you can always find someone in your area to fire up the router and deepen the cavities a touch.  In an ideal world you should find someone who knows guitars and knows routers. 
 
I've seen a few cases where people got them to "fit", but they were basically resting on the bottom of the cavities and there was no room for downward height adjustment.
 
Hey Guys
Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. I have fixed my problem by routing out the three cavities another !/8" deeper, worked out perfectly. Just had to make sure I used a new sharp bit and did it slowly, now they fit in there real nice, no problems with tearing out the grain or cutting through to the tremolo cavity on back. I have since used an ebony filler on my roasted swamp ash body, 3 coats to ensure complete filling of grain, sanded with 320 between coats to remove all excess filler leaving the black in only the grain. looks awesome, now in the process of finishing with tru oil. Since I have never used tru oil before I was wondering how may coats would be appropriate and should I finish with a last coat of wipe poly urethane for protection? Any suggestions? 
Hey Aaron, I am extremely happy with the quality of craftsmanship I received in my roasted swamp ash body and roasted maple neck. I realize that by routing out the cavities deeper I probably voided my warranty from Warmoth but I am confident with the quality of the product that I won't have any warranty issues to worry about. I am very fussy about the quality of wood that I use in my projects, have been in the wood business for about 35 years. Wondering if Warmoth has ever considered making any bodies from bamboo, I think it would make a great guitar body. I have been importing container loads of bamboo into Canada and the US for about 15 years (now retired) and am very familiar with its characteristics and properties, have built all types of beautiful high end furniture and cabinetry with it. Its weight is approximately 3.125 lbs per bd ft, all kiln dried to 6 % or less moisture content very stable, and when what we call carbonizing (same procedure as roasting) the bamboo turns a color very similar to the roasted swamp ash from its original color again similar to non roasted swamp ash. Hardness on the Janka Ball test is approximately 1700. I will be making my own custom bamboo body (hobby) over the next year to try it out. I will be buying another roasted maple neck from Warmoth to use on this build and would recommend Warmoth to anyone considering building their own guitar.
Thanks again for all the help from everybody, any comments about my considered finishing process would be appreciated.
Regards
Maurice
 
Will post some pictures after I'm finished, should be another week or so depending on how many coats I put on. This is probably a dumb newbie question but am I correct in assuming that I need to level the frets on my new Warmoth neck?
 
Maurice said:
Will post some pictures after I'm finished, should be another week or so depending on how many coats I put on. This is probably a dumb newbie question but am I correct in assuming that I need to level the frets on my new Warmoth neck?
Click to expand...

They're usually pretty darn good out of the box with just a fret polish, but a level certainly doesn't hurt
 
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