Finally pulled the trigger, Turquoise VIP

[cuthbert]

After long thought, especially because I am a foreign customer therefore I am hit by crazy shipping charges, duties and tariffs, I decided to place the order for a high spec Warmoth.

The body is a turquoise VIP that was available in the showroom, now the pics have disappeared but it looked like this:



The neck needs to be a custom build, I put together a 3A flame neck, conversion scale, Vortex headstock, with wizard profile, 6100SS frets, turquoise dots and also I asked for the rare matching headstock. Even if the neck is flamed I have been told it will require a veneer nevertheless.



I hope Warmoth will be able to match the torquoise veneer and dots with the current body recreating the "sunburst" finish as well.

Ideally I would have liked 24 frets and a floating bridge, but the body was ready and even with custom builds you can' t never know what you will get in terms of flames.

 

[PFDarkside]

Fantastic! I was eyeing that as well but too expensive for me right now. It’ll be fantastic!

What pickups are you thinking?

 

[mayfly]

It's going to be killer - you won't regret it for sure.

 

[ejphotos]

Nice!

 

[Don O]

It’s gonna look great ! I’ve had them do matching headstock veneers on 4 builds. Here’s 2 of them.

 

[cuthbert]

It’s gonna look great ! I’ve had them do matching headstock veneers on 4 builds. Here’s 2 of them.

View attachment 67134

The one on the right looks familiar.

 

[PFDarkside]

The one on the right looks familiar.

View attachment 67135

Wow that’s really cool!

 

[cuthbert]

Of course matching headstock was a reason why I bought it. Due to the otrageous shipping charges (200 bucks for a neck and a body, with $170 I can ship an entire guitar in a hard case to the US) that will probably my last purchase from Warmoth so I decided to buy something special and I spent the $260 extra off card option for it.

That means about 2000€ overall including duties, taxes etc...but at least I will have something special somewhat similar to a hardtail Peavey HP Special or HP2.



These are cool guitars, well made and I think the VIP is closer to them than a PRS, however I didn't like the small frets, flat 16" fretboard and small dots.

 

[Hodgo]

Sheeeeesh that’s nice. Cant wait to see the finished product.

 

[cuthbert]

Sheeeeesh that’s nice. Cant wait to see the finished product.

Long wait...2 months.

So end of January.

Fantastic! I was eyeing that as well but too expensive for me right now. It’ll be fantastic!

What pickups are you thinking?

Still not decided, might be EMG 60AX and 85X, might be a pair of Iommi humbuckers, might look for a custom wound to match the specifications of old PRS Dragon I set ( A4, 8.kOhm, 42 AWG, Ceramic 19 kOhm #44), might also be a set of Tonerider Rocksong, very cheap but IMO very good pickups on this kind of guitar.

I assume with the Gotoh wraparound I need a standard spaced bridge humbucker. For the tuners I was considering Gotoh 381 locking if they fit the Vortex headstock.

 

[supertruper1988]

Long wait...2 months.

So end of January.



Still not decided, might be EMG 60AX and 85X, might be a pair of Iommi humbuckers, might look for a custom wound to match the specifications of old PRS Dragon I set ( A4, 8.kOhm, 42 AWG, Ceramic 19 kOhm #44), might also be a set of Tonerider Rocksong, very cheap but IMO very good pickups on this kind of guitar.

I assume with the Gotoh wraparound I need a standard spaced bridge humbucker. For the tuners I was considering Gotoh 381 locking if they fit the Vortex headstock.

381s will fit the headstock.

 

[PFDarkside]

Long wait...2 months.

So end of January.



Still not decided, might be EMG 60AX and 85X, might be a pair of Iommi humbuckers, might look for a custom wound to match the specifications of old PRS Dragon I set ( A4, 8.kOhm, 42 AWG, Ceramic 19 kOhm #44), might also be a set of Tonerider Rocksong, very cheap but IMO very good pickups on this kind of guitar.

I assume with the Gotoh wraparound I need a standard spaced bridge humbucker. For the tuners I was considering Gotoh 381 locking if they fit the Vortex headstock.

NOS Gibson Imommis or the new one?

I have an itch to do a Diamondback with crosses and Iommis!

The 60AX/85X sound cool too though.

 

[cuthbert]

NOS Gibson Imommis or the new one?

I have an itch to do a Diamondback with crosses and Iommis!

The 60AX/85X sound cool too though.

In the UK you can still find the old John Birch pickups in various formats and shapes....I was thinking about those.

 

[cuthbert]

Few showroom poctures Warmoth kindly sent me.







I hope the neck will be as goodvas the body.

Oh, today I received the Hyperflux 6 and Magnum 5, I am surprised by the filt and scratches on the covers...asked a return.

 

[PFDarkside]

I’m so excited to see this come together.

 

[cuthbert]

I finally received the kit, after paying 450 euros of custom duties (so long for Warmoth to include the fees in the $200 extortive shipping fees) ...and it was a serious disappointment.

First, the matching headstock doesn't not match at all the body which has a sunburst finish, while the neck has no gradient and the colour is more blue than green:





The cuts for the frets are almost twice as deep as they should be:



For comparison, this is how a "normal fretboard should look like:

And this is a picture from the Warmoth blog which shows their "standard" fretwork...spot the difference!

The most astonishing thing is that I ordered a 1 5/8' nut width neck or 41.3mm and I received a 42.8mm tagged as 1.625:



However I checked and I can confirm a R3 FR nut would fit this neck, these were the specs:



I made these points to the Warmoth customer "care" and what I received are passive aggressive answers like : " they are two different pieces of maple, it's normal the color is different" (despite of the clear gradient difference), "the frets slots are in specs and 6100s need a deeper groove (according to Dunlop specs the tang height is virtually the same) and an implication that I cannot measure correctly the nut width which is nevertheless 41mm because it is printed as such.

I asked to have the neck remade according to my specs and the answer was that this is not possible because I installed the neck on the body therefore the warranty is void (then if the neck would have not fit the body I was also supposed to lose my money because of this? Really?).

You might think I am nitpicking but I would like to point out that with shipping and duties I spent about $2400, about the money I made from selling my Charvel 750XL, an instrument of much different quality. Two years ago I also bought a somewhat similar guitar, a Peavey HP2, for much less...therefore I think I am entitled to complain, notwithstanding the treatment I received from the customer service that is in few appalling.



In conclusion, there is nothing I can do about it, I acknowledged I wasted my money is a substandard product made by a company who ripped me off with ludicrous shipping charges ($200 for a body and neck with UPS, double the price Musikraft charges, for instance), refused to deliver a product according to the specs I specified and refused to honour its warranty. I hope other people will learn from my costly mistake.

Personally I think I bought my first Warmoth neck in 2007 but no way I will buy even a bolt from them again.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

They are pretty up-front about the fact that pieces not painted together will not have ideal match. I am sorry you are disappointed, but I don’t think your expectations were realistic. For whatever it is worth, I think both pieces are gorgeous.

 

[cuthbert]

Are they also pretty upfront on the fact that one is a sunburst finish and the other without gradient? Or that they need to cut the slots twice the height of the tang? Or that you order a 41mm nut and get a 43mm one?

What about the claudole that if you try if the neck fit in their body is not returnable because it is not "as it was"?

Is it possible that the customer is ALWAYS wrong?

 

[Spud]

I finally received the kit, after paying 450 euros of custom duties (so long for Warmoth to include the fees in the $200 extortive shipping fees) ...and it was a serious disappointment.

First, the matching headstock doesn't not match at all the body which has a sunburst finish, while the neck has no gradient and the colour is more blue than green:

View attachment 68408

View attachment 68409

The cuts for the frets are almost twice as deep as they should be:

View attachment 68410

For comparison, this is how a "normal fretboard should look like:View attachment 68411

And this is a picture from the Warmoth blog which shows their "standard" fretwork...spot the difference!

The most astonishing thing is that I ordered a 1 5/8' nut width neck or 41.3mm and I received a 42.8mm tagged as 1.625:

View attachment 68412

However I checked and I can confirm a R3 FR nut would fit this neck, these were the specs:

View attachment 68414

I made these points to the Warmoth customer "care" and what I received are passive aggressive answers like : " they are two different pieces of maple, it's normal the color is different" (despite of the clear gradient difference), "the frets slots are in specs and 6100s need a deeper groove (according to Dunlop specs the tang height is virtually the same) and an implication that I cannot measure correctly the nut width which is nevertheless 41mm because it is printed as such.

I asked to have the neck remade according to my specs and the answer was that this is not possible because I installed the neck on the body therefore the warranty is void (then if the neck would have not fit the body I was also supposed to lose my money because of this? Really?).

You might think I am nitpicking but I would like to point out that with shipping and duties I spent about $2400, about the money I made from selling my Charvel 750XL, an instrument of much different quality. Two years ago I also bought a somewhat similar guitar, a Peavey HP2, for much less...therefore I think I am entitled to complain, notwithstanding the treatment I received from the customer service that is in few appalling.

View attachment 68413

In conclusion, there is nothing I can do about it, I acknowledged I wasted my money is a substandard product made by a company who ripped me off with ludicrous shipping charges ($200 for a body and neck with UPS, double the price Musikraft charges, for instance), refused to deliver a product according to the specs I specified and refused to honour its warranty. I hope other people will learn from my costly mistake.

Personally I think I bought my first Warmoth neck in 2007 but no way I will buy even a bolt from them again.