First Warmoth Assembly - Green HSS Strat-a-like.

[somebodyelseuk]

Hiya.
Not sure whether this qualifies as a 'work in progress'? Not comfortable calling it a 'build' either, since all I'm doing is screwing some bits together.
Anyway, body and neck are on order, expected towards the end of March. The hardware and electrics are coming from my 'Number 1', which suffered a fatal accident a couple of months ago.

So, for the sake of those who are interested in the details -
Body - Vintage/modern, swamp ash HSS in transparent green.
Neck - Vintage/modern, one piece quarter sawn maple. '59 'Deep C' profile, 9.5"-14"(?) compound.
Gotoh 101 trem.
Sperzel Locking, staggered tuners.
Seymour Duncan '59 Trembucker and two Seymour Duncan SSL-1s.

Will post a photo when finished, and report any 'adjustments' I needed to make - it's not my 'first rodeo' and with there being a continent and an ocean between me and Warmoth, the bits won't be going back.

Should look something like this -

 

[Spud]

Mike Keneally!

 

[somebodyelseuk]

Mike Keneally!

???

 

[Spud]

 

[Rick]

Green is good

 

[xld]

Hiya.
Not sure whether this qualifies as a 'work in progress'? Not comfortable calling it a 'build' either, since all I'm doing is screwing some bits together.
Anyway, body and neck are on order, expected towards the end of March. The hardware and electrics are coming from my 'Number 1', which suffered a fatal accident a couple of months ago.

So, for the sake of those who are interested in the details -
Body - Vintage/modern, swamp ash HSS in transparent green.
Neck - Vintage/modern, one piece quarter sawn maple. '59 'Deep C' profile, 9.5"-14"(?) compound.
Gotoh 101 trem.
Sperzel Locking, staggered tuners.
Seymour Duncan '59 Trembucker and two Seymour Duncan SSL-1s.

Will posta phot when finished, and report any 'adjustments' I needed to make - it's not my 'first rodeo' and with there being a continent and an ocean between me and Warmoth, the bits won't be going back.

Should look something like this -

Purdee! My son likes a green guitar too. I like the ash, maple, maple combo! I have the SD 59’s in a D’Angelico DC. They are nice, beefy pick ups.

 

[Strat Avenger]

I like green.

 

[somebodyelseuk]

Purdee! My son likes a green guitar too. I like the ash, maple, maple combo! I have the SD 59’s in a D’Angelico DC. They are nice, beefy pick ups.

Well, like I said, I'm just transferring parts from my terminally damaged old friend. 'The original' guitar is alder body, but otherwise identical (slightly thinner neck profile). I had it (and a backup) made for me in the '90s and have been gigging them exclusively ever since.
I lucked out on the pickups, really, as I had 30 years less experience back then, no internet, but had noticed that all the best sounding guys were using 'vintage' guitars, so just looked for what SD were making that was 'vintage voiced' and asked for those.
I played with a couple of guitarists in the mid 2000s who had new (production) Les Pauls and found mine (on the 'bucker) sounded closer to how a vintage Les Paul sounded than theirs' did - just a happy accident of circumstances.
I'm under no illusions that it will still be the case with the new body and neck, but it was never really the intention originally, anyway. Just hoping I get a nice, lively body/neck combo.

 

[somebodyelseuk]

Okidoki...
I s'pose it counts as an 'update'?
Ordered the neck and body on 22nd November. Been checking my order status in the meantime like an excited kid tracking Santa.
So, sometime in the last couple of days, status has changed from 'processing' to 'picked', which I guess, means 'it's being made'?
The 18th week would be in about a month, so looks like everything's on schedule.


EDIT: Just received the email informing me my order has shipped. If memory serves, that means I could have it in my hands at the weekend.

 

[somebodyelseuk]

Well, order arrived about an hour ago - less than 48 hours door-door over a distance of 8,000+ miles...
What can I say?
Delighted. The quality of the finishing is as I expected - top notch. The transparent green... really, really happy. Exactly the shade I was hoping for... I think... I was hoping it would be as dark as my old '82 Yamaha SG2000S, and it looks like it is. Will dig it out tomorrow and see how they compare side by side, but either way, I'm very happy with the finish.
Only other praise/criticism to come can be whether the neck and bridge line up properly, and I won't know that for a couple of days. After that, any other 'problems' will be of my own making.

As promised, the 'unboxing' photo -

 

[ragamuffin]

Lovely!

 

[stratamania]

Looks cool

 

[somebodyelseuk]

In the old days before the eyesight went bad, I'd have had it assembled this morning, and be posting a photo of the finished article, now.
However, these days, I have to take my time, measure everything a billion time, smoke a lot, drink a lot of coffee... you get the picture.
So, in the spirit of the 'build thread', here is today's progress.
Started with the job I was dreading most - drilling the pin holes for the (Sperzel) tuners. Paid silly money for one of those guides, a few weeks back, took a deep breath and...


Fitted the tuners...


Then tested fitted the neck to the body...


All gone to plan, so far. Relieved to have not screwed up the tuner stuff. That's enough stress for today.
Only (minor) fly in the ointment is that I had the body done with the heel contour, and bought the appropriate screws in the order. One of the screws has bottomed out in the neck hole, so it'll need a mm or so cutting off the end - the beauty of being 'old school' and not using power tools other than a drill is I screwed the neck screws in using a screwdriver and didn't end up forcing the screw through the fingerboard.
As long as the bridge lines up with the neck, it's all downhill from here...
... well, aside from screwing in the trem claw screws. I hate screwing in those - always have. The f***ers are always a b'stard to screw in, take ages, and because of the tightness and angles, I usually end up making a mess of the screw heads, so any useful tips will be very gratefully received.

Thanks for your interest and tips.

 

[Rick]

Take. Your. Time. You're doing great.

 

[ragamuffin]

Green and gold is always a good combo!

 

[somebodyelseuk]

Green and gold is always a good combo!

Yeah, I agree... well, dark green, anyway. The hardware is being transferred from my old faithful, which suffered a 'fatal injury' a few months back. That was actually a sort of Ferrari red colour, with gold hardware.
When I put the order in, I was originally going to go with cherry sunburst, but I've always had a thing for transparent green, as I played a dark green Yamaha SG in the '80s, which also has gold hardware, so at the last minute, I decided to go with transparent green, hoping it would be as dark as the Yamaha.

 

[Spud]

In the old days before the eyesight went bad, I'd have had it assembled this morning, and be posting a photo of the finished article, now.
However, these days, I have to take my time, measure everything a billion time, smoke a lot, drink a lot of coffee... you get the picture.
So, in the spirit of the 'build thread', here is today's progress.
Started with the job I was dreading most - drilling the pin holes for the (Sperzel) tuners. Paid silly money for one of those guides, a few weeks back, took a deep breath and...


Fitted the tuners...


Then tested fitted the neck to the body...


All gone to plan, so far. Relieved to have not screwed up the tuner stuff. That's enough stress for today.
Only (minor) fly in the ointment is that I had the body done with the heel contour, and bought the appropriate screws in the order. One of the screws has bottomed out in the neck hole, so it'll need a mm or so cutting off the end - the beauty of being 'old school' and not using power tools other than a drill is I screwed the neck screws in using a screwdriver and didn't end up forcing the screw through the fingerboard.
As long as the bridge lines up with the neck, it's all downhill from here...
... well, aside from screwing in the trem claw screws. I hate screwing in those - always have. The f***ers are always a b'stard to screw in, take ages, and because of the tightness and angles, I usually end up making a mess of the screw heads, so any useful tips will be very gratefully received.

Thanks for your interest and tips.

Just file the end off the offending screw, make sure it is the same size as the other, and that the two shorter ones are farthest from the body

 

[somebodyelseuk]

Captain's Log, stardate...

Progress report time.
Yesterday, being a 'sabbath', I only spent a few minutes on the project - cut the neck screw down with a Dremel, drilled and fitted the strap buttons and worked the trem claw screws in and out a few times.
Then it was feet up for the 'Sunday Service' at Wembley Stadium in the afternoon - my 'religion' won, by the way.

Today has been a day of transferring parts from the old guitar to the new 'chassis'. Drilled holes and fitted backplate, fitted trem unit, drilled and fitted jackplate, and presented the scratplate and electrics to the body.
As I anticipated, there was a little bit of 'adjustment' to the routing in order for my bits to fit comfortably in and line up properly - a gnat's off at the 'bucker end (done this afternoon) and a little around the tone control pot and pickup switch (tomorrow morning's job).
Once the rout is sorted, it's drill the scratchplate screw holes, solder the electrics in, re-solder the ground to the trem claw - b'stard thing fell off as I was removing it from the old guitar, fit claw and springs...

It's starting to look like a guitar, isn't it?

 

[somebodyelseuk]

Dear diary...

Well, I s'pose this is the 'finished it' post.
Yesterday, 'fine tuned' the control routing, soldered the ground on and fitted the trem claw, soldered the electrics in.
Today, drilled the scratchplate screw holes and screwed it all together.

Then, the bit I always get nervous about - stringing it up - who knows; it could fold in two as soon as you start putting tension on everything...
Anyhoo, strung it up loosely, and went in search of an appropriate allen key for the truss rod. 4mm fitted, but not enough wiggle room to remove it easily, so have ordered a 5/32" one.
Until tomorrow, 'she's' sitting strung up loose, so as not to screw the neck up. It's been up as high as a fifth below standard tuning briefly, so I know everything's secure.
Photo of the finished article below, and in the next couple of days, I'll post one side by side with the SG2000 that inspired the colour, for comparison, and comment on how it performs.

 

[teleme01]

Congrats on your new guitar, and many more.