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

[Spud]

Excellent combo!

 

[micmil]

Love that green.

And the guitar will never fold in half because of the string tension. The thing you REALLY have to worry about* is an unknown burr that snaps the string and takes out your eye. Well, happy restringing for eternity!







*and by that I mean never worry about

 

[Rick]

Looking good

 

[Eddie-Applegate]

Looks fantastic!

 

[somebodyelseuk]

It been a couple of months.
Guitar is everything I hoped it'd be.
Last time I posted, I promised to post a picture of it side by side with the guitar that inspired the colour choice, but didn't get around to it.
Anyway, here it is.

 

[BeachTurtle]

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.

Can you really just cut off the pointy end of the wood screw for the neck and still use it?

 

[BeachTurtle]

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

Can you really just cut off the pointy end of the wood screw for the neck and still use it properly to put the neck and body together?

 

[somebodyelseuk]

Can you really just cut off the pointy end of the wood screw for the neck and still use it properly to put the neck and body together?

Yep.

 

[BeachTurtle]

Yep.

How many times have you done that? I am pleasantly surprised that this would work. I can just cut it and not make it pointy with threading again? Anyone else can validate this? I appreciate the knowledge and your time.

 

[stratamania]

How many times have you done that? I am pleasantly surprised that this would work. I can just cut it and not make it pointy with threading again? Anyone else can validate this? I appreciate the knowledge and your time.

Validated. It is just a screw with the tip cut off, going into an existing pilot hole. It does not need the point to be there.

 

[BeachTurtle]

Validated. It is just a screw with the tip cut off, going into an existing pilot hole. It does not need the point to be there.

Thank you kindly for the reassurance. I appreciate you.

 

[ghostrider25]

How many times have you done that? I am pleasantly surprised that this would work. I can just cut it and not make it pointy with threading again? Anyone else can validate this? I appreciate the knowledge and your time.

I've done it for at least 6 guitars. It works perfectly fine. You just have to make sure you cut it to the right length.

 

[BeachTurtle]

I've done it for at least 6 guitars. It works perfectly fine. You just have to make sure you cut it to the right length.

Thank you kindly Ghost Rider I will confidently do that with my koa body, it has a contoured heel and I did not know that I needed to buy the warmoth screw set.

 

[Eddie-Applegate]

Thank you kindly Ghost Rider I will confidently do that with my koa body, it has a contoured heel and I did not know that I needed to buy the warmoth screw set.

FWIW, my Warmoth strat build has the contoured heel, and I just used three 1.5” and one 1.75” screws from the hardware store

 

[somebodyelseuk]

How many times have you done that? I am pleasantly surprised that this would work. I can just cut it and not make it pointy with threading again? Anyone else can validate this? I appreciate the knowledge and your time.

Just the once.
The hole that the screw screws in to has parallel sides, so the pointed end is redundant - the hole is drilled with a drill bit.
I used to help build rally cars in my spare time and have completely stripped, restored and rebuilt several of my own cars.
This is just assembling guitar parts. It's about as far from 'rocket science' as it's possible to get.

 

[xld]

That’s really nice looking! Me likey!!!

 

[BeachTurtle]

FWIW, my Warmoth strat build has the contoured heel, and I just used three 1.5” and one 1.75” screws from the hardware store

Seriously ??? Wow that awesome to know. Isn't the contoured heel 2 short and 2 normal sized screws though? It's cool to hear that you guys dont stick to the rules and achieve positive results,

 

[BeachTurtle]

Just the once.
The hole that the screw screws in to has parallel sides, so the pointed end is redundant - the hole is drilled with a drill bit.
I used to help build rally cars in my spare time and have completely stripped, restored and rebuilt several of my own cars.
This is just assembling guitar parts. It's about as far from 'rocket science' as it's possible to get.

Sometimes I think some of us need to hear that from someone else. Thank you friend,

 

[somebodyelseuk]

Seriously ??? Wow that awesome to know. Isn't the contoured heel 2 short and 2 normal sized screws though? It's cool to hear that you guys dont stick to the rules and achieve positive results,

Mate... there are no rules, just guide-lines.
Worst case scenario... if you screw it up, you've lost a few hundred quid/bucks. Nobody's life is at stake.
99% of the time, screw-ups, where guitars are concerned, are retrievable, anyway.
Take your time, and don't be afraid to think 'outside the box'. Any time you're unsure, don't be afraid to ask a question.
Chances are, someone has 'been there' and will have an answer.

 

[Eddie-Applegate]

Seriously ??? Wow that awesome to know. Isn't the contoured heel 2 short and 2 normal sized screws though? It's cool to hear that you guys dont stick to the rules and achieve positive results,

The official set is two 1.75” and two 1.5” as you say, but i read in a thread on here that one of the 1.75” is kinda “pushing it” lengthwise, and that the ideal length would be *between* 1.5 and 1.75”

The thread said that a 1.5” would work OK if an intermediate size wasn’t available, and my hardware store only had the standard sizes, so i used a 1.5” and it seems solid as a rock and i didn’t worry myself about over penetration issues

The only not-so-good thing is my hardware store only had flatheads in those sizes, and not panheads like the factory spec, but I reckon no big deal ‘cause aint nobody scrutinizing the neck screws on my mongrel partscaster