First Warmoth build - thanks to the forum for so much great advice!

[Nuklball]

Thank you!

Thankfully, my new body is a fully finished one so that'll make it waaaaay easier. I've finished only one body myself which came out OK, but it looks like it was finished by someone who wasn't a professional. I've done some headstock faces in poly which look much better, but still not quite pro. I live in a house with a Labrador Retriever so a dustless finish is nigh impossible.

Also, your Lambertones harness caught my eye. I've not seen anyone mention them before. I absolutely love their pickups, especially the Triple Shot singles. I'm slowly putting their pickups in all of my guitars.

Being a first timer I was hesitant about wiring the switch/pots/plate/jack/grounds/pickups so I split the difference and went with Lambertones for the switch/plate/pots/Jack. Initially Lambertones didn’t have a 500k config for humbuckers, so they called their builder 920D who built one and within a week it was at my door. The people at Lambertones were great.

 

[JohnnyHardtail]

The Suhr pickups are clear and articulate. I love the way they can get gritty with your pick attack or be super crisp with a gentle touch. The SSH pickup in the bridge (no splitting) has me a bit baffled. It almost sounds like a Tele, although I'm probably just expecting that. Overall I think the combination works well, sounds very nice.

The bridge pickup is likely to have a slight edge to it. There are two versions of the SSH pickup. There is the regular SSH at 14k wind and the SSH+ version at approx 17k, ie. hotter. I owned both versions, but I feel the SSH+ is a bit compressed so I prefer the dynamics of the 14k version that you have chosen.

Secondly, there is the wood of the guitar. IMO an ash body telecaster is likely to be bright. Partly due to the bolted neck joint being adjacent to the upper bout of the Tele body. (Although most people would disagree and say I’m wrong or crazy). Anyway a bright guitar with moderate output pickups is normally not an issue and is likely to be a good complement for my own taste.

Thirdly and most interesting is the position of the bridge humbucker. Since your body was routed for the Gotoh Tele bridge, it positions the humbucker closer to the bridge, like it would be with an actual Tele single coil. Normally Warmoth seem to place the bridge humbucker at 4.00” from the neck humbucker (centre to centre) but with your build it will be a slightly larger distance, due the specified bridge route. None of the online info ever specifies this distance, either in relation to the bridge saddles or neck pocket. It is kind of a secret detail. It’s not a bad thing, but it’s one of the factors that probably makes your guitar a bit more Tele-like.

 

[Nuklball]

The bridge pickup is likely to have a slight edge to it. There are two versions of the SSH pickup. There is the regular SSH at 14k wind and the SSH+ version at approx 17k which is hotter. I owned both versions, but I feel the SSH+ is a bit compressed so I prefer the dynamics of the 14k version that you have chosen.

Secondly, there is the wood of the guitar. IMO an ash body telecaster is likely to be bright. Partly due to the bolted neck joint being adjacent to the upper bout of the Tele body. (Though most people will disagree and say I’m wrong or crazy). Anyway a bright guitar and moderate output pickups is normally not an issue and likely to be a good complement for my own taste.

Thirdly and most interesting of all is the humbucker pickup position. Since your body was routed for the Gotoh Tele bridge, it positions the humbucker closer to the bridge, like it would be with an actual Tele single coil. Normally, Warmoth seem to place the bridge humbucker at 4.00” from the neck humbucker (centre to centre) but with your build it will be a slightly larger distance due the specified bridge route. None of the online info ever specifies this distance, either in relation to the bridge saddles or neck pocket. It is kind of a secret detail. It’s not a bad thing either, but it’s one of the factors that probably makes your guitar a bit more Tele-like.

I had these pickups in Suhr Ash body and loved the clarity through a Princeton amp. The SSH bridge is plenty hot for me, and actually I find I’m playing the middle position more on this than I would on a single coil set up. Thanks for the info on the humbucker routing position (had no idea) and as you say, that combined with the Ash body might be why there’s almost a Tele vibe to it. No wonder why we like playing these guitar things!