First Warmoth Project

[bonepickerx]

My Showcase Strat body and Custom Strat Neck were waiting on me on Friday. I just returned from Romania on a business trip and was suprised to find the boxes waiting on my door step. The Strat body is a 2 pc. Swamp Ash bottom with a AAAA Quilted Maple top. This showcase body was named "Swamp Thing" by the folks at Warmoth. Looks awesome in person, up close it looks significantly better than the pictures on the showcase site. I plan on installing Tone Pros Chrome Button 6 in line Kluson tuners with chrome locks (TPKF6BL-C) and Callaham Stainless steel string trees. The neck is a Vintage Modern profile AAA Birdseye Maple, 9.5" Radius, Fat Back with SS 6230 Frets and Sprezel 25/64ths tuner holes. It has Abalone dots and a Graphtech Black Tusq XL nut. The neck is finished in Nitro-cellulose clear satin. The Body is front routed and prepped for a Fender American Standard Bridge. I plan to install an vintage 8 hole SRV countersunck 5 Way switched, V-T-T pickguard, a set of Rio Grande Dual Calibrated Strat pickups with  black covers, a Callaham Cryo treated 5 way switch, a Callaham American Standard Premium Stainless Steel Trem block and upgraded Callaham stamped Stainless Steel offset saddles. I plan to finish the trem with a Callaham David Gilmore extra short trem arm. I also purchased three 250K ohm Alessandro split shaft guitar pots and I have been sitting on a NOS vintage Vitamin Q .1 mfd tone cap. I also have cloth-covered wire to complete the wiring job. On Monday I am ordering a Callaham chrome jack plate, aluminum pickguard shield, and trem springs w/claw to go with the Chrome Fender American Standard trem I ordered from Warmoth. I have a switchcraft mono 1/4" input jack for the jack plate.

The only problem is the pickguard. I orderd and recieved an anaconda pickguard from Warmoth but after mocking it up I am not so sure it's the asthetically correct pick guard. I do plan to cut down the short horn side of the pick guard however, the anaconda pattern just doesn't look good in MHO. Any suggestions???

I am also thinking about copper tape shielding the entire cavity to include the pickup positions, any suggestions on this as well??? I have already copper tape shielded the control cavity.

Thanks all, and Warmoth is %^&*#*% awesome. Excellent quality and craftsmanship. Can't wait to finish my first build.

Bonepicker

www.bonepickerguitaramps.com

 

[whyachi]

I wondered who'd snag that. I believe that was some random experimenting by the W paint shop that just happened to turn out awesome.

I'd try W's Brown Shell for the pickguard. Maybe someone can Photoshop it, 'cause it looks great in my head.

 

[Finch]

I think it would look good in black pearl, but i am blatantly biased to black and white pearl pg's

 

[bonepickerx]

I think the brown tortise may look good. Who does the photoshop thing here, who is good at it?

I also looked at black pearl today not my favorite.

 

[Cagey]

That body is just too busy to have a textured pickguard on it. As somebody else mentioned here not too long ago, this is why men shouldn't pick out clothes. You don't mix patterns with patterns. They're going to clash almost no matter what.

The body is somewhat dark, and the neck is quite light. Who do you want to match? A black guard (no sandwich) would probably look good, but might be too dark overall. A white guard wouldn't clash, but might be too garish. A solid cream would match both, without intensifying either. Be a good transition from dark to light as well. So, I guess if it was me, I'd do the solid black or solid cream.

 

[bonepickerx]

I considered the creame. One of the sample pics from W was with a creame yellow pearle pickguard. I think I want the darker color for this strat my other strats are light. Overall, I agree with your evaluation. I think black and/or white will look garrish, I also considered a quilted maple died yellow/green cusotm pickguard. I think this is the reason this color is not offered as a standard. It's too hard to match with anything.

 

[bonepickerx]

The more I think about it the more I believe a rear routed hard tail would have been the best result for this color.

 

[Patrick]

solid black gloss pickguard wouldn't look half bad on that

 

[bigguspickus]

Have you considered a metal pickguard? I've seen some tasteful matte silver and gold-colored aluminum ones. One of those with the lower horn cut away would look really custom.

 

[Steve_Karl]

There might be a difference in lighting between the 2 photos but it's close enough to see how the colors might work.

 

[Cagey]

Still too busy. Plus, it looks like a patch of bare dirt in a larger patch of ground cover <grin>

 

[Steve_Karl]

Maybe this one

 

[Steve_Karl]

and if you got lucky ...... or picked one out at a brick'n'mortar store ...

 

[Cagey]

No improvement, to my eye. I still say either solid black, or even better, solid cream. You're already pushing it having a figured neck on a figured body. A complex pickguard just takes it over the edge, no matter what color it is. But, beauty is in the eye of the beer holder <grin>

 

[Steve_Karl]

 

[Cagey]

See? Now isn't that nice? But, as long as you have Photoshop fired up, you should check the cream as well.

 

[Steve_Karl]

Later ... gotta get moving on other things.
Too bad they don't have a creamy mocha. 

 

[Nando Vallart]

I like the 2nd pickguard better...

 

[bigguspickus]

+1 on the solid color pickguard. There's too much going on with tortoise or anaconda on that top.

How were you planning to cut down the short horn side? There are some interesting examples in the gallery.

http://www.warmoth.com/gallery/images/strat/JOES%20FRIST%20GOODTAR-04_full.jpg

(the last pic's too big to embed)

 

[Cagey]

Those are some interesting ideas! Why pay premium bucks for a beautiful top and finish, then cover 50% of it up with a pickguard?

Gonna have to think about this one.