Fret beveling: To have Warmoth bevel or not?

[ejm]

4-9-2021, New member to the forums.
I hope this is in the correct forum area.

Getting ready to order my first Strat neck.
Maple/rosewood, 7.25 radius, 6100 frets.

For those that have ordered necks in the past few years and had the factory do the beveling, did you have any issues?
Specifically with over beveling, thus narrowing the playing area of the frets/neck? (That is my main worry.)

I did some research already about Warmoth's factory beveling.
There doesn't seem to be anything posted for the past several years from consumers, which seems to indicate that Warmoth has the process down pretty good.

I also did some Youtube research.
If the frets came unbeveled, it doesn't seem like rocket science to do it yourself.
However, it would be one less thing to do if I just had the factory do it.

So, any issues recently?

 

[Rick]

I found them playable out of the box no problem, to make them to my taste, like getting the outside edges smooooth, I bring them to a tech.

I'd recommend the same thing, it's worth it to make it perfect.  You'd do that if you bought a guitar at guitar center anyway, right? 

 

[Isurus]

I just received my first Warmoth neck.  The fret ends were sharper than I prefer so I rounded them myself.  I had never done any fretwork before, but didn't find it terribly difficult.  I just followed the Stew Mac videos and bought one of their files.

 

[stratamania]

Welcome to the forum.

I have ordered Warmoth necks with the bevel and also without.  The bevels are fine in terms of playing area but if you want to round them over slightly you will need to do a final dress.

When I have ordered without bevels it has been because I was going for something closer to rounded hemispherical fret ends

 

[jay4321]

Quantify this by giving your preferred bevel angle & this will be easy to answer. Warmoth I believe bevels at a 30 degree angle, which I think is reasonable & I do my own at 35 degrees. Assuming the string spacing at the nut is correct for the neck all seems to work out for me. I use 6100s all the time if you want to see some photos of how they show up I have a couple necks downstairs awaiting levels

If you're into less bevel there are solutions but what are we talking about specifically?

 

[BroccoliRob]

i've never thought twice about the Big W's bevels. they've always been sufficient, but i've done some rounding over of the edges on a couple as an experiment and they turned out quite nice. maybe in terms of playability nothing siggy (short for significant) really happened, but they sure feel suhweet. fret files are the best thing since canned bread.

 

[Cagey]

If you're anxious and picky, probably the best thing to do is order with no bevel, then do it yourself or have your tech do it because either way, you're going to want to dress them. Personally, I think the factory bevel is fine @ 30 degrees, and that's what I do my frets to, I think. I've never measured it to get an exact number. I suspect anything more would rob you of playing space, while straight/squarish ends might be uncomfortable.