Hi All
After about 3 month of an enduring process, my guitar is at last gig worthy.
Bottom line first - it's great, very unique, which is what I care about most, and it's utterly comfortable.
Is it perfect, NO!, and I'll explain this in details - for the ones that are interested.
So here it goes:
First the details:
Hollow body swamp ash strat with quilted maple top bursted in green with black back
Maple neck, angled strat, with rosewood fingerboard, SS frets (big)
Wilkinson trem Planet waves tuners
graphite nut
Rio Grande Dual Calibrated Quinto set - Tallboy HB, HalfBreed Single Muy HB
So the story goes:
Got it, assembled it (I'm quite rubbish at it, but I had loooots of fun
Neck was not playing right, lots of buzz, no relief at all
Knowing my limitation (I hope I'm a better player than a luthier) I gave it to a local shop to setup
They had to "stone grind" on some areas (I hope I'm getting the terminology right)
First time playing it after the setup was - wow, great but - on various places on the neck it had very dead sound. mainly along the areas of 7 -10 fret on the top string, and B string, and some around the 12th
The guitar was basically very musical, but resulted in these areas to not have the same sustain and feel as the rest of the guitar.
I decided to get more advice, and was advise to try Chandler's in the UK, which are considered the best here.
They have inspected the neck and advised me the following:
Around the 7-10th fret there is a knot in the fingerboard (looks like a "bird's eye" see picture), which causes the neck to be "un-evenly" warped, which is why it behaves this way
They have applied more "stoned" thingie, and the neck started for the first time to feel right
They have applied a "computerised" process originally, but advised me that if I want, they will also do a "human" touch to get rid of the rest of the dead spots
I wrote to "Warmoth" and got the following reply:
The symptoms you describe are text book fret work problems in which there are “areas” of issue. From the perspective of building more necks than practically anyone, a knot on the fingerboard is not a credible explanation. Our advice would be to simply get a qualified second opinion; it’s usually free and fast and you’re likely to get new information. Unless we could find a manufacturer’s defect, there wouldn’t be a warranty issue here.
I wasn't that happy with the reply. I was expecting more support then to simply discredit the person in the shop, which is considered to be the best by people like Jimmy Page...
However, I decided it's time to play it live, and for the past 2 month I'm playing it as my main axe.
Here's the funny thing - originally I was somewhat disappointed. The guitar has all the right potential, but the un-eveness of the tone and sustain caused it to be somewhat un-musical.
However after a couple of months of playing it, it seems to have sorted itself, NOT PERFECT, but much more even across the neck. I'm getting loads of positive reaction to both the sound and the look.
The sound is VERY unique, not really a strat, but rather a combination of sounds. It's got a monster Humbucker tone, which I never expected, and some fantastic "Bell Like" ring to it.
Am I happy - well about 90%, but if the trend will continue, I'll get to 100%. I'm actually not that picky about my guitars, I tend to sound the same on all my guitars. This guitar has a great combination of weight, ring, sustain, versatility and the trem stays in tune like no other trem I've used before.
Will I do it again - Not sure, but I might.
Thanks for all who participate in this forum, I was a passive participant, so if you have any questions, please let me know, I feel it's my turn to pay back
After about 3 month of an enduring process, my guitar is at last gig worthy.
Bottom line first - it's great, very unique, which is what I care about most, and it's utterly comfortable.
Is it perfect, NO!, and I'll explain this in details - for the ones that are interested.
So here it goes:
First the details:
Hollow body swamp ash strat with quilted maple top bursted in green with black back
Maple neck, angled strat, with rosewood fingerboard, SS frets (big)
Wilkinson trem Planet waves tuners
graphite nut
Rio Grande Dual Calibrated Quinto set - Tallboy HB, HalfBreed Single Muy HB
So the story goes:
Got it, assembled it (I'm quite rubbish at it, but I had loooots of fun
Neck was not playing right, lots of buzz, no relief at all
Knowing my limitation (I hope I'm a better player than a luthier) I gave it to a local shop to setup
They had to "stone grind" on some areas (I hope I'm getting the terminology right)
First time playing it after the setup was - wow, great but - on various places on the neck it had very dead sound. mainly along the areas of 7 -10 fret on the top string, and B string, and some around the 12th
The guitar was basically very musical, but resulted in these areas to not have the same sustain and feel as the rest of the guitar.
I decided to get more advice, and was advise to try Chandler's in the UK, which are considered the best here.
They have inspected the neck and advised me the following:
Around the 7-10th fret there is a knot in the fingerboard (looks like a "bird's eye" see picture), which causes the neck to be "un-evenly" warped, which is why it behaves this way
They have applied more "stoned" thingie, and the neck started for the first time to feel right
They have applied a "computerised" process originally, but advised me that if I want, they will also do a "human" touch to get rid of the rest of the dead spots
I wrote to "Warmoth" and got the following reply:
The symptoms you describe are text book fret work problems in which there are “areas” of issue. From the perspective of building more necks than practically anyone, a knot on the fingerboard is not a credible explanation. Our advice would be to simply get a qualified second opinion; it’s usually free and fast and you’re likely to get new information. Unless we could find a manufacturer’s defect, there wouldn’t be a warranty issue here.
I wasn't that happy with the reply. I was expecting more support then to simply discredit the person in the shop, which is considered to be the best by people like Jimmy Page...
However, I decided it's time to play it live, and for the past 2 month I'm playing it as my main axe.
Here's the funny thing - originally I was somewhat disappointed. The guitar has all the right potential, but the un-eveness of the tone and sustain caused it to be somewhat un-musical.
However after a couple of months of playing it, it seems to have sorted itself, NOT PERFECT, but much more even across the neck. I'm getting loads of positive reaction to both the sound and the look.
The sound is VERY unique, not really a strat, but rather a combination of sounds. It's got a monster Humbucker tone, which I never expected, and some fantastic "Bell Like" ring to it.
Am I happy - well about 90%, but if the trend will continue, I'll get to 100%. I'm actually not that picky about my guitars, I tend to sound the same on all my guitars. This guitar has a great combination of weight, ring, sustain, versatility and the trem stays in tune like no other trem I've used before.
Will I do it again - Not sure, but I might.
Thanks for all who participate in this forum, I was a passive participant, so if you have any questions, please let me know, I feel it's my turn to pay back
