Help with ordering Warmoth Body

[ChaseB]

Hello everyone!  Some help ordering my Warmoth body would be greatly appreciated!  Looking to get a black hardtail stratocaster body to build up a replica of my old man's '79 (black on black with maple)....replacing the classic series 70's black trem routed body I currently have.  I love the string spacing of the bridge which is listed at 2 3/16.  I currently have a 62 hard tail bridge with that same spacing that I want to use on the Warmoth body.  I see warmoth offers American Standard, Narrow Strat, and Vintage.  The vintage appears to be slightly wider (2 1/4) than the Fender Bridge I have (2 3/16).  The narrow strat has wider string holes and I was thinking that may line up with the Fender Bridge string holes?  Any ideas or help is greatly appreciated.

Here's what I have selected:

Model: STRATOCASTER®
Scale: 25-1/2 IN.
Right/Left: RIGHT HANDED $0.00
Wood:
Core: ALDER $175.00
Control Cavity: TOP ROUT$0.00
Pickup Rout: STRAT®, STRAT®, STRAT®$0.00
Control Routing: NONE
Bridge Type: HARDTAIL$0.00
Bridge Rout: NARROW STRAT® FLAT MOUNT$0.00
Jack Rout: STRAT® TOP JACK ROUT
Neck Pocket: STRAT® SHAPE$0.00
Mounting Holes: 3 BOLT$15.00
Contours:
FOREARM CONTOUR $0.00
TUMMY CUT $0.00
Top Finish: BLACK GLOSS$195.00
Back Finish: BLACK GLOSS$0.00

 

[Strat Avenger]

The modern, more narrow string spacing is the way to go. The old wide spacing causes your high-E string to slid off the fretboard.

 

[stratamania]

If you love the bridge you have and intend to keep using it you may need the vintage strat flat mount.

It's not so much the width of the string spacing for fitting that's important but rather the mounting and strung through holes.

The mounting and string hole dimensions can be found here.

Http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Bodies/Options/BridgeRoutingOptions.aspx

You then need to take your existing bridge off the existing body and compare.

If you decide on also getting a new bridge as mentioned above a lot now prefer the narrow spacing which reduces the tendency of having e strings slip off the edge of the neck.

 

[ChaseB]

Thanks for the replies and info!  I'll do some measuring today.  I know a lot of people don't like the wide spacing, but it's all I know on a Strat. I've tried a few narrow spaced standards and it just doesn't feel right to me.  I always adjust my necks in the pocket to make sure the strings line up properly and that keeps them far enough away from the edge of the fret board.

 

[stratamania]

I have both vintage and narrow spacing.

I'm ok with either but if you are used to one I can see why you would stick with what you feel comfortable with.

 

[ChaseB]

Well the Callaham vintage hardtail fits the Warmoth body and a Fender body with the vintage spaced bridge, so it appears I need to order the Warmoth body with vintage Strat hardtail

 

[Ace Flibble]

The bridges used on the Classic series of Fenders is actually 2 7/32" spacing, which is pretty much unique to the Classic, (Mexican) Deluxe, and Highway One series of guitars. They're neither a true 'vintage' spacing, nor are they the standard spacing used by Fender for most guitars since the late 70s. So bear in mind that, unless you harvest a bridge from a Fender body*, any bridge you use will not have the string spacing you're used to, and also that the string spacing you're used to is not actually the measurement you thought it was!

That said, if you opt for the 'narrow' hardtail bridge, you can fit the vintage bridge, narrow bridge, and any bridge with string spacing in-between. The narrow and vintage bridges mount the same, the narrow version just has the string holes enlarged a little bit so a wider range of bridges can fit. The Warmoth site shows you how they line up on top of each other. There's actually no real point in the vintage option even existing. The American Standard bridge rout is its own thing, however.

 

[Strat Avenger]

My Warmoth Strat has the American Standard hardtail configuration.

Seriously, if you played it for 2 weeks, you'd forget it's not vintage spacing.