How long can you keep your newly built Warmoths pristine looking?

wormbot

Junior Member
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I know the effort we put in building/assembling our guitars. Once the guitar is done, how long can you keep it pristine before the first scuff or mark or whatever? Asking for a friend.
 
Depends on whether or not you use it as a skateboard, baseball bat, guitar, drink coaster, hammer, or blunt weapon.

Guitars are tools, if you use it, it will inevitably look as though it has been used, if you wish to keep it as an art piece, then hang it up and don’t touch it, save for monthly dusting.

My recent build has little to no discernible scratches aside from microscopic ones, and that’s with me playing it on average more than 1hr/day for about 4.5 months now. Some people will see more marks some will see less. Cherish the first major scratch, because now you don’t have to worry anymore. It’s okay for tools to look like tools.
 
The ones at my cottage still look like the day I declared "done," because I don't play them as frequently. My V that's at home is still looking good, but the finish is starting to show some wear where I typically rest my fingers on the body while picking. I occasionally lightly anchor my picking hand with my ring finger and it's that spot that's starting to show.

I'd estimate that I completed the guitar in summer of 2019.
 
I usually ding mine at some point during assembly, so pristine is never the starting point. I am also not particularly concerned about guitars showing wear. They're tools, not (only) art. If they're in perfect shape, they're not getting used. That said: I don't encrust them with stickers or deliberately trash them. But within the context of ordinary wear-and-tear, whatever happens, happens.
 
That seems to be my experience too. I finished my build about a month ago and it's already showing signs of regular use. I'm totally fine with it too. I was just curious.
 
I have this 'friend', who has a sherwood green warmoth telecaster. He used to gig with this guitar all the time. He used to pound on the guitar, scrape the guitar on the mic stand, whack the headstock on cymbals, and roll around on the stage while soloing. The guitar has some chips in the finish where the guitar got real friendly with the stage and cymbals during these performances. But other than that, it's scratch free. YMMV.
 
My first Warmoth (Soloist) is 12 years old now and looks as pristine as the day I completed it, because I never play it.
If you play your guitar a lot, there's gonna be wear, but that doesn't mean it has to get beat to hell.
 
1, 2, Crunch, 3. Yep 3.
You’re old if you know this reference.
I have no idea what you're talking about, nor does this guy:
Tootsie-Roll-Pop.jpg
 
Out of all my guitars, my newest ones are the most pristine.

Allow me to explain.

Moving my guitars in and out of cases constantly, and leaning them up against stuff caused countless dings on my older guitars.

When I got my Stagg 8 slot rack (that looks like a fender case), all my guitars suddenly stopped taking a beating.

my 99 tele and 09 strat builds are pretty beat up, which is to be expected given their age and hard life.

My VIP is as I built it, but it's only about 2 months old. It lives on a wall hanger mostly.

It'll fare much better than the others.
 
My oldest is an 82 "Smith Strat" my first good guitar I bought new.
 
You can keep guitars nice for an extremely long time if you're not particularly clumsy and take care of them. But if you're that guy who tends toward, "I should put this in the case/on the stand, but I'm just going to lean it right here for now" I don't like your chances as much.

My new house's mancave had this one recessed area where the ceiling is only about 6' 4", and I'm 6'3". Ceilings are low there because of ductwork and water pipes. It's maybe 14' x 4' and turns out it's a perfect place to hang guitars. It's out of the way just enough that no one's ever going to accidentally bang into anything there. Have two racks mounted into studs holding 10 now will need to add another.

But ultimately they're guitars. I worry about them about as much as I worry about getting drops of paint on a new work ladder. I keep the J-45 in a case with humidifier but that's about it. The Warmoths or scratch builds I try to do perfectly but once the guitar is complete and n working order whatever happens happens.
 
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