I had great fun discussing the quality of warmoth with a friend of mine.

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Noone in here would actually admit the downsides with a WM.

Thankyou for joining.  I would say that we see quite a bit of the downsides, moreso than if not on the forum.  We've had members join and their 1st post was a rant about a Warmoth issue.  Other forums have that as well.  Do you think Fender, Gibson, PRS, Schecter, Jackson, or Ibanez have ever had unhappy customers?  Do you think one of their sponsored or unofficially sponsored forums would allow negative press to build pages of response before being locked or deleted?  This forum's mods have banned a select few from time to time, and it has been mainly for forum etiquette violations than product bashing - it just doesn't happen.  I myself have had a warranty issue that resulted in a neck being returned, which Warmoth corrected.  I think if you read enough of the posts, you'll see we are not exclusively fanboys - though many of us are.  Many of us own brand name quality gear, and if anything, that gives a perspective of what Warmoth actually does do well.  This forum is not exclusive in the sense you have to own Warmoth parts to be a member.  Are other forums that informal?

But what we really want to know is....is Andreas a horsebreeding millionaire?

 

[The Norwegian Guy]

Noone in here would actually admit the downsides with a WM.

Thankyou for joining.  I would say that we see quite a bit of the downsides, moreso than if not on the forum.  We've had members join and their 1st post was a rant about a Warmoth issue.  Other forums have that as well.  Do you think Fender, Gibson, PRS, Schecter, Jackson, or Ibanez have ever had unhappy customers?  Do you think one of their sponsored or unofficially sponsored forums would allow negative press to build pages of response before being locked or deleted?  This forum's mods have banned a select few from time to time, and it has been mainly for forum etiquette violations than product bashing - it just doesn't happen.  I myself have had a warranty issue that resulted in a neck being returned, which Warmoth corrected.  I think if you read enough of the posts, you'll see we are not exclusively fanboys - though many of us are.  Many of us own brand name quality gear, and if anything, that gives a perspective of what Warmoth actually does do well.  This forum is not exclusive in the sense you have to own Warmoth parts to be a member.  Are other forums that informal?

But what we really want to know is....is Andreas a horsebreeding millionaire?

Haha! You crack me up! I have already answered that question! Yes, my family breeds horses - but no, we're not millionaires :laughing7:

 

[Mor Paul]

Welcome to the forum!

A number of us have had small problems with Warmoth before, look for the Pheonix Down project to see one of the most recent issues.

Also, like Agwan, I joined to learn more, and ended up liking the community here.



Except Super Turbo Deluxe Custom.

 

[lafromla1]

But what we really want to know is....is Andreas a horsebreeding millionaire?

Haha! You crack me up! I have already answered that question! Yes, my family breeds horses - but no, we're not millionaires :laughing7:

That's because they are BILLIONAIRES....... :laughing11:

 

[mayfly]

Except Super Turbo Deluxe Custom.

Yea, that guy is such a jerk  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[m4rk0]

Except Super Turbo Deluxe Custom.

Yea, that guy is such a jerk  :icon_jokercolor:

wait till you meet him in person!!! he's scary!

 

[hannaugh]

I think the best testimonial I can point out is that one of the two guitar techs I talk to in town has a Warmoth that he raves about all the time.  If a guy who works on all kinds of guitars who has that much experience fixing and playing Fenders, Gibsons, Ibanez, and what have you raves about how great his Warmoth is, you know it's good stuff.   I mean, after all, he sees the problems with guitars more than anyone else, right?  

 

[Strat Avenger]

Noone in here would actually admit the downsides with a WM.

And exactly what would those "downsides" be???

 

[JaySwear]

Noone in here would actually admit the downsides with a WM.

thats not true at all. you should read through some of the treads on this forum. we all know (very well, actually) EXACTLY what warmoth is capable of. and exactly what they are not. they won't get you a neck through or set neck. routing for pickups is pretty specific and there isn't a whole lot of room to play there. they also only have so many different bridges they'll route for and only so many colors you can choose from when you order from them. we all know EXACTLY what warmoth will give you and what they won't.

the only other things i can think of that somebody could consider downsides would be cost (which is more your problem than warmoth's, even in this tough economy), the fact that you can't assemble a decent playing guitar yourself (still definitely your problem, not warmoth's), or the lack of resale (don't build it if you're trying to flip it).

 

[mayfly]

Noone in here would actually admit the downsides with a WM.

And exactly what would those "downsides" be???

Well, these are some that I remember being discussed on this forum:

1 - finish burn-through on S-S-S strats under the pickguard.  To me not a big deal mind you.
2 - poly only finish on bodes.  But you can put your own finish on there.  and the poly is the thinnest poly I've ever seen.
3 - (rare) Order screwups.  Most of these seem to be down to the buyer, but there have been some W ones.  All handled professionally by W.
4 - buddies body being super late with no contact to say why.  It all got resolved mind you.
5 - knobs on firebirds too close to the raised center bit (resolved)
6 - won't take paypal.  but I mean really - get a credit card folks!
7 - knobs don't fit on every pot shaft out there.  Yes, this was actually a complaint(!).  IMHO this is the buyer's fault for not using W pots.

aaaand...

8 - no b-bender routes!  You guys don't know what I had to go through to build those suckers!  

Finally having bought two non-W bodies lately (Agile and WDMusic) I can say with authority that W bodies are worth the money because of the fit, finish, accuracy, quality of wood, and general goodness.  

No W is not perfect.  But they are a LOT better than anything else out there.

 

[Cagey]

Noone in here would actually admit the downsides with a WM.

And exactly what would those "downsides" be???

There's a large majority of the population who are entirely convinced that only a multi-million dollar operation could create something special. What those operations do is so close to magic as to be indistinguishable from science fiction or fantasy. For them, screwdrivers, soldering irons and bandsaws are as distant and foreign a concept as invisible radioactive particles and logarithmic curves. While the concept of magic would seem to be silly in the extreme, the flabbergasting thing is that those operations actually produce amazing things, so magic must exist. Not to get into the whole religion thing, but the fact that 90% of the planet believes in some form of it gives you some idea of how willing/necessary such bizarre explanations for things are to the everyday lives of most people.

So, in these people's minds, for anyone to think for even an instant that they could create an instrument that's even remotely similar to The Authorized Creators of such things is simply insane. It's gonna be flawed. Doesn't matter if you can't see the flaws, or if the flaws in the magical provider's products are obvious; that goes against dogma and so must be disregarded.

If it's not Scottish, it's CRAP! ​

So, whaddaya gonna do? You could argue and rant, but if you've ever done any arguing or ranting against a thrall, you know how far that'll get you. You're balsa wood trying to teach a diamond file a lesson. Ain't gonna happen.

Best thing to do is be happy with what you have. If somebody notices that it's nice, that's fine. But, who cares? It should only matter to you, just as what they have only matters to them.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Except Super Turbo Deluxe Custom.

Yea, that guy is such a jerk  :icon_jokercolor:

+1

 

[stubhead]

I see a lot of student guitars from, ummm, students, and Ibanez and Schecter absolutely made their bones on shipping playable fretwork on $300 to $500 guitars. And at the same time, Fender & Gibson were shipping +$1500 "custom shop" models with no fretwork whatever - it was understood ON THEIR PART that you would take such a guitar to a tech if you couldn't do it yourself. But the mail-order crowd didn't know that part. I hade a late '90's RG7420 that was a good guitar, but the Wizard neck was just too small for me. Now I have a late-90's Schecter 7 and another newer seven-string with nice big necks, and good quality fretwork. I built a Warmoth seven, but alas the neck is thin and Warmoth only makes one size of seven necks. There was a recent article about producer Andy Johns (Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones) in Guitar Player, and he's a Schecter convert.

I would say that if you can set up a guitar properly, including frets, a Warmoth can be as good as any other guitar made out of wood and wired up with parts - it just depends. The ludicrous situation is when you have a "valuable" guitar with nasty Kluson tuners or unpotted shrieky pickups, that will "lose value" if you FIX the damn thing. Back in the 70's we knew that a lot of old guitars sucked, and you went looking for a good one - now ANY 50's Les Paul is a great guitar, even if it's unplayable.  :icon_scratch:

 

[Cagey]

The ludicrous situation is when you have a "valuable" guitar with nasty Kluson tuners or unpotted shrieky pickups, that will "lose value" if you FIX the damn thing. Back in the 70's we knew that a lot of old guitars sucked, and you went looking for a good one - now ANY 50's Les Paul is a great guitar, even if it's unplayable.  :icon_scratch:

Hehe! Yeah, you got that right. I was around when a lot of those "vintage" guitars were new, and we mostly hated them. We busted our asses trying to fix them so they'd play well, sound right, and be consistent. I shudder to think about how many PAF pickups we modified so they wouldn't hum because they were so imbalanced, and now are worth ridiculous money in original form. How many guitars did we refinish, because they just looked like garbage? How many times did we replace tuners/bridges/pots/etc. because they simply didn't work or weren't built to any kind of quality standard? Now, guys are drowning parts in various chemical baths so they look/feel/behave badly and taking belt sanders after the finish.

Silly humans.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Every now and then, someone wants a weird option that W doesn't do then they'll cite examples of other companies that will do this option, ignoring that W does some options that their rebuttal company won't even consider.

 

[Cagey]

Every now and then, someone wants a weird option that W doesn't do then they'll cite examples of other companies that will do this option, ignoring that W does some options that their rebuttal company won't even consider.

Right. Try finding somebody who'll build you a neck with a super-stable double-correcting side-adjusting truss rod in a Pau Ferro neck with any profile you want, a Ziricote fingerboard radiused the way you'd like, any of a variety of sizes of gold or stainless steel frets, and a warranty to back up its goodness. And that's only one of about probably 20,000 combinations of features you can buy there.

I really feel sorry for all those poor bastards who are afraid of a screwdriver.

 

[mayfly]

Every now and then, someone wants a weird option that W doesn't do then they'll cite examples of other companies that will do this option, ignoring that W does some options that their rebuttal company won't even consider.

Like a B-Bender.

 

[crash]

And exactly what would those "downsides" be???

No AANJ necks.

If we are being fair, you can't even get them from Ibanez!

 

[Cagey]

And exactly what would those "downsides" be???

No AANJ necks.

If we are being fair, you can't even get them from Ibanez!

If we are being fair, there are very few manufacturers that offer them. It requires a neck-thru-body design that's difficult to do effectively, consistently and at a reasonable cost. So, that's not a mark against Warmoth. They don't offer any guitars. They only offer parts.

 

[Strat Avenger]

And exactly what would those "downsides" be???

No AANJ necks.

If we are being fair, you can't even get them from Ibanez!

You don't need one anyway. 
I like Fender's Deluxe neck joint better, although you can't use it with the Warmoth Pro neck. I used an ESP neck joint contour on my Warmoth.