I've finally found my holy grail

[Re-Pete]

Wow, nice quilted top and WHAT a rescue.

I mean: you would've been livid, seeing the finish in such a sub-par shape when you took it out of the box.

But congrats to you for thinking around the situation, seeing an opportunity for a very good clear finished quilted Strat & being open minded enough to accept that & move on.

So many folks would've thrown the body straight back at Warmoth & insisted they do better (which really, they should).

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Altho I do like nice tops that have been dyed

Yeah, this seems like curious ordering of the procedure... ever since Paul Reed Smith began cranking out some really startling, weird and gorgeous guitars with the totally evil-chemical MEK dyes directly-on-wood, it's been kinda the accepted way if you really truly want your dyes to "pop", as they say; to put the dyes on first and then the clears deepen that. <- (boy was that ever a weird sentence construction!)

Meanwhile Warmoth sez

Hard Maple is a very hard, heavy and dense wood. This is the same wood that we use on our necks. The grain is closed and very easy to finish. The tone is very bright with long sustain and a lot of bite. This wood cannot be dyed. It looks great with clear or transparent color finishes.

I mean they have to do what works for them or they can't stay in business - but it perhaps would be clearer to say that they don't dye hard maple tops, and it ain't easy. I don't spend much time wandering the Showcase, AKA "Satan loves your credit cards!" But if they just roll the Warmoth-0-Tron up to a maple forest, press "start" and out pops a pile of clear-finished quilties, which they then put bursts and shades and such - works great from an "efficiency" standpoint, but peeling off your burst with a fingernail isn't supposed to be easier than picking your nose with said implement.  :sad1:  Good news is that they avidly monitor these type of posts, and even now are feverishly slaving away in their secret fortress working on a "fix."

If you look at the Body Woods section of the Warmoth site & scroll down, you will see they use Western Maple, not Hard Rock, for their quilted & flamed tops..While Hard Rock Maple is mentioned as being used for Laminated Tops (?), it does state that it is for clear & transparent finishes.

http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Bodies/Options/BodyWoodOptions.aspx

 

[AutoBat]

I don't like uncolored maple, but yours simply looks amazing.

 

[swarfrat]

I don't like uncolored maple

Okay, that's it. I was actually plotting a basswood/walnut scheme but I may have to do this just for Autobat:

 

[AutoBat]

I don't like uncolored maple

Okay, that's it. I was actually plotting a basswood/walnut scheme but I may have to do this just for Autobat:

Gold Hardware on uncolored maple!! Nooooo! I'm melting.... MELTING!!!!!

 

[LushTone]

I don't like uncolored maple

Okay, that's it. I was actually plotting a basswood/walnut scheme but I may have to do this just for Autobat:

I actually think that looks cool, and I don't like gold hardware much, nor pickguards.

 

[ZGOZZ]

Very nice..

 

[guitartom]

I actually like it much better in the after state.

 

[dmraco]

That is stunning.  I cannot believe the finish did that.  You would think there would be a clear on top of the brown.  Maybe there was and that came off too.  Since they use a urethane (I think) finish they do have to scuff it a bit so it and grab.  It does not melt like lacquer does.

Anyway it turned out awesome.  Especially since you paid NOTHING for the body.