Korina Wenge Pau Ferro Baritone 7

[bvdrummer]

This is continued from my 'just out of the box' thread here:
http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=18560.0

I got the guitar back from the luthier last night. I had him install the neck and he did a satin tru-oil finish on the body. It came out great - a little darker than I expected but I really like the look of it. He didn't finish inside the pickup cavities or the control cavities so you can see the difference in the wood color from the oil. Excuse my poor photography skills - I'll have a friend help me with some good outside shots once it's finished.

 

[bvdrummer]

While I was waiting for the guitar to be finished I pre-wired my 5 way switch. I also drilled out the 7th string tuner so it can accommodate strings up to 0.070."

As far as I know I have all the necessary parts in house. The one thing I'm most nervous about is drilling the holes for the pickups so that they aren't crooked.

 

[bvdrummer]

I was able to do a little more work last night. I'm going to try using an old mouse pad as foam to mount the pickups. It seems to be working so far, but I don't know exactly how good the height adjustments will be until I get the strings on there.

I cut out a notch in the lower right corner of the foam for the wires to be able to fit.

 

[bvdrummer]

Here it is with both pickups mounted (they are not wired yet). I put copper shielding in the control cavity, and drilled holes for the cover plate. I also got the string ferrules in. That was a lot tougher than I thought it would be - I ended up using a hammer to tap them in slowly. Good thing this is an oil finish b/c I would be nervous about cracking poly. I really like how the black hardware looks on the korina.

edit: Oh yeah I installed Schaller locking strap buttons too. I just remembered after seeing it in the last pic.

 

[bvdrummer]

Sorry for so many posts - is there still a limit of uploading 3 pics at a time?

Here are the Sperzels...

 

[bvdrummer]

That was all I was able to do last night. Here are some full body shots of my progress so far. All that's left is to install the bridge and wire all the controls. I noticed last night that the screw holes aren't big enough where the 5 way switch is supposed to go so I'll have to enlarge those a little.

I'm having a hard time capturing the color of the wenge and the korina in the same shot. I really need to get some good outdoor shots once this is finished. I'm trying to post a lot of pics too because there aren't a lot of Warmoth 7 stringers out there.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I like and approve :headbang:

 

[NQbass7]

That thing is gorgeous. Makes me realize how much I really wish Warmoth did those inlay markers and that body shape on 6 strings. And you can never go wrong with Korina/Wenge.

 

[bvdrummer]

I got it finished last night, and I finally signed up for photobucket so I could post some bigger pics. Here they are:

It plays pretty good right now, but I've only done a rough setup so far. I'm sure I can get it playing much better than it is now. It feels like it's going to be a great guitar. The baritone scale is pretty easy to adjust to. It is big, but the neck and body are a good match - it's very well balanced.

edit: Here's the full photobucket album if you want to see more pics.
http://s1155.photobucket.com/albums/p560/brokenveildrummer/Warmoth%20Baritone%207%20String%20Guitar/

 

[TomPerverteau]

That's awesome. I always like seeing another 7 in here.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Speaking of which Tom, is yours up & running now?  I don't recall any recent updates/photos.

 

[bvdrummer]

So I did a better setup this weekend and got it playing better. It is very nice so far and it hasn't really been an issue to adjust to the baritone scale length. I will have to take it back to the luthier though because the nut slots are a little too tight on the low strings and it's difficult to tune. Also it has a couple of slightly high frets that are causing some minor buzzing issues. Otherwise I really like the guitar.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

It took me a few days to adjust to the 28 5/8" scale length also, but I love the tones I'm getting from it.  Now it's just as natural to me as playing on 24 3/4" or 25 1/2".

I can tell from recording with either my baritone or my 7 string (25 1/2"")  for rythym guitar, the baritone has much more overall tone hands down. The lows are tighter, the mids are in the sweet spot, the highs aren't harsh at all.  There's much more detail.  I think the added tension really does compensate for a lot of things.

 

[bvdrummer]

It took me a few days to adjust to the 28 5/8" scale length also, but I love the tones I'm getting from it.  Now it's just as natural to me as playing on 24 3/4" or 25 1/2".

I can tell from recording with either my baritone or my 7 string (25 1/2"")  for rythym guitar, the baritone has much more overall tone hands down. The lows are tighter, the mids are in the sweet spot, the highs aren't harsh at all.  There's much more detail.  I think the added tension really does compensate for a lot of things.

Cool, what tuning / string gauge / pickups are you using?

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

My Baritone Tele is strung up with .012's, a GFS Neovin 7 tele neck pickup, and a custom hand wound Bridge humbucker with an alnico 5 magnet, slotted pole pieces on both coils, wound to exactly 7k in humbucker output, using just under 6000 winds of 42 wire, sounds like a cross between an old filtertron and a paf. 

My Ibby RG7620 is strung up with .010-.056, Dimarzio Evo 7 in the bridge, blaze neck.

My next custom wound is gonna be somewhat like what I did before, but a neck version, then I'll likely replace all my pickups from this guy.  He's a friend, and a local custom pickup builder, gaining some momentum here in the Pacific Northwest.

www.carlsenguitar.com

 

[rapfohl09]

Oh man, that is beautiful.

I want a Warmoth 7 so badly....chalk that up on the long list.

 

[2ManyShoes]

Hah, that's funny.  I just ordered parts for a bari 7-string from Warmoth, and I ended up with almost the exact same options as you.  On the woods, we're an exact match:  black korina body (uncarved--I wanted it carved, but it's just too expensive); wenge neck, pau ferro fingerboard. 

We had a lot of back and forth.  The first big issue was that I wanted a birdseye maple fingerboard, but apparently those are unstable when glued to wenge (although I've built with that combination before without problems). 

The second biggie was the tuners--I wanted locking Schallers, but I'm planning on a low string of .80, and the only tuners Warmoth says will work are Vingage Gotohs, the low two of which would need to be drilled out for the extra diameter.  I don't like the 6-in-line look, and I was going to have to buy 2 full sets of 6 (and not use 5 of the second set), so I looked for a long time and finally found out that Hipshot sells single tuners direct, and they come stock with a string hole of .81.  (Incredibly, they connected me with the guys who build them, and they measured them for me while I was on the phone.)  Check out www.hipshotproducts.com.  They're actually cheaper, too ($14 each).

Can't wait to get started.  4-6 weeks until the parts arrive.  Depending on how the woods look together, I'll either Tru Oil the body plain or hit it with black Transtint, sand it down, hit it with Forest Green aniline dye, then Tru Oil it.  Neck and body will be raw.  I'll be  using Seymour Duncan Blackouts, a recessed TonePros Tune O Matic with string-through, and will cut my control holes.

 

[bvdrummer]

Hah, that's funny.  I just ordered parts for a bari 7-string from Warmoth, and I ended up with almost the exact same options as you.  On the woods, we're an exact match:  black korina body (uncarved--I wanted it carved, but it's just too expensive); wenge neck, pau ferro fingerboard. 

We had a lot of back and forth.  The first big issue was that I wanted a birdseye maple fingerboard, but apparently those are unstable when glued to wenge (although I've built with that combination before without problems). 

The second biggie was the tuners--I wanted locking Schallers, but I'm planning on a low string of .80, and the only tuners Warmoth says will work are Vingage Gotohs, the low two of which would need to be drilled out for the extra diameter.  I don't like the 6-in-line look, and I was going to have to buy 2 full sets of 6 (and not use 5 of the second set), so I looked for a long time and finally found out that Hipshot sells single tuners direct, and they come stock with a string hole of .81.  (Incredibly, they connected me with the guys who build them, and they measured them for me while I was on the phone.)  Check out www.hipshotproducts.com.  They're actually cheaper, too ($14 each).

Can't wait to get started.  4-6 weeks until the parts arrive.  Depending on how the woods look together, I'll either Tru Oil the body plain or hit it with black Transtint, sand it down, hit it with Forest Green aniline dye, then Tru Oil it.  Neck and body will be raw.  I'll be  using Seymour Duncan Blackouts, a recessed TonePros Tune O Matic with string-through, and will cut my control holes.

Sounds cool. Hopefully your woods will match. The shades of brown in my wenge and pau ferro go together very well - I don't know if Warmoth did that on purpose. The Tru Oil on korina feels really good, as do the raw wenge and pau ferro. You're doing a recessed TOM yourself? You must have good woodworking skills. Be careful not to make the string-thru holes too far back or you might run out of length for your 4th string. This is another good thing about locking tuners though - since you don't have to wind it on the tuner. Good luck.

 

[2ManyShoes]

Sounds cool. Hopefully your woods will match. The shades of brown in my wenge and pau ferro go together very well - I don't know if Warmoth did that on purpose. The Tru Oil on korina feels really good, as do the raw wenge and pau ferro. You're doing a recessed TOM yourself? You must have good woodworking skills. Be careful not to make the string-thru holes too far back or you might run out of length for your 4th string. This is another good thing about locking tuners though - since you don't have to wind it on the tuner. Good luck.

Fortunately for me, my buddy is head luthier at a very good guitar shop, and he'll be doing the bridge rout for me.  I would mess it up for sure.

Your comment about the 4th string reminds me how much digging I had to do to get the strings I wanted, which is .14 through .80, with a plain 3rd string.  There aren't many baritone 7-string sets out there, and those that are available have a wound 3rd.  I ended up going to juststrings.com and getting the medium bari set of D'Addarios, plus single .80s, plus single .26s to replace the wound 3rd in the D'Addario set.  Still worked out cheaper than most other brands.  Gotta love D'Addario.

What strings are you using?

 

[bvdrummer]

I'm tuning ADGCFAD and I started with 10-46, 58 but that was too light. Last night I stepped up to 11-50, but I only had a 60 for the low A. I still might step that up to 64. I like to use SIT strings, but they don't have anything between 60 and 68, so if I want a 64 I'll probably go D'ad.

Have you ever used a plain 26 before? One time I tried the Ernie Ball "Not Even Slinky" which has a plain 24 3rd and I did not like it at all. It was really stiff - almost like a bar rather than a string. The reason they wind the larger strings are so you can go up in string mass without going up in rigidity or stiffness.