My First Build

buzzword

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Body - Warmoth modern strat, chambered Swamp Ash on Swamp Ash, Honeyburst gloss finish, HSS hardtail route

Neck - Fender maple neck with channel bound rosewood fingerboard/ Modern C, Medium Jumbo frets, bone nut, 9.5-14" compound radius

Bridge - Hipshot 6 string fixed bridge .175

Pickups (Fender Shawbucker loaded pickguard)
Bridge - Fender Shawbucker
Middle - Fender Gen 4 Noiseless
Neck - Fender Gen 4 Noiseless

I have a router so I bought a plunge bearing bit and rerouted the standard 3/4" deep pickup wells 3/8" deeper to make them 1 1/8" deep in order to accommodate the 1" depth of the Fender Gen 4's which are basically a stacked humbucker. Much to my relief I managed not to damage the body in any way shape or form, it worked perfectly and looks exactly like it came that way from Warmoth. Not sure why they don't offer the deeper pickup route as an option.

I finished assembly yesterday, right now I'm still involved with getting it fully set up, but even roughly set it it plays great.
I have to say I could not be happier with it!

I have a 2017 Les Paul Faded T which is a great guitar, but I can see myself playing this far more, it's a dream. 




 

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Looks nice. I love hardtail Strats. You shouldn't need a route that deep for a stacked single coil. If so, I'd have used a different pickup.
 
Nice!  Those Hipshot fixed bridges are beautiful, aren't they?!  I've got a Tele bridge from them that I love...enjoy your build!
 
Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your build.


Street Avenger said:
Looks nice. I love hardtail Strats. You shouldn't need a route that deep for a stacked single coil. If so, I'd have used a different pickup.

Using different pickups is an option but the later Fender noiseless pickups which were chosen in this case require a rout deeper than normal so that rout is needed.

 
Street Avenger said:
Looks nice. I love hardtail Strats. You shouldn't need a route that deep for a stacked single coil. If so, I'd have used a different pickup.

Thanks, you do need the deeper route, the Gen 4 Noiseless pickups are 1" high. It's a Fender Shawbucker loaded pickguard and those are the pickups it comes with. I didn't realize it wouldn't fit until I stumbled across a comment from Aaron. I could have returned it and gotten something different, or put together my own electronics but I bought it well before even ordering the Warmoth body, and I have a router so it wasn't a big deal. I'm glad I kept it because the deeper routes not difficult to do with the bearing bit and turned out perfectly, and I could not be happier with the guitar exactly as is.
 
Zebra said:
Nice!  Those Hipshot fixed bridges are beautiful, aren't they?!  I've got a Tele bridge from them that I love...enjoy your build!

Thanks, I'm very happy with the Hipshot bridge, the only issue I had was between choosing the .125 or the .175 base height. The nech is 1" thick and rises 3/8 inch above the body (which I happen to like) because Warmoth uses a 5/8" depth for the neck pocket, a little shallower than Fender, so the .175 bridge is the one needed, unless you want to route a deeper neck pocket. I happen to like the additional neck clearance, and while willing to reroute the pickup wells, I wasn't willing to start messing with the neck pocket.

TMI, but I'm being explicit because I had trouble finding much information on these issues and had to figure it all out, so this thread can hopefully serve to help someone else out in the future.
 
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