My first ever Warmoth build: Mahogany/Koa Soloist *Now finished with pics!*

[Hansi]

So I received two parcels from Warmoth a few weeks ago and have slowly been getting the hardware in while putting a few coats of Tru-oil on the body.

Body specs include a Soloist body with Mahogany core wood and a Koa laminate top. Contour neck heel, Floyd Rose with angled neck pocket routing. I asked Warmoth to only have index points marked for the tremolo studs as I'm going to use a Gotoh GE1996T Floyd Rose and the locking studs require a bigger hole than regular OFR/Schaller studs. Also had them leave out any holes for the controls as I wasn't quite happy with the placement of the regular options. Going to have a carpenter friend use a drill press to drill out the stud holes and a hole for a push-push pot to serve as volume/pickup selector once the finish is done. Also going to try to do the direct-mounted pickups with a brass inserts sunk into the pickup routes instead of just wood screws so a drill press is going to be handy there too.

Neck is quartersawn Pau Ferro core with a Pau Ferro fretboard, Modern Construction Warhead with reverse headstock, Stainless Steel 6150 frets, 59 Roundback profile, 1-11/16" nut width, 25.5" scale, Warmoth compound radius, Floyd Rose R3 nut prep. Used a regular fretboard deep conditioner oil for the whole neck once it arrived which made it look really good and rubbed in some Warwick Surface Finisher wax (which should just be regular beeswax). Damn does it feel smooth and quick!

Anyway, here's the progress so far: Link to OneDrive album

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Very nice! That Koa is really something. What's the plan for the pickup selector push/push? Will it switch between neck and bridge or will one be always-on and the switch adds the other?

 

[bagman67]

VEry, very handsome choices.  Congratulations.

 

[stratamania]

Yes very nice combination of woods.  :icon_thumright:

 

[Hansi]

Thanks people! I'm really happy with how the guitar is turning out as far as the looks go.  :icon_biggrin:

Very nice! That Koa is really something. What's the plan for the pickup selector push/push? Will it switch between neck and bridge or will one be always-on and the switch adds the other?

The plan was to have it just toggle between the bridge humbucker or neck single-coil as I rarely use the middle position of a 3-way switch. Though it could be something to experiment with to have it go between bridge and bridge+neck. I'm also leaving my options open to just add a 3-way toggle at some point if I feel like it but I've had a few guitars with this control configuration before and it works well for me.

 

[ThePhilosopher]

There's something beautiful about the simplicity of this build, I tend to err on the side of having more options and hence increasing complexity.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

The plan was to have it just toggle between the bridge humbucker or neck single-coil as I rarely use the middle position of a 3-way switch. Though it could be something to experiment with to have it go between bridge and bridge+neck.

Right on, streamlined!

Also, I dig the reverse Warhead!

 

[Hansi]

So it took me a lot longer to finish up this due to work stuff and just life in general but here is the finished product finally:

Here is the full album with progress pics from receiving the parts to the finished guitar: Link to OneDrive album.



And some photos from from the build process (most of the photos show the glossy Tru-Oil finish but I hit that with some 0000 steel wool just before starting to assemble the guitar for a satin finish):




Shielding paint for the pickup/electronics cavities




Marking the instructions for holes to be drilled by my carpenter friend


Brass inserts for mounting the pickups






500k push-push pot wired with a 27k resistor to make it a 25k pot for the EMGs (not otherwise a common pot type)


Electronics finished (not tidied up yet though)


Floyd mounted and all strung-up

 

[frown]

Ooooh nice!  :icon_thumright:

Koa is a great wood [I have a Carvin Bolt+ Koa body / neck].

Nice solution with the wiring too.

 

[bagman67]

That's a gorgeous piece.  Lovely work all around.


I've been sitting on a mahogany-koa LP Special that's been stalled out at the wiring stage for what I just realized is three years now.  Time to get that baby into shape!

 

[Cagey]

Whatever gave you the idea to use 10 year old scotch to stain a body? It's genius, if you ask me. Really makes that Koa "pop"  :laughing7:

Seriously - beautiful guitar. I like the simplicity of the controls. I just built a Tele for someone else with the same arrangement, and I'm thinking I may adopt the idea for one of my own - like maybe that Soloist body that's for sale in the buy/sell section of the forum.

 

[rgand]

That really came out great. What a beautiful job. Thanks for the pics to see how you did it. Double thumbs-up!

 

[stratamania]

Very good, its similar to one I would like to make at some point.

I can almost smell the Tru Oil...

 

[Logrinn]

That looks great. Simple. Elegant. I like it a lot.

 

[Tweed]

I finally like the Warhead. I just needed to see it reversed and pauferro'd.

 

[BigSteve22]

Very pretty, nice aesthetics all around. And +1 on the Johnny Black! 

 

[frown]

I finally like the Warhead. I just needed to see it reversed and pauferro'd.

As an owner of a pair of Pau Ferro necks [the right way up], I can assure you they are, as someone on here claimed, 'Sex on a stick'!  :icon_thumright:

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Is that a 57 in the bridge?
Which "X" is in the neck?

 

[Hansi]

Thanks for the kind words everyone! I'm pretty surprised how well the whole guitar turned out and also plays amazingly well with a bit of set-up. Going to take her in for a proper fret dress sooner or later (mostly because I do not have the tools and don't trust myself not to f**k it up :icon_tongue but the guitar certainly doesn't have to be ashamed among my few custom made guitars. :icon_thumright:

There are a few minor things that bug me though most people wouldn't probably even notice them but I'm just way too nitpicky with my guitars anyway.  :icon_biggrin:

Is that a 57 in the bridge?
Which "X" is in the neck?

Yup, EMG 57 in the bridge and the neck is a SLVX. I've already had the 57 in a few guitars so I knew it would be to my liking in this one, it's actually the reason I went back to trying out some active pickups again after a long while. But this is the first time I've ever played the SLVX (or personally had any EMG single-coils) and so far I'm digging it!

As an owner of a pair of Pau Ferro necks [the right way up], I can assure you they are, as someone on here claimed, 'Sex on a stick'!  :icon_thumright:

Oh man, I do love that Pau Ferro neck and the 59 profile is also really awesome! Only thing I did was give it some regular fretboard conditioner oil and a rub with the Warwick Surface Finisher wax (which is just beeswax, used the same thing on the body too actually after the steel wool treatment) and it's so damn smooth and fast.

 

[musicispeace]

Very, very nice. Great result. I like the Tru Oil finish and how you made it a satin finish. And I gotta tell you the overhead shot on the ironing board is cool. Good spot for it.  :headbang4: