Cagey said:
mullyman said:
Is anyone else getting tired of the natural binding? I'll openly admit that the binding on both of my guitars was partly the reason I chose them. I really like it. But lately it seems as if every other guitar coming down the pipe in the showcase has it and it's kind of lost its appeal. What do you guys think?
MULLY
I'm a big fan of the effect. I still marvel at it every time I pick up my Strat. Everyone else who sees it does the same - it's pretty unique.
We're sorta spoiled here. We look at almost nothing but absolutely gorgeous guitars nearly every day, mostly finished by the same company. It's inevitable that we'll see some repetition, certainly a great deal more than your average bear. Think about it. You hang out on this forum, you're going to see at least a dozen or more Warmoth bodies a day. In the real world, you might only see a few your whole life that you're aware of. There was a guy here the other day who'd been playing for many years who didn't recognize my Strat as a Warmoth. You'd think somebody in the business, or at least a serious hobbyist, would be acutely aware of them. But, they're not. They may know of them, but aren't exposed to them very often.
It would be interesting to know how many bodies Warmoth turns out per year versus how many guitars are sold.
I think this is the culprit. As you say, people are tired of flame/quilt maple aswell, because there are so many warmoths with it. But for a guitarist who hasn't been introduced to the world of custom guitars, flames/quilts are very attractive. I thought of getting a quilt with a nice red dye (my Schecter Damien Special has a similar color but with a much worse quilt) but in the end I decided I wanted a natural look and went with flame koa. However, my point is that warmoth makes fine guitars and a lot of people want their guitar to look really cool and pretty. 3-5A flamed/quilted tops aren't really common amongst your standard music-store guitar though and is a dream for many to own. I think we've grown tired of it just because WE see it oftenly, but it's far from commonplace if you take the full market into the mix.
Same goes for natural binding. If warmoth stands for 5% of all produced guitar's and 10% of their guitars have natural binding, it's not really that many guitars really.
Your guitar will still be a unique piece and not something common. Also, Warmoth is a company. Companies are out to make money and if something sells, they will produce more of it. I see this kind of thing all the time with MMO-games, something rare becomes more common and suddenly no-one wants it. Goes for titles, gear, pets, mounts w/e. I'd say, as long as you're happy with your choice and like your guitar, stick with that. If someone else has it too, think positively. If other people have it/want it, it means it looks great and that you have a guitar other people want.
I think the natural binding looks best with a dark color, like this one: 
