NEW PROJECT COMING EARLY 2015

[drichards1321]

hi my name is Dave and this is my first posting to the website. i have been a guitarist for about 15 years. i am considering building a warmoth telecaster left handed. this is what i have come up with so far. the body will be walnut with an indian rosewood laminate top, LP style controls, contour neck, no belly or arm cuts either, Seymour duncan emty blackouts, single battery box, narrow strat bridge, with all black hardware, cream binding and a tronical tune installed on an all indian rosewood neck. i am not sure how it will sound but these are the specs i want in the guitar. i know it will be a hefty weight being walnut as well. it will cost after all is said and done around $1,600 on the high end of my budget. i was wondering if anyone had any suggestions to help me further. i was thinking of a killswitch too but i am not sure yet. i know the pickups will be right were i want them to be. i have built many mock ups on the actual warmoth website and i am also not going with a paint job being i am going to use tru-oil on the body. the looks of the mock ups are right were i want the guitar to be as well. thanks for any input.
Dave
also this would be my first guitar build as well

 

[Wolfie351]

Consider getting a chambered body to save weight.  I was a naysayer until I got my chambered walnut Strat, lightweight, sounds fantastic and plenty of sustain. 

Rosewood is very oily to begin with so you may find the Tru-oil stays on the surface in some spots and soaks into the wood at other spots thus making it look blotchy.  Research it well before you place your order. 

I have a TronicalTune on that walnut Strat I was talking about.  It is a fantastic piece of technology and everyone scoffs at it until they actually see it in action.  However, I wouldn't consider it very user friendly and I don't recommend it to my non-techie musician friends.  I love tech and gadgets but even I find myself reaching for the manual every time I want to change something.  You may want to wait until they come up with a better interface...or, you may have a better memory than I do

 

[drichards1321]

thanks for the input the neck itself is finished nothing needs to be done with it. the body and the weight is not really an issue i am going to be using the guitar for recording not really much live play although the chambered body does make me think a bit. the goal of this build is to get everything that i want in a guitar and as a lefty that is really hard to come by. i picked the rosewood top to match the neck and i love the color of the wood as well. the tronical tune was an idea i've had and im not 100% sure if that is what i want or not i have about 4-5 months to fine tune this build before i order and i've been researching and watching as many youtube videos as one person could possibly withstand for the past 2 months. the reason i am going for tru-oil is i want a flat finish i dont want any gloss or shine and tru-oil has been the only thing i have seen to give this look. i want to keep the wood as the finish i dont want to dye it or paint over the beauty the wood has. any suggestions on how to give the guitar the finish i am looking for would be a great help. as far as the sound of your strat what pickups are in it and how well does the walnut respond to them. i know what i am looking for in this build and that is a heavy metal guitar kind of like i took the best of jim root and mick thomson's guitars and put them together on a tele and i love the look of the lp style controls on a tele. i have never seen anything like that before
thanks

 

[Wolfie351]

Your other option is to Tru-oil the walnut part and keep the rosewood top unfinished.  Like I said, research a little...tdpri.com is a great place to get info and ask questions, I'm sure someone there has done it already

Walnut is bright, similar to maple which makes it good for hard rock/metal.  The rosewood neck will certainly darken up the tone a bit.  Metalheads (I'm one as well) tend to back off the mids so I'd be curious to know if those two woods on the opposite end of the spectrum cancel each other out, so to speak.  But, tonewood is like religion, there are believers and non-believers

 

[stratamania]

I've not used tru oil on bodies but have on necks. The amount of shine you will or will not get is dependent on how many coats and how thickly it is applied. Thin coats are better. Also the less you buff it the less glossy it will be.

You might try starting with a coat or two of the sealer product that Birchwood Casey do prior to the tru oil itself. For necks I just use my finger but for a body probably use some lint free cotton, folded a little like French polishers use.

 

[drichards1321]

:headbang1:
Thanks for the input and I have decided to go with the chambered walnut body with the Indian rosewood top. I'm very excited to see how it is when it is finished and to get all the advice on the project until I start the build

 

[drichards1321]

This is the front with the lp style controls

 

[stratamania]

I think it's going to look good.

Here's one of the necks I did.

http://unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=22445.msg335422#msg335422

The other one is more satin but I don't have a photo to hand of the back of the neck. I do the headstocks in nitro.

Best advise is to take your time. 

 

[Re-Pete]

This is the front with the lp style controls

Make sure you ask Warmoth to give you the larger, more open, controls cavity rout instead of the smaller harder to work on, parallelogram shaped LP control cavity shape. You will be thankful for the extra space...