New Warmoth neck day!

[bluestometal]

Ok, by today my guitar build has taken a definitive shape! Some day ago I spotted an used Warmoth neck on a website and said to myself "You want it? Yeah, you want it! Buy it!" and today it arrived. It's a maple/rosewood, 25,5", compound radius, jumbo frets, graph tech black tusq nut and string tree, cream face dots and Wizard contour.It came with a set of black Schaller locking tuners and a (spare) Schaller D-Tuner. I installed it on a Asian Ash strat-like body I had laying around (I posted some pics of it in another thread), screwed the tremolo bridge and pickguard in and putted a fresh set of Ernie Ball 10-46 on it and...man, I've been amazed by how the neck can affect the overall tone and volume of a guitar! Right now it plays and sounds good and the bridge and pick-ups/electronics is the cheapest crappiest stuff you can find out there (it was already on the body). I just disassembled, cleaned and oiled each part of the tremolo bridge (spotting, everywhere rusty points and deformed pieces) and re-assembled it on the body and, about the electronics, unsoldered everything, tested each component and re-soldered the whole thing. The pots were good for the garbage, I kept the less worst for the volume; the jack is made more of rust than usable metal but I've to find a better one between my spare parts; the pick-ups are the noisiest I've ever heard but I used it as test purpose only. It got an s/s/s cofiguration altough the body has an h/s/h routing so I've not choosen yet if go (as planned) with 3 Seymour Duncan ssl-1 or with 2 ssl-1 and a JB in the bridge... and I don't know if it's better to buy new pick-ups first or a new bridge. Anyway I'm very happy with the neck, I was a bit unsure about the wizard contour but I gotta say it's not that thin at all. Being at my first biuld (and, more, being it the 1st time a put a new neck on a guitar) here I need your help: right now the neck looks pretty straight but what kind of bow will it have tomorrow? Will it have some underbow for the string tension or, being it an used neck, it will be allright? The action's pretty low and comfortable but it gets a bit highter toward the end of the fretboard (I know it's normal but looks more than on my others guitars). Also, right now it has just one string tree (for the E and B strings) do you suggest me to put another string tree on it (for the G and D strings)? Thanks for the help guys  :blob7:

 

[Cagey]

You may be worrying about nothing. You could just try lowering the bridge a bit and see if the strings start to buzz. If not, you're golden. Warmoth's necks are pretty stable in my experience, used or not, and especially so if it's the "Pro" construction with a dual truss rod.

An easy way to see if there's any relief in the neck is to simply fret one of the strings at the first and 15th frets, then see if there's any clearance under about the 7th-8th fret. Should be .008" to .012", and if the frets are good it shouldn't buzz.

If you have less than that or no clearance at all, you may want to loosen the truss rod a touch. It rarely takes more than a 1/4 turn to get what you need. If that still doesn't clear up any buzzing, then you may need some or all of your frets levelled and re-crowned.

As for string trees, I don't use 'em, and certainly wouldn't add another if there was already one there. They only exist to compensate for poorly configured nuts, so if you don't have strings jumping out of the slots, don't worry about it. They a common cause of tuning difficulties anyway. If you do have nut problems, get a new nut installed. It rarely costs more than $25 to have done.

 

[bluestometal]

You may be worrying about nothing. You could just try lowering the bridge a bit and see if the strings start to buzz. If not, you're golden. Warmoth's necks are pretty stable in my experience, used or not, and especially so if it's the "Pro" construction with a dual truss rod.

An easy way to see if there's any relief in the neck is to simply fret one of the strings at the first and 15th frets, then see if there's any clearance under about the 7th-8th fret. Should be .008" to .012", and if the frets are good it shouldn't buzz.

If you have less than that or no clearance at all, you may want to loosen the truss rod a touch. It rarely takes more than a 1/4 turn to get what you need. If that still doesn't clear up any buzzing, then you may need some or all of your frets levelled and re-crowned.

As for string trees, I don't use 'em, and certainly wouldn't add another if there was already one there. They only exist to compensate for poorly configured nuts, so if you don't have strings jumping out of the slots, don't worry about it. They a common cause of tuning difficulties anyway. If you do have nut problems, get a new nut installed. It rarely costs more than $25 to have done.

Thanks for the avices Cagey Yes, the neck is Pro costruction. Doing the "string-fret clearance test" the clearance between the string and the fret is as thin as an hair, so you suggest me to loosen it a bit (counter-clockwise), right?

 

[Cagey]

If the action isn't bothering you and you're not getting any string buzz, I wouldn't mess with it at all. Since it's a "Pro" construction neck, it's unlikely that it's going to move on you. In other words, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! <grin>

 

[bluestometal]

There's just a bit (but enough to be bodering) of buzzing on the open D string.

 

[Cagey]

If it's just the one string, maybe you can simply raise that string's saddle a touch and clear it up.

 

[bluestometal]

Could it be the nut saddle of that string?

 

[Cagey]

It's possible, but normally when the nut is too low, you get buzzes at the first fret. Once you're past the first fret, the nut has little influence over things. Essentially, the fret you're pressing on becomes the nut. If you have to raise the bridge saddle too high to get the buzz to clear, then you've got a fret somewhere along the 'board that's too proud... probably within the next 1 or 2 frets.

 

[bluestometal]

Thanks for all the advices. Now gotta choose what's next to be done: electronics or bridge?