Not too happy overall

po_0784

Junior Member
Messages
88
(sorry for my foolish attempt at writting english)

Well so far my guitar isn't in good shape...The neck I received from warmoth had some issues. Still, it's nothing that deserves the trouble of sending it back to get it fixed...

Order : vintage modern maple/kingwood

1) nut too high = this I understand, since there is no perfect height
2) string spacing at nut is wrong. Well I noticed it recently by looking at pictures on the warmoth website. The strings on my nut are too much on the "right" side. I.e, the light E string is really close to the edge of the fingerboard while the heavy E string if far from it. Maybe it was a mistake? (a nut for a 1 5/8 " neck? Mine is a 1 11/16"...) So, using the same nut is not really an option and the luthier will just change it.
3) High E string buzz in the nut slot  :sad:
4) Fret aren't leveled = Warmoth do state they dont do it. But Ive seen quite a lot of people who have been lucky with their neck right away. Didn't work for me  :-\.
5) Fret aren't polished = Think this job is in the same category as no3   :tard:

So, EXCEPT from that, the neck is awesome. Can't to play the guitar finished. Just complaining for nothing. I totally understand that Warmoth can't do those finishing jobs since it's part of the setup process. I just wished I would be lucky as some people have been here.

Will spend an extra 100$ to get that fixed hopefully. (A store wanted to charge me 200$, they must be on acid :confused4:)
 
:( Sounds like your neck needs a setup.  I don't think $200 is too crazy for a setup and fret level, especially if you want them to replace the nut.  A little high, though.

This off-center nut sounds weird to me, though!  Can we see pics?
 
Where do you live?

Pics helps and better send a mail to guys on Warmoth before do anything... after that changes you've said you can loose the guarantee...
 
Thats quite unfortunate, I hope your luthier does a great job and makes it play like a dream, I got lucky and mine plays awesome with minor truss rod adjustments.

oh, and your English is better than some people I know who are from America
 
stratplayer1 said:
Thats quite unfortunate, I hope your luthier does a great job and makes it play like a dream, I got lucky and mine plays awesome with minor truss rod adjustments.

oh, and your English is better than some people I know who are from America
And mine, most of the time!
 
I'm pretty sure that aside from a couple typos and sentence fragments, your English was perfect.

You foreigners are all nuts... you always apologize for your English to Americans who can't speak two words of any other language.  :D

(Edit: I am American, but I can speak more than two words in a couple other languages.)
 
Doch; so cann Ich viele Worten ins andere Gesprach sage order schreiben.

What kind of neck in question? If it's a Strat/Tele neck sometimes you can get a buzz from E/B strings unless you use a string retainer, regardless of whether the nut has other problems
 
The nut being high is pretty standard.  Mine was, that's fixed easily enough.  A poster awhile back expressed frustration because he had his FR prepped and it was high.  Better too high, you can always lower it.  Really a non-issue because you're having a new one installed due to spacing issues.
 
Thks for the support guys. Well, if my damn cam was working, I would take a picture of the thing.

About the nut... Didn't really notice it until my boss told me about it, cause it does play nicely. Thats the first thing he noticed while playing and he owns tons of strats, so I guess it felt wrong to him. Since I work in a guitar store, I did a side-to-side comparaison with other guitars, and definitely, all the strings on my nut are a bit too much on the right side...

I did put only one retainer on the high E and B string (just after the 5th tuner à-la-SRV)
Some guitars use another one on the D and G string. Any clue? I'm used to play guitars with angled headstocks... will I notice a difference if I dont use a retainer there? Thks..

I'm not so sure anymore about those Texas special pickups  :dontknow:. Cool but....hm. How can I say that..maybe I would prefer something a bit more "fat" especially on the middle and bridge position. I'm over surprised with the neck pickup, but the others two leave me cold. Any idea? Stacked coils? No clue.

BTW, after testing those SS6100, warmoth should offer the SS6000, if such a thing exist  :toothy11:. They just feel totally killer. Or maybe just the nickels 6000?

 
Few people are ever happy with the Strat bridge pickup.  I have seen a few Strats routed and fitted with a Tele bridge pickup.  About 10 years ago, Jerry Donahue had a signature Strat with a Tele-voiced Strat-sized bridge pickup.  It had a brass plate underneath a la Tele style.  That pickup may still be available somewhere.  As far as fattening up a single-coil, that's a preference thing.  We don't know what you're looking for specifically.  There are single coil sized humbuckers, and the stacked ones like you mentioned.
 
Hey ! not a bad idea , I do like the telecaser bridge pickup! Guess I could just route the body to accept it. More likely, I will just put a humbucker at the bridge,  I got a spare SD lil59 and lil JB .
 
There is just no way to offer a pre-made nut that can accommodate all the different fret heights, nut widths, finishes etc. I consider them to be a waste of time and money, they don't always have the strings spacing right, you do always have to refile the heights etc. - the worst thing, is gives the impression that anyone can just screw some parts together and have a perfect guitar a few hours later.... since you're going to have to buy a bunch of files and learn about spacing strings and how to get the heights right ANYWAY, why does Warmoth even sell 'em?  :icon_scratch: It takes almost as long to fix a nut as to make one. Even if there were some nuts that were pre-made to each neck width, they'd still be too high, and customers would still be baffled... if Warmoth were to start offering finished setups, they'd be a $2500 custom guitar shop - for $2500.

Setting up a nut is something you have to learn, or turn over to an experienced person. Warmoth is in a difficult position - they don't want to dis-courage people from building guitars by making it seem too difficult (duh... :toothy12:), but their customers bring a hugely variable set of skills, experiences and plain old noggin-stuffing to the table. Regarding leveling, I have never had a Warmoth that didn't need to have the fret ends rounded over to be able to play them without slicing myself up (I practice a LOT...) Fortunately I like high action :toothy12: :toothy12: :toothy12: I usually round the ends and steel wool the frets and play them for a year or so, but it's never really done till I do the first level, crown & polish. :hello2:
 
Well you sound like you got lucky with your order. My neck has a pretty decent twist in it and as a result the frets needed re-shaping to compensate. The neck did not fit in the neck pocket (warmoth neck and body), not even close, so the pocket needed enlarging. Also the the body did have a finish scuf on the edge of the f hole which was glossed over (so definatly done during finishing) and not mentioned on the show case.

If I had lived in the US I may have returned them both. As it is, it has taken lots of extra work to sort this out (reshaping the SS frets) and I am delighted with them now. I would buy Warmoth again, but I might be worried openning the box.
 
I ordered 4 warmoths so far, and 4 times no issues. maybe the action can't be as low as I might have wanted to due to buzzing, but higher action gives me a better tone, so I dig it. no issues with fitting the neck to the body, no warping, life is great. I knew, when I bought the necks, there might have been some leveling required, but I didnt do it, so thats why I have this higher action but I dont mind. its just 1,5mm higher I believe than 'standard' which I dig. I press quite hard on the strings, and higher action compensates a bit for that.


strange, i here more and more stories about bad necks. Is the QC slipping??
 
rhythm said:
Well you sound like you got lucky with your order. My neck has a pretty decent twist in it and as a result the frets needed re-shaping to compensate. The neck did not fit in the neck pocket (warmoth neck and body), not even close, so the pocket needed enlarging. Also the the body did have a finish scuf on the edge of the f hole which was glossed over (so definatly done during finishing) and not mentioned on the show case.

If I had lived in the US I may have returned them both. As it is, it has taken lots of extra work to sort this out (reshaping the SS frets) and I am delighted with them now. I would buy Warmoth again, but I might be worried openning the box.

Woah, wouldnt expect something like that. I can say surely that the neck totally kills, but it is not in a real playing condition yet (i.e some notes sounds dead). It's nothing related to truss rod adjustement or basic setup. I work In a guitar store and I have direct access to the people who does setups here...  It is clearly a fret leveling issue. But its really no big deal at all!

I would buy from warmoth again. I intend on making an all warmoth guitar. But your post just made me think twice about it.


 
Orpheo said:
strange, i here more and more stories about bad necks. Is the QC slipping??

I would say no QC is not slipping.  Statistically speaking, membership here at Unofficial Warmoth continues to increase and tend to be vocal about their likes and dislikes.  If you look at the number of folks raving about their parts and compare those to the complaints, you'll find the vast majority are highly satisfied.  Further, if we look at business trends in general we find that people are more likely to complain about something than offer compliments.  That's just nature.  We cannot say quality is slipping just by looking at complaints.  You also need to look at how many satisfied customers there are.

If we look at the total number of necks and bodies in a year against the number of returns or validated issues, you'll find a satisfaction rate in the neighborhood of 99.8% and my off the top of my head numbers may be just a tad low.  Granted, everyone would be satisfied if this were a perfect world, but there are entirely too many variables to guarantee success right out of the box.
 
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