Old Warmoth body gets a new neck - Floyd Rose Stratocaster

[Heavy Rock]

In 2011 I had ordered a Warmoth sunburst strat body and a maple/maple strat neck. It was a great guitar but the neck felt too big for me. I was a little adventurous and ordered a 59 roundback and small vintage frets just for something different from my usual taste but ended up less than ideal. Anyway, I kept the neck for about 10 years, but my hands were constantly getting tired while playing it, so last year (after a 5-year period of not playing the guitar almost at all) I decided to swap the neck for a smaller one. Last month I got a Fender Dave Murray Stratocaster neck which fit the whole concept perfectly. Now the guitar is alive again and it plays great. So here are the specs and some pics. Kind of looks like a cross between Dave Murray and Ritchie Blackmore stratocasters:

Warmoth body
Body wood: Alder
Bridge: Schaller locking tremolo
Finish: 3-color sunburst
Bridge pickup: DiMarzio Super Distortion
Middle pickup: Little 59 neck
Neck pickup: Bare knuckle Trilogy

Fender Dave Murray strat neck
Neck wood: maple
Fretboard wood: rosewood
Profile: Fender C
Nut: R3
Radius: 9.5" to 14" Compound
Frets: Medium Jumbo

The neck came without its original vintage tuners, I just opened the mounting holes a little and put the Schaller locking tuners I already had from the previous neck. I decided not to drill additional holes for the small holding screws and get the headstock full of holes. It already has enough  :laughing7:. Maybe at some point I'll get some Hipshot tuners with the brackets so those old holes won't show.

I still want to make a few upgrades because the switch, the pots, the claw etc are not of very good quality and maybe I'll swap the black jackplate for a chrome one.

 

[ChrisMC]

That’s a great feeling neck. I have one on the guitar I keep at my desk at work. I got it on a trade that I made, and parted it out. That neck sat in a proper neck box under my desk for about four years, and then I attached it to a different body finally.

I forgot how comfortable that neck was. It’s just right. If Warmoth could have people ship them necks and do a profile just like the one you shipped them, I would ship them that one and have them build me a neck like that. It’s so comfy!

 

[Heavy Rock]

Yes! After one month of playing the guitar I find it's my best playing guitar now. Better than my Ibanez RGIT20FE-TGF. I also have an old LTD MH-400, and an old Ibanez RG270DX. This strat is my best guitar at the moment. The neck is outstanding, the 9.5'' to 14'' compound radius is perfect. But I have to say the Warmoth body is equally great too. It has a huge full sound that if I crank the volume up it sounds so heavy, with full low mids and the kind of lows that are kicking (high lows?). I don't know if it's the alder or this particular piece of alder. And the contoured heel makes a difference for me. I'm really glad I took the chance and got this neck when I found it to finally complete the guitar after all this time.

 

[Heavy Rock]

Update: I got a very good deal on a vintage double cream DiMarzio Super Distortion from the late 70s/early 80s and put it in this guitar. I combined it with a middle and neck Bare Knuckle Trilogy single coils and this is how it looks now. I got to say it's a different pickup than the modern Super DIstortion. I didn't really believe it until I got one. It's clearer and tighter and in alder it sounds amazing.

Also good news on my old Warmoth neck from 2011. I scalloped it and sanded the back of the neck to make it somewhat of an asymetrical profile and now it plays very very well, I'll use it in a future project. The scalloped feel is out of this world, I love it. However this has to wait because I'm currently working on three other projects, two of them involve Warmoth. The third one is a complete overhaul of a Fender HM Strat. Will post new threads for the Warmoth ones when they're done.

Edit: I plan on replacing the pickguard since it has broken. Also I tried a tremolo post bracket that I designed and ordered from a machining company (to reinforce the tremolo posts), but the sound changed in a bad way, highs became too mushy so I removed it.