opinions wanted

[flienlow]

Hi all, i want to custom paint a les paul just as a project. I am torn on whether i should buy parts from warmoth, or just buy a used lp and then refinish it?
In the end i want a nice playing guitar with a custom look.

Also, is there other kit manufacuters out there worthy of look? I have nothing against warmoth, but i will say over the phone they cannont help me, as appearently i am already supposed to know what i want when i comes to replicating an lp. They cannot advise.

 

[riverbluff]

One thing to keep in mind about Warmoth is, they are not a guitar kit manufacturer.  They build and sell replacement parts.  Very nice high quality parts.  When piecing together the guitar you need to have a little bit of an understanding on what you need to complete the project.  A quick short list would be:

Body
Neck
Tuners
Neck Plate and Screws
Bridge assembly
Pickups
Pickup rings
Input jack
Input jack cover
pickup selector switch
Wire
Control Pots
Knobs
Capacitor
Strap Locks

If wanting a custom paint job, I would recommend getting an unfinished body.  At one time Warmoth did some customer request paint jobs ( If I remember right) but they haven't lately.

When ordering your body and neck you need to have a the wood types picked out.  It is asking a lot to have to sales person recommend wood types.  The Warmoth website has a very good discription of wood types with the tone characterists of each.  If you have an idea of the sound you are looking for and ask for inputs from this forum you will likly get any number of combinations all of which will be excellent in their own way.

If looking for a traditional LP sound then go with a Mahogany body and neck, but there are a ton of options, such as exotic woods that don't need a finish for the neck, figured woods for the body, etc...

Hope this helps...

V/R
Bill

 

[pabloman]

Well yeah its hard to place an order if you don't know what you want. You can't expect a sales guy to tell you what you want. Les Pauls are pretty straightforward. The recipe isn't very complicated at all if you are just trying to replicate a Gibson. Were there custom touches you wanted to add? Were you looking for exotic woods? Let me know what you are trying to build so we can get you on the right path. There are other options besides Warmoth, it just depends on exactly what you are trying to acomplish.

 

[Cagey]

It kinda depends on your skill level and what kind of quality you expect to end up with. Warmoth parts are more the high-end stuff, not really something you'd experiment on. I mean, a nice unfinished carved-top LP body can run you anywhere between $500-$1,000 depending on the woods and options. You'd probably want some assurance of a good finish on something like that, so you have to be honest with yourself about what you can or are willing to do.

On the other hand, you can get Les Paul copies from Agile in the $500 range that make Gibson's $3,500 offerings look more than a little silly. Those are complete guitars, ready to rock.

You can also get kits from places like this that seem fairly complete. I suspect those will really exercise your finishing/building skills.

 

[flienlow]

It kinda depends on your skill level and what kind of quality you expect to end up with. Warmoth parts are more the high-end stuff, not really something you'd experiment on. I mean, a nice unfinished carved-top LP body can run you anywhere between $500-$1,000 depending on the woods and options. You'd probably want some assurance of a good finish on something like that, so you have to be honest with yourself about what you can or are willing to do.

On the other hand, you can get Les Paul copies from Agile in the $500 range that make Gibson's $3,500 offerings look more than a little silly. Those are complete guitars, ready to rock.

You can also get kits from places like this that seem fairly complete. I suspect those will really exercise your finishing/building skills.

Sorry, for the second guessing, but my intuition is telling me that your get what you paid for. Meaning- that if I was wanting the quality and look of the average off the shelf Gibson Lp studio, I probably would not get that out a $150 ebay kit that was probably made in China?
I am not wanting any exotic woods, but would like something of quality in construction. I simply have no experience with building my own guitar, or how nice these inexpensive kits are.
Just for practice and the look, I dont think I could wrong with the $150 kit though. If I completely murder it I am not out much. I just wonder is it even worth the $150? -Perhaps that is what I should do?

 

[Cagey]

Sorry, for the second guessing, but my intuition is telling me that your get what you paid for. Meaning- that if I was wanting the quality and look of the average off the shelf Gibson Lp studio, I probably would not get that out a $150 ebay kit that was probably made in China?

I am not wanting any exotic woods, but would like something of quality in construction. I simply have no experience with building my own guitar, or how nice these inexpensive kits are.

Just for practice and the look, I dont think I could wrong with the $150 kit though. If I completely murder it I am not out much. I just wonder is it even worth the $150? -Perhaps that is what I should do?

Well, I don't know that you can compare an off-the-shelf Gibson to a $150 kit, but that's not to disparage the kit at all. Those far east products can be surprising. Usually where you end up with trouble is in dimensional inconsistencies. For instance, you may not be able to replace the neck easily because the pocket dimensions or mounting screw patterns are non-standard, or you get metric vs. SAE spacings/sizings, etc.. Not saying that will happen, just that you have to be prepared for that to be the case. Although, when you're buying a complete kit like I linked to earlier, at least everything should be correct relative to what's in the kit. It's when you start trying to buy individual finished bodies/necks/parts from places such as Guitar Fetish that you're likely to run into those kinds of things.

As far as quality construction, everybody's cutting/carving on CNC machines these days, so I wouldn't worry about that too much. Just be aware that unfinished is just that - unfinished - and creating a beauty finish on a piece of wood is not as easy as it looks. There's a helluva lotta prep work and numerous steps to it.

But, that's why I pointed those kits out in the first place. If you're not highly confident in your ability to create a show finish, a low-priced part is a good test bed. If you're reasonably careful, you could end up with something useful in the end, and if not, you haven't broken the bank.

 

[Jcurl02]

First, you not alone.  Last year when I decide to try to build my first I was having similar thoughts.  I saw these "Kits" out there.  I even saw some kits at the local pawn shop for real cheap.  My thought was similar to your's.  If (when) I screw it up I'm not out much right?  True.  But for me I flipped the equation.  SO if I get it right, what do I have, a cheap guitar that even I'm not going to be happy with.  So I bit the bullet and got all the parts I needed from Warmopth (except electronics as I wanted something they didn't offer).  I figured if they made or supplied all the parts they they should go together rather nicely.  And they did.  At leat I think so.  See the picture below.  Now to be honest, it cost me a pretty penny but I went to the opposite extreme.  If I'm going to build one I want it to be the best of my collection or why bother.  So I spec'd a lot of adders; double binding, flamed top etc. etc. etc.

My advice, spec something you'd plan on keeping.  Just keep an eye on your budget.  If you paint it, pick a little cheaper wood.  Don't opt for bindings.  Stick to simple dot markers on the neck, etc.  Try looking at the showcase for a nearly ready body and neck (good way to save some cash).  There ae ways to get a fantastic guitar without going overboard.

If you end up like me, this first will not be your last.  Just this week I ordered my second build.  Was I unhappy with the first, just the opposite.  It came out great but know I have the bug to do it again! (and again and again).

 

[ORCRiST]

It kinda depends on your skill level and what kind of quality you expect to end up with. Warmoth parts are more the high-end stuff, not really something you'd experiment on. I mean, a nice unfinished carved-top LP body can run you anywhere between $500-$1,000 depending on the woods and options. You'd probably want some assurance of a good finish on something like that, so you have to be honest with yourself about what you can or are willing to do.

On the other hand, you can get Les Paul copies from Agile in the $500 range that make Gibson's $3,500 offerings look more than a little silly. Those are complete guitars, ready to rock.

You can also get kits from places like this that seem fairly complete. I suspect those will really exercise your finishing/building skills.

Sorry, for the second guessing, but my intuition is telling me that your get what you paid for. Meaning- that if I was wanting the quality and look of the average off the shelf Gibson Lp studio, I probably would not get that out a $150 ebay kit that was probably made in China?
I am not wanting any exotic woods, but would like something of quality in construction. I simply have no experience with building my own guitar, or how nice these inexpensive kits are. Just for practice and the look, I dont think I could wrong with the $150 kit though. If I completely murder it I am not out much. I just wonder is it even worth the $150? -Perhaps that is what I should do?

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

Peeps have done a good job of addressing your questions so far, so let me expound a little and add my $.02.

If you're a serious player, you haven't been able to find a guitar with all the things you want on it, AND you don't care about the money you'll never see again - get a Warmoth. Warmoth quality is easily on-par, nay, better than anything that comes out of the Gibson custom shop. That being said, the builder needs to have the skill and resources needed to assemble those quality parts into their perfect instrument.

Building a guitar is not hard. But you need to put the time and effort into learning how to do it right (or pay someone else to do it for you) - if not - you could end up with worthless firewood. If done right, you'll have the perfect guitar that you'll want to take to your grave.

Any painter worth their salt will tell you a quality foundation piece (be it a car or guitar body) and proper surface prep are the keys to a great paint job.

If you want to teach yourself how to paint, I would do it on a Pinto - not a Porsche. Thats just an assumption on my part of course.

Maybe you already know how to paint just fine thankyouverymuch and you have an idea for a killer paintjob for your next guitar - then IMHO, you can't get any better than Warmoth for your soon-to-be bad ass custom Les Paul.

If you don't know yourself, just keep asking us questions and you'll get your answers! There are some amazingly talented people here that really know their stuff, I knew nothing about building guitars until I came here and started to read and ask a lot of questions. To me thats half the fun!

:rock-on:

 

[flienlow]

Thank you all. I am going to go the 150 Route If that turns out well. I will buy a warmoth. I need to see if building a guitar is really something I want to do, or if its just one of things "im in to" right now.
After some consideration, buying a used LP or expensive Warmoth body for a test bed makes little sense.
If I greeted with epic failure, i can always cut 'er up for Kindling.

 

[Jcurl02]

Just be sure as you stated, you may get what you paid for.....  Don't lose hope or get turned off because of a poor starting point.  Keep working it until you are satisfied.......  You can always sand and start over!