Out of box, no tension, 0.53mm relief around 7th fret

JacobJames said:
I can't speak to your setup preferences but might need a fret level. That side adjust can be tricky for some, so I was just offering my thoughts. You are welcome and look forward to seeing the build.
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Re set up preferences: My question is more so, is that behavior typical/expected or unusual? Ofc I realize that anything can happen. I’m wondering, in my ignorance, is it normal and okay.

The measurements I’ve taken are of the neck itself, the fingerboard. I just did the same measuring but of the frets. The frets mirror what the neck is doing. A subtle s-curve.
 
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tiscoat said:
Re set up preferences: My question is more so, is that behavior typical/expected or unusual? Ofc I realize that anything can happen. I’m wondering, in my ignorance, is it normal and okay.

The measurements I’ve taken are of the neck itself, the fingerboard. I just did the same measuring but of the frets. The frets mirror what the neck is doing. A subtle s-curve.
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That is not ideal, no. We pride ourselves on sending out straight necks but sometimes there can be subtleties as such. If you believe there to be an issue it should be covered under warranty.
 
Ah. Ok. Just put the beam on the 90s stock strat neck for the first time and I see the difference. Stock has tiny amount of relief around 7, but a continuous 🤔 parabola? Beam appears to come fully home contacting fingerboard only at 1 and 22.
 
Just back from a local pro tech. He confirmed that my observations were accurate. Super thankful that Warmoth has a warranty. Thank you again to the all the veteran members here for your guidance. 🙏
 
To me it seems like a concern where the maximum relief is located at around the 7th fret. Ideally the maximum relief should occur around the 12th fret, but this is hard to judge if the truss rod has not been tightened under load.
 
JohnnyHardtail said:
...but this is hard to judge if the truss rod has not been tightened under load.
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Yep. Way too soon IMO to start talking about a neck being defective when it's never even been assembled. Honestly, it's hard to tell much of anything on a neck that has never even been installed or put under the tension of strings.

When I'm assembling a new guitar all I do is tighten up the truss rod (the main truss rod, not the SAM) until I start to feel resistance, then assemble the guitar. Once it's strung up I make some evaluations by playing it, and continue adjusting the bridge, saddles, and truss rod until things feel very close. Once things are almost perfect I start making fine adjustments with the SAM. Please note that at no point in this process have I measured anything.

Also note: the SAM should not even be touched until the guitar is assembled and the neck is 95% of the way where it needs to be already.

I'll also add that the feedback I get from actually playing a guitar trumps all the feedback gathered from rulers, straight edges, fret rockers, feeler gauges, and digital calipers. I guarantee that if I took these instruments to some of my best playing guitars I would find all kinds of "issues". But the fact that they technically exist doesn't keep them from being my best playing guitars.
 
FWIW what I do with a new neck is tighten the main rod till the neck is ruler flat with no strings, then tighten it just a squidge more. Once strings (10s, standard) are on, this gives me about .006" relief. Built 8 or 9 so far, no problems, dunno that I've even messed with the side adjust at all.
 
electric__steve said:
Looks like your straightedge is resting on the frets on the left side, but not on the right side? Is that a Gibson scale neck?
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That was just an illusion from the perspective of the camera. I noticed the same in pic and checked several more times to be sure.

Regardless. Thank you for pointing that out because it’s exactly the type of mistake that a newbie like me would make and not realize
 
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Aight. So brought it to another pro tech today. He said it was good to go.

Just got on the phone with Warmoth.

1) Joe is the man. I was thinking that I had 10 days to figure this out and that I couldnt install tuners \ string it without voiding warranty. Totally not the case - which seems obvious now but it takes me some time to pickup the pieces of common sense and assemble them. Lmao.

point #1 pretty much solves all subsequent hangups I had / might have.

2) Joe advised that the torrified maple would take longer to respond to the truss adjustments.

3) 😌
 
aarontunes said:
Yep. Way too soon IMO to start talking about a neck being defective when it's never even been assembled. Honestly, it's hard to tell much of anything on a neck that has never even been installed or put under the tension of strings.

When I'm assembling a new guitar all I do is tighten up the truss rod (the main truss rod, not the SAM) until I start to feel resistance, then assemble the guitar. Once it's strung up I make some evaluations by playing it, and continue adjusting the bridge, saddles, and truss rod until things feel very close. Once things are almost perfect I start making fine adjustments with the SAM. Please note that at no point in this process have I measured anything.

Also note: the SAM should not even be touched until the guitar is assembled and the neck is 95% of the way where it needs to be already.

I'll also add that the feedback I get from actually playing a guitar trumps all the feedback gathered from rulers, straight edges, fret rockers, feeler gauges, and digital calipers. I guarantee that if I took these instruments to some of my best playing guitars I would find all kinds of "issues". But the fact that they technically exist doesn't keep them from being my best playing guitars.
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Thank you Aaron!
 
Neck on, bridge on and strung up. Did one removal of neck today and course adjustment at heel. Roughly approximated 17-ish inch radius at the saddles. Got it tuned up and the trem floating. Action is acceptable but will likely adjust. Intonation needs fine tuning. Definitely needs fret leveling.

Plugged in it sounds a good bit snappier and more articulate than was the stock maple / rosewood neck. I tried the new bridge with the old neck first and it sounded almost exactly like the old neck with the original stock bridge strat bridge.
 
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One more course adjust at the heel today. Thinned out some of the pick guard underneath the fret extension. This improved the fret out slightly on high e - before that could only get f and f# to sound, now can get buzzy notes up to around fret 12.

Like Warmoth and everyone here informs, the nut is a bit tall, for good reason. Open positions are fine but barring an F at fret 1 will be avoided until the nut is cut more.

Neck feels terrific and has excellent tonal characteristics. Haven’t fine-tuned intonation yet but it’s pretty close. Then have to decide if I will cut the nut more and do fret leveling or have someone’s else do it.
 
Rick said:
Before I put the neck on I get it flat, then string it up and adjust. It takes time to adjust it right. I've never had a problem with a Warmoth Neck.
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I believe it re Warmoth neck. This is my first and I’ve not any experience working on a guitar so I didn’t know. But the second tech I brought it to was very well acquainted with Warmoth necks. His first comment to me over the phone was it’s likely fine but I’ll take a look if you want. He got it in hand, eyeballed it, put some pressure on it , and handed it back saying it’s good.

I was also mistakenly confusing the limitations of the return policy for the warranty.
 
@aarontunes made a few adjustments over the past days. Let it chill and played it. Tuned standard, have 0.25mm of relief peaking before fret 7. Is this close to the point at which I could start using the side adjust ya think? Or am I still in more heel adjust territory?
 
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