Quality of custom ordered Warmoth necks??

[adiaz]

Hello! I’d like to get end user opinions of the quality and performance of their custom ordered Warmoth necks. I own a few nice guitars with incredible necks, meaning great playability, low action and great build. I’d like to replace the neck on a certain guitar that can’t be set to “play well” without fret buzz and less than favorable playability.

Are Warmoth custom necks in the same field as say, Tom Anderson, Suhr, etc??

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Cactus Jack]

In my opinion Warmoth excelled at crafting necks. I’ve been consistently impressed with the wood selection, profiles, and all other options. Bottom line, Warmoth necks are excellent.

With that said, Warmoth is a parts company, not a finished instrument company. As such, if you want the ultimate experience you’ll need to level, crown, and polish the frets as well as properly adjust the nut for your particular setup. Folks play them fine out of the box, but similar to all nice instruments, necks benefit from dialing in to get to the next level.

 

[Rick]

They are beautiful necks, have no fear.

 

[mayfly]

They are excellent necks.  I've had, er, over 10 of them in various finishes and neck woods.  They have always been very impressive. 

BUT!

As others have noted, these are parts not finished products.  To make your neck, and resulting guitar, fine as any in the world you will have to at least invest in a set of nut files.  Fret files, fret levelling tools, burnishing methods, etc IMHO are optional, but you may want to check these out depending on your level of picky-ness. 

 

[Rick]

Yep ... you'll have to make some adjustments to get it to your liking, but I've had that even with high end guitars.  If you don't know what to do, just bring it to your favorite tech.

 

[frown]

I’ve got 4 custom order necks. Had a pro tech fettle them and they are utterly superb. You won’t be disappointed with it straight out of the box, but with some additional work, you’re on to a winner.

 

[docteurseb]

"Are Warmoth custom necks in the same field as say, Tom Anderson, Suhr, etc??"

Yes, but not out of the box.
To get that level of quality fretwork (rolled edges, smooth fret ends) requires bringing the neck to a luthier.

What Warmoth provides is a fantastic building block, whether it ends up being as good feeling as a MIM Strat or a Fender Custom Shop Masterbuilt / Tom Anderson / Sur solely depends on how much work you'll be putting into the neck (frets and fingerboard specifically).

Out of the box a Warmoth neck has sharp fingerboard edges, bevelled but not rounded fret ends; it's more like a MIM neck in terms of feel. Nothing wrong with that but it's far from being like a Tom Anderson without the expected/necessary extra work.

 

[wildbill]

+ 1 to everything said above.

 

[jay4321]

New Warmoth necks can bolt up right out of the box, but that’s kind of like buying a quality off-the-rack suit without getting it tailored.