Questions for my next build

NoDa75

Newbie
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It's that time again.... time for a new warmoth build! :headbang1: I posted here https://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=32961.0 about which body I should get, and made the decision to go with the Velocity. I have figured out most of the components I'm getting, and most of the details for the body and neck. But I still have a few specifics that I need to work out:

1st: As far as body woods go, I was thinking swamp ash (because of the grain and tone) with a roasted alder lam top.  But would having such different grains on the same guitar look weird? Would it be better to go with roasted swamp ash as it might match better with the regular swamp ash? I really like how roasted alder has a bit less distracting grain than roasted swamp ash.

2nd: The hardware on the guitar is going to be gold, so I was planning on using the EVO gold frets that Warmoth offers. Does anyone have experience with these? Are they worth the extra $30 more than nickel and extra $5 more than stainless?

3rd: Swamp ash is decently light for a body, and the Velocity is a small body. The neck wood is going to be completely Wenge. To get the guitar balanced right, should I use regular 25 inch scale, or the Gibson conversion scale neck? The neck will have Hipshot tuners, which are on the heavier side. The body will have dual p90s and the hipshot fixed bridge, which is chunky as well from what I've heard.


 
To answer your questions, based on my experience ...
1) What finish?
2) I've had all three, and my favorite is stainless.  It looks nice and never wears out, at least so far in my lifetime. The gold are pretty hard, though after 30 years you'll see some wear, how much depends on how you play.  If you're 50 years-old now does it matter?
3) The 3/4 inch difference in weight will be negligible all things being equal.  To reduce the weight on the hip shot tuners use the plastic button upgrades or the the more knob like ones.  That'll save you more weight like two ounces which is hanging off the end of your headstock.  Get the neck you're comfortable playing.
 
rick2 said:
To answer your questions, based on my experience ...
1) What finish?
2) I've had all three, and my favorite is stainless.  It looks nice and never wears out, at least so far in my lifetime. The gold are pretty hard, though after 30 years you'll see some wear, how much depends on how you play.  If you're 50 years-old now does it matter?
3) The 3/4 inch difference in weight will be negligible all things being equal.  To reduce the weight on the hip shot tuners use the plastic button upgrades or the the more knob like ones.  That'll save you more weight like two ounces which is hanging off the end of your headstock.  Get the neck you're comfortable playing.

I intend to use several coats of tru-oil.

I am actually 16 years old believe it or not :laughing7: so I will probably have the guitar for a few decades. Do the gold frets lose their shine over time? I have heard from some that stainless frets have too harsh of a tone compared to nickel, but I don't know how much of a difference that makes.

Guess I'll go with the 25 inch scale then!  :icon_thumright:
 
16 and making you're own guitar good for you!
The thing to remember if you go with swamp ash, and you want a smooooth finish you have to do some grain filling.  On Alder you don't have to.
If you can find a plain roasted alder body, then all you'd need to do is put on the tru-oil.  Remember, alder will have mineral streaks, that to some may look like cracks, but they are really beauty marks that people pay extra for.
An all swamp ash body would look good too, and if you didn't grain fill would be easy.  Since it's your first one grain filling, you probably could fill it to an acceptable level.  Remember tru-oil is a thin finish.
In my experience, the stainless frets have a wonderful tone compared to nickel which to my hear dulls the tone, and they wear out.
As to the EVO gold, sure they get gunked up but you can polish them up nice.
If it were me, and I was looking for easy long lasting care I'd go with stainless frets.  The silver color goes with everything, but of course, gold would be super matchy if your going all out gold.  If your pick up covers are silver than you have options.

PS I have an all wenge neck and it's so nice to play on.  Feels great.
 
Aaron did a good comparison video if you want to hear the difference. No gold in the mix, but it should be between the two.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLstfUO9OZ8[/youtube]
 
Gold EVO frets are a good choice. Especially for matching with gold hardware.

But the 25" scale you mentioned twice is not available from Warmoth. Perhaps you mean 25.5" or 25 1/2" scale to not use a mix of imperial and decimal.
 
stratamania said:
Gold EVO frets are a good choice. Especially for matching with gold hardware.

But the 25" scale you mentioned twice is not available from Warmoth. Perhaps you mean 25.5" or 25 1/2" scale to not use a mix of imperial and decimal.

My bad! I meant 25-1/2"  :laughing3:
 
Stainless frets on electric guitars don't affect the tone in any substantial way. They may affect the tone of acoustic guitars, but not electric.
 
Hallelujah, someone to carry the torch! My teenage grand-kids can't get their noses out of their phones long enough to consider building anything. I would love to get one of them interested in guitar building, or playing or anything constructive.  Very glad to see your interest and these folks here have a tremendous wealth of knowledge they are happy to share without trying to push anything on you. Welcome and make sure you do a build thread as we love to watch these projects come together.
 
wildbill92879 said:
Hallelujah, someone to carry the torch! My teenage grand-kids can't get their noses out of their phones long enough to consider building anything. I would love to get one of them interested in guitar building, or playing or anything constructive.  Very glad to see your interest and these folks here have a tremendous wealth of knowledge they are happy to share without trying to push anything on you. Welcome and make sure you do a build thread as we love to watch these projects come together.

That reminds me of a couple of years ago sitting in a restaurant and the two girls sat at the next table spent most of the time looking at their phones and occasionally would talk to each other about something someone had said in a text or on Facebook.

 
wildbill92879 said:
Hallelujah, someone to carry the torch! My teenage grand-kids can't get their noses out of their phones long enough to consider building anything. I would love to get one of them interested in guitar building, or playing or anything constructive.  Very glad to see your interest and these folks here have a tremendous wealth of knowledge they are happy to share without trying to push anything on you. Welcome and make sure you do a build thread as we love to watch these projects come together.

I definitely will do a build thread. I think so many teenagers or just people in general (though kids tend to learn things easier) would benefit greatly from playing an instrument. Not just school band, but actually developing a passion for it.
 
NoDa75 said:
wildbill92879 said:
Hallelujah, someone to carry the torch! My teenage grand-kids can't get their noses out of their phones long enough to consider building anything. I would love to get one of them interested in guitar building, or playing or anything constructive.  Very glad to see your interest and these folks here have a tremendous wealth of knowledge they are happy to share without trying to push anything on you. Welcome and make sure you do a build thread as we love to watch these projects come together.

I definitely will do a build thread. I think so many teenagers or just people in general (though kids tend to learn things easier) would benefit greatly from playing an instrument. Not just school band, but actually developing a passion for it.


Agreed, music nourishes the soul.
 
The gold EVO frets are great. I have them on a Warmoth Tele neck as well as the Jescar equivalent on my main acoustic, a Goodall. No difference in tone even on the acoustic.
 
Excellent to see someone young building a guitar.....kudos!!!

I'm in the process of putting a TruOil finish on a mahogany Velocity body now.  A 24.75" conversion neck awaits.  While I haven't yet strung it up, when mounted to the body, it feels like a great match.  Goes great with the very small Velocity body.
 
I had a Wenge neck for a tele and really liked it. They are not too heavy so I would think you should not have to worry about balance. They say its a pourus grained wood but I didn't find it to feel weird at all, just my opinion.

As far as what top for a roasted swamp ash body remember the basic choice is contrast or complimenting. The roasted alder would have similar coloring (I assume) but likely will put things on the side of "contrast" via being different in some way. I have often searched internet pictures and essentially copied, cropped, pasted together a visual approximation of what I thought I was trying to aim for. Then I would live with the options for a couple of weeks, returning to look at them. Just one possible approach for visualizing things.

Whatever you choose and do you can make it result in something cool. As someone who got into the partscaster thing in 2012 when I returned to playing after a long time I have not regretted it at all and each of my parts guitars is special to me.
 
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