Review of new Warmoth neck, for first time buyers and semi-amateur builders

[Hodgo]

For perspective, most of us who reside in the PNW are spoiled in the sense that humidity conditions tdo not really alter from Warmoth to Customers, We can pretty much play them right out of the box.

I never thought about that, but yeah. Never had a Warmoth product until I moved out here.

 

[Hodgo]

I agree with all of your replies and I can't argue as I'm about as local to Warmoth as I can get without cutting through their lawn to get to work every day. Rose tinted nostalgia... Maybe... But I have my brown guitar which is "technically" a 99 and my 2000 American standard strat I got very used awhile back and as far as the necks go the difference is night and day. I never said it was on the level of a custom shop or bespoke/boutique but at least the one I have/ ones I have had are just as good if not better then the American STANDARD counterparts of the same era... Your milage may vary and thank you all for your responses

When I said Player Series - I think Players are as good today as AmStds were in the 90s. Manufacturing in general is very good now.

 

[jhamnett]

I found my Warmoth neck pretty dang playable out of the box. I only set the truss rod during setup. And I tend to do fretwork on every guitar I own. But ymmv since that was shipped PNW -> Boston in December so not a ton of humidity issues.

I did hit the back of the neck with a 0000 steel wool pad but that's another story. Got that satin finish super smooth now.

 

[rauchman]

I have zero complaints with W necks. I have 3 (1 Wolfgang, 2 Standard Thins). All are roasted maple shafts with SS frets, with 1 having an ebony board and also being a 24.75" Tiltback Strat.

Maybe my mindset is different in that all 3 of these necks were used on builds starting from unfinished bodies. I expected to be doing some very fine sanding on the back and fine tuning the frets. While I found all 3 very playable before doing anything, the work I did made them better.....lower action with very polished frets and butter smooth on the back of the neck..... effortless playing.

I would assume if you're working with a custom builder, then yes, I'd expect exceptional fret work and a perfect drop in neck for the instrument.
However, I've always seen the Fender based bolt on's as a starting point. Great instruments that can really shine with some TLC. While I haven't played a zillion examples, any sample I've bought or played in a store have had neck work on par with W's in terms of fret work. In both cases, very playable out of the box, but with some TLC become really good. I'm totally good with that, and all 3 W necks I've sampled were very good out of the box.