So, why Warmoth?

[Mor Paul]

Well, many moons ago, when I was a but a tadpole, I was in search of something... awesome. Because I hadn't really developed tastes, I wanted... a black LP with a nickel floyd. I was considering SAGA kits, and some other options, but Warmoth seemed pretty nifty. After learning a bit more about my tastes on guitar, it eventually changed to a wine colored LP with mini hums and a middle position humbucker, which I still think is pretty cool. CB's walnut tele, though.... that thing converted me to a tele man. So... being a 15 year old with a tight budget but still wanting the best I could get... Warmoth neck and body, fairly standard tele set, unfinished (and still that way, but I love it), a Fralin bridge pup, and a DiMarzio neck pup.
They were great parts, so I was happy to get more  :laughing7:

 

[Torment Leaves Scars]

Compared to a "Bullet," you found yourself wielding a S.C.U.D. Missle.  arty07:

More like a cruise missle really. Dead on tagret from a hundred miles away...

I know what you mean about wanting more guitars. It's a common affliction here on the board and is scientifically known as Warmothitis wantmoreicus. Not to be confused with it's more inert cousin GASitis wantmoreicus.

You should check out the Kisekae and other related modelers. Those are an easy way to run through ideas without hurting the wallet. There's a great thread with lots of creations here: http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=6918.0

Some nice guitars in that link!

While I'd certainly love to do another Warmoth guitar, I think that my next one will probably be a neck-through Neal Moser FastStar.  Those guitars are just...WOW!  arty07:

http://nealmoser.com/store/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=3474

 

[back2thefutre]

I started out cause I wanted to make a replica of a fender guitar cause I didnt want to pay the big price tag of the real one. Didn t really work cause the Moth ended up costing more but it is way better. Liked it so much I bought 3 more and want a couple more...

 

[Torment Leaves Scars]

I started out cause I wanted to make a replica of a fender guitar cause I didnt want to pay the big price tag of the real one. Didn t really work cause the Moth ended up costing more but it is way better. Liked it so much I bought 3 more and want a couple more...

I was gonna say, "You should've just gotten the Fender, because it was probably cheaper."  :laughing3:

I have no complaints about the way my Warmoth plays, and quality is top-notch (aside from the paint).

 

[Cagey]

I needed a replacement body for my Fender Deluxe American Standard Strat. The one I had was finished in their "Teal Metallic Green", which I just couldn't get next to.

I had known about Warmoth for many years, but never bought any of their products. I didn't have any easy way of refinishing this particular Fender at the time, so I bought a chambered alder body with a curly top and a red to black burst finish with tinted masked binding. Couldn't believe how well-done it was when I saw the finished product. Since the Fender had a maple on maple neck (not my cuppa tea), I thought that rather than put the Fender parts on the Warmoth body, I 'd just buy a better neck.

Sold the Fender for an obscene amount of money, and used the proceeds to get an Agile Les Paul, a Warmoth neck and some good hardware/electricals. Profound happiness ensued, and I'm on my fourth one now.

 

[Jusatele]

Damn Cagey
My Am Std Strat is that color and I love it because I do not know anyone with it, guess that means I either have bad taste in colors or that I go out of my way to be different.

 

[Cagey]

Ain't no thang. There's no accounting for taste. Even our pets have most/least preferred variations of those things that present choices. Doesn't make the choice good or bad. For me, green finishes and maple 'boards happen to be among my least preferred choices. For someone else they may be the most preferred. It's still just green and maple.

 

[Torment Leaves Scars]

I needed a replacement body for my Fender Deluxe American Standard Strat. The one I had was finished in their "Teal Metallic Green", which I just couldn't get next to.

I had known about Warmoth for many years, but never bought any of their products. I didn't have any easy way of refinishing this particular Fender at the time, so I bought a chambered alder body with a curly top and a red to black burst finish with tinted masked binding. Couldn't believe how well-done it was when I saw the finished product. Since the Fender had a maple on maple neck (not my cuppa tea), I thought that rather than put the Fender parts on the Warmoth body, I 'd just buy a better neck.

Sold the Fender for an obscene amount of money, and used the proceeds to get an Agile Les Paul, a Warmoth neck and some good hardware/electricals. Profound happiness ensued, and I'm on my fourth one now.

I think that's a really polarizing color, and while I like it, it probably wouldn't be my first choice on my personal guitar.  With a black pickguard, or something, I might like it more.  Nonetheless, really nice guitar. 

 

[stubhead]

In the early 80's I had a Peavey T-60 which was a good, heavy guitar with a scrawny neck. I saw a no-name neck at Guitar Resurrection in Austin (might even have been a Ken Warmoth) and put it on, and the lights went on. I took a great neck off an Ibanez Roadstar that had been cursed with a weird whammy design, and put it on a Fender "Lead 1" that had a bad neck - I had got it for $80 because the hideous thick purple finish had alligatored up, and I sanded it off. That made for a great guitar, one of the many I wish I had back. My dad had always had a woodshop and my grandfather was a carpenter, it never would have even occurred to me not to do my own setups and fretwork and wiring and finishing.

Then I didn't have time to play much from the late 80's till the late 90's because it took me that long to realize that I did NOT want to get old in the restaurant biz, and find an easier way to make a living. When I got back into playing five & six hours a day, there were Gibsons & Fenders with ridiculous price tags for what I knew to secretly be just boards with wires on them, and there was Warmoth. I started teaching and I saw a lot of decent Ibanezes, and good Shecters, but there's just that something....  One thing I did remember from the 70's - the old ones weren't necessarily better, it wasn't until the 90's some time that any old piece of junk became a "great" guitar just cause it was old.

And Mustang -shaped guitars kick ass, as long as you do everything exactly opposite from Fender:

Big frets, Lawrence pickups, Grover tuners, volume-tone-volume-tone wiring, hardtail bridge.... what's not to love.

 

[Cagey]

I think that's a really polarizing color, and while I like it, it probably wouldn't be my first choice on my personal guitar.  With a black pickguard, or something, I might like it more.  Nonetheless, really nice guitar. 

One of my brothers essentially gave it to me after I came home from an extended stay in the hospital years back, so it wasn't like I had a choice. It was a red-headed stepchild for him, too. He has a pile of Strat-style G&L guitars, so this one wasn't getting the love and attention it deserved.

But, the guy I eventually sold it to was tickled pink. Thought maybe it was a Custom Shop version or something when he first saw it. Never heard of Sperzels before <gasp!>, never heard of tremsetters, never heard of blend pots, couldn't believe how well it played, etc. Funny guy. Seemed like he knew what he was talking about, and sure knew how to play and knew well enough to bring his own amp to play it through to make sure they'd work well together, but seemed to have led a sheltered life when it comes to guitar construction. In any event, I got more for it than Danny paid for it new without any argument at all. Some days are diamonds, eh?

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

For me I was looking for a replacement for my cheap craigs list special Squier affinity that I started with.  I spent about 6 hours one day at the local shop playing I'd guess about 30 different strats (strats just seem to fit me perfect).  I fell in love with the 2010 American Deluxe HSS largely because of the compound radius neck.  However, none of the finishes did anything for me.  I researched it heavily and discovered that the compound radius neck was only offered starting in 2010.  I was having a tough time stomaching spending $1600 on a guitar that the look didnt do it for me but was going to anyways because I just loved how it played.  Saw a 2010 body on eBay and figured I could get a neck and save some money and that's how I found my way to Warmoth.  Then I started looking around at all the options and it was like the pearly gates opened and I could hear the angels singing.  So then 2 months of research to figure out exactly what I wanted to do before I placed my first parts order.  I'm less than 2 weeks away from having it in my hands and playing it and the wait is killing me.  I've already got 3 more Warmoths in the works in my head now.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

When I graduated college in 96, my parents bought me a Warwick bass.  For some reason I just liked the Fortress One basses.  It has a Wenge neck.  I love that thing.  But it spoiled me, now I deal only in unfinished necks.  I have had my share of guitars, and blah blah blah, none of them played like my Contemporary Strat that was the first guitar that I had that played well.  So I didn't like very many guitars that were out there.  I like to read a lot, and used to pour through the Guitar for the Practicing Musician to get all of the details that were out there.  Of course, Warmoths ad was in the back.  I still have the color flyer that Warmoth sent me when I called and asked.  I also remember that Eddie Van Halen talked about his Korina V that he used for Hot for Teacher.  So when I was older and had the cash to try it, I got a korina body and an unfinished neck.  Turns out that the Standard thin was a dead ringer for the shape of my Contemporary Strat.  So now after three guitars and one bass (I am still working on the fourth guitar, well, and the fifth) I am not slowing down on ideas to build.  All with unfinished necks so far.  Although the idea of a Tonar Oiled birdseye neck is enticing...

The thing that keeps me coming back is the variety of choices for the neck material.  Some work better than others for what I like to play, but the options are a lot of fun.  That and they use absurdly beautiful wood.
Patrick

 

[Cagey]

The thing that keeps me coming back is the variety of choices for the neck material.  Some work better than others for what I like to play, but the options are a lot of fun.  That and they use absurdly beautiful wood.

Yeah, no kidding. I often wonder how much scrap they generate, since the end results are so good. There's got to be a yield value they have to live with and work into the price structure. I've been woodworking for years, and it's tough to get "flawless" pieces. Even a piece that looks flawless in the billet may give up some flaws once cut. Everything's got something you can point to and say "well, it's not perfect, but..." Not so with Warmoth's necks and bodies. Everything is as you say "absurdly beautiful", and even the unfinished stuff looks and feels finished. Ken (or whoever inspects/buys wood stock) must have an incredible eye for the stuff.

 

[stubhead]

It would be a pretty neat-o job to be the Warmoth employee who runs around the South American jungles in a pith helmet & stethoscope, tapping on trees with his little hammer... & hiding from the cannibals & the dinosaurs.
If that's not how it's done, I don't want to hear about it, that's for sure. :cool01:

 

[Cagey]

It would be a pretty neat-o job to be the Warmoth employee who runs around the South American jungles in a pith helmet & stethoscope, tapping on trees with his little hammer... & hiding from the cannibals & the dinosaurs.
If that's not how it's done, I don't want to hear about it, that's for sure. :cool01:

Hehe! Yeah, I like your version better... especially if you get to rassle dinosaurs <grin>

 

[Patrick from Davis]

It would be a pretty neat-o job to be the Warmoth employee who runs around the South American jungles in a pith helmet & stethoscope, tapping on trees with his little hammer... & hiding from the cannibals & the dinosaurs.
If that's not how it's done, I don't want to hear about it, that's for sure. :cool01:

Hehe! Yeah, I like your version better... especially if you get to rassle dinosaurs <grin>

It's getting the lumber out of there before the Sleestak's notice that is the trick...
Patrick

 

[Mor Paul]

Tone worm.

 

[Torment Leaves Scars]

I think that's a really polarizing color, and while I like it, it probably wouldn't be my first choice on my personal guitar.  With a black pickguard, or something, I might like it more.  Nonetheless, really nice guitar. 

One of my brothers essentially gave it to me after I came home from an extended stay in the hospital years back, so it wasn't like I had a choice. It was a red-headed stepchild for him, too. He has a pile of Strat-style G&L guitars, so this one wasn't getting the love and attention it deserved.

But, the guy I eventually sold it to was tickled pink. Thought maybe it was a Custom Shop version or something when he first saw it. Never heard of Sperzels before <gasp!>, never heard of tremsetters, never heard of blend pots, couldn't believe how well it played, etc. Funny guy. Seemed like he knew what he was talking about, and sure knew how to play and knew well enough to bring his own amp to play it through to make sure they'd work well together, but seemed to have led a sheltered life when it comes to guitar construction. In any event, I got more for it than Danny paid for it new without any argument at all. Some days are diamonds, eh?

Wow, sounds like a win-win for everyone!

 

[Cagey]

Yeah, it worked out well all around. The only side effect from the whole thing was I ended up with a Carvin neck that I don't know what to do with. Had to put that on there to get around that maple fingerboard during the time I played the thing. Put the original neck back on to sell it, and now that I'm addicted to Warmoths I imagine the Carvin neck will sit in the closet until I go tits-up.

 

[lafromla1]

I had just gotten 2 Fenders (one as an unexpected present) and really liked the idea of making a guitar with specific parts, not just an off the shelf one.  I really wanted a PRS but didnt like all their parts.  I really wanted some Gibson tone but didnt want all their parts either.  Also, I couldnt afford a high-end version of either.  A friend mentioned Warmoth and the rest was history. Hence my VIP with Gibson Burstbucker Pros.  I got the body style I wanted with the sound I wanted with an incredible looking kick-ass guitar.  Win-win all around. I had built my own golf clubs and even assembled a boat from scratch with only a hull and engine to start.  I figured assembling a guitar can't be that hard.  I scoured the forums for as much information as I could get regarding types of woods, tones of woods, pickup information, wiring, finishing, parts, etc.... and then called up the great guys at Warmoth to place my first order.  They walked me through everything I needed (except the jack, somehow we overlooked that  ).  3 builds later I am still an active proponent of Warmoth guitars and wear my t-shirt proudly.