The ultimate warmoth neck and fret quality poll!!

[buttmonk]

Hi board,

I have heard some bad stories about QC of Warmoth necks, particularly fretwork. I really wanna buy a wenge neck with satine fretboard and SS frets, but before I do this I want to get some indication of the likelyhood that it will need additional fretwork which I really don't want to have to do. So any feedback is more than welcome.

Pls vote for as many options as apply to your experience. I really want to know if anything about the neck did not meet your expectations for quality. If you have positive or negative experience, pls also post descriptions.

Few definitions of terms.

Fret leveling: Frets are levelled to be uniformly level across and along the board and are level with each other i.e. no frets are higher than other frets which causes fret buzz.

Fret polishing: Frets are polished to make the crown smooth and free from scratches, so that for example string bending is easy.

Fret crowning: Shaping the top of the fret so that it is curved.

Thanks,

Edited:

Rgds the option "No, it was perfect!!" pls interpret this as"it was perfect given my expectation of what the product should be like".

Any comments on what you think is great about your Warmoth necks also more than welcome

Pls also see Gregg's comments on this poll below which gives a good perspective on this.

1) Warmoth does a good job of seating frets level. They do NOT perform a "fret level" as you would do for a guitar assembly and set up.

2) Warmoth never polishes frets.

3) Warmoth never crowns frets past how they are manufactured for us.

4) Fret ends are beveled and lightly sanded. (As a footnote, the Gold and Stainless Steel frets are harder material and their ends are a bit more squared than nickel)

5) Neck twisted? Did you know most necks are? Ever so slightly you don't even notice. If you are asking if they are too twisted to play, then that is a warranty issue of which Warmoth has VERY few considering the number of necks we craft.

6) Pefection is a subjective term but you can rest assured the masses are quite pleased with their Warmoth parts. I know this because I held the Sales Manager and Returns Manager position for Wamoth for multiple years.

Two of the poll options here aren't even applicable to Warmoth. Those two should get a lot of votes though. So should "Other Problem" since that covers just about any negative thing you can come up with. How about a poll that asks, "What's the best thing about your Warmoth neck?" That would probably be a very informative thread from this crew.

 

[Wyliee]

What about all the folks and thousands and thousands of necks that Warmoth customers receive meeting or exceeding their expectations?  This appears to be a very ill conceived poll and focuses soley on the negative.

You might want to read what Warmoth has to say about fretwork here: http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/necks/necks.cfm?fuseaction=fretsize.

If you have very specific setup requirements and exacting standard, plan on getting a fret level and professional setup.

 

[buttmonk]

What about all the folks and thousands and thousands of necks that Warmoth customers receive meeting or exceeding their expectations?  This appears to be a very ill conceived poll and focuses soley on the negative.

You might want to read what Warmoth has to say about fretwork here: http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/necks/necks.cfm?fuseaction=fretsize.

If you have very specific setup requirements and exacting standard, plan on getting a fret level and professional setup.

Thanks,

I am not sure what happened, the option "No, my neck was perfect" did not make into the poll when I originally submitted the form, now added. I want to clarify that this was not supposed to be a poll  for only negative feedback, and the ideal result for me would be that all responses are positive experiences cos that means I will buy the neck

Yes, I  have read the information you referenced. The type of negative feedback I have read elsewhere is not consistent with statements made here by Warmoth, hence this poll. As far as I am concerned, the neck should leave Warmoth in perfect condition rgds fret dressing, then of course the may be some "settling" of the neck after installation and while it acclimatizes to its new environment. In my opinion, the impact this acclimetization has on the neck should be almost negligible unless you are trying for insanely low action.

I have already bought a Warmoth body and I am totally satisfied with it, couldn't be better, just wary of the necks at the moment.

 

[jackthehack]

No issues; 20 guitar necks, 1 bass

You should take into consideration the OP's chosen moniker of buttmonk/buttmonkey

 

[DocNrock]

W specifically recommends having the frets dressed.  This is not a service they provide.  That is clearly stated in their website.

That said, I have one build complete and love the neck with no further dressing.

 

[m4rk0]

I have bought 7 warmoth necks and I couldn't be happier!
I had 3 of them dressed, but it only needed such light dressing that the guitar tech included it in the price of a regular set-up.

 

[GoDrex]

My option was not on their. On my neck the binding at the end of the fretboard had a centimeter or more "lip" and a bead of finish on it that I didn't notice - (especially since I've never had a bound neck or tried to put one on a carved LP body before). This caused the fret board to bend up at the end and made the guitar pretty much unplayable on the higher frets, after I sanded the lip down so it wouldn't touch the body of the guitar anymore. So if you get a bound neck be very careful and check the edge that goes over the body. I guess the frets were OK, but by now I have no idea since I had to have work done in order to be able to play the thing without it buzzing and fretting out on bends,

 

[SlingBass]

Voted: "No, neck was perfect!!" - so far/so good (more to follow)  :icon_thumright:

 

[buttmonk]

W specifically recommends having the frets dressed.  This is not a service they provide.  That is clearly stated in their website.

That said, I have one build complete and love the neck with no further dressing.

Thanks!

Can you provide a link to this statement? Pages where I have found mention of this topic are http://www.warmoth.com/customerservice/customer.cfm?fuseaction=warranty and http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/necks/necks.cfm?fuseaction=fretsize, but when it comes to dressing and levelling the text is fairly non-commital (perhaps intentionally) and it is not clear whether they do or do not do any sort of dressing. However, I am starting to get the impression that they do no dressing of any type after the frets are inserted into the board but rely that the quality of this process is high enough such that in most cases nothing else is required. Pls correct me if I am wrong.

 

[dbw]

Mine was perfect.

 

[buttmonk]

My option was not on their. On my neck the binding at the end of the fretboard had a centimeter or more "lip" and a bead of finish on it that I didn't notice - (especially since I've never had a bound neck or tried to put one on a carved LP body before). This caused the fret board to bend up at the end and made the guitar pretty much unplayable on the higher frets, after I sanded the lip down so it wouldn't touch the body of the guitar anymore. So if you get a bound neck be very careful and check the edge that goes over the body. I guess the frets were OK, but by now I have no idea since I had to have work done in order to be able to play the thing without it buzzing and fretting out on bends,

Thanks for the feedback. I added an "Other problem" option to catch this sort of thing.

 

[Volitions Advocate]

I voted "neck was perfect" AND" fret ends sharp" and I'd like to qualify that for you.

the neck was perfect.  the only thing It needed was a truss rod adjustment once i put strings on it.. which... well makes perfect sense right?

The ends of the frets were a little sharper than I was used to. not that they were actually sharp (like my indonesian tele.. ugh, it cuts me sometimes, i still have to file them down I just haven't done it yet)

They would never cut my fingers or anything,  But it wasn't as smooth on the edges as my Dean or even my old squier strat.  Having said that though.  I think it was a good place for them to leave it, because filing them down any more really isn't necessary, and woudl only be a preference thing i guess.  After playing on it for a month I totally forgot about it.  And seeing as how most of the guitars I will buy from this point on will be warmoth... It'll probably become what i'm most used to anyway. so i'm not complaining.

 

[buttmonk]

Thanks for this!

Yeps, truss rod adjustment is something I expect to do and will most likely need to do.

 

[Kostas]

Neither of my two necks were perfect but how can you expect the frets to be on a perfect level if you don't mount the neck on the body and put also pickups and bridge? My luthier made my strats neck work great without doing a fret dressing. I'm not happy with my thinline as I want the strings lower so I'm gonna do a fret dress on September. But I can't blame Warmoth for this, it's personal taste. I would blame the company if I was bying a guitar, but Warmoth sells parts.

 

[tfarny]

1. I've experienced 4 W necks and soon to experience a couple more, none of them needed fret work but the bound one I've been messing with, the fret ends are a bit sharp - they aren't roughly cut at all, but they seem to be cut at a sharper angle than my non-bound necks.
2. If you're very very particular about your frets, you'll want to get your fretwork done no matter from whom you buy the guitar / neck; as somebody below stated, you can't really do precision custom fretwork until the guitar is assembled and the customer's preferences known anyhow, so this whole poll is a bit of a dud in my opinion.

Expecting a perfect paint job, for instance, is totally reasonable, but the company itself recommends that you get your frets levelled and dressed, so add that to the cost of the guitar, and if it is pefect out of the box, like all of mine so far, then so much the better.

 

[Chris of Arabia]

My Strat went together without a fret dress, but did need the fret ends bevelling (don't they all?). The Tele on the other hand had a dress and frets ends done. The Braveheart need the fret ends doing, but it remains to be seen whether it'll need dressing.

 

[simple]

1) Warmoth does a good job of seating frets level. They do NOT perform a "fret level" as you would do for a guitar assembly and set up.

2) Warmoth never polishes frets.

3) Warmoth never crowns frets past how they are manufactured for us.

4) Fret ends are beveled and lightly sanded. (As a footnote, the Gold and Stainless Steel frets are harder material and their ends are a bit more squared than nickel)

5) Neck twisted? Did you know most necks are? Ever so slightly you don't even notice. If you are asking if they are too twisted to play, then that is a warranty issue of which Warmoth has VERY few considering the number of necks we craft.

6) Pefection is a subjective term but you can rest assured the masses are quite pleased with their Warmoth parts. I know this because I held the Sales Manager and Returns Manager position for Wamoth for multiple years.

Two of the poll options here aren't even applicable to Warmoth. Those two should get a lot of votes though. So should "Other Problem" since that covers just about any negative thing you can come up with. How about a poll that asks, "What's the best thing about your Warmoth neck?" That would probably be a very informative thread from this crew.

 

[GoDrex]

I'm 99% sure that if I hadn't had my binding problem, or if I had noticed it before putting the neck on the body, my neck would have been perfect. The neck itself is beautiful and the frets were far better out of the box than my Parker P-42 (made in Korea) and my Strat (yeah it's a MIM so that's not saying much I guess). I'm not real picky about frets, I mainly don't like the rough edges and mine were very smooth out of the box. Also the finish is beautiful. But I kind of expect the thing to be good for a neck that costs in between the price of  the two guitars I mentioned (more than the strat, less than the Parker). I chalk my problems up to my typical bad luck with guitars that I've had since I was 13. Guitars rarely work out OK for me, no matter how much money I spend. I'm just happy I can play the thing now. Kind of bummed me out for a couple months and made me feel dizzy and nauseated a few times but I think I've turned the corner! hahahaha

 

[buttmonk]

1) Warmoth does a good job of seating frets level. They do NOT perform a "fret level" as you would do for a guitar assembly and set up.

2) Warmoth never polishes frets.

3) Warmoth never crowns frets past how they are manufactured for us.

4) Fret ends are beveled and lightly sanded. (As a footnote, the Gold and Stainless Steel frets are harder material and their ends are a bit more squared than nickel)

5) Neck twisted? Did you know most necks are? Ever so slightly you don't even notice. If you are asking if they are too twisted to play, then that is a warranty issue of which Warmoth has VERY few considering the number of necks we craft.

6) Pefection is a subjective term but you can rest assured the masses are quite pleased with their Warmoth parts. I know this because I held the Sales Manager and Returns Manager position for Wamoth for multiple years.

Two of the poll options here aren't even applicable to Warmoth. Those two should get a lot of votes though. So should "Other Problem" since that covers just about any negative thing you can come up with. How about a poll that asks, "What's the best thing about your Warmoth neck?" That would probably be a very informative thread from this crew.

Thanks Gregg for your complete answer. I now feel like I have more of an understanding of what is in scope of neck created by Warmoth. I have copied the text from your post into the original post to give perspective to anyone ne wcoming across this thread.

And of course, if anyone wants to respond with what was great about their Warmoth neck then that is all good information

 

[DangerousR6]

I voted, "No neck was perfect", got 3 necks. Two mounted and fully functional without the need for any further leveling or dressing..... :icon_thumright: