The ultimate warmoth neck and fret quality poll!!

[DangerousR6]

Two necks for me, both perfect.

My Tele neck nut had to be slightly filed on a couple of strings, no biggie.
My Soloist neck had to have the Floyd nut slightly shimmed, no biggie.

The reason I say "no biggie" on both of them is because both of those things are part of a proper set-up. Not a workmanship issue. And for most people, those two things wouldn't even have been an issue. My luthier has been working on my guitars for 29 years and knows how I like them and does everything he can to get them there.

People need to remember that we are not buying ready to play guitars. We are building guitars from quality parts. If Warmoth was shipping complete guitars they would be doing these things as part of the set-up and sales process.

Before you even attempt to do the set-up on your new Warmoth, you should string it up and play it for a couple of days, no matter how bad it needs the set-up done. You've got to get it settled in before the set-up is done. If you run out an do a set-up before the guitar has settled in, you'll be thinking you got bad parts once it settles in more and needs another set-up.

Amen brutha, I usually get mine set up good enough to play and check it all out. Then give it a couple weeks to acclimate, then redo the set up... :icon_thumright:

 

[Rouse]

It was perfect in every way except the sharp fret ends, its not that big of a deal, I actually expected it.

 

[DesmoDog]

I've only bought one neck but it was by no means perfect. I'm not complaining, I wasn't expecting it to be.

Main issue was the slots in the nut were too high, and I had the tech also level the frets just because. As delivered the truss rod nut was finger tight so you have to expect to adjust that at the very least.

Once the truss rod was adjusted it was playable, I played it for a couple weeks as-is. it just wasn't as nice as it could be.  Again, I'm not saying any of this as a complaint, I'm very happy with the quality of the parts and was fully expecting things like this to need to be addressed. FWIW the guitar tech had only good things to say about both the body and the neck, and he's not shy about pointing out issues so I'm sure it wasn't just him being polite.

I wouldn't/didn't buy a neck expecting it to be a plug and play experience. I probably could have gotten away without the fret work, but the nut and truss rod absolutely needed to be adjusted.

 

[SkuttleFunk]

string slots in the nut -should- be on the high side so that a compitent tech can nuzzle them with a nut file as part of the set-up process. each player has a different set-up preference, and a slightly high nut allows for the action to be set just like they like ... a string slot in the nut that's cut too low is a different issue, and requires cutting a new nut (to be done right IMO)

adjustment of the trussrod should only be done with the instrument completely assembled - a neck should NEVER be shipped with tension applied to the trussrod unless there are strings tuned close to pitch to provide counter tension

DbU said it spot on:

People need to remember that we are not buying ready to play guitars. We are building guitars from quality parts. If Warmoth was shipping complete guitars they would be doing these things as part of the set-up and sales process

all the best,

R

 

[DesmoDog]

string slots in the nut -should- be on the high side so that a compitent tech can nuzzle them with a nut file as part of the set-up process. each player has a different set-up preference, and a slightly high nut allows for the action to be set just like they like ... a string slot in the nut that's cut too low is a different issue, and requires cutting a new nut (to be done right IMO)

adjustment of the trussrod should only be done with the instrument completely assembled - a neck should NEVER be shipped with tension applied to the trussrod unless there are strings tuned close to pitch to provide counter tension

I wasn't meaning to imply that the notch height or loose truss rod was an error, just trying to point out that they both needed to be dealt with...

 

[Patrick]

string slots in the nut -should- be on the high side so that a compitent tech can nuzzle them with a nut file as part of the set-up process. each player has a different set-up preference, and a slightly high nut allows for the action to be set just like they like ... a string slot in the nut that's cut too low is a different issue, and requires cutting a new nut (to be done right IMO)

adjustment of the trussrod should only be done with the instrument completely assembled - a neck should NEVER be shipped with tension applied to the trussrod unless there are strings tuned close to pitch to provide counter tension

all the best,

R

suppose you have a 3x3 headstock and the strings are blocking acess to the truss rod adjustment nut. what do you do then?

 

[DangerousR6]

string slots in the nut -should- be on the high side so that a compitent tech can nuzzle them with a nut file as part of the set-up process. each player has a different set-up preference, and a slightly high nut allows for the action to be set just like they like ... a string slot in the nut that's cut too low is a different issue, and requires cutting a new nut (to be done right IMO)

adjustment of the trussrod should only be done with the instrument completely assembled - a neck should NEVER be shipped with tension applied to the trussrod unless there are strings tuned close to pitch to provide counter tension

all the best,

R

suppose you have a 3x3 headstock and the strings are blocking acess to the truss rod adjustment nut. what do you do then?

I have 2 of the Warmoth style 3+3 with no such issues.... :dontknow:

 

[SkuttleFunk]

string slots in the nut -should- be on the high side so that a compitent tech can nuzzle them with a nut file as part of the set-up process. each player has a different set-up preference, and a slightly high nut allows for the action to be set just like they like ... a string slot in the nut that's cut too low is a different issue, and requires cutting a new nut (to be done right IMO)

adjustment of the trussrod should only be done with the instrument completely assembled - a neck should NEVER be shipped with tension applied to the trussrod unless there are strings tuned close to pitch to provide counter tension

all the best,

R

suppose you have a 3x3 headstock and the strings are blocking acess to the truss rod adjustment nut. what do you do then?

well, if I was going to ship an assembled guitar ... I would always ship it tuned to pitch, so there is no issue

if I was shipping just a neck, or a client insisted that I ship a guitar with the strings slack ... I would loosen all of the tension off of the trussrod

all the best,

R

 

[D-rock]

I order an all rosewood neck with SS frets. The neck is awesome!! except the fret ends were a little sharp, but only cost $20 USD to get them dressed and it was worth it! now it plays like butter

 

[DesmoDog]

suppose you have a 3x3 headstock and the strings are blocking acess to the truss rod adjustment nut. what do you do then?

Loosen the strings and adjust the truss rod. Warmoth states you shouldn't do the adjustment with the strings tuned to pitch anyway.

On some guitars you need to remove the neck to adjust the truss rod... so obviously you can have tension on the rod with no strings, you just shouldn't leave it that way for long.

 

[-CB-]

What Gregg said way up there....

I've bought... I dunno now.  Not as many as Jack but a LOT of necks over the last 15 years.  Thinkin here... maybe 8 necks.  On those 8 necks I've had one, exactly one issue - one single slightly raised fret on the "fretboard extension" of a 22 fret neck.  It was easy to correct with a plastic mallet.  The rest have been non-issue products.

Hint - if your fret ends are sharp,  go down to the Five & Dime and get a few of those flexi nail things the ladies use.  Not the boards, but the rubber ones.  Go over the fret ends with those - mask the fretboard too so you dont smudge it.  Those things will soften up fret feel real fast.

Here's the thing folks - much of what is out there in "guitardom" is subject to a whole lot of interpretation as to "whats good and whats crap".  W builds up good stuff, excellent stuff.  Its also "raw" stuff for the most part, and its understood that you're going to put the final touches on things.  If thats not what you do, then pay to have it done.  Guaranteed that 95 out of 100 techs that do set ups would love to do them on a new Warmoth neck.... its just that good.

 

[BassmanAK]

I'll chime in with this....
I built a gecko some years back, and the neck/fretwork was flawless out of the box.
The issues I had with the bass itself were mine alone, and had NOTHING to do
with the quality and craftsmanship of the parts that I ordered.
I just simply went through an experimental phase, and Warmoth was one of those phases.
My current fantasy involves a Warmoth body with a Moses neck, having come back
"home" to my Modulus, and just digging the graphite neck concept for a bass.
IMHO: Wood does things for a guitar tone that can not be done any other way.
Basses are another story... Just look at the explosion of "active" electronics in
entry-level basses in recent years, which seems to me to be a way to compensate for
the effect wood has on a bass. And when one considers low 'B' strings, the overall stiffness of a neck comes into play more than on a guitar....
It's MUCH easier to 'cut' frequencies than to try to add them... As my old buddy
Glade Rassmussen told me when I bought the Modulus from him back in '98....
Okay... I'll shut up now.... :icon_biggrin:

 

[Jet-Jaguar]

I have two warmoth necks, and two guitars built by other makers (Fender and Dean.)  Out of the box, the warmoth necks are better.  I haven't gotten around to getting them dressed and set up by a luthier, but I put "perfect" because they were better than necks I've played in stores, etc.