Warmoth gets flamed on another forum, makes me laugh.

[croquet hoop]

There are many ways to roll a neck (more or less pronounced), and some players simply don't like it. I think Warmoth offered that option some time ago, there must be a reason why they stopped doing it. Warmoth is not your local luthier, so the rationale behind their offering & princing cannot be the same.

 

[SustainerPlayer]

I would rather get beat up with a raw stick from Warmoth than any rolled edge and nitro finished wood beam from any other manufacturer.  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[Jumble Jumble]

The trouble with rolled edges is you can't really get a machine to do it. And also that you pretty much have to offer several "levels" of rolling - light, medium, heavy. Both of those things push it outside of Warmoth's business model - as many necks, to exact measurable specs, out of the door, per day, as possible.

Musikraft aren't my local luthier either, and how much rolling you want on your edges is just one of the options you choose, same as FB radius and fretwire size, when you custom-order a neck. Same with USACG, just say how much rolling you want and it's done. Interestingly enough, USACG won't install a nut, giving the same reason that Warmoth give for not levelling frets - it's part of the final setup of the guitar.

I'm not saying "WARMOTH SHOULD DO FB ROLLING!!!". I'm saying that they could - and if they thought they'd make more money, they probably would.

 

[croquet hoop]

The trouble with rolled edges is you can't really get a machine to do it

Well,: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSKz30b5TkA

And yeah, of course Warmoth can do it — they did it before, but it probably does not fit well in their busines model, since they don't do it anymore.

 

[Cagey]

They may have gotten too many returns. I don't know what the threshold is for "too many", but I'm sure there is one. Anyway, when you're doing something to a "feel", like rolling edges, dressing frets, etc. you open yourself up for criticism. It's no longer an objective, measurable thing, so you can end up with dissatisfied customers. At least the way they do things, you can present the product for what it is, and if there's anything wrong or unacceptable it's easily measured and judged.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

That's what I thought too - either not enough demand, or people complaining.

I always say the easiest way would be to offer rolling "equivalent to a modern Fender guitar", the same as they say about the Standard Thin profile. That way, as long as that's what you deliver, you're pretty much covered.

The thing is, these hypothetical people complaining that it's the wrong amount of roll are stupid. How did you specify the amount of roll? "Medium rolling"? That means nothing. You need to quantify it. If you don't quantify it, you can't say it's wrong when you get it. Like asking for "some potatoes", being given 4, and complaining because you meant 6.

I think maybe part of it is, you can't really program fingerboard rolling into a CNC machine. I mean, you could, but it'd be a complicated program and it'd take the machine ages to do. And if you can't get the CNC to do it, it's gotta be done by hand. And if it's done by hand, it won't match an exact specification at the end, and now all of a sudden you're not covered any more. Again, at that point, it's outside Warmoth's business model. They do parts with options, rather than the places that do "full custom" work. The pieces aren't the result of an ongoing dialogue with the customer, they're the result of an order with a specification.