Warmoth neck sits too high in pocket

[BluzCruz]

I bought a (new) warmoth flame maple neck with a nice vintage tint a couple years back for a project. It's a 24 3/4 conversion neck - and that is the whole reason I bought it. I play gibson a lot and want a strat with the same scale.

However, it sits too high in the pocket. After I put it together, I took it to a luthier for a setup and to do basic fretwork. But they had to raise the saddles and tilt the bridge so much it looks and feels ridiculous.

As a result - that guitar never gets played...which is a shame because it's custom, best of everything. I recently ordered a different body with a 2 point bridge and a cutaway heel - and I'm going to move everything to that body. Would love to keep the warmoth neck but if I can't get it to sit right, I'm going to go back to a normal fender neck.

My recollection is I measured the warmoth neck and it's just thicker than my fender necks at the pocket. I'll have to put it back on the bench and see when the new body comes but...I've seen others post about this before. The solutions I see people post are usually shim it to tilt it, rout the body, CNC the neck thinner, or adjust the truss rod. I'm not convinced a lot of those people know what they are talking about though.

Just wondering what the usual experience is with putting a Warmoth neck on a fender body. Do you typically find it just sits higher? Is there any good solution that doesn't require destroying the value of the neck or the body?

 

[mayfly]

Hi there,

Warmoth follows vintage made-in-USA Fender specs.  The problem is generally Fender does not follow their own specs, especially with guitars not made in North America. The correct spec is that the neck should be about 1" thick at the heel.

Some quick questions: 
1 - What's the body?  I assume it's a Fender, but is it a MIM, MIJ, MIK, Squier, USA, etc?
2 - Do you have some photos for us?  An overall shot, close up of the pocket, close up of the bridge, etc that shows the problem?

 

[dmraco]

I agree with mayfly.  Some photos and info on the body would be great.  I have seen the opposite on some Asian bodies.  Pockets were too deep and needed shimmed.

 

[elgravos]

It's a little late in the day to pitch in as you've already ordered from the sound of things, but this is where the 720 mod comes in handy (if you are not getting a strat with pickguard)! 

With that said, if the new body you just ordered is from Warmoth, then you should be fine.

 

[BluzCruz]

RESOLVED.

I recently bought a string height gauge from Stew-Mac. And that just paid for itself 5 times over.

By measuring the string height over the first fret, I realized the luthier who originally set this neck up when it was new, totally fubar'd the nut. It was cut so low (like .005" !!) that the bridge saddles and trem angle had to be jacked WAY high to clear the high frets. That was the whole problem.

I replaced the nut myself yesterday, cutting to the factory strat spec (.020 +/- .002) and it plays like a dream now. The only thing I noticed was that the nut slot itself was not flat

It's always so hard finding good luthiers. That particular shop has done some good work and some really shit work for me. I guess it depends who works on it or how they are feeling. I've steered clear of them, mostly, for the last several years anyway because of some of the bad work. Kind of a crap shoot. The more experiences I have like that, the more tools I buy and the more stuff I learn to do myself. I'm starting to get the hang of making new nuts...so the only thing left for me now is fretwork. I don't do that yet. But all the other adjustments and so forth I can do with precisions.

 

[Cagey]

That string height gauge is a fantastic tool. I resisted getting one for a long time, thinking it too costly, but it improved the quality of my setups and the playability of the necks so much I would gladly pay double now if I had to replace it. Can hardly imagine working without it.

I've been setting the high E to .012" clearance at the first fret, and ramping up to around .020" at the low E, and there's no problem with buzzing or strings spanking off the frets, so you still have room to go. I'm sure I could cut the slots even deeper without issue, but I worry that normal wear would have me replacing nuts too often. The other thing I do is measure at the 12th fret to set saddle height, and I can easily get .050" without issue on a level fretboard.

 

[fdesalvo]

That string height gauge is a fantastic tool. I resisted getting one for a long time, thinking it too costly, but it improved the quality of my setups and the playability of the necks so much I would gladly pay double now if I had to replace it. Can hardly imagine working without it.

I've been setting the high E to .012" clearance at the first fret, and ramping up to around .020" at the low E, and there's no problem with buzzing or strings spanking off the frets, so you still have room to go. I'm sure I could cut the slots even deeper without issue, but I worry that normal wear would have me replacing nuts too often. The other thing I do is measure at the 12th fret to set saddle height, and I can easily get .050" without issue on a level fretboard.

This is why we all come to you for the fretwork