What tolerances does Warmoth work to?

[Twigman]

I am wondering what tolerances Warmoth work to.
My Pbass build fit together very well.
The neck fitted very snugly in the pocket without any sanding required.
To set the action though, the bridge needed saddles as low as possible, the neck needed shimming and some turns put into the truss rod.
I suppose this might vary with the depth of the pocket and the depth of the heel as well as the size of the bridge saddles.
So as far as the depth of the pocket / the depth of the pup rout / the thickness of the neck at the heel go, what tolerances does Warmoth work to?
Is every single item QC'd to determine that it falls within those tolerances?
What happens to the bits that fall outside those tolerances?

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

I would hope the truss rod needed some turns.  It's supposed to.

 

[Twigman]

I would hope the truss rod needed some turns.  It's supposed to.

Of course.....there must be some relief in the neck and different strings apply different tensions.
Without the truss rod it would be impossible to setup the neck.


I was surprised that I had to  both shim the neck though and set the Gotoh201 saddles as low as they could go too.

I am not complaining as the bass is fantastic to play and now has a nice low action and correct intonation.

I was just thinking that variations in the heel/pocket depths would vary this aspect of set up and was wondering what tolerances are stipulated.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Both my bass bridges are almost bottomed out, and I've heard their fretlesses always have high bridges.  But the neck, it's shipped with slack in it, never been tightened or loosened.

 

[AprioriMark]

Was it a Warmoth body as well as the neck? 

-Mark

 

[Wyliee]

Please understand that working with wood is not the same as stamped steel parts or machined metal.  There can be a few thousandths variation from the hand sanding.  There can be a variations in the thickness of the finish.  Wood can swell or shrink due to changes in humidity.  All of this is cumulative.  Rest assured Warmoth works to very tight tolerances, but there can and will be some variation.

That's just the wood bits.  Look at all the different bridges on the market; each with their own base plate and saddle heights.  Slotted or unslotted saddles?

The bottom line here (no pun intended) is if you want your axe to play well, you'll need to spend some time on the setup.  That could/should include adjusting the truss rod, (and shims are not uncommon even in top end instruments), adjusting the bridge, tweaking the nut, possibly a spot fret level, etc....  It's all part of the setup process to get your bass to play the way you want it.

 

[Twigman]

The bottom line here (no pun intended) is if you want your axe to play well, you'll need to spend some time on the setup.  That could/should include adjusting the truss rod, (and shims are not uncommon even in top end instruments), adjusting the bridge, tweaking the nut, possibly a spot fret level, etc....  It's all part of the setup process to get your bass to play the way you want it.

Of course and that is part of the fun of DIY - it would be dull if everything was exactly the same and no effort was required to setup a sweet playing instrument.
I was just curious as to how tightly tolerances are kept to. Of course hand finished parts are going to have variations, I was just curious as to how wide those variations are allowed to be before Warmoth deem the parts to be out of tolerance.

If ordering a custom neck and body together is it possible to get them 'tolerance matched' so that the fit is as close to perfect as possible?

 

[Wyliee]

The bottom line here (no pun intended) is if you want your axe to play well, you'll need to spend some time on the setup.  That could/should include adjusting the truss rod, (and shims are not uncommon even in top end instruments), adjusting the bridge, tweaking the nut, possibly a spot fret level, etc....  It's all part of the setup process to get your bass to play the way you want it.

Of course and that is part of the fun of DIY - it would be dull if everything was exactly the same and no effort was required to setup a sweet playing instrument.
I was just curious as to how tightly tolerances are kept to. Of course hand finished parts are going to have variations, I was just curious as to how wide those variations are allowed to be before Warmoth deem the parts to be out of tolerance.

If ordering a custom neck and body together is it possible to get them 'tolerance matched' so that the fit is as close to perfect as possible?

Can you be more specific as to what you mean by 'tolerance matched?'  How would you define a perfect fit?  As you have acknowledged, there will be variations from part to part.  What are you looking for? 

If a body and neck are ordered together, they are test fit before shipping, BTW.

 

[line6man]

What does it matter what Warmoth's manufacturing tolerances are? You're talking about products made of wood! Wood moves! :tard:

 

[Jet-Jaguar]

When I opened this thread, I thought it was about how many phone calls they'd take before blocking your number. "So what if ..."