Why is Warmoth such a secret?

[AutoBat]

I don't have tools, or woodworking skills, which is exactly why I had Warmoth do that for me.
I have never filed a fret end, haven't soldered anything before the first time I swapped pickups.
Before that I knew nothing.  Having done it once, I can now do it again.
I will never own Erlewine's book either.
Before I installed my tuners I did, however, purchase a drill.

I'm sorry that I was grossly incompetent under stubheads' rules and I should send my Warmoth parts back and crawl into a hole and die.

 

[Cagey]

Or all those piteous, totally ruined formerly-$400 gaak'd-up now-firewood bodies that show up on eBay from time to time, inevitably because the guy "didn't have time to finish this because I have so many other projects" etc. No, Router-Monster Doofus-Boy - you RUINED it.... :tard:

Hehe! Reminds me of this Warmoth 4A quilted top HSS VIP body that's been on Craig's List here locally for the last 4 or 5 months. Thing must've cost the guy $600 or better, and he just wrecked it trying to finish it. Now, nobody wants to touch it even at $230 and including a Gotoh 510 bridge because it'll take a million hours to fix it. It's too bad. Poor thing needs a home.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Oh, and quit shopping at Guitar Center, they are the Wal-Mart of the music instrument industry, and we all know how Wal-Mart has destroyed our economy.  Kill all the mom and pop shops so there is no competition........  Sam Walton should burn in hell for what his business model has done to the retail market in the US

Not to derail, but when Sam Walton was alive, there were no (or very few) Super Wal-Marts, and Wal-Mart prided themselves in selling things that were made in the USA.  Now that his kids run the show...
Also, Wal-Mart has customers, so is Wal-Mart to blame?  If everybody hates Wal-Mart, why is so hard to get a good parking spot?  And how did Wal-Mart ruin the economy?  One practice they do, which is not unique to them, is lock a small time manufacturer into a chance of lifetime contract only to have that manufacturer bite off more than they can chew and have Wal-Mart up the next order and lower their buying price, which the small time manufacturer can't do because he just took out a 3rd mortgage to retool his plant for his high volume Wal-Mart contract which he just lost because Wal-Mart wanted the same thing for cheaper.  Meanwhile, Wal-Mart found another guy that will do what the previous does for cheaper only to repeat the cycle.  Sears did it.

 

[AGWAN]

Also, last I checked Sams last son died in a Plane Crash, and some sociopathic little dude ran it

Lee Scott, not a Walton at all. and When I worked for Wal-Mart, My VERY Old store Manager said Sam would be Livid if he saw what Lee had done with his store.

that Manager was Fired by Corporate more or less for being to kind on his Employee's.

he really took care of people.

after they got rid of him. all the more dedicated, non Moronic people quit. and the whole store now looks ghetto as all get out.

 

[BigBeard]

Super Turbo man,  I hate Wal-Phuck and all it stands for.  Won't catch me shopping there for anything PERIOD!!!!  I used to be a contractor for them, and if they treated their customers one tenth as bad as they treated their employees and vendors nobody would go back.  But, oh jeez, I saved $0.14 on macaroni and cheese.  Whoopee!!!!!  Really for what you save, it isn't worth it to know how bad it really is.  And they drug test their employees to boot.  So you have a shitty job and can't even go home and do a jay to relax if you work at Wal-Phuck.  I hate the roostersuckers. 

You might have a thousand reasons for why they are the cat's ass or the bees knees, but for me, I'd rather go without than get whatever from Bettonville.  Period.  I have countless reasons for my utter hatred of everything that that company and it's business model stands for.  I mean I could write a college thesis on the subject, but I think I'm gonna go practice Pigs (Three Different Ones)  Big man, pig man, ha ha, charade you are

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I think it's a secret because many players are not gearheads.  Add to that, the lion's share of Warmoth replacement parts bought by customers look like what they are replacing.  They are the same or similar body shape, head stock shape, wood, finish, and can even be re-logo'd.  They're camoflagued in-other-words. 

I think there's a lot of truth to this.  I remember getting catalogs from the early 80's, & from then on it was common knowledge who Warmoth was around me and likeminded tinkerers.  Not all players even can so much as change a pickup, muchless do a setup anywhere near professional quality, they just play, then pay someone to do all the techy work.  You'd be surprised how many guitar players have no idea how to even set their own intonation.

 

[Doughboy]

Warmoth is like Jazz.

Most peopele have no idea who Allan Holdsworth, Pat Martino or Mike Stern are, but they know who Lady Gaga, Beyonce & Snoop Dogg are.

Most would rather pay a premium price, out of laziness & ego, for an off the shelf Gibson or Fender, than educate themselves about the guitar & how it works, so they can get 10x the instrument at 1/3 of the price.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

You might have a thousand reasons for why they are the cat's ass or the bees knees, but for me, I'd rather go without than get whatever from Bettonville.  Period.  I have countless reasons for my utter hatred of everything that that company and it's business model stands for.  I mean I could write a college thesis on the subject, but I think I'm gonna go practice Pigs (Three Different Ones)  Big man, pig man, ha ha, charade you are

I'm certainly no Wal-Mart defender, but I'm for placing blame on all parties involved.  They're so big and so evil, yet the place is packed.

What they are doing to the music biz is a tragedy, IMO.  For the longest time their music was a loss leader.  They'd sell CDs at below their cost knowing you'd buy a gallon of milk, motor oil, 25 lbs of dogfood, or Tide.  They want to keep selling CDs at that low price but want to name their own price for buying them.  Here's the kicker, Wal-Mart's music sales make up more than 50% of the music sold, but it's less than 2% of the their sales.  They wouldn't feel it if they stopped selling music tomorrow, but everyone else would.  If you are going to have a hit song, it has to be sold at Wal-Mart.  They know this, so they don't feel the least bit uninclined to suggest you change a lyric or an album cover to sell in their stores.  Is that Art?

 

[Strat Avenger]

Warmoth is no "secret".  The world is just full of uninformed people. I've known about Warmoth since 1985, when they used to advertise in the back of major guitar magazines. All the local music stores knew about them as well. Most of your "Guitar Center" employees are a bunch of ignorant kids.

 

[Superlizard]

Most would rather pay a premium price, out of laziness & ego

Touche'.

"If you want it done right, do it yourself" - like lots of Americans (market speaking of), those mooks
would rather have somebody else do everything for them.

 

[Cagey]

- like lots of Americans (market speaking of), those mooks would rather have somebody else do everything for them.

It's not mooks, it's moops!​

 

[Superlizard]

- like lots of Americans (market speaking of), those mooks would rather have somebody else do everything for them.

It's not mooks, it's moops!​

HAH!

The Bubble Boy episode.  :icon_thumright:

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Irony of ironies, I opened for a band once whose bass player was playing a Sadowsky J-Bass.  He'd never heard of Warmoth.  I told him he was playing one.

 

[stubhead]

I guess it would be sort of devil(-ish) and evil to compile a list of known users...  :evil4: :toothy12: Like Normandy aluminum guitars use Warmoth necks, Bill Crook uses USA Custom necks for his B-and-G bender guitars... Alumisonic guitars usually have a side truss rod adjuster, hmm?  :sign13: This stuff is like a closely-held secret, although Normandy uses "Warmoth" as a selling point. A lot of builders want you to think they do it all, as "parts guitars" still get a snoot from certain types, dog knows why anymore. And it's not really a secret how to build a great neck anymore, not with all the information available. Heck, just look at all the different truss rods that LMII sells.

However, good wood is important - that should go without saying, but I've seem some really weird Gibsons, for sure. What Warmoth & USA Custom have is the volume to back up a ongoing search effort for good wood, and they know how to treat it. Allparts has some import necks with a nice range of options, but I personally just don't have the faith in their wood sourcing, drying time etc. It's easy to see how a builder like Bill Crook might be able to store bodies, but still want to tap the quantity-driven consistency of outsourced necks.

http://www.alumisonic.com/evo-classic.html