Nice! Glad you mentioned installing the jack plate with the jack already attached, so as to ensure the cable will plug in correctly when done. I've made that mistake before too. No fun.
*A great tip for first timers do is TAKE YOUR TIME! When you first put together a guitar it's so tempting to just get everything together in one sitting, you're excited, things take longer than you think, you get frustrated, you make mistakes, and the result suffers. So by making a plan spanning over a couple of days, day 1 is always making sure you got every piece ready down to every last little screw, you eliminate the risk of doing sloppy mistakes.*
Yes...i think they should recommend having a luthier do most of the work. I have a ⅞S-style build coming. Im havint my luthier so everything. He has his own methods and cool things he does with the frets that he came up with. It roasted flamed maple and i was going to leave it unfinished, but he convinced me to go with Birchwood Tru-oil gun stock finish. Obviously, its meant for gunstocks, but really has a great reputation for guitars. Its super slick and thin feeling, but also really does a great job protecting the wood. It also makes the flame pop. If your messing with a squier then I'd say have at it, but were talking quality American shop made parts from Warmoth? Get a luthier...
Your cat, this is my entire existence of trying to work on stuff at home. My cat is laying across my wrists as I type this - she got tired of swiping at you on screen as I watched this.
Thanks for the upload. Congrats for your beautiful single cut ! I assembled 3 guits with Warmoth gear and they are awesome. Quality, price and customer service. They compete with any Custom Shop production for a fraction of the price ! \m/
Nice job Zach ! Thanks for taking the time to put this very informative video together. I'll send this along to my students and TechDeck owners ;^ ) ... \m/ ! MMcC
Hey nice video and nice playing. Have to say your narration was very thoughtful and well done. Don't think I will do a build but your voice over is loaded with lots of positive energy. Not sure if I missed it but total cost might be helpful for those viewers so inclined to take the plunge. +1 from me!
Gorgeous guitar and it sounds great too! Like your cat! I've got one that has a love for guitar building too! She's always by my side whenever I'm building something!🐱😀
I put together a Warmoth LP (which they can't sell anymore, thanks, Gibson👎) in the early 90's. She's been through the ringer, but she's still one of my favorite players. She's actually leaning within reach of the chair I'm sitting in right now. Nice job on yours!
That guitar 🎸 turned out gorgeous. You should check out Guns and Guitars for his neck prep. Fret leveling, polishing and so forth. He likes the results for getting primo action and tone. Good job.☺
Real nice job there man. Currently in the ball park of just ordering guitars from Warmoth from this point on, spent too much money of stock standards and big name brands only to sell them. The only guitar I've bought that I'm 100% happy with was my current Diamond Monarch, which I have since modified anyway. This vid gave me more confidence with Warmoth.
@@nolyspe assuming you mean the blue one. First layer is neck amber from guitar reranch. Second layer is vintage cream. Third layer is Daphne blue. #0000 steel wool to expose layers below and give the overall "used to be glossy" effect. It took a few tries. m.imgur.com/gallery/VYh9s
@@nolyspe oooh that one! That's actually a baritone and the relic secret is that it's a pine body. Pine is VERY soft so you can dent it with keys, coins, etc. That's why Leo Fender stopped using it for guitars.... First I did the layer of amber and then the pink and then steel wool on the top for the worn out gloss look. And then I slid the body on the stone walkway a half dozen times (see walkway in some of the pics) to dent the edges randomly. Used a long pocket knife for some "paint cracks", marked it up with keys and coins, did "too much" steel wool in areas to expose more wood, and then just let time do the rest. I went super light on the pink for the back and sides so more wood shown through there. Pine is so soft and porous that over 5 years it just looks has so many porous holes filled with dirt. Again, that's why fender switched away from his original pine wood. imgur.com/a/3MXHNCh
quick tip, use two masonry bits to prevent a chipped finish near the strap buttons. I was easily able to add a strap button to an acoustic guitar that way without chipping the finish.
You should always wait a few days, 3 or 4, before doing any work on the parts. That time will make sure the woods have accustomed to the weather/humidity/temperature changes. Particularly painting would be the more problematic job if woods haven't settled yet. Also, the neck may very easily need some trussrod slight adjustment.
Great video! I have an old Squier strat rebuild project I'm trying to get to, there were some helpful tips here! I pair of feline supervisors, one looks a lot like yours. Nice playing, too! Do I hear a little Ian Thornley influence?
nice work - thanks for the video ... quick question - do the necks ever need any fret leveling / crowning / dressing / etc? ... what about the nut height? ever need any slot depth fixing?
tone4days If you want super low action, yes there should be some fret dressing/leveling but in my experience, warmoth necks come able to have medium to medium-low action no problem. I've never needed to do anything with the nut.
@Zach Boblitt - How are the frets on this guitar (and the other Warmoth fret jobs on their guitars you have put together in the past)? Did you have to do any finishing work/dressing/filing etc? Thanks!
pwrmac7600 I install the pickups where the wire bundle on the corner of the pickup is closest towards the electronics cavity. Edit: just did some more research and as long as the coils are symmetrically wound, orientation is irrelevant unless you start adjusting the screw pieces up and down (which I never do). Even when you do that, the difference in orientation only affects the location along the string your making the small change in screw height. I'll have to give it a try on my next build to see if I notice a difference and if I don't deem it noticeable enough, I'll stick with clean wires in the pickup cavity. Great comment though!
What you have read on the subject is only true of a single pickup alone. Your pickups are out of phase with each other which causes a tone shift that is difficult to describe when both are used. Hollow and lacking low end strength is the best I can think of. Swapping the hot and ground wires from the neck pickup to the volume pot can correct this or remounting the pickup.
That's the understanding I had too. Just double checked images of standard Les Pauls(to make sure I wasn't going mad) and pickup orientation is as nowhere.to.shower describes, to stop the pups from being out of phase with each other.
@@ZachBoblitt Absolutely - I just meant aesthetically. At the risk of painting with a broad brush, a lot of the crap that "tone purists" profess is just marketing and snobbery.
Other than the clickbait title... Cool video. I would love to build one myself. You should do a more detailed video on wiring and setting up the guitar. Would be very helpful!
Zach-Thanks, and I see from the link that the neck is a Warmoth compound radius. So, you like the feel of the compound vs a typical 12" Gibson radius? The stock Gibson tune-omatic type bridge would be a 12" radius as well, is that what you are using on the guitar, or is the bridge specially made for the 10-16 compound radius?
You know, that's a really good question, and the honest answer is I haven't thought about it and haven't noticed it. I've built 7 guitars with warmoth compound radius necks and it's never been an issue to me. I will concede most of the ones I've built have adjustable string heights (unlike the tune-o-matic), but the floyd-rose is the first guitar I built with a compound radius, doesn't have individual string heights, and is still my #1 guitar. imgur.com/a/zBqON
Stuart MacDonald I have so far on all my humbucker guitars. I like clean wires underneath the pups. If the humbuckers aren't asynchronous, and you don't adjust the pole pieces, there really isn't a sonic difference in my opinion.
Zach Boblitt It sounds amazing. I have built a few kit guitars but only really cheap ones from thomann with varying results. If you don't mind me asking what do you think your total build cost was?
Great quick walkthrough man, one question though, realistically for a first time builder with a similar warmoth setup how long would you estimate the build time to be? Anyways cheers from canada bud.
Jordan Mayer I built my first one at 15 with no experience building or even soldering. That one took me about a month which includes research/learning as I went. That's still my #1 guitar 13 years later.
Zach Boblitt thanks man, that's really inspirational, always seen these kits and bodies out there but never thought I'd be able to assemble one by myself properly, that's a pretty fair time frame too, thanks for the reply man, definitely gonna be looking for a nice DIY kit soon
Very nice video. Love the guitar, your concise explanations and your supervisor...but A BOLT ON NECK on a Les Paul (type)??? Sacrilege!! (Leo, however, would approve)
Did you ground one end of the shield foil for the shielded wire ? Inquiring minds want to know. Also. It sounds like you listen to Eric Johnson. Correct assessment ?
Zach Boblitt It was the diatonic passages when you went up to the higher end of the neck which made me think of Eric J. I have a second Warmoth parts build almost ready to go. I have used other parts places for other builds but Warmoth seems to be of better quality. The import duty into Canada hurts just a wee bit but it is worth it. Thanks for the info. ✌️😎🎸
