I'm about to enter that path. I canceled an ibanez I ordered as they're backed up in orders, im going with the Z body and Hombre headstock. Lookin forward to it.
I've built 2 warmoth and an mjt. They sound better to my ear but if you ever resell you will probably lose $. If you plan on keeping them that is not a concern
The best guitar I ever played was a 57 strat. Uncompressed in a way that words could never do justice. I just bought a house and could not leverage the cash otherwise I would have bought it.
I was planning to build a 4 string bass from parts, but I came across a Warmoth loaded J-Bass body that was finished almost exactly like what I was thinking (black and chrome) and probably saved me $150 over buying everything separately. So I bought it, and I ordered an unfinished maple neck with ebony fretboard from Warmoth. I ordered some black chrome tuners and I'm having a custom headstock decal made. I'm making it with the intention of it being my forever bass. If I like it enough, I might try to build some more.
Sick build!!! If you ever want to put the asato pickups you probably can find them on reverb (although it sounds great just as is already). And then also the asato neck is 9-12 compound if you were wondering :)
The Warmoth 'Warhead' headstock can be altered to look VERY similar to the Suhr headstock, still I like a tele headstock on a tele. The Warmoth Modern construction neck is better sounding and more stable than any Suhr neck. The reinforcement bar welded to the double acting truss rod adds mass and gives a more defined tone as compared to anything else out there, not to mention STABILITY. Yours is also roasted making it even more stable.
I built up a Warmoth Tele a few years back and it just keeps sounding better with age. Specs are Mahogany body, Indian Rosewood top, very flamed roasted maple 59 round neck, Graphtech nut, Evo gold frets, Shaller gold locking tuners, gold hardware, Gotoh gold 6 saddle brides, and Lolla gold 52 pickups with the same 4 way switching as yours. I am not always a gold hardware fan but it looks stunning as it does on your guitar. Nice job man, it looks awesome and I am sure it will get better with age as well.
Nicely done. I've made a few warmoth builds. Benefit is you can get what you want and are only limited by your imagination. Negative is when you have the money to get something you like and you have a runner up guitar.
I have soo much love for warmoth guitars. Have built several. I still buy major brands to include Fender, Suhr, Gibson. But at the end of the day I always pick up a Warmoth first. Great guitar. The Mateus classic S in black and gold is hands down one of the sexiest guitars I've ever laid my eyes on.
Wow, beautiful guitar! I went with the Warmoth vintage Telecaster body. I built a clone 1954 Telecaster white guard Blonde. But I used the Monty’s P51 Danish Pete pickups. One hang up I have is when people tighten the pick guard screws just a bit overly tight to cause a slight dimple when the light hits it just right. Just back it out a touch and the dimple goes flat. 🙂👍
Nice guitar. The gold is cool. I've got three Warmoths, so I know the quality is top-notch. You have two things I really want - a Wolfgang profile and roasted maple. Headstock looks a little naked. Maybe get a water decal of your own design. Custom decals are cheap. Enjoy!
The only way to get a perfect guitar is to put it together yourself. My plan of attack for my Warmoth build is pretty simple; 1. What finish, wood, body and headstock combination looks the best in my eyes? 2. Which (in my case) bass players have a great tone, and what do they use? 3. How do I make it as comfortable as possible? 4. How do I personalize it so that it doesn't look like a rip-off/counter fit? The specs I've landed on (and why) is as follows: Flamed maple neck (because it looks cool and is a tried and true choice of neck wood) Ebony fretboard (because it gets smooth as butter with time and because I prefer dark fretboards) Slim taper neck profile, 1,2" nut width and satin finish (for a fast playing experience) Reverse headstock (because it looks cooler and is more comfortable to tune) 24 stainless steel 6100 frets (because I don't want to ever re-fret an ebony board, and because 24 frets is nice to have when you need it) Red position markers (because it will match the finish) Luminescent side markers (for live purposes) Brass nut (for increased sustain) Basswood jazz bass body with a flame maple laminated top (because it looks badass, is a tried and true wood combination for metal and because it won't be TOO heavy) Red-black burst (because red is my favourite colour and it's pretty unique) Contoured heel (because why not?) Diamond plate pickguard (because it's unique and badass) Nickel hardware (because I'm a traditionalist) Hipshot A-style bridge (because it has great sustain and looks slick) Hipshot ultra lite clover tuners and drop tuners (for decreased weight and versatility) Seymour Duncan quarter pound P/J pickups (because they sound great and are surprisingly versatile) Vol, vol, tbx, toggle switch control configuration (because I find preamps annoying and batteries unreliable, but still want a versatile tone palette at my finger tips) Side mounted Stratocaster jack (for minimal risk of tearing out the cable mid-show) Schaller S locks (for peace of mind) My favourite bass tones are Steve Harris, Geezer Butler, Cliff Burton and Duff McKagan, so many specs are inspired by them, although I've also tried out a bunch of different basses to find out what I like/dislike with different options If anyone has bothered to read through my behemoth of a spec-sheet; thank you for taking the time, I sincerely hope you got something out of it! Have a great day and rock on \m/
I’ve been wanting to build a mahogany chambered Tele with humbuckers for a while with Warmoth parts. I like wider necks and it’s a real plus for Warmoth that I can get the width and radius I want.
I would have gone with ash ONLY if it meant the guitar would be lighter, I hate heavy guitars on stage. Beautiful build, still weighing out a baritone Jazzmaster or Baritone Tele.
Hey man, your pickguard screws are overtightened. The crater-like concavities around the screws are really apparent in reflection light-the pickguard is bent towards the guitar body severely. Such amount of force is not needed to hold the pickguard on the guitar, it's way too much. When you attach a plastic pickguard to a guitar body, make sure to do it under a bright light. As soon as the pickguard begins to barely bend towards the body-stop. Ideally it should everywhere be straight as a mirror.
That's a beautiful guitar -an elegant classic. The price is great imo, and what you give up is resale value of a Fender, which can hold value or even increase, vs yours, which will surely depreciate, but who cares if it's a keeper, right? It looks like the pickguard screws are 1/4 turn too tight -the reflections give it away. As for black straplocks, imo it looks best with black hardawre where you don't want to draw attention, so I'd have black screws as well and just keep the major hardware gold. Very nice, makes me want to build another guitar!
Did you have to polish the frets or were they smooth straight out of the box? And did you have to file the nut for the neck? It looks amazing, very clean and classy looking.
Warmoth doesn't do any fret leveling themselves. Mine came very playable and I don't see any reason to get any done yet but YMMV. A lot of people seem satisfied with their frets out of the box.
Very nice build , but it’s still a few things away from a Suhr ? The frets on Warmoth are not dressed, the nut is placed in a way that you are in tune all over the neck and Suhrs 9 to 12 or 10 to 14 radius ! But Warmoth is way better than a Fender !