Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: tomjackson on June 30, 2009, 11:56:16 AM
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Has anybody had experience with all of the above? I have tried Allparts, the quality of the body and neck I got were excellent but they hardly have anything in stock so I was wondering how they compare to the others?
Has anybody tried Kavanagh from the UK? There unfinished strat bodies are only £130....
The only problem is their necks all seem to be 12 inch radius :(
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I wrote Kavanagh an email once - no response. Shame, since I'd be keen to get something from a UK source.
Would also like to know how Warmoth compares to Allparts
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I also wrote to Kavanagh a few months back, and did get a response - apparently they are still in business and still manufacturing.
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I stick to Warmoth because I've always been very happy with what I've bought. Not saying the others aren't any good, but I very much like the fact that with Warmoth you can see the actual neck and body you're buying (unless you go custom, and even then I'm sure they could provide pics if you wanted).
I have got one Allparts neck, and it's very nice, but I get the impression they get their parts from a variety of sources rather than building them in house (could be wrong about that though). So I'm not sure about consistency.
Copperhead is a big fan of USACG, no doubt he'll chip in.
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(unless you go custom, and even then I'm sure they could provide pics if you wanted).
They don't do it... You can buy things from the "Unique Choice" that is some tops and fingerboards selected and posted pictures, but it makes the things more expensivier...
The guy from USACG used to work to Warmoth, then left and makke the USACG, I don't know the history of why he left (or was left, I don't know which one too), but it's said that his products are as good as Warmoth ones, who are very good...
If I'm not wrong AllParts' necks and bodies are made by Might Myte, but I can be wrong here...
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The general consensus here in the US is:
USACG is tops
Warmoth second
I have friends that have both and they all have their preferences. Personally, I like 'em both, but my wallet prefers Warmoth. :)
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i have used a few warmoth and allparts necks and find them pretty comparable. The warmoths did have the edge for me, just a little bit higher standard - but both were built well enough to produce professional standard instruments
that was comparing standard maple/maple or maple/rosewood necks. warmoth clearly have the edge because of the sheer amount of options available
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USA Custom FTW!!!!
Best customer service.
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The general consensus here in the US is:
USACG is tops
Warmoth second
I have friends that have both and they all have their preferences. Personally, I like 'em both, but my wallet prefers Warmoth. :)
How about Musikraft?
They seem to offer a lot more choice in terms of authentic Strat and Tele shapes (body and neck) and also seem to do pretty good Charvel replica shapes, whereas Warmoth seem to have boring/inaccurate body shapes but lots of fancy woods.
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Most bodies from Warmoth are accurate, the only one I remembering being not very cool is: Warlock (not more selling). The Iceman looks weird, but so does the original Ibanez.... Which one you found weird?
Heard some not very nice things about Musikraft, like poor precision on the builds... But I have never had one or seen...
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I don't know anyone that has used MusiKraft.
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Most bodies from Warmoth are accurate, the only one I remembering being not very cool is: Warlock (not more selling). The Iceman looks weird, but so does the original Ibanez.... Which one you found weird?
the warmoth rhoads is also not very accurate.
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Most bodies from Warmoth are accurate, the only one I remembering being not very cool is: Warlock (not more selling). The Iceman looks weird, but so does the original Ibanez.... Which one you found weird?
the warmoth rhoads is also not very accurate.
Yes, but it's also not selled as a RR model... I think that at the time they made it Jackson wasn't owned by Fender and they had to make some changes to not get sued... I don't like their V2 (that RR) design...
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Gotta recommend Mighty Mite necks! They're ridiculously cheap, and mine is fantastic. Great feel, finish, frets. Absolutely bloody faultless!
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Most bodies from Warmoth are accurate, the only one I remembering being not very cool is: Warlock (not more selling). The Iceman looks weird, but so does the original Ibanez.... Which one you found weird?
The Strats seem too square, like 70s contours rather than 50s/60s. I like the arm contour to extend down to (or slightly past) the strap button. The rib contour should probably be deeper too.
I don't like how close the 22nd fret is to the neck pickup on the SG (maybe this is because of the longer scale?)
The Star shape is not quite right (probably because of licensing), the lower half is about 20% smaller than on the original shape and it makes it look more like a toy. :(
I also have a real dislike of that huge cavity on the rear routs, what a waste of wood. I wish there was a choice of cavity shapes/sizes.
Maye I'm just too picky, I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't be bothered by these points but it's enough to put me off.
Heard some not very nice things about Musikraft, like poor precision on the builds... But I have never had one or seen...
Yeah, I've heard mixed reports about the quality/service but they offer so many useful options on their body and neck shapes (they also offer nitro finishes)
Musikraft options and Warmoth quality would probably be perfect.
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I have built 2 Warmouth guitars. Nohing but praise for them.
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The Strats seem too square, like 70s contours rather than 50s/60s. I like the arm contour to extend down to (or slightly past) the strap button. The rib contour should probably be deeper too.
Ae you sure? I haven't got one here to look at right now, but they seem as heavily contoured as any strat I've ever owned. Certainly much more than the '80s and '90s ones I had.
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I agree with the ar contour should be bigger :D
Know nothing about the Strat shape, would be cool have a old fender and a W body to compare...
I've a Tele and L5S body and both look amazing, if they're not in the original shape, they are in a better one :lol:
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The Strats seem too square, like 70s contours rather than 50s/60s. I like the arm contour to extend down to (or slightly past) the strap button. The rib contour should probably be deeper too.
Ae you sure? I haven't got one here to look at right now, but they seem as heavily contoured as any strat I've ever owned. Certainly much more than the '80s and '90s ones I had.
I'm willing to be proved wrong :)
I'm only judging by the pics on the Warmoth website but they don't seem as curvy as older Strats, particularly the arm contour. PDT_013
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Just had a look at Musikraft website! A HELL lot of option, wish Warmoth had it too, but seems they make some options by hand... Warmoth is very very CNC oriented, just a few things they would do by hand and take a LONG time to them make changes on new options :(
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I'm willing to be proved wrong :)
I'm only judging by the pics on the Warmoth website but they don't seem as curvy as older Strats, particularly the arm contour. PDT_013
I have to concede! Just compared a Warmoth body with my Robert Cray Strat (not having any '57 or '62 pieces to hand :wink: ) and the contouring is quite different.
I'd still maintain the Warmoth is more rounded than a '70s - '90s Strat, but..... as you thought, the forearm contour doesn't extend as far as the strap button on the bottom edge. On the other hand, if you look at the edge of the body from the low-E-string side, the Warmoth contouring starts near the bridge pickup, but the Fender contouring starts near the back of the bridge. In other words, if you drew a line across the top of the body where the contouring starts, the angle of that line would be quite different on the two bodies.
The belly cut is interesting too - looked at from the side, the Warmoth cut is an almost symmetrical shape but the Fender cut is deeper at the bridge end, shallower at the neck end. On the Warmoth, the line of the forearm contour runs parallel with the line of the belly cut, on the Fender the two lines are nowhere near parallel.
Gosh, what a boring anal-retentive post that was. :?
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We should get out more.
:lol:
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I've only ever dealt with Warmoth, and only the once, but for what it's worth I found them a pretty good company to deal with - emails anwered promptly and in detail, and polite/helpful on the phone. I was also very pleased with the quality of the body and neck I bought from them - maple/ebony neck and mahogany/koa Soloist body. Afraid I don't know anything about the accuracy (or otherwise) of their Strat bodies though! ;-)
Glad i bought when I did though, before the pound took a bit of a tumble against the dollar.
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I have a Musikraft Tele body and it is pretty similar to my originals, I had no problems with them at all. My oldest Warmoth Strat (around 91-92), has pretty good contours, bearing in mind that Fender are not the same from guitar to guitar. I haven't bought a Strat body from them in a while though. The last body I got was a Les Paul and that was fine. However, having said that, the Bravewoods do definately feel better and they have the curves feeling just right. It has to be the hand finishing. Of course you could get a Warmoth and then do the final sanding yourself to get it to the era you want.
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I really hate to do this as I dislike reading posts bashing companies.... but I have to do it anyways.
As a customer of Kavanagh, I DO NOT RECOMMEND THEM. (at least for custom orders)
they took my deposit and never delivered...
I suspect they lied whenever I inquired about the build status....
and a year into the order they stopped correspondence with me...
Before I go into details I have to say I was always polite and I don't feel I pestered them (I only contacted them after they missed every one of their promised turnaround dates).
So a couple of years ago I ordered a custom body from them. Some custom routing on a mahogany tele body and finished. They said great, asked me to pay them a deposit and told me the body should be done in 2 months.
2 months later I don't hear anything so I contact them.
They tell me that they are still working on it and promises me another turnaround date; This goes on a few more times for about 7-8 months except each time the build status is at a completely different stage (jumping around like a time warp!).
Finally they said they were ready send me the body within the week.
Well I didn't receive the body for about a month! So I contacted them again. They told me that they wanted to let the body sit for a while to let the finish settle and they would send me it within the month.
Again: no body, another email. This time I get told that finishing had not even started yet but should be complete in about another month.
Suddenly they stopped replying to my emails.
We were a year into this and I guess they were saw me as a "problem" customer so they decided to stop communication.
Later on I used a second email account to contact them (pretending to be another customer) and I did get a reply. But the moment I asked about the body I had ordered.... no reply.
Now I'm at fault too because about 2 months later, I finally gave up and practically gave my deposit to these jerks.
Meanwhile: thumbs up for Warmoth's customer service. They got my order wrong but organized a return very quickly.
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Suddenly they stopped replying to my emails.
We were a year into this and I guess they were saw me as a "problem" customer so they decided to stop communication.
You're not a problem customer, they just ran out of lies.
I suspect you're not alone, usually in these situations there are lots of other people being put through exactly the same treatment. There may also be one or two happy customers who just happened to order something Kavanagh had in stock at the time.
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judging from their ebay profile, if you order something they have in stock there aren't any problems.
For me, mine was a custom order and they failed to deliver that.
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Musikraft also do a setneck guitar model... that impresses me.
If only there was 7 string as an option...