Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Simon D on June 25, 2007, 10:04:28 PM
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Ok, so it's not quite a 'new guitar day', still needs to be built, but I''m excited nonetheless. Blown away by the quality of the parts, especially the finishing. Some pics:
(http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q50/sld5150/WarmothSoloistbodyfrontandback.jpg)
(http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q50/sld5150/WarmothSoloistSLD.jpg)
Spec
Body - Carved top Soloist, Mahogany/koa, contoured heel
Neck - Warmoth Standard thin contour, birdseye maple/ebony, compound radius, stainless steel frets, graphite nut
Hardware - Wilkinson trem, Sperzel locking tuners, 2 x Alnico Warpigs, 1 vol, 1 tone, 3-way switch
I was going to go with a flame maple top after finding out they couldn't do a flame koa one due to lack of wood. Eventually decided to go for standard koa, but I was expecting it to look pretty plain - imagine how pleased I was when I opened the box this morning!
As far as the build goes, hopefully the neck joint won't use a neckplate - I'm planning on having the screws recessed Ibanez style (And no, I'm not doing that myself :wink: ).
Can't wait to hear how it sounds. I'll post a full rundown once it's finished.
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Looks beautiful!
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Gorgoeous!!!
Overall cost?
Would like to look at getting one myself! :D
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Gorgoeous!!!
Overall cost?
Would like to look at getting one myself! :D
Cost of the body and neck, including shipping and VAT+import duty, was about £620. Set of Sperzels and a Wilkinson trem imported from the US came out at about £100, but that would obviously vary depending on the hardware you wanted to fit. So you'd be looking at about £720 for body, neck, major hardware. The cost from Warmoth naturally varies according to the woods and options you choose, and it can be done for less than I've done it, but I wanted a real 'one-off' guitar.
I haven't included pots, switches etc, as they can be as cheap or as pricey as you want! I already had the pickups, but had I bought them specifically for this guitar, that would have added £200 to the price.
If you are going to get one, this is the time to do it, as the exchange rate hit two dollars to the pound today, and doesn't show many signs of moving too far away from it anytime soon, making importing stuff from the US damn good value for us Brits. :D
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that looks WAY nice
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That body does look good and the final guitar will look amazing I am sure.
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duuuude that thing's gonna slay! gorgeous - good luck and congrats
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Blown away by the quality of the parts, especially the finishing.
But then again you should be for what they charge...Phwoar!
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I like a lot. I'd have to consider putting a matching vaneer on the headstock and making a new cavity cover though (especially the cavity cover) :lol:
Looks killer dude 8)
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that looks sweet! my first choice was warmoth for building my guitar because the quality is meant to be amazing, they said they couldnt do me a quilt maple top, i didnt know it was because of lack of wood though, strange :roll: How long did it take them to make it for you?
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I ordered on March 12, and it shipped last Friday, so it took about 14 weeks to build. I think I ordered at quite a busy time, and I wanted woods which weren't the kind of thing they have sitting around pre-built.
What was the back wood you wanted the quilt maple to go on to SamR? It seems very odd that they can't do it.
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that looks sweet! my first choice was warmoth for building my guitar because the quality is meant to be amazing, they said they couldnt do me a quilt maple top, i didnt know it was because of lack of wood though, strange :roll: How long did it take them to make it for you?
It probably wasnt a lack of wood in your case, quilted maple is a lot easier to find than figured koa
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that's really nice.
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I chose mahogany on a quilt maple, they said they couldnt do it, seemed really strange that they couldnt do it, quilt maple seems a popular choice. 14 weeks, i think i might aswel order mine now and start saving :P
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Could it be cos it was a carved top?
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I chose mahogany on a quilt maple
:?: a mahogany top on a quilt maple body?
If so I understand why they said no - the don't do many figured maple bodies (the piece you would cut for a body slab is a lot thicker than for a top - even an archtop)
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It does seem very strange they wouldn't do a quilt maple top on a mahogany back though, that's a pretty popular combination, especially for Soloist and VIP style bodies. Might be worth checking with them again, just to make sure somebody didn't get the wrong end of the stick when you spoke to them the first time.
That being said, I'd recommend them totally, the quality is excellent, and good value too, especially when you consider that I had a quote in the region of £2000 for something of the same spec from a local custom builder, and doing it this way, even with the pain-in-the-arse import duty we have to pay in the UK, brings the cost in at under £900!
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I chose mahogany on a quilt maple, they said they couldnt do it, seemed really strange that they couldnt do it, quilt maple seems a popular choice. 14 weeks, i think i might aswel order mine now and start saving :P
well wait a sec... did you actually ask for Mahogany ON quilted maple and not quilted maple on mahogany? :? lol?
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Nice, quilted maple under mahogany. It was probably just a typo. Maybe maple would sound nice underneath... unique!!
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I chose mahogany on a quilt maple
:?: a mahogany top on a quilt maple body?
If so I understand why they said no - the don't do many figured maple bodies (the piece you would cut for a body slab is a lot thicker than for a top - even an archtop)
didnt see your post before i did mine- but yer- thats exactly what i was driving at.
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What a beauty! :D Great price too. You will love the SS frets on bends and vibrato there so fluid feeling.
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Obviously not a quilt maple body...
Notice he changed the maple for Figured Koa.
Do you see a Quilted maple body under that Figured koa? :P
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lol.... what?!
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What a beauty! :D Great price too. You will love the SS frets on bends and vibrato there so fluid feeling.
Yeah, that's what I'm hoping for with the frets. They're jumbo too, so I won't have to fight the neck.
Really pleased with the back of neck contour as well, it's thin but not too thin (Ibanez Wizard is too thin for me). This one feels very simliar to my Yamaha Pacifica neck, which has always been a favourite.
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when you consider that I had a quote in the region of £2000 for something of the same spec from a local custom builder, and doing it this way, even with the pain-in-the-arse import duty we have to pay in the UK, brings the cost in at under £900!
Its worth pointing out that a bespoke handmade guitar is worth a lot more than the sum of its parts.
Your pile of £900 worth of guitar parts sure does look very nice and i am sure you will get something that you are happy with at the end. But i dont think most guitarists around these parts would have the skill to take that pile of parts and turn it into something that matched the £2000 luthier made guitar. If they think they have then they need to find a better luthier
Just out of curiosity - did the quote from the luthier include a figured koa top and ss frets or was it something else?
because if he was quoting you for a figures koa top obviously a thicker piece of needed to get the carve - that would be a damn expensive piece of wood - i have seen them go on ebay for a few hundred pounds - just for the top wood!! The they would need to pay the shipping and ciustoms to get it to the uk - then let it actlimatise , then have the risk of working with such an expensive piece of wood which will be harder to work with because of the figuring - then hoping no major flaws in the wood appear as they are carving it that would make the customer reject it. Thats without taking into account all the little nuances a luhtier can incorporate for you that Warmoth cant and wont. the the major tool inssues of working with ss fretwire that needs tobe added to the cost of materials. A quote of £2000 starts to look pretty damn cheap to me , even with a relatively ordinary flamed maple top instead of the koa.
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Wez, the quote was for a maple topped mahogany Soloist style guitar, with the same neck woods seen on the Warmoth parts, to exactly the same spec.
Don't get me wrong though, I understand that a luthier built one-off guitar is always going to more expensive than something like a Warmoth, and for many good reasons. Having something handbuilt would be fantastic, but my main reason for going the Warmoth route as opposed to full blown custom is simply that at the moment, I can (just about) afford £900 or so, but £2000 is out of the question.
I will be getting the guitar put together and set by a pro though, for peace of mind and to save it from any ham-fisted c--k-ups I might make! For example, I want the neck bolts recessed (like an Ibanez), and I don't trust myself not to screw it up completely.
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yeah, i am not questioning this way of doing things - it certainly suits a lot of people - - - but i always think its worth pointing out the risks to the people that will see threads like, not do the proper research, and end up in a complete mess.
Its almost comparable to me saying that i can build a set of pickups from parts for less than £40 so i will do that rather than spend £200 on BKP's. I have made pickups before, they worked and i was very happy with the sound - but it really made me appreciate well made pickups and the good sound i got was mostly a fluke - to get the consistency tim and his team do takes great skill and is worth paying for.
building a guitar from parts is a very fun project, i did a couple before making one from scratch. getting it put together by a pro is a good idea but obviouslyw ill add another large chunk to the price. I would reconsider the neck screw ferrules - i do think they are better but this guitar is already sprayed and finished very well and it will be easy to marr that. I have drilled many of these holes and they are always easier if there are no neck screw holes already. The guitar seems to have a slanted heel which will make it feel infinately better than a strat even with a neck plate. The benefit of having the ferrules over a neck plate wouldnt outweight the possible cost/risk of adding the ferrules at this time. Its not a difficult job but it can easily go wrong or slightly damage the finish
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I'm taking the parts to the luthier on Thursday, so I'll see what he says regarding the recessed screws. If it's going to work out stupidly expensive or be too risky, I'll have him bang a neckplate on.
I totally agree with what you say about pointing out the risks Wez. It would be very easy to spend a considerable amount of money on a project like this and end up with something which is borderline unplayable. I did about 4 months of research into what I was thinking of doing, and in that time the plan changed quite considerably from what it originally was, as I found out more about tonal characteristics of certain woods etc. Plus I always intended to have it assembled by a pro who knows what he's doing.
There is massive potential for making a complete hash of something like this if you don't plan right, and make sure you understand what you want and why you want it.
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Oops no, quilt maple on mahogany even lol $%&# me a guitar made of quilt maple, is there such a thing?
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Oops no, quilt maple on mahogany even lol $%&# me a guitar made of quilt maple, is there such a thing?
Yeah, there are probably quite a few - but solid maple guitars dont really sound great to most peoples ears