Planning a Warmoth Thinline - need some advice

[bamboofrog]

Hi All

I am after a bit of advice. I have decided to take the plunge into building my first warmoth guitar. I have always wanted a semi acoustic and have decided on a thinline telecaster, but being my first project I have lots of questions that need answers.

I am thinking of a Korina body with a figured top, possibly a korina or goncalo alves neck. I am after a nice warm bluesy tone from the guitar, I understand that Korina has a similar warmth to mahogany. Not sure about the fingerboard.

At present I am trying to decide on my pickup configuration and I am torn between the traditional twin tele single coil, twin p90s or a hybrid of the two (p90 neck, single coil bridge). I mainly play blues and rock, I listen to a far bit of BB King and John Lee Hooker, I also really like the tones from a rickenbacker, so I probably should think about humbuckers  :? so many choices. If I had the money and could convince my wife I would make one of each  :D

As you can probably the planning is still in its infancy so it may be a while yet before I get things up and happening, any advice and guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[the guitar repair workshop]

hi,
i have a g&l asat classic (think thats what its called - hollow tele, s/burst, wicked birds eye and rosewood neck) that is pretty much the best electric i've ever played - huge sounding thing. I've been repairing guitars for a good few years now and i cant recommend this highly enough if you can find a good'n to check out.

if you grab yourself the warmoth i'd recommend the Bareknuckle mississippi queens -  that way you'll be able to switch to humbuckers without too much fuss if you ever decided to in the future.

if you want to see what it'd look like before you go spend with warmoth have a look here:
http://www.nymphusa.com/kisekae/kisekaeE1.asp

click on the guitar thats closest to the bones of what you want then once its loaded change things around until you have what you want. its not totally intuitive but it works pretty well
cheers

[bamboofrog]

Thanks for that much appreciated :P, I was trying to find some way to put my ideas down.

[WezV]

if you grab yourself the warmoth i'd recommend the Bareknuckle mississippi queens -  that way you'll be able to switch to humbuckers without too much fuss if you ever decided to in the future.

+1.... unless you specifically want a fender single coil sound.   but buy the sounds of it humbuckers or P-90's would suit better so going for humbucking routes allows a lot of options

[FernandoDuarte]

Marko, a dutch in Texas, build this Thinline from Warmoth parts (taken in Warmoth forum):


I never saw any more beautifull than that...
I would say double P90 and that pickguard or dual humbucker...
Instead of Korina (needs finish) and Gonçalo Alves (don't like the redish color) I would pick Wenge or Rosewood neck... Fingerboard I would say Rosewood, Macassar Ebony or Ziricote and a veneer in the headstock matching the body or the fingerboard.
Also don't like the stagered ferrules, only like the lined one...

What are you thinking to the top?

[Philly Q]

He likes his exotic woods, the lad Esteves!   :)

That is a nice looking Thinline though.  I like the way the switch isn't too close to the volume control - that really annoys me on mine (and on Teles generally).  I'd prefer a Strat-style hardtail rather than the tune-o-matic, but apart from that it's almost perfect. 

[bamboofrog]

Thanks for the replies. I think my concern has been would i miss having the single coil tele pickups if I routed for humbuckers, probably not, as most of the tone I like is a bit beefier.  

Cheers for the pic fernando I like the look of the soapbars in that guitar, really tasty looking :P. I have been thinking of a Black Korina top, but I am still thinking about that as there are some lovely woods on the warmoth site.

I am not keen on the staggered ferrules either, would either go with a tele bridge, hard tail strat (non trem) bridge or maybe a TOM (but like the string thru option).

I envisage a hybrid of styles for the guitar incorporating some of my favourite guitars. LP Jr, Rickenbacker and Telecaster (sort of a "Rickencaster Jr"  :lol:). I know that fender had a Tele Jr with a set neck some time ago. What I imagine looks really nice but it could all go horribly wrong.

But I just need to decide whether I would stick with p90s an go with a rout for the soap-bars or go with humbucker routing to open up the options.

Still, major no rush

[FernandoDuarte]

He likes his exotic woods, the lad Esteves!   :)

To me only the neck is exotic in this one: Gonçalo Alves (from Brazil, if you must :D)
Rosewood and Korina are standards from half century, at least...


Bamboo
Black Korina is very nice and there is some ones avaiable in Showcase... If is it that what you want, don't loose the chance...