High End Parts Casters

[Scot]

Roger that - I don't seem to have trouble with bent saddles or block saddles, it's my fretting hand needing better control for fluidity sometimes (ie: pushing notes sharp). If I'm getting the name right, I think 'babicz'? comes to mind?? - their saddles have a nice cam-action for string height adjustments, but the hardware supporting the cam stands like 3/4" off the trem plate if I read the basic schematic right. I float my trem and that would be a nightmare. The other downside as some may see it with the vega, is the seemingly 'vega' specific hardware.

 

[Harry Dunne]

I built a beautiful Warmoth 7/8 guitar, but in the end I was never fully satisfied with it and sold it to help fund another guitar. It played like butter, but the tone had an unpleasant harshness in the upper mids that I could never get rid of, even after pickup swaps and experimenting with different sustain blocks for the Floyd.

Speaking of the Floyd, I could never get it to be fully stable, despite several professional setups and trying all of the usual troubleshooting. It was the high-end German OFR too.

All in, after paying for assembly, setups, and pickup swaps, I had spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $3K. In retrospect, I should have saved the money and bought a nice Suhr or Tom Anderson instead.

 

[Findthetone1]

I built a beautiful Warmoth 7/8 guitar, but in the end I was never fully satisfied with it and sold it to help fund another guitar. It played like butter, but the tone had an unpleasant harshness in the upper mids that I could never get rid of, even after pickup swaps and experimenting with different sustain blocks for the Floyd.

Speaking of the Floyd, I could never get it to be fully stable, despite several professional setups and trying all of the usual troubleshooting. It was the high-end German OFR too.

All in, after paying for assembly, setups, and pickup swaps, I had spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $3K. In retrospect, I should have saved the money and bought a nice Suhr or Tom Anderson instead.

View attachment 453214

I get it. And if Andersons were remotely still close to 3K that would be the direction I'd go. But prices are getting pretty high.

 

[LP Freak]

I built a beautiful Warmoth 7/8 guitar, but in the end I was never fully satisfied with it and sold it to help fund another guitar. It played like butter, but the tone had an unpleasant harshness in the upper mids that I could never get rid of, even after pickup swaps and experimenting with different sustain blocks for the Floyd.

Speaking of the Floyd, I could never get it to be fully stable, despite several professional setups and trying all of the usual troubleshooting. It was the high-end German OFR too.

All in, after paying for assembly, setups, and pickup swaps, I had spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $3K. In retrospect, I should have saved the money and bought a nice Suhr or Tom Anderson instead.

View attachment 453214

Unfortunately there’s no guarantee what it’ll sound like after it’s all done regardless how much money you spend on parts. I had a Strat build that had an Allparts neck and Warmoth body when I got it and sounded very flat. I decided to swap out the neck with a Warmoth and it completely transformed the guitar. I never thought a neck swap would make much of a difference tonally but it was obvious it did.

 

[Devin]

I put my Warmoth together for around $500ish, though that was at least 10 years ago now

Went with a basswood body and FR Special to help keep the cost down and did all the finishing myself


I think it came out great overall and if it was my only guitar I'd be perfectly happy with it

 

[Harry Dunne]

I get it. And if Andersons were remotely still close to 3K that would be the direction I'd go. But prices are getting pretty high.

I was thinking used, but even then the used prices are climbing too.

Unfortunately there’s no guarantee what it’ll sound like after it’s all done regardless how much money you spend on parts. I had a Strat build that had an Allparts neck and Warmoth body when I got it and sounded very flat. I decided to swap out the neck with a Warmoth and it completely transformed the guitar. I never thought a neck swap would make much of a difference tonally but it was obvious it did.

I've built several partscasters over the years, but only this one and one other were duds. The first one I was able to build for a lot less, so I didn't care as much and I got rid of it easily. But I really wanted to make the 7/8 work, because it had a lot going for it still and I knew I would take a bath on selling it (which I did).