My first Warmoth Build (and the hardships) COMPLETE!

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Always sand in the direction of the grain. You can still probably sand out those deep scratch marks across the grain if you start over and sand them in the direction of the grain going from rough to fine sandpaper. To get that first coat of stain off, I would have went with some kind of paint/stain remover with a brush and then wipe it off rather than sanding.
 
Mizati20":16oawkiq said:
Man... that thing looks like shit brother :(

Edit: Sorry to be so blunt... I really hope you can get it sorted because it looked gorgeous out of the box... everything you've done hasn't been a positive though, I think you are systematically making it worse...
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no offense taken whatsoever bro! I agree with you 1000%!!!

So I took the afternoon to plan my last rescue attempt at getting this guit fixed up before I use it as a door stop. I rented a palm sander and went at it with 80 grit. Thank F*CK it saved this guitar's life!!

here's pics of how well the finish came off:





I then prepped and sanded it to 220 for finishing





the next finish i applied is the one i should've gone with from the very very beginning!!





clear danish oil
Lesson learned, I cannot, do finishing. End of story. All that's left now is to keep coating the danish oil until it's good!!!
The neck's coming in the mail sometime this week, more updates when everything's assembled! Thanks to everybody for their constructive criticisms! It was a real reality check!
 
Damn brother... looks way better like that, the grain looked so killer out of the box it killed me to see it covered up... glad you were able to save it! Post more pics as she comes together!!!!
 
2nd coat of danish oil done today, there's a bit more even tint all around.



 
A Little late to the party but checkout the Re-Ranch...
and you could use Grain filler to bring out the grain but the wood figure would show through then spray it with Tinted Clear...
I have a Swamp Ash Tele that I built and after several attempts at a Blonde I ended up with a Clear Nitro...
Much nicer as it is!
 
I think a lot of people are afraid to do spray finishes, but honestly.... they're way, way easy. Every time I've tried to do a rubbed-stain finish, it looks awful.
 
RockStarNick":msbpwybc said:
I think a lot of people are afraid to do spray finishes, but honestly.... they're way, way easy. Every time I've tried to do a rubbed-stain finish, it looks awful.
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you're probably right, I should've gone with spray finishes but thought rubbed would work out better, it obviously didn't for me, ha!

kerryk, I know about reranch, cheers for that! Though I'm digging the guitar as it is now as well!

here's the 3rd coat applied earlier today, it's lookin great!



 
applied one last coat this morning, wasn't soaking in as much as before so i'd say it's pretty much ready to go! Decided to let it dry under the sun here, we're having beautiful weather today in sydney!





next step, puttin all the parts together, copper shielding and wiring!
 
copper shielding:



one problem I had while copper shielding; i decided to fit the guard with the pickup just to make sure it fitted, it didn't. Seems the fender single coil base was too wide and sat higher up in the cavity than how it was routed, I had to shave the upper top and sides of the inside of the neck humbucker route to get it to sit properly, took a while!

wiring it up:



it's a 5 way switch 1 CTS 300k volume, and 1 CTS no-load 250k tone pot all wired up in a very unique way by deaf eddie from the tdpri forums.

link to the post below for those interested:

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-technical/71991-fat-tele-strat-5-way-switch.html#post3058308

Everything else put in, pickups, strap buttons, ferrules etc. It's all ready for the neck! Should arrive in a few days!

 
welp! it's done!

Here's some pics!






Some things to note, the neck arrived and it feels and looks great, i've left if unfinished for now.
One thing about it, the neck pocket was a bit big, it wasn't a snug fit. I'm not really sure how to remedy this so I just put it together anyhow, I'm not sure if this is my fault or the manufacturer as I figured it would just be ready to go and all I had to do was screw it in.

Here's a pic of the neck joint:



another issue is that it's a little bit neck heavy, just a smidge, as the neck dives a bit just a little under 45 degrees. This is either because of my tuner choice (the schaller locking tuners) being too heavy, or the fact that it's a 7/8th tele and thus smaller and less weight (originally 3lbs 7oz) before hardware and electronics.

The pickguard isn't sitting completely flush either, some parts are bubbling just a touch, I think it needs to be resized but I'll leave that to another day.

And you'll notice the neck joint, there's a neck screw missing, one instantly broke upon putting it in. I wasn't using any excessive force!! I'll have to get another screw one day from a local shop.

To conclude, it isn't perfect, it was my first warmoth build, but it's setup quite well and plays just as well as any other guitar. Would i build another Warmoth again? Maybe if I was getting paid to do so but I wouldn't personally, as it's just too much work IMO especially with these issues like the humbucker route with the dip, the pickguard not sized properly, neck fit not snug, etc. An off the rack guitar would be more likely to be ready to go after a simple tweak in the setup.

So I'll keep this for now and fix things up as time goes.
 
On that neck joint, the pics of the naked body show a standard Strat neck pocket and it looks like the pickguard was cut to match. The neck pocket on a standard Tele body is different; corners have a smaller radius and the back wall is straight. So the neck you ordered, was it built for a Strat pocket or a Tele pocket?
 
BackCrack":3k8503o5 said:
On that neck joint, the pics of the naked body show a standard Strat neck pocket and it looks like the pickguard was cut to match. The neck pocket on a standard Tele body is different; corners have a smaller radius and the back wall is straight. So the neck you ordered, was it built for a Strat pocket or a Tele pocket?
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for the 7/8th tele series there are only the strat pocket neck pocket option along with the dedicated 7/8th neck, the warhead. So in turn there was only the dedicated 7/8th series necks for the 7/8th bodies, meaning they should've been a perfect fit.
 
After your post, I just realized that I've never built a 7/8 in my 30 years of slapping together Warmoth and Boogie Bodies parts. I just got educated. I'll crawl back into my hole now.
 
Sorry man but that black finish looks like crap! The first go with the Watco Danish oil RED MAHOGANY looked way better. Sorry to be so blunt, but I'm sure I'm not alone on this.

Your natural finish is much nicer.

Good job.
 
BackCrack":14r1jzys said:
After your post, I just realized that I've never built a 7/8 in my 30 years of slapping together Warmoth and Boogie Bodies parts. I just got educated. I'll crawl back into my hole now.
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hahaha hey no worries! it's a rather new series warmoth has released ( by new i mean maybe 3 years old or so) and I know nobody that's built one.
So although it's still not a snug fit, I didn't have issues setting it up or anything. I've contacted warmoth about this anyway just to see what they say.

thanks to glynchfan1 and black sabbath for the kind words! it ain't perfect!
 
Dude, nice job righting your wrongs...lol.....it looks WAY better with that natural stain. It takes some trial and error sometimes. Looking good now!
 
The tuners you selected are some of the heavier locking tuners on the market. If you were to switch to a lighter set like Sperzels or Hipshot, you would save around 2oz total. It's possible that switching tuners would help alleviate the neck dive problem, but I've personally found that only happens when the guitar is just barely on the edge in terms of equilibrium. Most of the time, a strap that grips your shoulder a bit more than usual can help fix neck dive problems.

I'm a little confused as to what you mean by the pickguard bubbling because I can envision two different scenarios in which this would occur. One would be the neck or bridge pressing up against it and causing it to bow because the pickguard is too big for the area you're trying to install it on. To fix this, you'll need to break out the sandpaper and possibly even the dremel. The other would be the pickguard itself not being flat, and as a result, there is a gap between some pickguard screws. To fix this, take out the screws around the area, press down on the pickguard, and see if you can insert them at a slight angle while pushing the pickguard in a certain direction to keep it flat. If that doesn't work, you'll need to resort to some very thin double-sided tape.

For the gap in the neck, I have recently started using thin sheets of brass for neck shimming. You can buy these at a hobby store or some place similar. Just fold it up to the size you need and stick it where you want. A tight neck pocket is not essential for good tone (just look at all the vintage Fenders), but a loose neck pocket certainly isn't helping anything. At the very least, it'll help stabilize the neck in the pocket.
 
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