Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey all, I have a few questions.
1. Have any of you ever purchased necks from warmoth guitars? They are out of Washington U.S.A. I bought a neck from them when I built my first guitar and I have loved it. But they can be pretty spendy, do you think they are worth the price? You might think I am lame for buying my necks, but I am a poor college student and I don't have the equipment or the confidence to build a neck to the quality I desire.

2. What do you all think of scalloping? I have never seen a guitar with scalloping nor have I played one. But I want to use a half scalloped neck (12th-22nd fret) with my next guitar. What do you all think?

I am new to the site. I have posted a message telling you all a little bit about myself on the general forum board.

Hey there fella!

Never bought a neck from Warmoth, but I hear their stuff is pretty good.

If you have never played a guitar with a scalloped fretboard, I would suggest you do that first before making your own guitar scalloped. You might hate it and you can't put wood back once you take it away. I never cared for them myself.

Welcome to the forum. Good luck with your build.

Tony

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Hey, Cody -
Warmoth has a reputation as one of the best, if not the best in guitar components. I sold and assembled tons of them back in the late 70's up to the 90's, with nary a problem.

I did some fretboard scalloping back in the 80's (Weenie Marmsteen was big back then, ya know). It's difficult to do, and totally unnecessary in my opinion. Most rock guys already are using jumbo frets, and during solos and so on - their fingertips DO NOT touch the fingerboard. Scalloping a fretboard won't speed up your playing, or make you more expressive.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Awesome! Thanks for the feedback Chris! I wanna try playing a scalloped guitar just to test it out and see if I like it. But from what I have heard so far it's unnecessary. I am pretty sure I am not gonna go with it now. I will most likely just get stainless steel jumbo frets and call it good. It'll save me like $90 too. What do you guys think about a double-locking, NON-floating Floyd Rose Tremelo? Are they worth the price?

I prefer Kahler vibratos.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I like Warmoth necks just fine, Had a scalloped fretboard years ago and It was not that big a deal, I liked the guitar but tall frets and a compound radius are very close to the same feeling. "Non floating" Floyd Rose? hmmmm.

I bought a Warmoth neck, and have nothing but good to say about it. I had to dress the fret ends and roll over the edges of the fingerboard myself, but that was a good experience, and I enjoyed it.

I would strongly advise you to try a scalloped fretboard before spending money on one. I had a friend scallop one of his cheaper electrics, and I thought it felt horrible. Jumbo frets are the best option if you don't want to feel the fretboard, IMHO.

For a while there, Warmoth necks worked best when paired with Warmoth bodies. Since the mid 2000's, they have mated excellently with Fender bodies as well. I remember when they fixed that problem because I used to assemble Warmoth guitars for people as Warmoth "kits", but always had problems getting the necks to fit as replacements on Fender bodies without modifying the bodies, until one day they started fitting properly all of a sudden.

Currently, their wood selection and construction are the best in manufactured replacement necks being mass produced today, in my opinion as well.



I have found this to be true as well. Once the fret ends get The Treatment though, they're really nice.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Hey Cody,

I cannot comment on the quality of warmoth necks. I am sure they are very nice and haven't heard too many complaints about their quality. If you don't have the equipment to build the neck and don't want to spend the cash on warmoth, you could buy a factory neck off of ebay. I have some friends who have had some success with that route.

Scalloping...... I had a Yngwie spell when I was younger and scalloped one my guitars and haven't gone back since. I have gone as far as scalloping one of my recent acoustic guitar builds. I love it. I have a total of 4 scalloped guitars. I can play both scalloped and traditional style fingerboard, but I seem to prefer the scalloping. What I have found is that scalloping changes the angle of attack to the strings when you bend. Instead of pressing down and up to bend its more up than down. It also allows me to get more of the meat of my finger behind the string. Since I have little girl sissy hands I have found this advantageous. I can't really say you will play better or worse. I will say that it helps my bends and speed. It helps my speed by forcing me not to push down too hard. If you watch some guys playing, they really mash the fingerboard. If you do the same thing to scalloped board, all of your notes will go sharp. It is one of those things that takes a lot of commitment and practice. It feels really funny at first, especially for those who have been playing for a long period of time with a traditional fingerboard. When I began the silly yngwie notion, I actually played a yngwie start at guitar center and hated it. I still said screw it and scalloped my primary guitar at the time. So my advice is if you really want to try it out, do it and commit to it for a while. You will have to change the way you play and reteach a lot of your techniques. As far as actually doing the scalloping, it sucks. Scalloping is risky because you can damage your frets, and it takes FOREVER to do. I will recommend making a little stiffer neck to accommodate the removing of some fingerboard material. I have done it on a factory guitar and structurally I didn't have any issues, but I thought its worth mentioning potential structure issues. I will recommend buying a neck with a rosewood fingerboard or anything that is a little easier to work if you plan on doing it yourself. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.

Robbie