Warmoth necks

mrkb

Zodiac51 said:

What's your spec? 

I've got a Warmoth 59 Roundback lovely rosewood board with vintage tuners, compound radius, that I'm not using. may not be fat enough for you though, if you want proper baseball bat.  Doesn't need a fret dress or have sharp edges

I had a SMO-FAT tele neck, was HUGE, ended up re-carving it.

Ooh, how much do you want for it? Is that the short scale version? Im interested in it.

Zodiac51

Scale length is regular 25 1/2, if your interested I'll put some pics up @mrkb £250 delivered ppg

mrkb

Zodiac51 said:

Scale length is regular 25 1/2, if your interested I'll put some pics up @mrkb £250 delivered ppg

Yes please, what fret profile does it have?

JamieWakeham

GuitarBuild are another supplier you might look at - I'm very happy with the neck they sent for my Tele. Very well finished, no sharp fret ends. However they won't cut the headstock into a trademarked shape, so if that's important to you then you'll need to cut it yourself (or allow for the costs of someone to cut it for you).

Stevepage

Nevermind I just bought a Charvel, oops!

Bond123

Stevepage said:

My idea was to originally ask Feline guitars to make a neck for me but Jonathan has been going through quite a tough time and is understandably not making custom orders for the foreseeable future. 

Where did you hear that from, looking back at Feline,s last few posts through October and November, I got the impression that he was doing really well with his custom work, see the link below.

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/1327/whats-new-pussycat-feline-guitars-updates-thread/p15

Bridgehouse

(Duplicate posts deleted)

Stevepage

Bond123 said:

Stevepage said:

My idea was to originally ask Feline guitars to make a neck for me but Jonathan has been going through quite a tough time and is understandably not making custom orders for the foreseeable future. 

Where did you hear that from, looking back at Feline,s last few posts through October and November, I got the impression that he was doing really well with his custom work, see the link below.

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/1327/whats-new-pussycat-feline-guitars-updates-thread/p15

Jonathan posted on Facebook about it either just before or just after Christmas.

Philly_Q

Stevepage said:

Nevermind I just bought a Charvel, oops!

No fat neck on that, presumably? 

Stevepage

No most of my guitars have shred type necks. I've just always wanted a huge neck on my Strat. 

hywelg

For people with large hands its often difficult to find out what neck size suits. I started with a Warmoth Superwide, fatback with stainless frets and ebony board on a strat neck. Fitted it to an old Jap Squier.

First it was obvious the frets needed dressing and I wasn't confident I could do it well enough so it went off to Charlie Chandlers Plek machine.

Secondly it was TOO big even for my huge hands. So I set about slimming it down from 47.8mm nut to about 45.5 in stages. At the same time I gradually took away some of the back of the neck so it was a little slimmer. Its now my favourite neck, but I'm not a quick player.

Whilst this was ongoing I ordered another from Warmoth for a second guitar I was building, a Superwide with slim back profile, brazillian rosewood (before the moratorium) and normal nicke frets. This I levelled myself, rounded the fretboard edges, slimmed down to 45.5mm and its perfect for the guitar. A little too slim if I was to do it again it would be a bit fatter.

Following this I picked up a Tele body off eBay and had a local luthier make me a neck for it. 45.5mm nut and assymmetrical back profile. Didn't like it at all so I set about reworking the back profile. Still more to do with that one but I think its fundamentally flawed as it doesn't have the upper neck fretboard overhang that the Warmoth Superwides have and I find that when I hit the strings hard  up around the 12th fret the top E drops over the edge of the fret far too often.

FelineGuitars

I became steadily unwell going towards Xmas with stress overload and high blood pressure. 

My work/life balance has been out of whack for the longest time but it reached a peak in the run-up to Xmas and I had to have a serious look at what we were doing, and what areas were causing a disproportionate amount of stress.

I have always loved making guitars to order like a made to measure service but it was always more time consuming than any other process we did and recently delays and piss poor communication from our paint guys, and recently suppliers of parts simply never having the parts in led to delays and in turn awkward conversations with the guys we were building for that it added to stress in a calamitous way for me.

So I've had a review of what areas could be adjusted to still 110% still offer the good service and great work people trust us with:

1) Repairs - I decided that all the repairs, servicing (fret dressing, refrets set-ups) were fine. 

2) Feline stock guitars - I will still build a few guitars for stock around that but without having to observe any deadline so avoiding conflict with customers should we have paint or supplier issue, but they may be fewer in number.

3) Blackmachine - We may still build a few Blackmachine B6s too

4) Other stuff - We need to get a new website in place that has a working shop for stuff we carry and would like to sell, and work is in hand for that.

Whilst my work life will never be a 9-5 I do need to restore some kind of balance

guitarfishbay

Wishing you all the best and a less stressful 2019

springhead

It's good that you've recognised the problem and put plans in place, sounds like a very sensible and positive move.  Best wishes for 2019.

GSPBASSES

lonestar said:

It’s quite typical for custom necks to cost this. Regardless of having to pay shipping and tax from the US. There is a massive fallacy that you can do a “custom neck” for less than a painted body.

If you add up the cost of getting a neck made in the UK, having it dressed and rolled in then painted and posted it’ll not be far off the £400 mark. It’s the part of the guitar you have to gel with so I’d say it’s worth the money if you’re sure the specs are what you’re after.

Before I start this comment I'm not trying to drum up business but correct what I feel is some misinformation. 

I missed this post before Christmas, it has just been brought to my attention, I'm glad  it has now, a couple of members have put out some very misleading  prices for a custom neck to be made in the UK. Also about the technical spec you can expect from an unfinished neck made in the UK.

 

I can only talk about my own product prices. The most expensive neck I make Fender style is a solid rosewood, cost £230. For that price you get a neck that is fully shaped, ready for final sanding, MOP inlays, fretted with whatever frets you request, it will have a full fret dress, including  the ends of frets being rounded plus the fingerboard having lightly rolled edges.

A neck like this will not need to be sprayed (although it could be but would be a waste of money) couple coats of true oil is all it would need, cost of a bottle of true oil or gunstock oil £7.

My standard Maple / Rosewood necks are £160, if you want Birdseye maple or flame maple about £25 extra. There are all built to same standard as I've mentioned earlier regarding fret dressing etc. These of course can be oiled for a few quid, or if you want nitrocellulose go to our man in Manchester for a can of Nitro not sure of the price I'm sure it's under 20 quid.

 

That’s a long way off £400, so yes you can get finished neck  for far less than painted body. 

lonestar said:

stonevibe said:

Warmoth necks have really sharp fretboard edges, need rolling. So be prepared to put work in to make them feel good.

Any unfinished neck will have undressed fret ends unless you’ve paid to have them bevelled. I lower, level, crown and bevel in all my customers necks before spraying them. Nothing nastier on a guitar than having a cheese grater for a neck.

Rubbish 

 

I think your statement is inaccurate, I do not know any custom neck builder who would sell an unfinished neck that has not had its frets dressed properly. I personally take the same care when fretting a neck that is going out without a finish (or a “B” grade) as I would if the neck was going on to one of my completed custom guitars.

 Moderators 

       Do feel free to remove this if you think my comments are a bit harsh, but I do feel that some ot the comments made about pricing and quality of fretting to be very misleading,  that could easily put members of the forum going to a UK Luther to have a neck made. 

Dodge

GSPBASSES said:

I can only talk about my own product prices. The most expensive neck I make Fender style is a solid rosewood, cost £230. For that price you get a neck that is fully shaped, ready for final sanding, MOP inlays, fretted with whatever frets you request, it will have a full fret dress, including  the ends of frets being rounded plus the fingerboard having lightly rolled edges.

Are stainless steel frets an option?  I know you said "whatever frets you request", but some luthiers don't like working with stainless steel.

Cheers.

GSPBASSES

 I don’t do stainless steel frets. 

jase128

I thought an UNFINISHED neck meant it had no finish (as in oil, varnish or paint) on the surface NOT  that it was only half built???

GSPBASSES

jase128 said:

I thought an UNFINISHED neck meant it had no finish (as in oil, varnish or paint) on the surface NOT  that it was only half built???

 You’re correct as far as I’m concerned if it’s an unfinished neck it will have no oil or lacquer on it but everything else is finished, my necks do need a final sanding but this is quite minor. 

Zoolooter

Musikraft. Ive had three, loads of options , cost you about £280 including shipping etc. That’s if you nitro it yourself. I’m actually about to order a chunky soft V Strat neck with a Braz walnut fretboard.