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Extra work needed to make warmoth playable?

ryognbass

ryognbass

Supporting Member
Nov 7, 2008
830
10
North NJ/Worcester MA
#1
Hi all,
From experience, how much extra work such as fret leveling would need to be done to a fresh warmoth neck to make it playable, or are they playable straight from the box? I'm buying a neck for my jazz body and i'm hoping that this will fit the bill without breaking the bank(meaning not $150 of extra work:hiding:). i do prefer warmoth over allparts and MM though, so i'm pretty deadset on this.

thanks for the help!
 
#2
They are playable out of the box in the sense that a $500 bass off the wall at Guitar Center is playable. They will work.
Inexperienced guys always chime in and say "My Warmoth neck was superb right off the shelf!" but in my experience they are not familiar with a top shelf fret job, or they are trying to justify not spending the extra few bucks to get the job done right.

If you want it to play well, they need some leveling, a little crowning, the fret ends need to be filed and finished, and the results need to be polished up. They don't need a lot of work, but the work needs to be performed by someone experienced in the fine art of fret work.

A pro will probably want $60 to $100 to get one of those necks playing the way they should. This is a very good investment. If you choose your tech well, you will end up with a neck that plays very well indeed!

This is not a slam on Warmoth. The frets on all of the aftermarket necks I've ever seen need to be finished before you show them off to your friends!
 
#3
Actually, the vast majority of Warmoth customers can and do bolt on the neck and go. Probably 80% or better. In short, it should be playable for most people straight out of the box.

However, final setup makes a big difference between a good and great playing instrument. I don't take Giraffe's comments as a slam at all. In fact, I'll echo his comments. If you want the action down on the deck or have very specific feel requirements, it is completely reasonable to put time and money in to a setup.

If you're trying to upgrade your bass by replacing the neck, why not go one more step and get a setup done? If you upgraded the tires on your car, wouldn't you want them balanced and the alignment checked?
 
#4
ryognbass said:
Hi all,
From experience, how much extra work such as fret leveling would need to be done to a fresh warmoth neck to make it playable, or are they playable straight from the box? I'm buying a neck for my jazz body and i'm hoping that this will fit the bill without breaking the bank(meaning not $150 of extra work:hiding:). i do prefer warmoth over allparts and MM though, so i'm pretty deadset on this.

thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

I've never seen one that DIDN'T need leveling & recrowning.
 
#9
pasta4lnch said:
I wonder if a Plek would be worth it? I learned a local store has one . . .
Click to expand...

A Plek machine is just a tool, and only as good as the tech running it. I for one have NEVER seen a perfect Plek job.

I see a lot of Warmoth necks in my shop, and I'll have to say that the majority of them are really good. Sure, most need a tiny bit of fretwork, but then again, most necks do.
 
#12
pasta4lnch said:
correct me if I'm wrong, which I may very well be, but I thought the whole purpose of a PLEK machine was to take the human factor out of the equation... well as much as can be.
Click to expand...

You're only sort of wrong. The Plek machine is designed to automate the process of fretwork, but the whole thing still has to be set up by a competent tech to get decent results. But every result I've seen has been woefully bad - the frets were all over the place. A competent tech can do a fret job that's far superior than a Plek machine any day. Granted, it might take an hour or two longer, but the results speak for themselves.

I'm not alone in this assessment.

Many companies utilize the Plek machine in their manufacturing, because spending $150k on a machine is cheaper than spending 3-4 hours in labor costs on every single instrument getting the frets right. The Plek has turned into a huge marketing gimmick for a lot of people: players assume that because an instrument has been Pleked, that automatically makes it perfect. Yeah right.
 
#15
ryognbass said:
is it possible to have fretwork done on a neck while not attached at a body?
Click to expand...
sure, some shops routinely get necks in the mail to re-fret or just level & crown. i slap it onto a "dummy body" anyway while working on it, so it's the same process.

oh, and i've seen pleny of "perfect" plek jobs, but they were done by masters like john suhr, who would turn out a perfect fret job anyway.

in a way, the plek is just a really accurate fret file; you still have to know where and how much to file to get the result you want.

warmoth is good stuff, and will be pretty much playable out of the box, but a good fret level will make for a far better result. i think they just machine the neck, put the frets in, bevel the edges and call it done; therefore, the fret tops are only as straight as the wood underneath. a proper fret leveling will correct for the tiny height variations from one fret to the next, as well as any overall imperfection in the fretboard surface.
 
#17
You will be fine and for most people the necks will not need any fretwork at all. I like exceptionally tight action which is why I learned (and bought the tools) to do my own fretwork. People get way into the weeds on this site...you should be able to slap that neck on your bass, have someone set it up (or you) to your specs and be absolutely happy with it.


Good luck and please remember, just because you read one or two responses saying one thing, that doesn't mean anything. Get it, put it together, and go from there!


Dan
 
#18
Warmoth necks can "work as is" but I've used quite a few Warmoth necks and I find that I have to tweak all of them one way or another to suit my personal preferences.

With Warmoth necks I've found that fret levelling and crowning hasn't been required for my preferred setup and playing style, unlike most other aftermarket necks I've tried. Allparts necks have also been pretty good for me in that regard.

I always dress the fret ends and "roll" the fingerboard edges, simply because that's what I like. I also like to carve a shallow channel under the fingerboard extension to improve trussrod access and usually round off the fingerboard end while I'm there but purely for aesthetic reasons.

Now that Warmoth will install a slotted nut on their necks I find that I have to tweak the nut slots to my liking on necks so equipped.
 
#20
zombie thread wants braaiinnss!
zombiechase.gif


the point remains the same, however; warmoth makes lovely necks, presses frets into them, trims the ends off and sends them out the door.

they'll play OK like they are, but will play great with a pro leveling, done with the neck under tension. said leveling usually doesn't need to be very much, but it makes all the difference in the world.
 

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