I know what you mean by saying you wished you'd gotten a J neck. The Warmoth P neck feels massive: thick and wide! I also had them install the Tusq nut, like I assume you did. The nut string spacing was too wide for me.
Yeah, so far I'm surprised by how much I like it. I have big, fat hands, and am starting to think that maybe this is the neck style I need! Hasn't bothered me as much as I thought it would! I have a Dingwall with a neck that's p-carved and my Warmoth P is definitely thicker than that. I was surprised, but yeah so far it's not bad.
Later, I got the nerve up to start reshaping the neck.
Now this is bold! Good thing is that they leave Wenge basically unfinished, so if I want presumably I could neatly sand up the back without changing the appearance or finish at all.
Oh, I also used the PAX pickup in mine, and the 18 volt setup. Great minds LOL.
*My man*
That's a beauty for sure, especially like that matte black.
If you don't mind sharing, how much did it set you back?
The body was $300 and the neck was $400, which is expensive as far as Warmoth necks go. I think with all the premo hardware and miscellaneous parts I ended up around $1100-1200 bucks or so?
Does the neck have carbon reinforcements?
Yes!
Can you provide details on how the finish was done?
I cannot, as Warmoth did it for me! I am not a painter and I don't trust myself to do that kind of work yet, at least up to my standards of craftsmanship!
Yeah man that is smokin, congrats
Thank you sir!
That matte black is awesome- nice work!
Is there a preamp stuffed in there or just active pups?
Thanks, agreed. Super happy I went with that matte finish instead of the standard gloss. No preamp, just the active pups. Though I guess it depends on how you define it - EMG says there's an "internal preamp", which I think is jammed into the actual pickup cavities and then potted with the rest of everything for shielding purposes. So in a way there is one, just not one that I installed. I'm glad too, as I would have had to route the body for a preamp, for sure no room in there otherwise.
What you built other things before? Or is this just your first Warmoth build?
First one, up until now I have just bought everything!
Nice results on the build, congrats! That bridge looks great, love those saddles.
My favorite bridge of all time - those saddles allow for lots of string contact (a line of contact instead of a point, and when you lock the bridge saddles in place with the top 7 bolts, each saddle makes perfect contact with it's neighbors. Tons of tonal and sustain benefits in my opinion.
See my earlier post on the KSM Foundation with some (admittedly simple) testing I did. Might be a little weird to put it on a p-bass, where lots of people might want a more dull, thumpier tone, but to me you can always go more thumpy but not the reverse!
Simplicity is elegance. Nice choices, and those pickups with 18v will be very smooth.
I think Warmoth (and others, including the aftermarket pickup builders) are sort of up-in-the-air regarding 5-string P Basses in that there is NO consensus in the industry as to whether the pickups will be in a shorter-half/longer-half 2+3 pickup shell shape, or if both halves' shells will be the same size.
I did some more jamming this morning and they are indeed very round and smooth. Happy I went alnico, they sound great. That's actually a great point about the pickups, I didn't even think about that...
GREAT JOB!!!!!!!!!!!! Among other things, I really love the neck with no fret dot markers! FANTATIC P!
Same, and thanks!
Wow, I love the finish. Great Job!
Thanks!
per the NBD: love the look --- crazy good! i'm sure you'll make some adjustment to the neck feel. congratulations on your new instrument!
I might do some work thinning the neck down to a slightly more modern profile, possibly have someone dress the frets a little bit. But honestly so far it plays great!
Bella
Thanks to a fellow Tony!
