NND New Neck Day: Warmoth Rosewood Tele

[Jefenator]

I'd been thinking about selling off some spare parts.

But I was also thinking about building them back up with a Tele style neck w/ rosewood. The right one finally came along and here is the result:

Looks like a poor man's EBMM Caprice!

The body is actually a Fender 60th Anniversary (nitro finish & thru body). With a small control cavity & side jack hole, it was intended for a '51 style guard & plate. But I don't care for that mix of single coil cosmetics with a split coil pickup. So I went with a Warmoth "72 P Bass" guard.

The pickup is Aero Type 4A - one large pole per string.

The pre-owned Warmoth neck bolted right on, all ready to go! I was immediately struck by how well it takes a setup, compared to every vintage Fender neck I've ever tinkered with. It doesn't have as much "character" but it sure is nice to be able to set lower action with heavy flats.

Home testing seems promising. I can't wait try it out onstage. (But I will probably have to...)

I'm seriously thinking about a vintage tint and a slightly narrower nut for the neck. We'll see how ambitious I get.

 

[Z-Bass]

Love this! That turned out great. If I was designing my own P-bass I'd go this route. How's that Aero pickup sound compared to other P type pickups?

 

[Jefenator]

Love this! That turned out great. If I was designing my own P-bass I'd go this route. How's that Aero pickup sound compared to other P type pickups?

I'd say the Aero is neutral - but potent.
That's been my experience with a few of their pickups. No conspicuous humps or valleys in the response - it just delivers whatever you're trying to bring out.
My other go-to pickup maker is Lollar. I feel like their stuff has more coloration - but the voicing always helps and never bugs me.
The Warmoth neck & Aero pickup seem to go hand in hand to provide a more "refined" P-bass experience. Nice strong truss rod, no dead spots or ski jumps, the "bark" P-basses are known for is not as pronounced. But there is this clarity through the ranges & the spectrum; lows, mids (all of them) and highs are all there.
I still rock the '78 P neck - ironically on a Warmoth body - with the Lollar. I look forward to comparing these two builds onstage. (I haven't been one to collect multiple basses of the same type. But these may turn out different enough to coexist in my stable.)

 

[johnnynitro]

Perfect ! (Except for the Tort)