So many sweet basses here!I envy you!
I've been GASing for a fretless Warmoth for several years now but still can't afford one... well, maybe some day...
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Post your Warmoth Fretless Builds.
- Thread starter nonohmic
- Start date
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I want to build a short scale P fretless and had been considering a maple board. Is yours epoxied? gloss finish? how has it handle wear from the strings?
The neck has a clear satin finish, very fast and comfortable. Right now it has Dunlop flats on it and is not showing any signs of wear. Although, I've only been playing it for 3 months.
Here are the specs of the neck from Warmoth:
Style: J Bass®
Construction: Super Bass Construction
Orientation: Right Handed
Neck Wood: Roasted Maple
Fingerboard Wood: Roasted Maple
Nut Width: 1-1/2" (38mm)
Back Shape: Slim Taper
Fret Size: Fretless
Tuner Ream: BML (17.5mm)
Radius: Straight 10"
Scale: 34"
Fret #: 21
Mounting Holes: Standard 4 Bolt
Pre-Cut Installed String Nut: White Corian - Standard Nut
Inlays: No Inlay
Side Dots: Black Side Dots
Stiffening Rods:Standard Steel Rods
Finish: Clear Satin Nitro
Do you note much difference in sound or feel from a rosewood or ebony fretless board?
Is that the same as what they called their Wide 5 neck? That's what I have on mine (see post #3) which I pulled off a different Warmoth build from the early/mid-1990s. You should've seen the hoops I had to jump through to get it to fit on a current Warmoth body!
Nope... It was called the "Real Big 5 " neck by Warmoth. I'm not sure how the Wide 5 was different.
Thanks for your interest.
I really love medium scale. The 2" reduction makes a noticeable difference in playing comfort without making any significant change in tone. Warmoth does not use the reinforcing bars in their 32" and 30" scale necks so you save a bit of weight. I have a pair of 32" scale Warmoth basses. The P weighs about 6.8 lbs, balances beautifully and fits inside an e-guitar case like it was custom made for it. The fretless J weighs just 7.9 lbs if I recall correctly. It won't fit into an e-gtr case so I have to let it swim around in a bass case.
The biggest drawback to 32" scale is the limited string selection.
I would love to have a fretless 32" Stingray clone from Warmoth but they won't put the pickup in the MM sweet spot on the short scale bodies. For my fretted Stingray clone, I ended up going 34" scale because of that.
I haven't played 34" fretless in a long time but I find the natural spread of my L hand seems to match the note position spacing below the 5th fret better on 32" than on 34" scale. On 34" the spacing is a bit wider than my natural hand span.
With 2 of my 3 basses being 32" scale, I find the 34" to be the odd man out. It feels a bit long. But since it is fretted I don't need exact finger placement to play in tune so I can be a bit sloppy.
Want to try 32" scale? Tune down 1/2 step and capo at the first fret, then play everything up 1 fret. Or go try one of the Ibanez Mezzo basses. They are pretty close to the ergonomics of a Warmoth 32" scale.
Yup, Nordstrand quad coil with a passive tone and volume control on push / pull CTS pots.
Like this it gives me both coils in series or parallel or either half of the humbucker without any buzz in any position and no pickup selector switches to confuse me!
I have a matching fretted version too. Both have replaced my real Stingrays.
not absolutely sure I’m not the first owner but it looks like it could be walnut
I think the differences might be that the Real Big 5 was a 5 piece laminated neck - 3 Maple + 2 Bubinga, and it had Dual Trussrods. (Looks like yours is very similarly dimension-ed, but with only 1 trussrod?)
I also built my main 5 String Fretted bass (for the last 30 years) using a RB 5 neck. I really like this neck on both of my basses.
I also used a RB 5 neck to make a 6 string J Bass - B to C tuning. It is a bit crowded compared to the 5's, but it works just fine as a 6-er.
Here is a photo of my 4 fretted, 5 fretted, and 6 fretted.
Thanks, Bob.
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Ah, good point: Mine is definitely only one trussrod, and no contrasting stringers.
Good looking trio of basses ya got there!
This is going to be a Warmoth fretless build after I get around to ordering the hardware and pickup 
P body (clear satin finish) with a lined fretless J neck (ebony/quartersawn maple). Both were showcase items. The original plan was to go unlined on the neck, but I decided to go with this neck when I saw it on the showcase page because I liked what I saw.
P body (clear satin finish) with a lined fretless J neck (ebony/quartersawn maple). Both were showcase items. The original plan was to go unlined on the neck, but I decided to go with this neck when I saw it on the showcase page because I liked what I saw.
This is a Warmoth roasted maple fretless Jazz neck, 21 "fret," with ebony board, on an old Galactic Purple Squier body. DiMarzio Model PJ pickups with a 3-way selector switch, master volume and tone (was going for the Tony Franklin sig layout, but don't have a router to put the switch where he does). Hipshot ultralight tuners with extender. I love this thing .... Put it together during quarantine, and have just now gotten it really dialed in, in terms of setup. It really sings. I'm using my favorite rounds on it, Dunlop Super Bright Nickels.
Posted this on another thread but here it is again. Only the neck and pickguard are from Warmoth.
- Unfinished padouk/ebony neck
- Fender MIM p-bass deluxe body
- Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder pickups
- Hipshot B style bridge
Sweet! I recently ordered an unfinished padouk/ebony neck from Warmoth for a guitar project I'm building*. Love that wood combo.
*...and by "building" I actually mean procrastinating.
