My number one bass is a warmoth parts jazz, my number one guitar is a warmoth strat, and I also have a warmoth Tele and parts for a P that I haven't put together yet. I'm a big fan. None of my "fender" style stuff is actually fender. But, it is tremendously hard to generalize about Warmoths because the possible configurations are pretty much infinite, and because the quality does depend somewhat on the person putting them together. It's not just "screw in everything and it's good to go," you need to have the skills (or a luthier) to do a set up, maybe a little fret dressing etc. But the fit and finish of their parts and paint is top notch.
As for why I've gone warmoth, in general, I like Fender designs, but, whenver I've gone looking, I've never been that keen on the instruments that had for sale at my price point. In the case of my strat, which was my first, I wanted an ebony board, and better pickups than what fender was using at the time (to their credit, I believe they are now usually using overwound bridge single coils, which is what I had done).
As for my J. In 2006, I wanted a Jazz. I played a bunch, and hated almost all of them except vintage ones that were out of my budget and some new old stock ones, which were invariably metallic eggplant. My suspicion was that I didn't much like the pickups they were using, but beyond that, everyone of them seemed to have set up issues and such. After looking around, I realized I could build what I wanted from warmoth for less than buying a new American Standard (or series, or whatever they were that year), let alone paying to swap the electronics, get a set up with fretwork, etc. So, I got a maple neck with pau ferro board (which has become my new favorite fingerboard wood) and stainless frets, unfinished alder body, and some of the parts from warmoth. Sent it to a relative to paint in oly white nitro with a matching headstock. Outfitted it with Nordstrand noiseless vintage style pickups and an audere pre. I did some of the assembly work, but left the last bits to a luthier. In the end, the whole thing with a case, paying for the paint, and the luthier's work came in about 150 bucks under what an American Standard would cost, and, for my purposes, is a much better sounding and playing instrument. From what I've heard, fender has upped their quality in recent years, but I haven't really looked at their J basses again, as I'm not in the market.
As for whether this is a good idea for anybody to do, some pointers
1. You need to have a good sense of how various components impact the final product. You could specify some pretty awful things, or at least not what you want, if you don't know what you are doing.
2. You need to be fairly open to risk taking. All 3 of mine so far have been killer, but, you don't get to try before you buy. This is a fairly big leap of faith, especially if you are picky about neck profiles.
3. Their neck profile selection is weak. There are a couple neck widths, 2 back shapes, and I'm not sure you can specify a radius. I think their J is about perfect for me, but it might not be for you.
4. The resale appears to be pretty lousy. I'm a buy and hold kind of guy, but if you are a flipper, well, good luck with that.
5. It probably makes the most sense if you want something that you can't get off the shelf. My Strat (ebony fingerboard) would be custom shop only. MY J is essentially how I would have modded one off the shelf, and it ended up being cheaper.
As for why I've gone warmoth, in general, I like Fender designs, but, whenver I've gone looking, I've never been that keen on the instruments that had for sale at my price point. In the case of my strat, which was my first, I wanted an ebony board, and better pickups than what fender was using at the time (to their credit, I believe they are now usually using overwound bridge single coils, which is what I had done).
As for my J. In 2006, I wanted a Jazz. I played a bunch, and hated almost all of them except vintage ones that were out of my budget and some new old stock ones, which were invariably metallic eggplant. My suspicion was that I didn't much like the pickups they were using, but beyond that, everyone of them seemed to have set up issues and such. After looking around, I realized I could build what I wanted from warmoth for less than buying a new American Standard (or series, or whatever they were that year), let alone paying to swap the electronics, get a set up with fretwork, etc. So, I got a maple neck with pau ferro board (which has become my new favorite fingerboard wood) and stainless frets, unfinished alder body, and some of the parts from warmoth. Sent it to a relative to paint in oly white nitro with a matching headstock. Outfitted it with Nordstrand noiseless vintage style pickups and an audere pre. I did some of the assembly work, but left the last bits to a luthier. In the end, the whole thing with a case, paying for the paint, and the luthier's work came in about 150 bucks under what an American Standard would cost, and, for my purposes, is a much better sounding and playing instrument. From what I've heard, fender has upped their quality in recent years, but I haven't really looked at their J basses again, as I'm not in the market.
As for whether this is a good idea for anybody to do, some pointers
1. You need to have a good sense of how various components impact the final product. You could specify some pretty awful things, or at least not what you want, if you don't know what you are doing.
2. You need to be fairly open to risk taking. All 3 of mine so far have been killer, but, you don't get to try before you buy. This is a fairly big leap of faith, especially if you are picky about neck profiles.
3. Their neck profile selection is weak. There are a couple neck widths, 2 back shapes, and I'm not sure you can specify a radius. I think their J is about perfect for me, but it might not be for you.
4. The resale appears to be pretty lousy. I'm a buy and hold kind of guy, but if you are a flipper, well, good luck with that.
5. It probably makes the most sense if you want something that you can't get off the shelf. My Strat (ebony fingerboard) would be custom shop only. MY J is essentially how I would have modded one off the shelf, and it ended up being cheaper.
And, yes, it plays as good as it looks, so AFAIC, it was definitely worth it for me...
