Warmoth neck strength

[bobpond]

I'm mostly posting this in case someone actually uses the search function down the road on this topic, as I've seen questions posted previously.

This is the second time the same thing has happened to me, so it seems a good anecdote.

Sorry long exposition.

I finished a Warmoth Standard 5 build a short time ago. It is strung with D'Addario Chromes. Nothing special about the neck standard rods.

I like as little relief as possible, and after getting strung this one was maybe a bit higher than I like but way lower than the various guides so I left the truss rod as is.

I've been playing it and it plays great.

Today I checked it again to see how it is settling in and it was enough higher although still very low, that I decided maybe 1/4 turn would be good.

Exposition over.

Started turning the truss nut and it was just spinning two or three turns no resistance. Got my magnify visor to watch to make sure I hadn't gone brain dead and had the wrong Allen. Nope everything fine, it took a lot of turns before the nut even hit the washer. It was probably one or two turns from just falling off.

The exact same thing happened on my Gecko 5. On my deluxe 5 my brain was working and I tightened it to just beyond touching so it wasn't physically loose.

So, bottom line, what I have seen is that without the assistance of the truss rod three of my Warmoth basses had very acceptable relief strung with Chromes which are *not* low tension.

 

[electracoyote]

Cool story. That's a strong neck.

 

[micguy]

I have Warmoth necks on a few basses. None of them took more than half a turn on the truss rod from loose to be dialed in.

 

[Dean N]

I shaved a Warmoth standard jazz neck (1 piece BEM) really thin a while back, and the thing is still insanely stable.

 

[MobileHolmes]

My main player is a 10 year old warmoth J. After the initial assembly, I have never needed to touch the trussrod again.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I built a fretless jazz using Warmouth neck and body 30 years ago, and have made only tiny adjustments in all that time, most stable wood neck I own, only surpassed by my Steinberger, which is carbon/graphite composite. A well made neck shouldn't need a lot of fiddling. Does yours have the CF rods?

 

[TomB]

One more testament to their strength - incredible! Light they are not - or at least mine are not.

 

[2saddleslab]

My Warmoth necks, 26 and 20 years old, are rarely ever adjusted and have no perceptible dead spots.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

The weight issue has some validity, my Jazz is very slightly neck heavy, which I could solve with ultralight tuners. It's not bad enough to bother with though. My ash body is on the heavy side too, but the parts are so well made it's a decent tradeoff. Everything fit perfectly right off the bat.

 

[inanimate_carb]

One of the best necks, aftermarket or not.

 

[DavC]

my 1/4 sawn wenge neck is stiff like a young horse .. !

 

[AltGrendel]

I have a teak\ebony neck. Does not need much tweaking at all.

 

[micguy]

One more testament to their strength - incredible! Light they are not - or at least mine are not.

Depends. The ones I have are roasted maple, with graphite rods - both of those things make them lighter. The necks I have are all lighter than a Mightly Mite neck I have that doesn't have reinforcing rods. I have one Warmoth medium scale neck (those don't have reinforcing rods), and that one is super light.

 

[toomanyslurpees]

I have a tele neck with the 59 roundback countour (wish they had the same choices with bass necks!) I had trouble setting it up at first because despite playing with 11s the string tension added no relief at all to that neck... just wasn't used to a neck that solid!

 

[George Himmel]

I don't know first hand, but Warmoth may also "pinch" fret or true their fingerboards/level frets under very mild relief so that they have a slight backbow at no tension. That'd help the truss rod do some of its work!

AGAIN: I don't know firsthand, just spitballing. I'm fine if someone tells me I'm wrong.

 

[Hot Rats]

I'll throw a testament about Warmoth necks in here too. I have a birdseye/ebony neck made in 1988 and I rarely needed to adjust the rod. It's a great neck to go from standard tuning to "D" tuning as it keeps it's relief very well. On a side note about a Mayones bass I own, I broke the truss rod a few years ago and have not had it repaired yet because the neck is still very playable. I moved to .125 - .045 and it's got excellent relief. Strange.

 

[gpx1200]

had the same thing happen to me when I painted my gecko neck I took the nut off to tape over the rod end and I never even put it back on until a few weeks after assembly I decided it need a slight adjustment and realized it had no nut.
though this neck was a little special, it's the one pictured at the top of the medium gecko neck page, I named this bass Puddin because the neck looks like a Jello pudding pop

 

[TomB]

Depends. The ones I have are roasted maple, with graphite rods - both of those things make them lighter. The necks I have are all lighter than a Mightly Mite neck I have that doesn't have reinforcing rods. I have one Warmoth medium scale neck (those don't have reinforcing rods), and that one is super light.

Both my Warmouth necks go back to the mid-'90's and have the big steel in them. Weighty but it works! I'm not surprised they've pursued lighter designs in this day of hyper weight consciousness.

 

[Timmy-Watts]

I have built 3 basses w it h warmoth necks. All3 have been solid. They only needed a turn or a little more at first for overall setup, and basically never needed a tweak once settled in.

 

[prowla]

I've got a graphite neck on a Warmoth body; it doesn't tend to need a lot of tweaking...