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Warmoth Owners Club!!

#2,601
It's been a few months with my Warmoth bass and I love it, but the body weight is a little too much for me. I would rather not order a new body, but that may be my only option. Has anyone ever added a rear route to a bass that was already top-routed? Or is that impossible? My body is painted- I would take it to a pro, I wouldn't try this myself. I'm just wondering if adding a rear route, removing wood for a battery box, and drilling a side jack hole would take enough of the weight away for me or if that would just destroy a perfectly good body.

I'm tempted to try and finish a body myself (dye and clear coat), except I don't have a garage and my lady is concerned about the mess it would make in a spare room. It would also save me some loot, but in the end will the time/effort and cost of materials be worth it if I blow it and have to have someone else make it right? I'd love some success and horror stories of your first attempt... just so I dont make the same mistakes if I try this at home. Thanks
 
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#2,602
gustobassman said:
It's been a few months with my Warmoth bass and I love it, but the body weight is a little too much for me. I would rather not order a new body, but that may be my only option. Has anyone ever added a rear route to a bass that was already top-routed? Or is that impossible? My body is painted- I would take it to a pro, I wouldn't try this myself. I'm just wondering if adding a rear route, removing wood for a battery box, and drilling a side jack hole would take enough of the weight away for me or if that would just destroy a perfectly good body.

I'm tempted to try and finish a body myself (dye and clear coat), except I don't have a garage and my lady is concerned about the mess it would make in a spare room. It would also save me some loot, but in the end will the time/effort and cost of materials be worth it if I blow it and have to have someone else make it right? I'd love some success and horror stories of your first attempt... just so I dont make the same mistakes if I try this at home. Thanks
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What does your bass body look like? I have a Swamp Ash Warmoth Natural Gloss with a rear rout that I would trade you. I was going to sell it whole with a Birds Eye Maple neck and FB, but if your interested I would part it out. It was a body blank that the previous owner did the body shape on.
 
#2,604
Lammchop93 said:
I've been thinking about building a warmoth bass. I am wanting to do one with the blue dye finish. Is it really worth the $175 to select your own flamed maple top?
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I have done four unique choice tops, and would say it depends on how much, in total, you are investing in the build as well as what kind of wood you are going with and how fussy you are. I have done a few $1000 bodies and in that case it's worth (to me) knowing that the top will not disappoint.

It helps to browse the strat showcase and the unique choice tops available for strats to give you an idea of how much the various woods can vary and if you are willing to roll the dice. I say strats because the showcase is 10x as big as it is for basses. Same for the UC tops - there are more options for strats (smaller body) and the builder allows you to see the tops on the guitar. Some of the exotic woods, like bocote, are only available via UC.

For a quilt top, I would probably go with UC because a lot of them don't look like what I think of as quilt maple. For flame maple it's less risky and I did roll the dice once for flame and once for birdseye. Both were really nice.

The cost does seem insane, but for me it was worth it for my dream basses. I also wanted to have some really nice examples of what I could do as a builder in case I ever start building for sale at a profit. If you browse strats in the showcase, you will see that there are a lot which are not nearly as nice as these. Tops are quilt maple, flame maple, bocote and flame koa.

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#2,605
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My most recent build done for my favorite customer (me) One piece swamp ash. Hand rubbed oil finish. Deluxe V model. Nordstrand NJ5F strictly passive. Hipshot hardware. Everything lines up on this instrument. Perfect alignment and spec wise totally honest. Pau ferro fretboard which yields a nice punchy open voice without ANY clank. May have hit the jackpot tonally with this wood combination. Sometimes the planets align. I don't profess to always know why but this one deserves a name and I don't name my basses or cars because I think it's weird. Only thing I may change is an aluminum bridge.
 
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#2,607
Doug Parent said:
My most recent build done for my favorite customer (me) One piece swamp ash. Hand rubbed oil finish. Deluxe V model. Nordstrand NJ5F strictly passive. Hipshot hardware. Everything lines up on this instrument. Perfect alignment and spec wise totally honest. Pau ferro fretboard which yields a nice punchy open voice without ANY clank. May have hit the jackpot tonally with this wood combination. Sometimes the planets align. I don't profess to always know why but this one deserves a name and I don't name my basses or cars because I think it's weird. Only thing I may change is an aluminum bridge.
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Nice bass Doug! You did a fantastic job on the body finish and the neck profile is killer. Thanks for letting me thump on it yesterday, you hit the mark on this one.
 
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#2,608
BODY MOD UPDATE:

So I took my bass to a local reputable guy to have a control cavity routed and a side jack punched. I'm adding a Nordy 2b-4c preamp but my main goal was to lose a little weight if possible without having to buy a new body. I picked the bass up today and I'm pleased with the weight loss (a solid half-pound drop), but the work was probably a B+. I'm not upset, thank goodness it's Warmoth and I can order a new body if these little things really bug me. I knew going into this project it may not work out, and I built the bass with the intention of playing the crap out of it. She does spend time in dive bars.... it's not going to look like she just came off the line forever. Just not sure if these issues are worth griping over. I'd love your opinions.

First- there was a little chip on the bottom edge of the control cavity. Not a huge deal, but it's there now. I noticed the top side was a little rough too. The cover isn't a perfect fit either. There is a few small gaps.

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2nd- this one pushes my buttons a little, the new jack has a chip next to it and he was supposed to use the "football" style jack plate as well. Again, it's not the end of the world but the chip is there..

jack.jpg


3rd- the guy forgot to replace the foam under the neck pickup and it sinks into the body. He will fix it Monday, we already discussed this, but I didn't bring up the other stuff. I knew there was a slight chance issues could arise. In hindsight I should've anticipated possibly adding a preamp and had the body routed correctly when I ordered the bass. Obviously I'm gonna play it like no tomorrow (no tonal difference from what I can tell so far), I'm just not sure if I should bring the chips up on Monday. What would you do?
 
#2,609
I'd definitely mention it...I'd probably say, just as you did here in this post, that I was basically happy with the results except for the obvious chips. I'd probably ask if he's willing to try and touch them up. Not much else can be done really. Like you, again, I would probably just set ouy to play the heck out of the thing!
 
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#2,611
Here's my Warmoth FenderLullbird I had JohnK put together for me. Warmoth body (Vintage White), All Parts neck, and Lull Tbirds pups I scored here.
 

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#2,612
For those who may be interested.


pjbassist said:
Warmoth Swamp Ash body with KILLER Birds Eye Maple neck and fb. Purchased from original owner and TB member in March. New 1" 11/16th nut, Active EMG P/J pickups installed, new flat top chrome knobs and 3-way toggle switch, along with strings and set-up since then.

Love this bass and the stunning neck, but alas Maple is not the fretboard for me. The body was originally a body blank from Warmoth, the P shape was done by the original owner and is not perfect with all the contours, but is great, including the tummy cut shown. Even includes a rare recessed neck plate. Incredible wood grain all over this beauty. Clear gloss on the body, also not perfect, some wood grain texture can be seen or felt on rear upper horn. Neck is more of a satin finish to me, not as glossy. Weighs in at a scant 8 lbs 15 ozs.

Decorative wood piece at base of neck is only to hide the truss rod access, and compliments the scalloped edges at base of neck. Both added by original owner as accent pieces. If it seems like too much wood, add your favorite pickguard, I even have a matte black Warmoth pickguard if your interested. I prefer none.

If Active EMG pickups are not your thing, I can put the original BassLine passive pickups back in and adjust the price. Same goes for the Schaller straplocks, if you don't want'em, I'll take them off. The new strings are Rotosound Swing Bass 66s, if those are not your cup of tea, I'll keep them. Bass also has Schaller tuners. Bass comes with very worn out Sterling by Music Man gig bag (shown) for shipping purposes and packed well.

Lets start the bidding at $600 OBO + shipping. Priced to sell!!
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#2,613
Body Mod Update Pt. II:

Local guy made good. He replaced the foam, reseated the pickups and added the correct jack with the requested football-style plate.

new jack.jpg


I can deal with the chip; it's not the first an probably wont be the last. Just waiting on the preamp now. It still sounds great, I don't notice any real change in tone with the cavity added. I'm planning on a slight neck reshape as well. @Doug Parent built the bass for me and he has been doing this awesome finish/reshape on his own Warmoth necks. He slims the back of the neck down ever so slightly (correct me if I'm wrong about your neck treament Doug), it makes a huge difference in playability. For me at least. Less chunky and slightly flatter profile is the best way to describe it.
 
#2,614
gustobassman said:
Body Mod Update Pt. II:

Local guy made good. He replaced the foam, reseated the pickups and added the correct jack with the requested football-style plate.

View attachment 863158

I can deal with the chip; it's not the first an probably wont be the last. Just waiting on the preamp now. It still sounds great, I don't notice any real change in tone with the cavity added. I'm planning on a slight neck reshape as well. @Doug Parent built the bass for me and he has been doing this awesome finish/reshape on his own Warmoth necks. He slims the back of the neck down ever so slightly (correct me if I'm wrong about your neck treament Doug), it makes a huge difference in playability. For me at least. Less chunky and slightly flatter profile is the best way to describe it.
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hey Gus! Yes I sand the necks by hand maintaining the overall shape for the most part. I have done some drastic reshaping on occasion to get a more vintage feel if the asymmetric shape isn't cutting it.
 
#2,615
Still working on my latest project - mahogany with maple top 72P but the 20% off deal on chambered bodies drew me in on the last day of the sale. Ended up grabbing this unique quilt top. Not sure exactly what will be done with it yet. Routed for a single MM pickup. Probably will use a custom variant of the Nordstrand BigMan. Maybe light tung oil on the top and dark on the back. Might try a 24 fret neck on this one since I usually use too many pickups to allow for that.

I need to find out if the cambering would interfere with adding a battery box. I'm thinking with chambered bodies they need to know ahead of time if you want a battery box. If not I'll have to figure out a way to secure the battery in the cavity.

EDIT - started a build thread for this one: Build Thread: "JazzMan" Bass

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#2,619
Doug Parent said:
My most recent build done for my favorite customer (me) One piece swamp ash. Hand rubbed oil finish. Deluxe V model. Nordstrand NJ5F strictly passive. Hipshot hardware. Everything lines up on this instrument. Perfect alignment and spec wise totally honest. Pau ferro fretboard which yields a nice punchy open voice without ANY clank. May have hit the jackpot tonally with this wood combination. Sometimes the planets align. I don't profess to always know why but this one deserves a name and I don't name my basses or cars because I think it's weird. Only thing I may change is an aluminum bridge.
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That's a beautiful bass there Doug!

Would you mind telling me what the string spacing at the bridge is please? I would love to build something similar but I can't play anything less than 18mm and I'm concerned that this would put the B and G strings too close to the fret board edges....

As this body is rear routed, when you fit the control panel will normal length pots and jacks be long enough to fit through both the body and the control panel? Or are you going to use the longer threaded type or top route under the control panel?

Many thanks in advance.

Peace,

Rob.
 
#2,620
HalfManHalfBass said:
That's a beautiful bass there Doug!
Would you mind telling me what the string spacing at the bridge is please?
As this body is rear routed, when you fit the control panel will normal length pots and jacks be long enough to fit through both the body and the control panel? Or are you going to use the longer threaded type or top route under the control panel?
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Hi Rob thanks, I use a Hipshot A style .728 bridge. That is the widest I would go on a Warmoth Deluxe V neck, which when adjusted to align with pickup pole pieces comes close to 18.3 mm. Right now this instrument is passive with the longer threaded 250K CTS pots. plans are in the works for the addition of a preamp and I'll route one hole in the top that is equivalent to a top mount cavity so I can utilize smaller 50K pots. When I started this project I was planning on no pickguard/control plate but I'm a sucker for a more traditional Fender look and I couldnt be any happier with the outcome.
 

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