Aaron’s note about the paint line on a neck is spot on (no pun intended). I’ve learned to apply paint right up to the fret line on rosewood necks. If you mask off all of the rosewood, you get a very stark paint line you can feel right where the rosewood joins the rest of the neck. It’s almost impossible to sand down to unnoticeable without also sanding away any tint work - leaving a visible line of unfinished maple (or whatever the neck wood is). So just mask the top of the fretboard, apply your finish coats including to the rosewood sides, then unmask. No muss no fuss. Edit April 7th: I just installed a new Warmoth neck (9.5-14 Vintage Modern) and it needed no leveling whatsoever. Other than touch up for the fret ends, the install and set up took perhaps 5 minutes. A little truss tweak today, but that's it. Plays like a dream. (Now the paint work I did took me much longer...but that's another story.)
I can tell after buying necks from warmoth over the last 40 years the level of quality and consistency is second to none in their field. I can think of only one neck out of literally 50-75 necks I’ve ordered that had any issues. their customer service took care of the issue immediately and was amazing. Everything in this video is correct and if you follow their Instructions you will have the best aftermarket neck you can buy and also a great experience. Thank you Warmoth for making great parts and for staying 100% USA made you guys Rock!!!!
I’ve built many guitars over the years and always use Warmoth necks. Outstanding quality. I have never had to do any fret work on the necks I’ve purchased from you guys.
Same. I did it to one warmoth neck of mine just for fun. It's fine but looking back, there was no point. Neck was already super playable and perfectly fine.
I have built 4 warmoth teles they all played excellent right out of the box. Much better than any of my fender custom shop! Thanks keep up the exemplary example of quality and service.
Just had my new neck set up on my 19 year old American Strat with a local luthier. They were finished in very little time and told me there was no need for fretwork! I've been playing this guitar for a couple days now. It feels and sounds absolutely amazing! I have a baked maple neck and I went ahead and sprung for the Satin Nitro finish! I will just play the guitar and fix the flakes if and when they happen! So far it's been clean. Lovin' this new neck! It's so different and premium feeling!
I have put together over 30 guitars & basses with Warmoth necks. I have only had to lightly touch up frets twice. Excellent quality. Great point on letting the wood set and acclimate. Generally, I will not do a setup until a few days after I have put everything together to let the neck settle.
Thanks Aaron for another helpful video. I'll be making my first Warmoth Tele build in a couple months and couldn't be more pumped!! Perfect timing for this video 🤘🏻
@@ramencurry6672 I don't even agree with that logic lolz. In my opinion folks needs to get some blisters or calluses on their weak azz hands lololol. As long as it's not literally slicing your hand open causing bleeding or shredded skin lololol. Who cares? Awww you felt a lil bit of resistance when sliding up and down on the neck? Maybe stop gripping it so damn hard lolz. Nothing was every a issue with any of my warmoth nex out of the box. They played great and still do!
That 30 degree fret cut or whatever you just said Aaron. I'm a dumby who knows jack about math but THAT cut is on 5 of my warmoth necks and I LOVE IT! I got about 12 strats and about half of them have warmoth necks. I play the warmoth ones the most... Rolled fret board edges are over rated if you ask me. Many reasons... 1... They tend to be on old school necks that are thinner nut width wise or have smaller frets. That's great for all you vintage fans out there but I like a lil more variety in my guitars. 2... I got big azz hands with long skinny skelator fingers so a wider 43mm nut width vs a 41 or 42 is better for me I noticed and warmoth shells out 43mm like hot cakes! Just about all the stock necks you can mod up from warmoth are at 43mm nut width. You pay around 300-400 for a out of the box super nice to play on neck. How can you beat this deal??!?!?! When fender necks tend to be around 600-800 bucks! And custom shop fender necks can be from 1000-2000 bucks wth!!! So go with warmoth instead if you ask me. Cheaper and better quality and you get to pick out some cool custom feats! Duhhh that's a better deal than what fender is offering lol. About the 43mm nute width though... This slightly wider neck doesn't make it harder for me to be fast because it's suuuuch a slight diff... But I did notice this slight diff does legitimately help with keeping strings from slipping off the fret board as easily, and that really really matters. Really really loving that 43mm nut width : ) There is a 44mm one that's like a acoustic guitar apparently... I bet I'd dig that one just fine too. Probably feels like one of my gretches... But I can't say for sure as I don't have a 44mm nut width warmoth neck...... YET lol. And then there is a crazy modded out version for a 48mm super wide classical acoustic guitar neck feel but it looked very FAT and silly to me and I dunno... I'd have to try it before commenting haha. All I'm saying is 43mm is amazing. Thanks warmoth! (Pro tip, I've done a lot of goofy partscastering and a common problem I've run into about 2 times now is once everything is done, awww shucks look at that, seems like some of the strings could easily slip off the fret board ohhh nooo it's a crappy guitar! The strings are not hovering over the fret board in near perfect alignment ohhh nooo! Fear not... Many will panic and assume the neck is flawed or body is flawed or for whatever reason the guitar body and neck simply don't match blah blah blah... Nonsense. Don't let that crap bother you. Unless you got some weird after market 3rd party crap from the 70s or whatever, and you're trying to match it to another weird unusual thing, this should not be a big problem. What likely happened is wood warps or shifted do to age/elements etc etc and or the screws pulled it in a certain direction slightly so now your string alignment is off. Bummer. Here's what you do. THE SADDLES! Buy left handed or right handed off set saddles. Get whichever right handed or left handed model you want depending on which one you need to pull your strings in the direction that makes things more properly aligned. It doesn't have to be perfect, just good enough! I've done this twice and it literally saved the guitar by making it FAR more tolerable/playable. It's a lil ghetto and your saddles might look like they are dipping in a weird direction haha but hey, what works works amiright?) 3... I got a music man cutlass high end rare model. SMOOTHEST FRET WORK OF ALL TIME! Smoothest neck I have to play on. But is it my fav neck? No... Far from it actually... It kinda feels too smooth if that makes sense. I like a lil bit of resistance. Just a tad bit. That way I never go too far when trying to land on a far off fret very quickly. Same reason I'm not a fan of earnie ball strings. They are great in many ways but feel to slippery for me. So I'm a daddario string guy instead. Also, like I said earlier, strings slipping off the fret board seems to be a bigger issue for me on guitars that have rolled fret edges. It's not THAT big of a deal, but I'm just sayin is all lol. Maybe super intense soloists might care, but even those guys are kind of like me and have several guitars, some with rolled frets, some with not. It's kind of a personal preference thing and not really a "this is better than that" sort of a thing. As you can tell, I land more in the NOT ROLLED department. Warmoths clean fret ends are perfect for me. 4... Some fret work is crap though lol. It's rare but some can kinda poke you lol wtf. Warmoth never let me down in this regard but it has been known to happen. Learn to fret crown yourself is what I say. I did it once and it was fun and the guitar plays pretty good. I wouldn't say it plays much better or worse than any of my other strats though... Like I said. It's basically a personal pref kind of a thing... But learning how to fret crown is a kool skill that just about anyone can learn. Get the tools for like 20 bucks, watch a few youtube vids, and now you can get to work! But consider if you even wanna try it first. Looking back, I think I was wasting my time. It was never a thing I NEEDED to do for my guitar. It's nice... But honestly doesn't matter much... BTW stainless steel frets are harder to crown lolz. So keep that in mind. Final thoughts? Warmoth doing it the way they do it is the way I like it! Lol don't pressure my fav guitar parts company to change their ways. They make the best fender replacement parts in the world for a reason. And trust me, as someone who's messed with squire, fender, aria, schector, music man, custom shop fender, mjt, mighty necks, fender all parts necks, and music craft necks... Warmoth outshines them all in my opinion. I've literally had parts issues with every company I just listed here EXCEPT for warmoth. The only problem with warmoth is their site used to be better in some ways. In my personal opinion it used to be slightly easier to navigate. That's my only actual gripe with warmoth. Warmoth even sells some cheapo necks out of Japan haha. You can find em on ebay for like 100 bucks haha. Mannn they are pretty bare bones plain but lemme tell ya, even those aint bad haha. I was able to salvage a old weird tele body with that neck. Warmoth parts are almost like magic haha. They always seem to work out well for me. Maybe I'm just lucky OR warmoth does a good job! I did manage to get a 90s warmoth neck on ebay once. It's got a cocobolo shaft and a brazilian rosewood fret board. It's prolly my fav neck to play on. Brazilian rosewood from the best neck makers? No wonder it's my fav lololol. But I also got reg dark indian rosewood necks from warmoth that are just plain amazing too sooo... Easy come easy go lol. Sorry for the long rant. Just thought I'd share my experience. PS... I do in fact have ONE very rare fender american neck 1995 anniversary type model that has frets ends that were done very similar to how warmoth does it... And it's my fav fender neck to play on. Probably because it's the one that most reminds me of a warmoth neck haha. Something to think about lol.
Excellent video. Well done. Looking forward to buying my first Warmoth neck in December (although I do wish you would offer Mustang necks with a 44mm nut width for us guys with clumsy fingertips).
I own a Warmoth telecaster it's Awesome! The neck is next level. I've played it all over the USA ,the neck has stood up to All conditions I put though. I recommend this neck and the guitar to anyone I could go on and on about the guitar 🎸 this video says what needs to be said Thanks
I am getting the Most enjoyment of all my Warmoth builds! I still have PRS, Gibson, Fender, Ibanez, Taylor, But I love to build and play my custom Warmoth Guitars! Watching this video while playing my new Holo Flake custom neck!! Keep up the great work! : )
Hey Aaron! I must’ve purchased like seven or eight necks from you guys by now, a couple that were pretty much standard necks and then three or four pretty damn high end necks as well. I can honestly say I only had an issue with one of them which I repaired myself here. The 20th fret was a bit high causing a buzz which I just filed down a bit and recrowned. After playing them about a year or so maybe three of them needed a little attention to some fret sprout, nothing crazy and that was resolved real easily too. You guys make fantastic stuff and me personally I’ll never buy a guitar which has a bolt on neck style, these are just that good 🤙
In 5 of my builds I've used Warmoth necks (so far 😳) and the only thing I did to them was attaching the tuners, string trees and attching them to their dedicated bodies... 😳
I have bought three of these. One was the gold fret with lots of finish on it. Did throw me for a loop. The others didn't have finish on them - maybe a little. The gold ones frets are great.
Great video as always. I confess that I owned 4 warmoth necks so far and the played great. But the last one from 2021 needed a fretwork on the edges. The overall build quality was a little stepdown from the other ones. Maybe the number of orders during the pandemic
I agree with Aaron final fret work is up to the end user! I love Warmoth neck’s and body’s my favorite body is the soloist. My favorite neck is wizard profile 10 -16 reversed arcade head stock. Long live the 80s🥰🤘🏻👍🏻
The body and neck for my fourth Warmoth partsocaster (not counting moving my prototype to a new body) is due to arrive Thursday. I cannot wait to see that holo flake!
Once you are at the level of knowing enough to get finicky about fine fret work, and putting parts on your guitar, I’d think you’d want to do your own finish work. Maybe would be nice if Warmoth offered additional finish work but it’s not something I’d be interested. Getting to know the guitar you’ll be living with by working on it is part of my love for the sport. Maybe if I paid thousands of dollars for a custom shop level full build I’d feel differently. Thanks for the video.
Just got my first neck, last month. Plays perfect! I might hit the ends with a 3 corner file, but maybe not; the frets are already nice and polished. Completely level.
Me too. Five necks bolted right up and strung. Action adjusted. Ready to play. Another thing. The necks all stay in balance. If I tuned when it was hot and now it's cold, each string has the exact same amount of adjustment necessary to compensate for the temp change. The 1-3/4" (44mm) and 1-7/8" (48mm) nut availability is sweet icing on the cake.
Great video and explanation. That said anything i have ever used whether a body, neck from warmoth has always been top of the line and the customer service unmatched.
Great info and well done video as usual. Now to TGP to see how many pages we get of people debating how perfect their fretwork needs to be to play Madison Square Basement.
I used to be one of these people. Don't tell anyone lol I'm embarrassed. Mannn I once upon a time knew next to nothing about guitar and often obsessed over small things like this...
@@soyborne.bornmadeandundone1342yeah I don’t trust locals that are high maintenance about everything they didn’t earn that entitlement if they’re playing venues like std fucknorth gahden
Good explanations. I do my own finishing fretwork…. I ordered 2 Warmoth necks and request no beveling…I do minimal beveling myself, and level and crown/polish, and finish the necks to my liking….i hate when fret ends are too beveled as it gives me less working fret length. Also. I never bought a Fender or fender neck that did not need some fret leveling to remove the buzzing…. Soooo… Warmoth gives more variety, and I can finish myself.
a few years back, I built a couple of guitars, one using a Warmoth neck, and the other from Musikraft. At the time, I preferred the Musikraft neck because they crowned, leveled, and rolled their frets but after all these years, it is still the Warmoth neck guitar that I pick up whenever I play
I have a 59 round back compound. I always get freaked out how to go about fret leveling… never been sure how to go about the compound radius. But I love the neck!
I have ordered 3 necks so far and am very pleased with the quality of the product, I am a bing fan of the super wide necks, one thing I would love to see is if it possible to reduce the width and overhang of the super wide necks by the lower freta area like the Big Lou guitars.
This video was a great explanation for stuff I already knew or assumed was true. No where else can you get necks with all the specs and options you want. Seriously, try and source a neck anywhere else with this type of customization. Super high quantity necks aren't easy to come by. You guys deliver high-end parts that are unavailable just about anywhere else outside of a custom luthier. Keep doing what you do. The do it yourself guitar enthusiasts need you. 🤘
Musikraft is also good. I have necks from both companies and they're both very good. I would give Warmoth the edge between them but Musikraft offers a ton of customization and options.
I now have 5 Warmoth necks 1 Strat neck, 2 Warhead necks [one 22 fret one 24 fret], one 12 string and one Gecko 5 string bass neck, all with stainless steel frets. All came playable out of the box, needing only minor polishing and edge dressing for superior playability. 2 necks in roasted maple, 2 in Goncalo alves and the bass neck in Wenge all have Pau Ferro fingerboards. All have been exceptionally stable.
fret level with warmoth is always great i never really needed to do much leveling with them. if they could come up with a machine that ground the frets ends into a ball shape that would be something
I've used Warmoth necks for about 17 years now. They are both jazz bass necks, one is 17 years old and the other is 13 years old. These necks are amazing, neither needed any further adjustments for them to be playable. They are both extremely stable. One has a hard finish and the other has a nitro satin finish, I actually prefer the hard finish. The one thing I should have had to do is adjust the nut height but Warmoth had that dialed in perfectly also. Have no worries about Warmoth necks, they are pretty spectacular!
My tele neck from four years ago with ss frets is wonderful as it was received. Love it. I'll add, I ordered if just before the world shutdown with COVID and Warmoth did an outstanding job of getting it to me so I had a project during that time.
Love my Warmoth wenge jazz bass neck, no issues with fret work. With a low string height each note rings clear without any buzz. I also wear a nylon practice glove at times and there are no snags on a single fret as I run my hand up or down the neck, which I've had an issue with on some well know brands off the shelf. Will absolutely get more parts from Warmoth down the line.
I've had my hands around Warmoth necks since 1989 and have no desire to use anything else! The options beat out anything anyone offers, and I've never had a bad neck. My main has a Strat neck from 1992 and needs little more than a level and crown.
if you get a 5k+ esp custom shop you’re paying for the name not just craftsmanship also a finished guitar obviously warmoth can get similar results for bolt ons at a fraction of the price in fact after noticing fret wear on my squier esquire which was sold new hanging in a shop for a year I wonder how much better would that be on a high end guitar with bigger and stainless steel frets the problem would eventually happen just not as soon so I think set thru or the rare guitars like serenghetti with literally one piece of wood for the entire guitar should be fretless or else you’ll have to do a refret instead of replacing the neck which is hard to do when not bolt on when touring a lot and not wanting to keep changing guitars is when this all matters most
My Warmoth necks are all good. Especially the quartersawn 59 profile with SS frets Telecaster neck. That thing is a spectacular beast. The guitar doubles as a sledgehammer. And yet if you play clean you can do everything from Funk to Jazz on it. Super glad I took the risk and spent the big bucks on their top of the line model to get a super thick Telecaster neck experience.
I have a lot of guitars pass in and out of my workshop and home. I don't see boutique $3500+ instruments too often, so I won't mention them, but as far as factory guitars from China/Indonesia/Korea/Japan/Mexico and even the Fender USA plant, I have to say Warmoth's frets are on average much more level and secure than the fully finished guitars. Of the many necks I have gotten from Warmoth, I haven't had to do a full leveling on any to achieve a 4/64" bass and 2.5/64" treble string height with relatively no buzz acoustically. So regardless of no finish work, they're better generally than most factory guitars WITH fretwork finishing. Nothing sucks more than getting a nice factory guitar with fret buzz all over the place and bevels so sloped that your high E is slipping off when you fret a regular old note.
I've had one Warmoth neck that really needed fretwork. The other 4 are basically perfect. I hate rounded fret ends, I think the Warmoth approach is better. I also hate rounded fretboard edges, so again, I think you guys are doing it right. Your products are fantastic. For the record, the website is still painful to use.
My Warmoth stuff, bodies and necks, have been flawless. My number one strat has a flame maple SS frets big headstock. This neck has never needed any work. It was what sold me on Warmoth and they have never disappointed.
The challenge I think for a lot of people is they may not always have a guitar tech in their city or town that actually can do great fretwork. More often they're just going to give you a set up and do what they want to do to your guitar. I would actually be interested in paying for a quality skilled plek machine. But there isn't one. I have nothing bad to say about Warmoth. There is some seriously shoddy fretwork being done from major manufacturers on complete guitars in the last couple years the most unforgivable in my opinion which is Kiesel I love that brand but they have a lot of Buzzy guitars being pushed out lately.
I feel like if you are gonna go through the whole process of assembling a guitar and all the skills that task requires, being able to level and dress the frets is the icing on that cake, I find it very enjoyable and satisfying. It makes me feel a little closer to being a builder rather than just an assembler.
I didn't know any of this back in the early 90's when I assembled my Warmoth guitar. That being said- I never noticed any deficiencies in the fret work and in the 30+years since, I've taken that guitar to literally every corner of the Earth without ever having an issue. 1991 Warmoth alder strat body w/ Warmoth boat tail neck, raw with a tung oil rub and rosewood board.
I've used Warmoth necks for years now since I stopped building my own. I just got older and it was more then I wanted to do in a 1 person shop. I have always been very happy with them, and found they have the highest level of craftsmanship. Every neck will need adjustments, even finished guitars. Carbon fiber, aluminum alloy maybe not. Wood, absolutely. Peace --gary
I have two guitars with Warmoth necks (one is rosewood with ebony fretboard, the other birdseye maple with rosewood fretboard). In both instances, the frets were installed by Warmoth and are finished as finely as anything I've ever seen out of Fender or Gibson or PRS. I wouldn't hesitate to use another Warmoth finished neck in a new guitar project.
I know this vid is all about nex and most of their work is allll about nex but don't shy away from their bodies either. Their bodies kik azz! Love that they will put a f hole on a strat body with a contoured heel for slightly easier high fret play access. Fender doesn't do this at all unless it's custom shop crap they will charge you 4000 bux for... Amazing work warmoth keep it up!
I’ve had 5 Warmoth builds and all of them had the frets dressed after the necks been through the seasons and have somewhat stabilized. However, the fret ends have always been smooth right out of the box and doesn’t require rolling unless you want it to be super smooth. That you can do yourself with patience and simple hand tools.
I was going to say that. I have 3 guitars (only) made out of Warmoth parts and ONE of the necks had ONE slightly high fret across TWO strings. And this was the very beginning of stainless steel frets so... teething problems, I suppose. My other two necks were bargains from the showcase and were flawless. Both birdseye maple. I just rounded the edges of the frets because, honestly, I enjoy doing that. When all my friends were playing 90s epiphones and ibanezes I was king of the frets.
Thanks for this Aaron! This unfortunately has not been my experience. I’ve ordered 3 necks from Warmoth and all three have required fret work to avoid significant buzzing at a reasonable action. I feel like I keep losing the lottery or something. So I do share some frustration with some others in this regard, especially with the guidance that “most Warmoth necks are playable out of the box.” But I get Warmoth’s philosophy and I’m sure there’s economic factors too. Good fretwork is detailed, time-consuming work so it would be hard for Warmoth to scale that up in a way that pays for itself and doesn’t back up production and orders. And then there’s a chance it needs to be done again after the neck ships and the guitar is assembled. I wish I could order a Warmoth neck with great fretwork out of the box, but I get the difficulties.
Unfortunately, TH-cam guitar reviewers put a great deal of scrutiny on fretwork and this has become a huge point of emphasis. I say unfortunately because, even as a "parts" manufacturer, you are competing with guitar makers upping the quality of their fretwork based on these reviews, and despite Warmoth's philosophy, your fretwork is now being judged at a new standard of completeness. For what it's worth I am a proud owner of a Warmoth part's caster.
Yep, I have also observed what you are saying, which is why I made this video. You simply cannot do next-level fretwork on a neck that isn't even on a guitar yet and think it will stick. Holy smokes....can you imagine the expectations vs outcome if Warmoth offered fine fretwork as, say, a $100 upcharge? I can already hear the phones ringing with angry customers! :)
Yet, Warmoth is also selling to a Market with a higher level of customization, which almost demands they leave some final decisions to the end consumer. This could be final neck & and fretboard edge shaping, hand rubbed oil finishes, ball end frets etc.
(Throws a metal sanding file at their feet) Lol do something about those frets then if it's such a problem haha. I don't trust many of those guitar shills anyways. They all love John Mayer which is cringe af. Dude is just discount srv and in real life he's a pos sooo... I don't get it he's far from the most interesting and bad azz of guitarists but okay... Plus his music is garbage lolz. And creepy. Stop saying that your gfs body is a wonderland! Stop talking like that lol it's creepy! And the other song about busting into a high school to yell at children is even more creepy dawg like wtf! If you like this music, something is very very wrong with you lolz. You god mad bad taste haha. Speaking of garb... His crap silver sky guitar is garbage incarnate and guess what... Just about alll of the guitar reviewers praise that guitar... Some real boot licky corpo crap going on here... Glued on head stock are you effing kidding me? We're already seeing issues with that happening now that the guitar has been out there for a few years. Plastic tuning knobs lol okay... Again we're already seeing issues with them chipping and getting really scuffed up. Not even ss steal frets? What a joke... No trem plate cover on the back? Huh... No case? Just a crappy gig bag? Weak trem system and you can't even upgrade to a vega trem or something because it was designed slightly diff from a fender strat. Same with changing out this joke of a neck... You simply can't without doing major body work changes that the avrg joe doesn't have access to without spending hundreds... 800 for the cheapo model, a american standard can be found at that price and is better in pretty much every way... 2300-2800 for the standard model. The american pro line at fender is a rip off but even that's a better deal than the silver scam lol. 4000-8000 for the most rare models of the silver sky that are honestly... Not much better than the 2500 dollar model or even the 800 dollar one... And this is a good deal?????? LOOOOOOOOOL! Mayer the hack himself, who doesn't even play this model very much lololol, said he created it to "upgrade" the stratocaster. Lol anyone believing in this absolute liar is being stupid af. He did it to make money and that's it. He had a falling out with John Cruz of the fender custom shop. So he went to PRS to keep a sig guitar going under his brand. That's all that happened here. Lol at cux thinking a glued on head stock is a upgrade lol get f----- Sorry but guitar reviewers who praised this thing like philip mcnight, the captain and his pal, darrel braun etc etc... You guys are guitar shills lol. Folks should take you azzholes less seriously. You turds are literally hyping up a crap version of a american standard fender strat that costs 4 times as much... That's incredibly evil, greedy, disgusting, disingenuous etc etc. Very sad to see them be so dishonest. Oh and the silver sky is ugly af lolz. What a abomination of a strat. Leo Fender would laugh if he was around to see that crapp. He's lucky he didn't live a decade or so longer to see this garbage get made lololol. It's like that time Homer Simpson made a car haha. Minus the funny though. At least Homers car made me laugh. Silver scam just looks wrong and should not exist lol.
Yes...but...given a Warmoth neck is a part sans final finishing any comparison from any TH-camr with any off-the-rack guitar holds no water. Plenty of off-the-rack guitar fit Gotoh 510s, for instance, which I can also be bought as a part. Only a muppet would whinge that a Gotoh 510 bought as part was adjusted for intonation and action before it was installed on a guitar. Again, such illogical comparisons hold no water
My main difficulty has been tolerating the lack of fallaway in my Warmoth neck. I've put in a little bit but there's not enough to get the action properly low in the first 12ish frets and then ring clearly through the end of the fretboard. I have found a lot of improvement from working on my frets - you might get lucky with a near-perfect factory install, but to get beyond a certain tolerance, don't skip the details.
I've been gigging with my Warmoth neck for years and still haven't done fretwork, it could use it, but it's not gonna be anything drastic when the time comes. Although it does help that I have a roasted maple neck with stainless steel frets so they aren't getting much damage and the neck is super stable
It’s about $200 worth of tools from Stew Mac and a little research/practice to level, crown and polish fretwire. It’s worth the investment in tools and learning how. You can make a good neck superb after doing it.
My Stainless frets feel fine from the factory never did anything to them for two years. But the neck does need adjusting through the season. Would be nice for carbon fiber rods option.
Great video, as usual, Aaron! Can you do a video about Warmoth's scalloped necks, option, etc! Unfortunately both of my strats have the wrong heel screw configuration! So I'm considering my options!
Love your videos Aaron, been watching them for years, I also think Warmoth make wonderful products , that said I went with a fender neck on my last build because it came with the frets leveled, and they were truly leveled . Also this neck was manufactured in Mexico yet still had zero issue when it arrived here in canada
Thank you, So accurate, the fine finish work about play action and fret work all are at the end user to perform or have done. All things in their proper order. Even guitar companies are the same, and we all know how complayning people get about that stuff critiqueing the guitar for all the wrong reasons in my opinion. Well Thanks. Hey, i wonder if ziricote or canary would be better for my goncalo alvez neck and swamp ash body.
I'm looking at my American Fender Strat maple neck and it looks like the frets were installed after the solid hard laquer. Looks perfect. The way I like it. I've also ordered a Fender 50s replacement maple neck in the past that was laquered right over the preinstalled frets and sent it back because the vintage tinted laquer had pooled against the sides of the frets big time. Any future refret would certainly shatter the pooled laquer. My pro luthier after looking at this necksaid the same thing. So it seems installing frets after a laquer application is best? I'm pretty sure thats what Fender did on my American 91' maple neck Strat?
Superb. That means the entire fret is still there for level and crown after the neck is settled. If it was done first, the frets would have to go through 2 level and crown jobs. Anyone say medium to small....
I love Warmoth, I just wish this was communicated on their site. I have 3 necks from them and didn’t realize they weren’t crowned. Kudos to them for putting out this video. I would buy from them again in a heartbeat.
@@Shawn-co8uu good point. I should’ve said leveled and crowned. It’s hard to pinpoint why a guitar might not have good intonation and high action solves most leveling issues. I just would’ve told the guitar tech to perform a level and crown initially.
You all at warmouth got the rite idea ,I prefer to level and dress my frets ,Its easy on your necks .I have 2 of them,They are a step up from the average fender,I have 2 american standards with factory necks they are very good ,But the frets werent all leveled I fixed 4 or 5 mostley up high ,I used the warmouths on my builds ,If I ever build another ,I will go straight to warmouth page,
Let’s say I wanted a final fret polish: how long should I play the finished/assembled guitar before bringing it in for the polish? Thanks Note: Our guitar tech is a master at fret work so almost every guitar goes to him eventually.
I like Warmouth necks, put one on my 2019 player strat because I just couldn’t get used to the baseball bat sized neck with the sh* tty pao ferro fingerboard, replaced with a WM slim c with an ebony fretboard & all good now
This depends on your expectation level and budget. If people compare their Warmoth builds to a Suhr, or custom order guitars from other makers, then "next level" or Plek fret work is normally required IMO. You have to be a bit lucky to get a Warmoth neck that can get close to next-level performance without actually doing fret-work. Most are pretty good out of the box, but will need work if you want to reach the same grade as a high end custom guitar.
I bought expensive necks before for some projects including Warmoth necks, fret work is required in every case, this doesn't fade the quality, is just part of the set up
I’m glad Warmoth is not doing extra fretwork which would require passing the extra cost to the consumer. I’d rather save the cost as someone who will do my own fret level, crown and polish assuming it’s needed. My Warmoth guitar was playable just fine out of the box but I took it to the next level with just a minor kiss with the leveling beam to get them perfectly level. And a little love to the fret ends went a long way.
If it helps, my favorite neck I own is a Warmoth neck. Nothing has ever come close. It means a DIY tele is my go to guitar simply because the Warmoth is on it.
I have built quite a few guitars with warmoth parts, and also usa custom guitars, allparts, musikraft. The points Aaron makes here are very valid. Warmoth necks are top quality (i have some going back to the early 90s) but a part is NOT a finished product when it comes to guitar necks. I understand this video is about fretwork but a crucial part is the nut as well, that aside. In my experience, all necks will require fret dressing, some less than others, but they all do if you really want to have it playing like a high-end guitar. I have not seen a single neck with perfect frets out of the box. It is simply not possible to do that as Aaron states because of the many variables involved when it is built into a complete guitar. Are replacement necks playable as they come ? yes. Do they play perfect out of the box ? no.
I’ve gotten around 25 necks from Warmoth, and no issues with fretwork yet. My only complaint would be the “standard” thin standard is kinda thin for almost everyone I hang out with. Maybe standard should be more medium?
Probably could afford a custom shop guitar or two or three. I buy warmoth parts because I am looking for a better sounding playing guitar than trying to save money. Suppose everyone could be here for different reasons. Just like to have the opportunity to be in control of my destiny. A unfinished body or neck gets me that much closer to what I am trying to accomplish. The best possible guitar I can obtain. If I have to roll my own edges, do my own fret work, nuts and finishes so be it. But I can tell you one thing is I am not really saving any money. Lol. Practically a small time guitar shop at this point. Appreciate warmoth for getting me half way there. Don't buy a custom shops. Feel like my builds are better and the immense pleasure of doing it myself and being in control of my destiny is priceless.
Your videos are so thoughtful and well communicated. Warmoth is lucky to have such a spokesperson. Give this man a raise!
Aaron’s note about the paint line on a neck is spot on (no pun intended). I’ve learned to apply paint right up to the fret line on rosewood necks. If you mask off all of the rosewood, you get a very stark paint line you can feel right where the rosewood joins the rest of the neck. It’s almost impossible to sand down to unnoticeable without also sanding away any tint work - leaving a visible line of unfinished maple (or whatever the neck wood is). So just mask the top of the fretboard, apply your finish coats including to the rosewood sides, then unmask. No muss no fuss. Edit April 7th: I just installed a new Warmoth neck (9.5-14 Vintage Modern) and it needed no leveling whatsoever. Other than touch up for the fret ends, the install and set up took perhaps 5 minutes. A little truss tweak today, but that's it. Plays like a dream. (Now the paint work I did took me much longer...but that's another story.)
I can tell after buying necks from warmoth over the last 40 years the level of quality and consistency is second to none in their field. I can think of only one neck out of literally 50-75 necks I’ve ordered that had any issues. their customer service took care of the issue immediately and was amazing. Everything in this video is correct and if you follow their Instructions you will have the best aftermarket neck you can buy and also a great experience. Thank you Warmoth for making great parts and for staying 100% USA made you guys Rock!!!!
I’ve built many guitars over the years and always use Warmoth necks. Outstanding quality. I have never had to do any fret work on the necks I’ve purchased from you guys.
Same. I did it to one warmoth neck of mine just for fun. It's fine but looking back, there was no point. Neck was already super playable and perfectly fine.
Except sealing it. I applied a thin coat of poly to protect it
I have built 4 warmoth teles they all played excellent right out of the box. Much better than any of my fender custom shop! Thanks keep up the exemplary example of quality and service.
They played straight "out of the box"??! 🤨
@schmoemi3386 Yes, just pick your favorite neck type screw it to your favorite body, add your favorite pu's hardware, and you have your dream guitar.
@@schmoemi3386 Yes they ship them in a box🙂
Just had my new neck set up on my 19 year old American Strat with a local luthier. They were finished in very little time and told me there was no need for fretwork! I've been playing this guitar for a couple days now. It feels and sounds absolutely amazing! I have a baked maple neck and I went ahead and sprung for the Satin Nitro finish! I will just play the guitar and fix the flakes if and when they happen! So far it's been clean. Lovin' this new neck! It's so different and premium feeling!
This is the perfect video for me to reassure and confirm my next neck will be Warmoth. I’ve been contemplating this for about 6 months now 🙂
Been playing my Warmoth build for a little over a year now and I never felt I needed fret work. It's my favorite guitar of all time!
I have put together over 30 guitars & basses with Warmoth necks. I have only had to lightly touch up frets twice. Excellent quality. Great point on letting the wood set and acclimate. Generally, I will not do a setup until a few days after I have put everything together to let the neck settle.
Very informative. I have two Warmoth necks. The fretwork on both is very good.
Lots of great information, as usual. Your videos are very much appreciated!
Thanks Aaron for another helpful video. I'll be making my first Warmoth Tele build in a couple months and couldn't be more pumped!! Perfect timing for this video 🤘🏻
You have great products and care about what you do. No further explanation needed.
I own 5 warmoth necks, and I have never needed additional fretwork. Your stuff is tops and I would not even consider buying a neck from somewhere else
When did you purchase them?
@@kilhattrick the oldest is probably 8 years old and the most recent is probably a year an a half.
In my opinion most good guitars don’t need fretwork. However I like it. It’s like adding a little extra butter to your mashed potatoes
@@blasphemoustrat I snagged a used up af old af 90s warmoth neck and it might be my fav. Even their old beat up crapp is gold lololol.
@@ramencurry6672 I don't even agree with that logic lolz. In my opinion folks needs to get some blisters or calluses on their weak azz hands lololol. As long as it's not literally slicing your hand open causing bleeding or shredded skin lololol. Who cares?
Awww you felt a lil bit of resistance when sliding up and down on the neck? Maybe stop gripping it so damn hard lolz. Nothing was every a issue with any of my warmoth nex out of the box. They played great and still do!
That 30 degree fret cut or whatever you just said Aaron. I'm a dumby who knows jack about math but THAT cut is on 5 of my warmoth necks and I LOVE IT! I got about 12 strats and about half of them have warmoth necks. I play the warmoth ones the most...
Rolled fret board edges are over rated if you ask me. Many reasons...
1... They tend to be on old school necks that are thinner nut width wise or have smaller frets. That's great for all you vintage fans out there but I like a lil more variety in my guitars.
2... I got big azz hands with long skinny skelator fingers so a wider 43mm nut width vs a 41 or 42 is better for me I noticed and warmoth shells out 43mm like hot cakes! Just about all the stock necks you can mod up from warmoth are at 43mm nut width. You pay around 300-400 for a out of the box super nice to play on neck. How can you beat this deal??!?!?! When fender necks tend to be around 600-800 bucks! And custom shop fender necks can be from 1000-2000 bucks wth!!! So go with warmoth instead if you ask me. Cheaper and better quality and you get to pick out some cool custom feats! Duhhh that's a better deal than what fender is offering lol.
About the 43mm nute width though... This slightly wider neck doesn't make it harder for me to be fast because it's suuuuch a slight diff... But I did notice this slight diff does legitimately help with keeping strings from slipping off the fret board as easily, and that really really matters. Really really loving that 43mm nut width : )
There is a 44mm one that's like a acoustic guitar apparently... I bet I'd dig that one just fine too. Probably feels like one of my gretches... But I can't say for sure as I don't have a 44mm nut width warmoth neck...... YET lol. And then there is a crazy modded out version for a 48mm super wide classical acoustic guitar neck feel but it looked very FAT and silly to me and I dunno... I'd have to try it before commenting haha. All I'm saying is 43mm is amazing. Thanks warmoth!
(Pro tip, I've done a lot of goofy partscastering and a common problem I've run into about 2 times now is once everything is done, awww shucks look at that, seems like some of the strings could easily slip off the fret board ohhh nooo it's a crappy guitar! The strings are not hovering over the fret board in near perfect alignment ohhh nooo! Fear not... Many will panic and assume the neck is flawed or body is flawed or for whatever reason the guitar body and neck simply don't match blah blah blah... Nonsense. Don't let that crap bother you. Unless you got some weird after market 3rd party crap from the 70s or whatever, and you're trying to match it to another weird unusual thing, this should not be a big problem. What likely happened is wood warps or shifted do to age/elements etc etc and or the screws pulled it in a certain direction slightly so now your string alignment is off. Bummer. Here's what you do. THE SADDLES! Buy left handed or right handed off set saddles. Get whichever right handed or left handed model you want depending on which one you need to pull your strings in the direction that makes things more properly aligned. It doesn't have to be perfect, just good enough! I've done this twice and it literally saved the guitar by making it FAR more tolerable/playable. It's a lil ghetto and your saddles might look like they are dipping in a weird direction haha but hey, what works works amiright?)
3... I got a music man cutlass high end rare model. SMOOTHEST FRET WORK OF ALL TIME! Smoothest neck I have to play on. But is it my fav neck? No... Far from it actually... It kinda feels too smooth if that makes sense. I like a lil bit of resistance. Just a tad bit. That way I never go too far when trying to land on a far off fret very quickly. Same reason I'm not a fan of earnie ball strings. They are great in many ways but feel to slippery for me. So I'm a daddario string guy instead. Also, like I said earlier, strings slipping off the fret board seems to be a bigger issue for me on guitars that have rolled fret edges. It's not THAT big of a deal, but I'm just sayin is all lol. Maybe super intense soloists might care, but even those guys are kind of like me and have several guitars, some with rolled frets, some with not. It's kind of a personal preference thing and not really a "this is better than that" sort of a thing. As you can tell, I land more in the NOT ROLLED department. Warmoths clean fret ends are perfect for me.
4... Some fret work is crap though lol. It's rare but some can kinda poke you lol wtf. Warmoth never let me down in this regard but it has been known to happen. Learn to fret crown yourself is what I say. I did it once and it was fun and the guitar plays pretty good. I wouldn't say it plays much better or worse than any of my other strats though... Like I said. It's basically a personal pref kind of a thing... But learning how to fret crown is a kool skill that just about anyone can learn. Get the tools for like 20 bucks, watch a few youtube vids, and now you can get to work! But consider if you even wanna try it first. Looking back, I think I was wasting my time. It was never a thing I NEEDED to do for my guitar. It's nice... But honestly doesn't matter much... BTW stainless steel frets are harder to crown lolz. So keep that in mind.
Final thoughts? Warmoth doing it the way they do it is the way I like it! Lol don't pressure my fav guitar parts company to change their ways. They make the best fender replacement parts in the world for a reason. And trust me, as someone who's messed with squire, fender, aria, schector, music man, custom shop fender, mjt, mighty necks, fender all parts necks, and music craft necks... Warmoth outshines them all in my opinion. I've literally had parts issues with every company I just listed here EXCEPT for warmoth. The only problem with warmoth is their site used to be better in some ways. In my personal opinion it used to be slightly easier to navigate. That's my only actual gripe with warmoth.
Warmoth even sells some cheapo necks out of Japan haha. You can find em on ebay for like 100 bucks haha. Mannn they are pretty bare bones plain but lemme tell ya, even those aint bad haha. I was able to salvage a old weird tele body with that neck. Warmoth parts are almost like magic haha. They always seem to work out well for me. Maybe I'm just lucky OR warmoth does a good job!
I did manage to get a 90s warmoth neck on ebay once. It's got a cocobolo shaft and a brazilian rosewood fret board. It's prolly my fav neck to play on. Brazilian rosewood from the best neck makers? No wonder it's my fav lololol. But I also got reg dark indian rosewood necks from warmoth that are just plain amazing too sooo... Easy come easy go lol.
Sorry for the long rant. Just thought I'd share my experience.
PS... I do in fact have ONE very rare fender american neck 1995 anniversary type model that has frets ends that were done very similar to how warmoth does it... And it's my fav fender neck to play on. Probably because it's the one that most reminds me of a warmoth neck haha. Something to think about lol.
Excellent video. Well done. Looking forward to buying my first Warmoth neck in December (although I do wish you would offer Mustang necks with a 44mm nut width for us guys with clumsy fingertips).
I own a Warmoth telecaster it's Awesome! The neck is next level. I've played it all over the USA ,the neck has stood up to All conditions I put though. I recommend this neck and the guitar to anyone I could go on and on about the guitar 🎸 this video says what needs to be said
Thanks
The tele was made to be a working mans guitar that could stand abuse. Warmoth just makes it better is all lol.
I am getting the Most enjoyment of all my Warmoth builds! I still have PRS, Gibson, Fender, Ibanez, Taylor, But I love to build and play my custom Warmoth Guitars! Watching this video while playing my new Holo Flake custom neck!! Keep up the great work! : )
Hey Aaron!
I must’ve purchased like seven or eight necks from you guys by now, a couple that were pretty much standard necks and then three or four pretty damn high end necks as well. I can honestly say I only had an issue with one of them which I repaired myself here. The 20th fret was a bit high causing a buzz which I just filed down a bit and recrowned.
After playing them about a year or so maybe three of them needed a little attention to some fret sprout, nothing crazy and that was resolved real easily too. You guys make fantastic stuff and me personally I’ll never buy a guitar which has a bolt on neck style, these are just that good 🤙
Bought a Warmoth neck for my Richie Kotzen Tele years ago and it still plays as great as it did the day I installed it.
Very informative videos and sound sincere and honest. Those 2 things alone garner respect...thanks..
In 5 of my builds I've used Warmoth necks (so far 😳) and the only thing I did to them was attaching the tuners, string trees and attching them to their dedicated bodies... 😳
I have bought three of these. One was the gold fret with lots of finish on it. Did throw me for a loop. The others didn't have finish on them - maybe a little. The gold ones frets are great.
Never had the need to level or polish the frets on any of the four Warmoth builds I’ve owned. Great quality right out of the box.
Makes sense to me! I just finished a Strat with a beautiful Warmoth neck and it didn’t need any fretwork.
So informative. Questions I didn't know I had get answered in every video. Thanks Aaron!
Great video as always.
I confess that I owned 4 warmoth necks so far and the played great.
But the last one from 2021 needed a fretwork on the edges. The overall build quality was a little stepdown from the other ones.
Maybe the number of orders during the pandemic
I agree with Aaron final fret work is up to the end user! I love Warmoth neck’s and body’s my favorite body is the soloist. My favorite neck is wizard profile 10 -16 reversed arcade head stock. Long live the 80s🥰🤘🏻👍🏻
The body and neck for my fourth Warmoth partsocaster (not counting moving my prototype to a new body) is due to arrive Thursday. I cannot wait to see that holo flake!
Once you are at the level of knowing enough to get finicky about fine fret work, and putting parts on your guitar, I’d think you’d want to do your own finish work. Maybe would be nice if Warmoth offered additional finish work but it’s not something I’d be interested. Getting to know the guitar you’ll be living with by working on it is part of my love for the sport. Maybe if I paid thousands of dollars for a custom shop level full build I’d feel differently. Thanks for the video.
Just got my first neck, last month. Plays perfect! I might hit the ends with a 3 corner file, but maybe not; the frets are already nice and polished. Completely level.
Me too. Five necks bolted right up and strung. Action adjusted. Ready to play. Another thing. The necks all stay in balance. If I tuned when it was hot and now it's cold, each string has the exact same amount of adjustment necessary to compensate for the temp change. The 1-3/4" (44mm) and 1-7/8" (48mm) nut availability is sweet icing on the cake.
Great video and explanation. That said anything i have ever used whether a body, neck from warmoth has always been top of the line and the customer service unmatched.
Great info and well done video as usual. Now to TGP to see how many pages we get of people debating how perfect their fretwork needs to be to play Madison Square Basement.
Madison Square Basement.....that's hilarious!
I used to be one of these people. Don't tell anyone lol I'm embarrassed. Mannn I once upon a time knew next to nothing about guitar and often obsessed over small things like this...
@@soyborne.bornmadeandundone1342yeah I don’t trust locals that are high maintenance about everything they didn’t earn that entitlement if they’re playing venues like std fucknorth gahden
Good explanations. I do my own finishing fretwork…. I ordered 2 Warmoth necks and request no beveling…I do minimal beveling myself, and level and crown/polish, and finish the necks to my liking….i hate when fret ends are too beveled as it gives me less working fret length. Also. I never bought a Fender or fender neck that did not need some fret leveling to remove the buzzing…. Soooo… Warmoth gives more variety, and I can finish myself.
My Warmoth Neck came nicely playable without the needing for additional fretwork. Thank you for remembering Sergio Leone 🎥
a few years back, I built a couple of guitars, one using a Warmoth neck, and the other from Musikraft. At the time, I preferred the Musikraft neck because they crowned, leveled, and rolled their frets but after all these years, it is still the Warmoth neck guitar that I pick up whenever I play
I own two Warmoth necks, one six string, and one 12, and have zero complaints. I love both my hybrid tele builds.
I have a 59 round back compound. I always get freaked out how to go about fret leveling… never been sure how to go about the compound radius. But I love the neck!
I have ordered 3 necks so far and am very pleased with the quality of the product, I am a bing fan of the super wide necks, one thing I would love to see is if it possible to reduce the width and overhang of the super wide necks by the lower freta area like the Big Lou guitars.
It’s the best out there! Its close to perfect,most of necks just need a lite dressing🎸💯
I don’t think any guitar is perfect
This video was a great explanation for stuff I already knew or assumed was true. No where else can you get necks with all the specs and options you want. Seriously, try and source a neck anywhere else with this type of customization. Super high quantity necks aren't easy to come by. You guys deliver high-end parts that are unavailable just about anywhere else outside of a custom luthier. Keep doing what you do. The do it yourself guitar enthusiasts need you. 🤘
Musikraft is also good. I have necks from both companies and they're both very good. I would give Warmoth the edge between them but Musikraft offers a ton of customization and options.
I’m trying to decide what size frets to put on my strat neck
I now have 5 Warmoth necks 1 Strat neck, 2 Warhead necks [one 22 fret one 24 fret], one 12 string and one Gecko 5 string bass neck, all with stainless steel frets. All came playable out of the box, needing only minor polishing and edge dressing for superior playability. 2 necks in roasted maple, 2 in Goncalo alves and the bass neck in Wenge all have Pau Ferro fingerboards. All have been exceptionally stable.
fret level with warmoth is always great i never really needed to do much leveling with them. if they could come up with a machine that ground the frets ends into a ball shape that would be something
I've used Warmoth necks for about 17 years now. They are both jazz bass necks, one is 17 years old and the other is 13 years old. These necks are amazing, neither needed any further adjustments for them to be playable. They are both extremely stable. One has a hard finish and the other has a nitro satin finish, I actually prefer the hard finish. The one thing I should have had to do is adjust the nut height but Warmoth had that dialed in perfectly also. Have no worries about Warmoth necks, they are pretty spectacular!
Agreed. Been in love with em for going on 10 years now and would legit play less guitar if it wasn't for warmoth.
My tele neck from four years ago with ss frets is wonderful as it was received. Love it. I'll add, I ordered if just before the world shutdown with COVID and Warmoth did an outstanding job of getting it to me so I had a project during that time.
medium jumbo stainless steal frets on a select rosewood fret board I had warmoth make for me. Ohhhhh mannn it's nice!
Love my Warmoth wenge jazz bass neck, no issues with fret work. With a low string height each note rings clear without any buzz. I also wear a nylon practice glove at times and there are no snags on a single fret as I run my hand up or down the neck, which I've had an issue with on some well know brands off the shelf. Will absolutely get more parts from Warmoth down the line.
I've had my hands around Warmoth necks since 1989 and have no desire to use anything else! The options beat out anything anyone offers, and I've never had a bad neck. My main has a Strat neck from 1992 and needs little more than a level and crown.
if you get a 5k+ esp custom shop you’re paying for the name not just craftsmanship also a finished guitar obviously warmoth can get similar results for bolt ons at a fraction of the price in fact after noticing fret wear on my squier esquire which was sold new hanging in a shop for a year I wonder how much better would that be on a high end guitar with bigger and stainless steel frets the problem would eventually happen just not as soon so I think set thru or the rare guitars like serenghetti with literally one piece of wood for the entire guitar should be fretless or else you’ll have to do a refret instead of replacing the neck which is hard to do when not bolt on when touring a lot and not wanting to keep changing guitars is when this all matters most
My Warmoth necks are all good. Especially the quartersawn 59 profile with SS frets Telecaster neck. That thing is a spectacular beast. The guitar doubles as a sledgehammer. And yet if you play clean you can do everything from Funk to Jazz on it. Super glad I took the risk and spent the big bucks on their top of the line model to get a super thick Telecaster neck experience.
I have a lot of guitars pass in and out of my workshop and home. I don't see boutique $3500+ instruments too often, so I won't mention them, but as far as factory guitars from China/Indonesia/Korea/Japan/Mexico and even the Fender USA plant, I have to say Warmoth's frets are on average much more level and secure than the fully finished guitars. Of the many necks I have gotten from Warmoth, I haven't had to do a full leveling on any to achieve a 4/64" bass and 2.5/64" treble string height with relatively no buzz acoustically. So regardless of no finish work, they're better generally than most factory guitars WITH fretwork finishing. Nothing sucks more than getting a nice factory guitar with fret buzz all over the place and bevels so sloped that your high E is slipping off when you fret a regular old note.
I've had one Warmoth neck that really needed fretwork. The other 4 are basically perfect. I hate rounded fret ends, I think the Warmoth approach is better. I also hate rounded fretboard edges, so again, I think you guys are doing it right. Your products are fantastic.
For the record, the website is still painful to use.
My Warmoth stuff, bodies and necks, have been flawless. My number one strat has a flame maple SS frets big headstock. This neck has never needed any work. It was what sold me on Warmoth and they have never disappointed.
Great video; Warmoth necks are top-notch, great stuff!
The challenge I think for a lot of people is they may not always have a guitar tech in their city or town that actually can do great fretwork. More often they're just going to give you a set up and do what they want to do to your guitar. I would actually be interested in paying for a quality skilled plek machine. But there isn't one. I have nothing bad to say about Warmoth. There is some seriously shoddy fretwork being done from major manufacturers on complete guitars in the last couple years the most unforgivable in my opinion which is Kiesel I love that brand but they have a lot of Buzzy guitars being pushed out lately.
I feel like if you are gonna go through the whole process of assembling a guitar and all the skills that task requires, being able to level and dress the frets is the icing on that cake, I find it very enjoyable and satisfying. It makes me feel a little closer to being a builder rather than just an assembler.
I didn't know any of this back in the early 90's when I assembled my Warmoth guitar.
That being said- I never noticed any deficiencies in the fret work and in the 30+years since, I've taken that guitar to literally every corner of the Earth without ever having an issue.
1991 Warmoth alder strat body w/ Warmoth boat tail neck, raw with a tung oil rub and rosewood board.
I've used Warmoth necks for years now since I stopped building my own. I just got older and it was more then I wanted to do in a 1 person shop. I have always been very happy with them, and found they have the highest level of craftsmanship. Every neck will need adjustments, even finished guitars. Carbon fiber, aluminum alloy maybe not. Wood, absolutely. Peace --gary
and guitars not wood are probably more expensive
I have two guitars with Warmoth necks (one is rosewood with ebony fretboard, the other birdseye maple with rosewood fretboard). In both instances, the frets were installed by Warmoth and are finished as finely as anything I've ever seen out of Fender or Gibson or PRS. I wouldn't hesitate to use another Warmoth finished neck in a new guitar project.
Love the Warmoth products, keep up the good work guys!
I know this vid is all about nex and most of their work is allll about nex but don't shy away from their bodies either. Their bodies kik azz! Love that they will put a f hole on a strat body with a contoured heel for slightly easier high fret play access. Fender doesn't do this at all unless it's custom shop crap they will charge you 4000 bux for...
Amazing work warmoth keep it up!
I’ve had 5 Warmoth builds and all of them had the frets dressed after the necks been through the seasons and have somewhat stabilized. However, the fret ends have always been smooth right out of the box and doesn’t require rolling unless you want it to be super smooth. That you can do yourself with patience and simple hand tools.
I was going to say that. I have 3 guitars (only) made out of Warmoth parts and ONE of the necks had ONE slightly high fret across TWO strings. And this was the very beginning of stainless steel frets so... teething problems, I suppose. My other two necks were bargains from the showcase and were flawless. Both birdseye maple. I just rounded the edges of the frets because, honestly, I enjoy doing that. When all my friends were playing 90s epiphones and ibanezes I was king of the frets.
Thanks for this Aaron!
This unfortunately has not been my experience. I’ve ordered 3 necks from Warmoth and all three have required fret work to avoid significant buzzing at a reasonable action. I feel like I keep losing the lottery or something. So I do share some frustration with some others in this regard, especially with the guidance that “most Warmoth necks are playable out of the box.”
But I get Warmoth’s philosophy and I’m sure there’s economic factors too. Good fretwork is detailed, time-consuming work so it would be hard for Warmoth to scale that up in a way that pays for itself and doesn’t back up production and orders. And then there’s a chance it needs to be done again after the neck ships and the guitar is assembled.
I wish I could order a Warmoth neck with great fretwork out of the box, but I get the difficulties.
yep had the same exp paid a small fortune n still had to level alot of frets
Unfortunately, TH-cam guitar reviewers put a great deal of scrutiny on fretwork and this has become a huge point of emphasis. I say unfortunately because, even as a "parts" manufacturer, you are competing with guitar makers upping the quality of their fretwork based on these reviews, and despite Warmoth's philosophy, your fretwork is now being judged at a new standard of completeness. For what it's worth I am a proud owner of a Warmoth part's caster.
Yep, I have also observed what you are saying, which is why I made this video. You simply cannot do next-level fretwork on a neck that isn't even on a guitar yet and think it will stick. Holy smokes....can you imagine the expectations vs outcome if Warmoth offered fine fretwork as, say, a $100 upcharge? I can already hear the phones ringing with angry customers! :)
Yet, Warmoth is also selling to a Market with a higher level of customization, which almost demands they leave some final decisions to the end consumer. This could be final neck & and fretboard edge shaping, hand rubbed oil finishes, ball end frets etc.
Exactly. I don't think Jimi Hendrix gave a shit about his fret ends. He was too busy making great music.
(Throws a metal sanding file at their feet)
Lol do something about those frets then if it's such a problem haha.
I don't trust many of those guitar shills anyways. They all love John Mayer which is cringe af. Dude is just discount srv and in real life he's a pos sooo... I don't get it he's far from the most interesting and bad azz of guitarists but okay... Plus his music is garbage lolz. And creepy. Stop saying that your gfs body is a wonderland! Stop talking like that lol it's creepy! And the other song about busting into a high school to yell at children is even more creepy dawg like wtf! If you like this music, something is very very wrong with you lolz. You god mad bad taste haha.
Speaking of garb... His crap silver sky guitar is garbage incarnate and guess what... Just about alll of the guitar reviewers praise that guitar... Some real boot licky corpo crap going on here...
Glued on head stock are you effing kidding me? We're already seeing issues with that happening now that the guitar has been out there for a few years.
Plastic tuning knobs lol okay... Again we're already seeing issues with them chipping and getting really scuffed up.
Not even ss steal frets? What a joke...
No trem plate cover on the back? Huh...
No case? Just a crappy gig bag?
Weak trem system and you can't even upgrade to a vega trem or something because it was designed slightly diff from a fender strat. Same with changing out this joke of a neck... You simply can't without doing major body work changes that the avrg joe doesn't have access to without spending hundreds...
800 for the cheapo model, a american standard can be found at that price and is better in pretty much every way...
2300-2800 for the standard model. The american pro line at fender is a rip off but even that's a better deal than the silver scam lol.
4000-8000 for the most rare models of the silver sky that are honestly... Not much better than the 2500 dollar model or even the 800 dollar one...
And this is a good deal?????? LOOOOOOOOOL! Mayer the hack himself, who doesn't even play this model very much lololol, said he created it to "upgrade" the stratocaster. Lol anyone believing in this absolute liar is being stupid af. He did it to make money and that's it. He had a falling out with John Cruz of the fender custom shop. So he went to PRS to keep a sig guitar going under his brand. That's all that happened here. Lol at cux thinking a glued on head stock is a upgrade lol get f-----
Sorry but guitar reviewers who praised this thing like philip mcnight, the captain and his pal, darrel braun etc etc... You guys are guitar shills lol. Folks should take you azzholes less seriously. You turds are literally hyping up a crap version of a american standard fender strat that costs 4 times as much... That's incredibly evil, greedy, disgusting, disingenuous etc etc. Very sad to see them be so dishonest.
Oh and the silver sky is ugly af lolz. What a abomination of a strat. Leo Fender would laugh if he was around to see that crapp. He's lucky he didn't live a decade or so longer to see this garbage get made lololol. It's like that time Homer Simpson made a car haha. Minus the funny though. At least Homers car made me laugh. Silver scam just looks wrong and should not exist lol.
Yes...but...given a Warmoth neck is a part sans final finishing any comparison from any TH-camr with any off-the-rack guitar holds no water. Plenty of off-the-rack guitar fit Gotoh 510s, for instance, which I can also be bought as a part. Only a muppet would whinge that a Gotoh 510 bought as part was adjusted for intonation and action before it was installed on a guitar. Again, such illogical comparisons hold no water
Good points, thanks, Blue Max Stringed Instrument Repair.
I've bought a couple, and overall pretty happy. Only work needed was rounding the ends, as they felt a bit sharp out of the box
My main difficulty has been tolerating the lack of fallaway in my Warmoth neck. I've put in a little bit but there's not enough to get the action properly low in the first 12ish frets and then ring clearly through the end of the fretboard. I have found a lot of improvement from working on my frets - you might get lucky with a near-perfect factory install, but to get beyond a certain tolerance, don't skip the details.
I've been gigging with my Warmoth neck for years and still haven't done fretwork, it could use it, but it's not gonna be anything drastic when the time comes. Although it does help that I have a roasted maple neck with stainless steel frets so they aren't getting much damage and the neck is super stable
It’s about $200 worth of tools from Stew Mac and a little research/practice to level, crown and polish fretwire. It’s worth the investment in tools and learning how. You can make a good neck superb after doing it.
Me too . I do not need to touch the fret since i got mine . It's that good 👍
Very Cool- Can't wait for my new Warmoth neck for my FrankenModded Tele arrives. Great and timely vid for me and looks like many more! Thank You!
My Stainless frets feel fine from the factory never did anything to them for two years. But the neck does need adjusting through the season. Would be nice for carbon fiber rods option.
Great video, as usual, Aaron! Can you do a video about Warmoth's scalloped necks, option, etc! Unfortunately both of my strats have the wrong heel screw configuration! So I'm considering my options!
I'll add it to the list!
I totally meant, I'm considering how much to spend on a Warmoth body to match! Just fyi@@warmoth
My custom Wenge 59 Roundback neck is one of the best necks I've ever played and have never done any fretwork!
I wish you can do one on all the different natural wood top finish's and some customs?
Love your videos Aaron, been watching them for years, I also think Warmoth make wonderful products , that said I went with a fender neck on my last build because it came with the frets leveled, and they were truly leveled . Also this neck was manufactured in Mexico yet still had zero issue when it arrived here in canada
My guitar tech told me that it didn't need any work. So, my neck is completely untreated and plays like a dream!
Did you remove the feature where our final guitar assembly will look like?
Huh?
Thank you, So accurate, the fine finish work about play action and fret work all are at the end user to perform or have done. All things in their proper order. Even guitar companies are the same, and we all know how complayning people get about that stuff critiqueing the guitar for all the wrong reasons in my opinion. Well Thanks. Hey, i wonder if ziricote or canary would be better for my goncalo alvez neck and swamp ash body.
I'm looking at my American Fender Strat maple neck and it looks like the frets were installed after the solid hard laquer. Looks perfect. The way I like it.
I've also ordered a Fender 50s replacement maple neck in the past that was laquered right over the preinstalled frets and sent it back because the vintage tinted laquer had pooled against the sides of the frets big time. Any future refret would certainly shatter the pooled laquer. My pro luthier after looking at this necksaid the same thing.
So it seems installing frets after a laquer application is best? I'm pretty sure thats what Fender did on my American 91' maple neck Strat?
Great info... love my warmoth stuff
I agree with the philosophy
I build and sell project guitars and door over set them up as the end player should do it to their taste
I've built 2 guitars with Warmoth body and neck and the neck/frets are awesome. no difference in playability vs my Suhr's and Kiesel.
Superb.
That means the entire fret is still there for level and crown after the neck is settled.
If it was done first, the frets would have to go through 2 level and crown jobs. Anyone say medium to small....
I love Warmoth, I just wish this was communicated on their site. I have 3 necks from them and didn’t realize they weren’t crowned. Kudos to them for putting out this video. I would buy from them again in a heartbeat.
Just playing devil’s advocate here - if you didn’t notice they weren’t crowned, then maybe they don’t need it?
@@Shawn-co8uu good point. I should’ve said leveled and crowned. It’s hard to pinpoint why a guitar might not have good intonation and high action solves most leveling issues. I just would’ve told the guitar tech to perform a level and crown initially.
You all at warmouth got the rite idea ,I prefer to level and dress my frets ,Its easy on your necks .I have 2 of them,They are a step up from the average fender,I have 2 american standards with factory necks they are very good ,But the frets werent all leveled I fixed 4 or 5 mostley up high ,I used the warmouths on my builds ,If I ever build another ,I will go straight to warmouth page,
Let’s say I wanted a final
fret polish: how long should I play the finished/assembled guitar before bringing it in for the polish?
Thanks
Note: Our guitar tech is a master at fret work so almost every guitar goes to him eventually.
I like Warmouth necks, put one on my 2019 player strat because I just couldn’t get used to the baseball bat sized neck with the sh* tty pao ferro fingerboard, replaced with a WM slim c with an ebony fretboard & all good now
This depends on your expectation level and budget. If people compare their Warmoth builds to a Suhr, or custom order guitars from other makers, then "next level" or Plek fret work is normally required IMO. You have to be a bit lucky to get a Warmoth neck that can get close to next-level performance without actually doing fret-work. Most are pretty good out of the box, but will need work if you want to reach the same grade as a high end custom guitar.
I bought expensive necks before for some projects including Warmoth necks, fret work is required in every case, this doesn't fade the quality, is just part of the set up
I’m glad Warmoth is not doing extra fretwork which would require passing the extra cost to the consumer. I’d rather save the cost as someone who will do my own fret level, crown and polish assuming it’s needed. My Warmoth guitar was playable just fine out of the box but I took it to the next level with just a minor kiss with the leveling beam to get them perfectly level. And a little love to the fret ends went a long way.
difficult to argue with any of that
If it helps, my favorite neck I own is a Warmoth neck. Nothing has ever come close. It means a DIY tele is my go to guitar simply because the Warmoth is on it.
I have built quite a few guitars with warmoth parts, and also usa custom guitars, allparts, musikraft. The points Aaron makes here are very valid. Warmoth necks are top quality (i have some going back to the early 90s) but a part is NOT a finished product when it comes to guitar necks. I understand this video is about fretwork but a crucial part is the nut as well, that aside. In my experience, all necks will require fret dressing, some less than others, but they all do if you really want to have it playing like a high-end guitar. I have not seen a single neck with perfect frets out of the box. It is simply not possible to do that as Aaron states because of the many variables involved when it is built into a complete guitar. Are replacement necks playable as they come ? yes. Do they play perfect out of the box ? no.
That's a fair response. Another way to put it might be "Are Warmoth necks playable out of the box? Yes. Would they benefit from fine fretwork? Yes."
This makes all kinds of sense.
I rework my frets a bit once or twice a year. I do it myself so it's not a big expense.
If anything is more sure I’m making the right choice. I’ll have the guitar I wanted either way!!!
On my third neck, never had any issues with them
I’ve gotten around 25 necks from Warmoth, and no issues with fretwork yet. My only complaint would be the “standard” thin standard is kinda thin for almost everyone I hang out with. Maybe standard should be more medium?
Probably could afford a custom shop guitar or two or three. I buy warmoth parts because I am looking for a better sounding playing guitar than trying to save money. Suppose everyone could be here for different reasons. Just like to have the opportunity to be in control of my destiny. A unfinished body or neck gets me that much closer to what I am trying to accomplish. The best possible guitar I can obtain. If I have to roll my own edges, do my own fret work, nuts and finishes so be it. But I can tell you one thing is I am not really saving any money. Lol. Practically a small time guitar shop at this point. Appreciate warmoth for getting me half way there. Don't buy a custom shops. Feel like my builds are better and the immense pleasure of doing it myself and being in control of my destiny is priceless.
If I hurt a few peoples feelings along I am sorry. But I am going to do what I do and try to build the best guitar I can. It is nothing personal.