It’s Alive!: Custom Strat Project, Part 6

My finished Mary Kaye Warmoth strat guitar. Actually not quite finished. I wanted to snap these before sundown, but afterwards I installed the strap buttons and intonated it.

She’s done!  I was able to get the guitar finished in time to play it at my gig Sunday.

The Neck:

The Warmoth Pro neck was amazingly easy to install and adjust.  It’s not like you need to adjust your guitar neck a whole lot, but it is really handy to have the adjustment on the side.  This Canary neck is my first “naked” neck.  Maple necks require a finish but this wood does not.  Wow, what a difference!  The neck feels incredible, and I can feel the string vibrations much more strongly on it.  The Pau Ferro fingerboard is also silky smooth and of course the grain of both woods look fantastic.  I’m very impressed with the build quality.

The Bridge and the Earvana Nut:

The Gotoh/Wilkinson VS-100 bridge was very easy to adjust and intonate.  I also like the feel of this trem.  It is a little more sensitive than my G&L trem, but very stable.  The brushed chrome look is a plus in that it matches the Sperzel tuning machines I bought.  The Earvana nut is a compensated nut which is suppose to help your guitar be more in tune.  After playing the guitar for only a few days now, it does definitely sound more solidly in tune all the way up the neck.  I use the trem quite a bit and did notice the nut grabbing a little bit on a couple of the strings.  I may have to have it filed out (I also forgot to put nut sauce in there).  But I’ll give it some time to wear in.

Tone:

Me likey.  Very bluesy, very stratty.  The Slider’s pups sound amazing.  I had them installed in a beater strat copy before and loved them there, but they’re even better in this guitar.  I’m still dialing them in, but I love ‘em.  My fav pup position is neck-bridge.  I find myself rolling the tone up on my amp and dialing it in/out on the guitar.  When I get some time, I’ll post clips.

I did the shielding based on the Quieting the Beast article on the Web.  Time will tell if this was worth it.  A lot of guys say it doesn’t really help any, and they may be right.  I’ll have to play it in more situations to see if ‘hum’ is less of an issue.

Future Enhancements:

• I might try to find some brushed chrome knobs, to better match the tuners and bridge.
• I’m also still thinking about what I might want on the headstock.  Warmoth sent me a sticker, should I use that, or get one custom made?  Not sure what I’d get.  I’m also thinking about a custom neckplate – there’s a guy at unofficialwarmoth.com who does ‘em.  I think I’m gonna see what kinda personality she has and go from there.
• I might experiment with a different tone cap.  I’m still deciding if I like the orange drop .022pf one I put in there.
• I considered installing a .001 uf mallory cap & 150k resistor to the volume control, which is supposed to help keep the treble tones clear as you lower the volume.  I might go back and do that.
• While I’m in there for one of these other mods, I’ll probably make it so the middle pup tone control also controls the bridge pup.  I meant to do that but forgot (it’s not part of the standard strat wiring diagrams).  I want the ability to tone that bridge pup down.

Overall Impressions:

The scariest part of this whole experience hands down, was anytime I had to drill into the body!  Man, that’s just intimidating.  I originally tried using a reamer to prevent the finish from flaking/lifting, but ended up using a countersink bit & just going deep enough to remove the finish around the hole.  Great advice from, again, unofficialwarmoth.com.  Those guys rock.

I’m very impressed with the Warmoth experience.  They were extremely helpful to me as a first time builder, and build a high-quality product.  I don’t know what I’d compare this guitar to commercially, but it plays better than any Strat I’ve ever played.  It plays better than my G&L.  I may never buy a stock electric guitar again.  It doesn’t hurt that I got to pick all the components and put a little sweat equity into it. 

Finishing Up: Mary Kaye Strat Project, Part 6

My finished Mary Kaye Warmoth strat guitar. Actually not quite finished. I wanted to snap these before sundown, but afterwards I installed the strap buttons and intonated it.	Closeup of the body. Ain’t she purdy?	The neck & headstock. I’m still deciding if I want to put the Warmoth decal on the headstock or get one custom created.
The backside	Closeup of the back. I’d like to get a custom neckplate done, but have to figure out what I want.	The back of the headstock

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