Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

Warmoth '56 P bass


Delberthot
 Share

Recommended Posts

Well I've just had word that my neck and body are on their way from warmoth via UPS so should be here tomorrow.

I cannot wait - just like goldie I've spent a lot of time working out which parts are going to be best for it and the moment of truth is almost here.

The components that I have chosen are:

gotoh resolite reverse tuners

Lollar vintage SCPB pickup

CTS 250k pots

vintage cloth wiring

paper in oil cap

I may use one of the resistors that came with the cap

gotoh 201 bridge

Fender Bridge and Pickup covers.

Schaller straplocks

Maple neck with maple fretboard finished in vintage satin finish

Swamp ash body finished in butterscotch blonde

black scratchplate and chrome other bits.

Optima chrome strings 45, 60, 80, 100



I'm planning on taking lots of pictures as I am building this one to show just how easy they are to put together and get set up

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They are absolutely fantastic. I was unable to find what i was looking for with any other brand of bass.

With the combination of woods and other parts I have been able to successfully create the bass of my dreams.

I have gone down this route for this bass as I wanted something with a more traditional melow sound as the gold Warmoth '54 is totally in your face.

I've just checked on the UPS site and the body and neck are out for shipping from 7am this morning

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After parting with the princely sum of £100.38 I now have my body and neck. Its really hard to get the colour of the body right in a picture but here we go.
















I still need to get a nut for it and my strings aren't here either but apart from that I'm ready to start building it.

The first thing to do will be to get the steel wool onto the frets to take the varnish off them.

The building begins tomorrow

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Delberthot' post='279601' date='Sep 8 2008, 12:10 PM']After parting with the princely sum of £100.38 I now have my body and neck.[/quote]

I'm sorry, but a lot of people are gonna ask this. £100.38? Is this an eBay transaction or direct sale from Warmoth? Even the Warmoth scratch/dent/overstocks (AKA Showcase) stuff wouldn't even get you a finished body for that price, let alone a neck and body.
P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='NancyJohnson' post='279672' date='Sep 8 2008, 01:26 PM']I'm sorry, but a lot of people are gonna ask this. £100.38? Is this an eBay transaction or direct sale from Warmoth? Even the Warmoth scratch/dent/overstocks (AKA Showcase) stuff wouldn't even get you a finished body for that price, let alone a neck and body.
P[/quote]

I've got a funny feeling that is a sneaky brokerage charge levied by the courier.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='NancyJohnson' post='279672' date='Sep 8 2008, 01:26 PM']I'm sorry, but a lot of people are gonna ask this. £100.38? Is this an eBay transaction or direct sale from Warmoth? Even the Warmoth scratch/dent/overstocks (AKA Showcase) stuff wouldn't even get you a finished body for that price, let alone a neck and body.
P[/quote]

Import tax, you pay Warmoth before they build the stuff for you.




Sexy looking stuff so far.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='NancyJohnson' post='279672' date='Sep 8 2008, 01:26 PM']I'm sorry, but a lot of people are gonna ask this. £100.38? Is this an eBay transaction or direct sale from Warmoth? Even the Warmoth scratch/dent/overstocks (AKA Showcase) stuff wouldn't even get you a finished body for that price, let alone a neck and body.
P[/quote]
I'm assuming that was just the customs/import tax etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

£400? That's not half bad, i might get one around christmas time instead of a used stingray... I'm assuming a more kitted out bass would cost a fair bit more though EG figured maple top with back routing on a jazz body, seymour duncan jazz pickups, possibly a preamp... etc etc, i might get a quote later... hmmmmmmm much to think about!
Only thing is, it would have to be the right bass for me because i wouldn't see much of that back on a sale...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

that was just for the body, neck, neck plate, string retainer, scratchplate and gotoh 201 bridge.

The machineheads, pickup, pots, jack, straplocks, wire, cap, nut, pickup & bridge covers were extra.

In total, including shipping and all taxes, it probably came to about £650 in total which is just slightly more than the gold one came to.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Delberthot' post='279790' date='Sep 8 2008, 04:16 PM']Yes, Warmoth charged my debitcard on Friday for about £400- the £100.38 was VAT, duty etc[/quote]

That makes a little more sense, but even so £400.00 does seem a little light for all the parts you have. I'm not trying to make an issue of this, but be straight...it's no point saying £100.38, when it's closer to £700+. The guys (and girls) on this list who'll be following this thread will be keen to know how much everything cost (including shipping and taxes) as much as they're interested in the end result. I'm sure there's a few here that would happily go the Warmoth route in future.

That said, good luck with the project.

P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Suppose i could've been clearer but if you look at my post saying that it was out for delivery with UPS this morning, my next one was me saying that I now had the parts after parting with £100 to the UPS guy.

Everyone else seemed to have got the impression that he £100 was an import charge of some kind and I did mention in my first post that the body and neck were on their way from Warmoth. I didn't mention any other parts.

To elaborate - the parts that i got from Warmoth came to £500 including delivery, taxes & duty.

These included:

Maple neck with maple fretboard finished in vintage satin finish

Swamp ash body finished in butterscotch blonde

black single ply scratchplate

Gotoh 201 bridge

Neck plate, screws, pickguard screws an string retainer.


Completely separately I bought:

Lollar single coil pickup

Fender bridge and pickup covers

Control plate

Paper in oil cap

250k CTS posts

Fender jack

Tusq nut

Optima Chrome strings 45 - 100

This lot came to about £100.

The other parts I had from previous basses

Edited by Delberthot
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been trying various parts against others and I have to say that the neck is a really tight fit - not so much so that it would cause a problem when fitting it but in that it is absolutely perfect. I've tried lots of basses and none of them have had such a tight fitting neck.

The cut out for the scratchplate where it meets the control plate hasn't been cut correctly so they don't meet. I'll neet to draw round where it should go and cut out the small amount that needs taken out in order for it to fit.

The CTS pot shafts are too thick for the control plate as well (neither part bought from Warmoth) so I'll get the drill out later and make the holes larger to accomodate them.

I've worked out an order that I will be approaching the building of the bass -


1 - Mask off the fretboard and take the excess finish off the frets with 000 grade steel wool

2 - Fit the nut

3 - fit the machineheads

4 - attach the pots to the control plate (after enlarging the holes)

5 - take care of all the soldering of the 2 pots and jack socket.

6 - Fit the pickup and solder it to the pots

7 - Attach the control plate to the body

8 - Fit the bridge

9 - Fit the straplocks

10 - Attach the neck to the body

11 - Offer the scratchplate onto the body and work out how much to take off so that it fits round the control plate

12 - Fit the thumb rest

13 - Fit the strings and tune up

14 - fit the string retainer

15- check the intonation and action and file the nut if necessary

16 - fit the bridge and pickup covers


There we go, 16 steps to get the bass up and running. I would normally be looking at a couple of hours to get it done but the strings won't be here until tomorrow so I have to stop after step 12.

I'm taking care of the soldering and attaching most of the body parts before the neck goes on because it was a bit awkward the last time to maneuvere it with the neck attached.

More photos to follow

Edited by Delberthot
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds like it's going to be a heck of a bass for the total amount you paid.

I wonder if you could get a bass of similar quality for the same amount of money? Even if you could it might still need a set-up or a quick fret dress and you wouldn't have the fun of assembling it yourself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well most of the buld is going well so far.

a couple of things have gone wrong however: The scratchplate hadn't been cut correctly here it meets the control plate but after a couple of minutes with a knife I had it fitting; the other thing that completely baffled me is that he I was installing the tuners I managed to snap 3 of the screws. Luckily only one per tuner.

I found this really odd as I've fitted loads of tuners before but these ones seemed to snap with no warning and with no effort. I'm wondering if they are made of a lightweight soft metal to help keep the overall weight down. I'm going to email gotoh and see what they say.

I'm not going to be able to get the screws out so I'll probably just superglue the heads back on to preserve the look.









Getting the laquer off the frets was pretty straightforward as well. I couldn't find any masking tape so I used brown tape applied very lightly and used the steel wool to take the finish off the frets

Edited by Delberthot
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As i mentioned, the holes for the pots were too small so I enlarged them.







I was really amazed how easily the soldering went. I'm not exactly the best at it but everything just seemed to work straight away.







Anyway, here's more pictures. I'm really amazed at how much birdseye there is in the neck as I only requested standard maple. I'm not going to post any more until it is ready and then I'll do some kind of grand unveiling or something.







Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Delberthot' post='281251' date='Sep 10 2008, 04:52 PM']the other thing that completely baffled me is that he I was installing the tuners I managed to snap 3 of the screws. Luckily only one per tuner.[/quote]

At the risk of insulting your intelligence - did you drill pilot holes first?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...