A tale of two Warmoth P’s.

[GreeneKing]

Not for the first time I’ve come to the realisation that the simple P bass ticks my boxes. 

Some years back I built a Warmoth black korina bodied P bass that I had routed for a Blackstar pickup. It was tung oil finished. I wonder where it is now?

I was browsing the Warmoth site a few months ago and saw a purpleheart and ebony P bass neck on offer. It has block moonglow (glow in the dark) markers. I bought it and then set about speccing a body to match. I bought a chambered roasted swamp ash body with a bubinga top. 
The 6 P rule; Prior Planning Precludes Piss Poor Performance. It was never going to balance well. The neck is seriously heavy even with graphite rods. 

So a rethink. I ordered a straight swamp ash body and a quarter sawn maple and maple neck. 

Some while later I have the purpleheart neck in the swamp ash body. Rear of neck finished with Tru Oil and headstock rear finished with Osmo Poly X gloss. Front of headstock sprayed with gold acrylic. Body finished with Osmo Poly x over a green water based tint. Gold aluminium pick guard. 
Fender Vintage 63 pickup and Obsidium wiring. Gotoh 201 bridge, Schaller tuners, Hipshot string tree and all black hardware. Strung with La Bella flats. 
It’s immense, the action is super low courtesy of Warmoth’s awesome fretwork and the neck is ultra stable. 
At 10.6lb it’s no lightweight and a Comfort Strapp helps with a slightly neck heavy balance. It sounds and plays superbly. 
 

Today I finished work on the maple neck. I used satin Osmo Poly x throughout. 
The original body has been waiting around a while for its match. 
Body is finished with Osmo gloss with a white pearloid pick guard, Lollar pickup, Gotoh 201 bridge, Hipshot Ultralite tuners, Hipshot string tree and a John East P Retro onboard preamp. Strung with DR Low Rider strings.  
It weighs 7.6lb. Exactly 3lb lighter than its sister. 
It was only finished today but I’m oh so pleased with how it plays and sounds. It balances perfectly. 
 

It is a lot of money to spend I guess but when one considers the quality of build and cost versus Fender it seems worthwhile. I’ve not owned a Fender built to this quality. I’ve owned many. Both necks have graphite rods. Purpleheart and quarter sawn maple are extremely stable. The nut width is 41mm and they are standard profile. A good size neck for me and certainly no baseball bat. 
The finish on neither bass is of a showroom standard but in an organic way it’s rather excellent. And chips/scratches can be repaired and refinished easily. 
 

Sorry for such a monologue. 
 

Peter

 

Edited Tuesday at 18:35 by GreeneKing

[Reggaebass]

Very nice, really great work, loving that neck with the blocks 

[Beedster]

Wow 😍

 

You CANNOT beat Warmoth, Fender Custom Shop get close, but Warmoth wooden bits remain the leaders. I three Warmoth necks and two bodies - all Precisions of course - and they are a wonderful mix of engineering and art 👍

[GreeneKing]

15 minutes ago, Beedster said:

Wow 😍

 

You CANNOT beat Warmoth, Fender Custom Shop get close, but Warmoth wooden bits remain the leaders. I three Warmoth necks and two bodies - all Precisions of course - and they are a wonderful mix of engineering and art 👍

I'm blown away by their fretwork especially given that they don't fret dress. They glue them in perfectly. I ran a fret rocker over the necks set straight and there wasn't a click to be found. The action is super low and clean. 

 

If you had Warmoth do a finish for you it's be something special I guess. Maybe I will some day. I fancy a 54P.

[80Hz]

29 minutes ago, GreeneKing said:

the simple P bass ticks my boxes

 

Love these, especially the green swamp ash. That's the beauty of a P to me, so many ways to vary the recipe. 

[cocco]

These look gorgeous. I especially like the maple necked one, black hardware sets it off really nicely. 

[bigthumb]

Lovely basses, they both look top quality. I'm not usually a block inlay fan on a Pbass but that really works and would be my pick of the two. I remember the original Warmoth you built, pretty sure I have a fumble on it. 

[ossyrocks]

I look forward to seeing these in person in May Peter!

 

They look great.

 

Rob

[Beedster]

2 hours ago, GreeneKing said:

Not for the first time I’ve come to the realisation that the simple P bass ticks my boxes.

 

...and that's another similarity mate, are we long lost twins do you think 🤔