Warmoth Strat Body

I purchased a raw alder strat body with a contoured heel and had it drilled for a vintage bridge. This is to replace the poplar body on a 1991 Fender Mex Strat that I was not really happy with. I had replaced the pickups with Kinmans which sounded great. I also installed a Callaham bridge which also improved the sound. The neck was fine but overall it sounded a bit thin compared to the great 70s strat I had and sold 20 years ago. So I decided to replace the body.

I haven't had a chance to really test it out but it sounds much better already. Acoustically, it is really nice to play. A quick play through my Valvetech amp shows it to be very full sounding, much deeper than before. I haven't gigged or recorded with it yet and I expect it to take some time before it really settles in. I gave it a 9 purely because it needs more time to settle in. It is probably worth a 10 once I get used to it.

I was impressed with the Warmoth body as soon as I got it out of the box. The quality of workmanship was much better than the Mex strat body. It took me half a day to put it all together and set it up and I am still impressed. The neck fitted straight in, no problems. I had to drill holes for everything else but that was pretty easy.

As the bridge was a Mex strat, it didn't fit the vintage bridge holes exactly but this was not a problem to fix. I have should have told them it was a Mex strat bridge. They are smaller than a standard USA strat.

For a finish, I simply oiled the wood as I wanted to get a natural look and to enhance the sound to the max. It looks great and the neck matches it as if they were made together.

Just playing it feels great. The body is much more comfortable and access to the neck is very easy with the contoured heel. I am really impressed as the feel of the guitar is certainly up there with a USA strat.

I have done this to make a gigging guitar. I have no doubt it will cut it as a workhorse but have to give it a 9 as it is not tested so far.

I live in Australia so only had access to email contact. I only had cause to email them once with a question and received a timely response. It was shipped pretty quickly. No problems.

I have been playing for 35 years and have owned great Gibsons and Fenders. I now have a PRS Custom24 and the Mex strat. The mex strat with the Warmoth body is right up there for feel and class. I chose them due to price and the variety they offered on their website. I did try to email one of their competitors who looked good and never got a reply. Warmoth got my business and I am very happy with the result.

Sunburst strat body.beautiful grain in the pictures!I never received the body.

If they would have came through for me,I bet it would have been superior.But since I never received it,I have to give it a 1!

Again,You can not play a picture on your computer screen!!Too bad for me!!

I can not depend on a product that was never delivered.

Awfull!

If I could give these guys a 0,I would!I received 325$ in Warmoth gift certificates from my family.They ordered them in november and early december and it took Warmoth weeks to ship them.I received most of them at the last minute,one on the 26th of december and the one my wife ordered never was mailed!They were very helpful when I placed my order,They even emailed me telling me the last gift certificate was not mailed and the were going to keep it.I ordered a beautiful alder 62 body gave them my credit card and waited.I needed to order a part a week later and they told me it was ready to ship and they could not add to it.I phoned them the next day and told them that I did not receive a UPS tracking #.They told me that the body was on the dock and ready to be shipped.I noticed over the weekend,that my credit card was not charged.I checked my email the following monday and still did not receive a UPS tracking #!I phoned them that afternoon and they said it was ready to go,but they were waiting for the last gift certificate!?!I sent all of them on the 26th and they verified that they had them!!I wrote the sales manager an email explaining that I was getting the runaround and felt that they were not being truthful.He responded with a rather defensive email saying that not only was the body not shipped.the trem routing was never done!They wer bullshitting me from the start!When I emailed Greg telling him that I wanted a complete refund,He promptly cancelled my order and cancelled my account.Now I have no body,My family has to write me checks for my cristmas present,We all have to make sure we were refunded and I will have no strat for my gig this weekend!None of this would have happened if theywould have given me a straight story from the beginning or a sincere apoligy after the fact.Merry Christmas to me!!

This replacement strat body is made of 1 piece select alder, and finished in a tobacco sunburst

Dont know, as I cant put the guitar together as is.

The body was flawless! Everything lined up, absolutely NO imperfections.....except one. Warmoth is routing their neck pockets at 5/8 of an inch deep. (this depth includes the finish). Unfortunately, ALL Fender necks have an average heel thickness of 1 inch. Do the math.......the neck protrudes in height from the body more than 3/8 of an inch! (and this is with a vintage 21 fret neck!)
Most bridge saddles on Fender 6 screw trems WONT adjust that high.

Dont Know

When I talked to their current sales manager (Greg), he did say I could return it, but he also sent me an E-mail that was rather defensive. He stated that All neck pockets on Fenders were 5/8 of an inch deep...(I own 11 vintage, and 4 new strats), and THATS BULLSHIT!
He also sent me a schematic fro a CBS era strat. Way to go fella!

I realy cant find any fault with the quality woods they use, or the finnishing. If not for this blurb in neck pocket depth, these are the best bodies money can buy.
I would suggest anyone with a FENDER NECK (vintage, American, or Mexican), compare the neck pocket depth on a Fender body (ANY), before ordering one from Warmoth.

swamp ash body in fiesta red. i didnt get one that was already made, i had them make this one for me. i knew i wanted fiesta red and i had heard for years that swamp ash would be me serious sustain. bought this new in 2000, so ive had 5 years of play time on it.

you know, i wasnt really sure that certain woods would really make a difference, but i figured, "what the heck..." my main guitar started out as a mim standard fender strat. i didnt like the color (black) and my attempts at refinishing were...umm....lets say...less than professional! the swamp as really does sustain well - much better than the poplar body did. but honestly, i replaced the bridge at the same time, replacing the old wimpy block with a solid steel one. i think in reality this did more for the sound than the tonewood did...but i could be wrong. but i did acheive the sound i was looking for.

i think they could have/should have drilled the holes for the back plate, but they didnt. im no paint expert, but he quality of this finish seems to be the best money can buy. no imperfections at all, but smooth as glass all over.

this thing should easily last until rapture.

the folks seemed pretty good to deal with and were eager to get me exactly what i wanted, from what i remember. the packing/shipping job was excellent.

this is my main strat. honestly, if something happened to this guitar body, i doubt id spend this much money again. it was sort of an ego thing at the time that i wanted, so i got it. but i do like the body...a lot...so dont get me wrong. its just that you can buy an entire guitar for not much more money. and thats what id do if i had to do it over again.

2004 body, ordered from their "Showcase" (used to be known as Thrift Shop). 1 piece alder body, flame maple top, finished with purple dye front and gloss black back. Routed for standard strat pickups (3 single coils) and vintage tremolo. I'm rating this a 9, only because I had to drill the mounting holes for the jack plate. I can understand drilling holes for the pickguard and even the straplocks, but the jack plate?? On a strat, they're all the same. I know, it's a minor niggle, but I hate reviews where everything is a 10.

Body seems quite resonant, but I'm not sure how much of that has to do with the absolutely superb Callaham vintage tremolo I attached to it. I will say this...this is the best sounding Strat I've ever played - plugged or unplugged! Bright, great sustain - notes ring for days!

Finish is gorgeous - great flame maple top, slight inconsistency in the bookmatching on the top (which I kind of liked, that's why I bought it). Everything was routed properly - the neck fit like a glove! Holes were drilled perfectly and cleanly. The quality of the top is really amazing...so much depth and shine. A tip - when drilling your pickguard holes, use an awl to mark them, then use your drill in REVERSE to slowly start the hole....you'll thank me for the tip, trust me!

Finish seems durable, but time will tell. I love this body - I have a Warmoth neck as well, and just sold my American Deluxe Strat because my Warmoth beats it hands down - tone, feel, looks...you name it. To top it off, I finished the neck myself, using a Fender decal and my signature on the headstock...so now I have my own "Signauure" strat with that genuine Fender vibe. Cool!!

Very helpful, quickly responded to questions via e-mail, quick shipping, well packed.

I'm not going to get into a lot of detail here...I think Warmoth makes great stuff and I'm looking forward to building more guitars using their parts. There is something exciting about putting together your own axes, and the pride of ownership and the quality of the finished product really makes all the difference in the world.

I've just read the review below and thought I'd better submit mine..
as I believe the the reviewer below is a 'once off' sour grapes situation
I've just purchased a 2 piece 'butterscotch blonde' Swamp Ash '62 stratocaster body and am totally happy with the purchase.. I have paired it with a vintage all maple 22 fret neck ,a set of Fender vintage 50's pups and Fender CTS pots etc... What can I say except this baby sings..
I've played a few strats in my time...(from squires to CBS) and the tone and sustain in this sweetheart is perfect!! ..It rings forever!!
Very Happy

I play in a blues/boogie band and it's just the thing! ..
mellow to raunch.. but it really shines in the mellow 'SRV' tone
that suits the blues so well..
IMO the Swamp Ash body is the way to go.. it just chimes!!

I built the guitar in about four hours.. (it was as easy as that!!).. the only real adjustment needed was a sanding off of the frets.. as there was laquer still needing removal.. It plays smooth and easy..

..perfect!! -nuff said

I changed my order several times before the final purchase.. an Gregg and Bill were as helpful til the last the folks at Warmouth know how to treat customers.. I'll be doing this again later thins year..
My experience with Warmouth was flawless from start to finish!!

*** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!! ***

I've been playing around 25 years.. standard guitar and slide for around 10.. I've pulled afew apart (changed pickups and pots etc..) but this is the first total assembly.. I'd absolutely replace it if it were stolen..
in fact I'm going to get myself a collection of Warmoth guitars ..as this was a really enjoyable experience all round!

BTW ..I'm not affiliated with Warmouth in any way.. this is a review based entirely on my own experience with Warmoth and their products..

This is a vintage style alder strat body with factory finish. I have it attached to a warmoth neck with all Fender USA hardware. Their basic bodies are either two or three piece bodies. I ended up with a three piece body, but it had a factory defect that I did not expect. Unfortunately, in my haste and excitement to finish my project, I thought I could live with it. After all I expected the end product to sound amazing, and I thought the flaw was to be only cosmetic. I ended up being wrong, but it took me over year to figure it out. Just behind the bridge there is a visible finish flaw about the size of a dime in a perfect circle. It's a slight finish depression in the shape of a ring which has been determined to be to be a plug in the wood where a knot was removed. It could be nothing else. I saw this on day one but figured it was just cosmetic and wouldn't effect the sound at all. After two fret dressings, two nut replacements, two setups (fret dressing, setup and nut was done by Albert Garcia formerly of the Fender Custom shop and referenced in repair guru Dan Erlewine's repair books), two sets of high end pickups, the guitar still sounds awful. It's far worse than both both of my other strats. One is a mexican strat and the other is a California series strat. They both resonate acoustically far better than the Warmoth which sounds very dead. Basically the Warmoth sounds awful, and my low end strats blow it away. Being that Warmoth "features" include knot plugs in their supposedly high end bodies, I'll give them a "1' rating. By the way, I'm playing through a most awesome Bad Cat Black Cat with boutique pedals. It's an amp that makes every decent guitar sound phenomenal.

It sounds really bad. Acoustically the body has drastically poor resonance. Far worse than my Mexican strat. Through an amp, it has a weird, unpleasant sound quality that you'd have to hear to appreciate. Fender Custom Shop 69's (phenomenal pickups) couldn't make this guitar sound even presentable. I also tried the ever revered John Suhr V60 low peaks and the same sonic problems exist. There is drastically poor bass response and poor balance. There seems to be a harmonic imbalance so that chords always have an unpleasant quality to them, and the intonation is dead on per a former Fender custom shop tech. I'm very unhappy with the tone, and the trial and error of setups, hardware changes, and even changing necks have led me to believe with a high degree of certainty that the body, with its knot plug, is the culprit.

The finish is good but lacks a consistent high gloss polish. Part of the guitar is slightly less polished than the rest. The knot plug is unacceptable in a high end manufacturers body. The lowest level Fender body would never has such a defect.

It's a piece of wood that's not going to change but I won't play this guitar out because it sounds bad. I guess I can't rely on it.

Here's where I'm furious. I bought high end Warmoth parts and got a knot plug. Not really knowing it could effect the tone of the guitar I kept the body which I should have immediately returned. You know, you wait a month for your parts and you can't wait to get the thing built. When it sounded terrible, I thought the fretwork and nut needed to be redone so I brought it to a former Fender custom shop tech. It still has this unpleasant harmonically imbalanced sound quality to it. I brought it back to him and he said yeah and fiddled with the pickup heigth. It still sounded bad so I thought it may be the pickups. I changed out the Custom shop 69's for Suhr V60's. It still had an unpleasant tone that made it unuseable. The guitar looks nice, but I won't gig with it because it sounds bad. So a little after a full year of throwing a lot of money and time at this thing, (I even tried to sell it far below my cost on consignment in a boutique guitar shop to no avail)I decided to see if Warmoth would stand behind their product. Their supposed high end body with a completely unacceptable, (in my estimation)tone robbing, knot plug that you wouldn't find on a Squire strat is apparently fine by them. They said there is nothing they could do for me as I am slightly outside of the warranty period. I'm furious. They make high end bodies and necks, and they're selling bodies with knot plugs. Yeah, the manager guy argued that it may not be a plug, but I know that it is. He also said even if it is, it wouldn't effect the tone adversely. It certainly does. Ask a luthier about wood selection. What is going on here? It has an obvious plug in it, and it shoul not have been sold in the first place. I guess I'm partially to blame because I kept the thing, and it took me a year to figure out the problem. The fact remains that this body has a serious defect that shouldn't be there. They should be ashamed to let something like this go out the door, and should be eager to rectify the situation. But no, they can't do anything for me. Might they ever hear consider standing behind their product. Not at Warmoth. Please don't buy a an opaque finished body from this company. You never know what the paint is covering. Horribly unacceptable support.

I've been playing for almost 30 years and have owned many guitars, and own and play boutique equipment professionally. Some companies sell good products and stand behind their stuff (Teese wahs for example, super support), and others sell defective goods, cover it with paint, and tell you we can't help you, it's too late. I'm not happy with this body or the company. As a matter of fact I'm furious.

It's a one-piece alder Strat body with all vintage correct routing and drilling.
Original style contours.
Extremely detailed cuts. CNC process is perfect.
One would never have problems fitting original parts.

Awesome wood grain. I had it oil finished and it looks beautiful!

Very lightweight, very resonant.

...smelled nicely out of the box, too :)

The project was to recreate a 1990 US Std Stratocaster. Maple neck, multi-piece poplar body, two-point tremolo, NO TONE!...

The neck was refretted (6105), a piece o wood was removed from the heel because it was much taller than it should be, a bone nut was installed, the string trees were replaced with vintage style ones and the die-cast tuners were replaced with klusons (with adapter bushings).

A new vintage style Fender tremolo system with a Callaham trem block was installed.

The pickguard came from Warmoth along with all the CTS and CRL electronics (pots, switch). Needles to say, the fit was perfect and the pots were the correct value (more than 250K - never less).

All wiring was replaced with vintage style wire by Allparts.

Copper body and pickup shielding, star grounding and treble-bleed circuit, plus a vintage correct .01uF tone cap.

For the time, i have the original pickups on, which, after potting and shielding sound really sweet. (they are at least 14 years old...)

A baseplate(by Callaham) is under the bridge pickup.

I play through a Fulltone FD-2 on a 1982 b/f Fender twin reverb.

The resonance this body adds to the sound is more than noticeable.
Doing the classic trick, playing unplugged, you can hear every note loud and clear. The oil finish leaves the wood free to "breathe"...

Plugged in the twin, the sound is clear and bright, punchy and alive
with unbelievably long sustain (for what i used to know...)
Now the guitar has a mojo... (the standard Fender never had)

Of course, the Callaham tremblock's contribution to the tone is crucial! (Worth every penny spent!!!)

But apart from the mid-to-low quality neck and the stock pickups, the tone is fantastic!

Imagine what will happen if i follow my luthier's advice and order a new Warmoth neck and a set of decent pickups!!!....

At least for the time, i am totally satisfied with the result.
I had a lifeless, toneless guitar which i converted to a beautiful, vintage sounding instrument, spending a lot less than if i bought a new guitar(with much more inferior specs).

As i mentioned above, all dimensions, cuts and holes were extremely accurate.
The oil finish was done by my luthier and it showed off all the beauty of the wood.
Action and playability is really improved.
This guitar sings!

It is still quite young to rate its durability, but i don't think it will cause me any problem.

The oil finish needs a bit more care, but i'm the kind of person who likes taking care of my guitar.

All the parts are "top notch" so i believe it is quite reliable.

They stood the test to face a demanding client like myself...

Very helpful, explained every detail, real professionals with a human touch.

The only problem was the fact that i had to wait for about 3-4 weeks untill they built the body. But good things are worth the wait.
And of course they let me know from the start about the delay.

All the shipping procedure was also flawless.
Thanks to UPS, the parcel came to me in a couple of days.
Imagine that i live in Greece which is very far from
Washington state...

Finally, when i contacted them after the job was done, they were as helpful as they have been before i paid them...

Once more, real professionals with a human touch!

I've been playing for about 20 years. I also have an Epi Dot 335 Ltd, which is a relly nice guitar (needs a little tweaking though...)

All those years i played my strat and tried almost everything
to make it sound good...
This time i did it!
Although i almost changed everything on it...
I never believed that my strat would sound so nice and look so good,
spending little money and having all the fun of doing it myself
(with the help from my luthier of course...)

If i lost it somehow?... Thank God "Warmoth.com" is still there...
They've been there for more than 20 years and i believe this is a guarantee. Now that i have seen their work with my own eyes, i can only say that they are highly recommended!

Made in 2002, 3 peice alder body with quilted maple top, top routed (really should have taken rear routed body), hard tail bridge, would have wanted wilkinson tremolo but I dont use trems and hardtail definatly stays in tune all the time. Finished in 2-tone sunburst which makes a beautiful body. I bought this in the thrift shop.

Man, I dont know how much the body wood affect sound because almost all American Fenders are alder body and flame maple top in some (very limited) cases. But Fender body is like a 10 peice alder body whereas this body is only 3 peice (Warmoth also offers one peice body) and to get quilted maple you got to pay Fender like 3000 dollars for a custom shop strat... Im sure this body sounds great but I am using cheap pickups so I cant really appriciate how good this body sounds...

Man, The fit and finish is like 10 times better than Fender. The finish is beautiful, the routing is very clean (unlike some of the fenders I have seen) and they will route the body to ANY configuration you like. The quilted maple top is very beautiful, not like those cheap Fender squires with photoflame which looks fake, and I havent seen any 600 dollar American strat with quilted top.

This body is like cannon balls with the kind of finish that was put on the body, nitrocellouse would never stand a beating...

I played off and on for about a year or so, I know like one lick and thats it... I have played different guitars at guitar shops ranging from cheap 99 dollar affinity squires to 3000 dollar Fenders and I dont notice much difference in sound, but maybe thats cause everyone else in the shop is playing like mad and its hard to know what the thing sounds like... But I have seen that cheap guitar tends to have crappy frets and cheap hardware...

This was a one piece alder body with top routing. It was completed with a 2 pivot trem system, Fender made in Japan 60's reissue neck and a set of 3 Vintage Noiseless pickups.

The overall sound of the guitar when complete was excellent. The body provides a great deal of resonance for the strings. Prior to finishing the guitar I had it strung up and it played "acoustically" very loud and very bright. The sound when the guitar was complete was very good given the Fender noiseless pickups and this particular body.

The body that Warmoth produces is excellent. The contours unlike its Fender counterpart are very organic in that there are no hard line edges. The forearm contour is as if the wood were bent not cut away with a CNC machine. The same is true for the "tummy" cut-out. The grain characteristics were very nice. The alder had lines, refered to as "rays" which when the guitar was finished (I did a 2 tone "vintage" burst) gave excellent character to it.

I cannot vouch for durability since I have only been playing the finished product for about 2 weeks however I see no apparent reason it should fail.

Customer support was very good. My neck was larger in the heel than standard Fender specs and Warmoth provided the opportunity to send the neck to them and they tweaked the sizing on the neck pocket. They drilled the holes for the trem mount and when everything was put together the fit was excellent and it is an extremely "playable" guitar. I also purchased other parts (pick gaurd, shielding foil etc.) and everything was very well made.

I have been playing off and on for 24 years on an Ibanez strat knock off with my "Fender" neck attached to it. I always wanted to put a Fender body with it. Warmoth provided and excellent option to doing this. I compared their "strat" bodies with All Parts, Stu Mac and others. I found that the number of options and pricing at Warmoth were superior. No other company would custom fit my neck for any price. My favorite feature is the way the contours in the body are so smooth. I cannot wait to do this again with an ash body and one of their necks.