warmoth neck

I recently put together a tele style guitar with a warmoth neck. Like you, I chose 6100 frets. I chose them stainless but that’s just me not wanting to do much maintenance...ever. I chose to have the neck with the holes pre-drilled thinking they are better at that than me. I went for 1.650 inches tusq nut and standard thin profile, 10-16 in compound radius. To me it plays great and if I went back in time, I would order the exact same specs.

 

Put some chalk powder in the holes on the neck, then fit it in the body how you want it, tap the neck so some powder comes out, leaving 4 spots where the holes go. Then drill the holes with a small drill bit. Flip it over and center the neck plate over the little holes. Get the neck plate lined up straight/right, mark and drill the holes bigger/the correct size.

 

Warmoth drills to Fender standard. If the body is standard...usually they will be fine pre-drilled, mine was.

Nut and frets are a personal thingy. If you are building the guitar, don't you usually want to drill the holes yourself for fitting/alignment purposes, just in case there is a smidge of an issue? You need to inform them of the type tuners you will use too.

 

I use four little steel pins that fit snugly into the four screw holes in the neck. They extend about 1/8" and each has a point on it. I made them from 16d bright nails.

Place the pins in the holes, match the neck to the body and carefully lay it face up. Gently seat the neck in the pocket, check neck alignment to bridge position with a straight edge down each side of the neck, and then gently lean on the heel of the neck. The pins make four dimples in the pocket and that's where to drill.

You can easily make a perfect point to any small steel rod/nail by chucking it into a hand drill. Run the drill while holding the rod against a running grinder wheel.

 

Where are you getting the body? Will the body come pre-drilled? Frankly, I would rely on the manufacturer to drill better holes with minimal damage. You split the wood, you burn it... If they split the wood, they eat it. Good reason to source the body and neck from the same supplier. If you HAVE the body and it is pre-drilled, you could send Warmoth the template, but I doubt it will be necessary if it is a standard, quality body.

 

-Have them drill.
-1-3/4 is wider than most. Most use 1-11/16. Depends on what you want.
-Frets are up to you. Be careful going over the .046-.047 tall. Some dont like tall jumbo frets at all. ~.059
-Warmoth necks in their "ready to sell" area are far cheaper than custom ordering.
-Musikraft custom orders have a lot of options.

 

Drilling a neck is a pain. The risk of not drilling straight or going through to the fingerboard is real.

Warmoth body/Warmoth neck = I would have them drill the neck

Fender or other known-standard body with holes already drilled/Warmoth neck = I would have them drill the neck

No-name, eBay, XGP body already drilled = maybe not

Body not already drilled = Get neck drilled and use it to mark body drill holes

Worst case for a drilled neck that doesn't line up is you have to possibly fill/dowel and re-drill the holes. That's annoying extra work but it's not that hard.

EDIT: Saw you are making the body. I would be inclined to get the neck drilled and use those as guides for drilling the body unless you want to use something besides a standard 4-bolt pattern.

 

What standard are you referring to with 1 3/4" ???????Fender standard is more like 1 5/8". Both my Warmoth necks are 1 11/16".....and I like them, but I'd love to try a 1 3/4", but worry it just might be a little too wide. BTW, I also like their Fatback profile, or the Boatneck might be good. I just can't play a skinny neck on a long gig. Good luck.

 

OK, not a problem. Have Warmoth drill the holes, then use techniques listed above to transfer the pattern to the body. Worst case is you drill them incorrectly and have to plug and re-drill. But if you are careful, you should be fine. But don't drill them with a transferred paper template - make the marks or template with the neck firmly in the socket, as it is also likely you will need to make some tweaks to fit the neck.

 

AllParts makes a decent neck as well.

https://www.allparts.com/collections/guitar-necks

 

Then you are a blank canvas! Anything you make will be perfect for you!

 

In my humble opinion the neck should be fitted to the body, holes drilled in the body and transferred to the neck. Post's 50 and 51 on page 3.

https://www.tdpri.com/threads/a-chambered-tele-ish-sort-of-thing.884657/page-3

I also make it a point to set the neck and get the geometry perfect before I drill or route the bridge and pickups. In fact my neck routing template screws into wood that will be removed when those routes are done.

1-3/4 happens to be my preference for an acoustic nut but most people will not like it for an electric. A good compromise is 1-11/16. Medium frets

 

IMO, if you are placing a toggle switch on a typical plate, or in the same area, it is likely to get knocked out of position frequently when playing. They toggle moves very easily, regardless of where you put it. But in the upper bout it is less likely to get knocked. That is why Fender uses the lever switches next to the volume knob and where you may be strumming.

 

The metric toggle switch that I used is not as deep as the CRL switch which gave me a little more room in the body. I didn't want to use a plate on the body and making that long skinny cut for the CRL switch has the possibility for screwing it up. I'm used to the toggle switch on my gibson style instruments and I mostly play in the center position - it just seemed to be the right choice for this guitar.

The only disadvantage that I can think of is that the toggle switch has a funky knurled nut that actually goes down the side of the barrel and is hard to turn (you can easily damage finish). If you get the switch and take measurements you'll see what I mean.

A huge advantage of the internal routing as I did is the light weight of the guitar - 5-3/4 pounds. Everyone comments on that and all of my future "solid bodies" will be chambered. It does mean you have to use some sort of dropped top but I do anyway.