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Ok, so, I need another bass project, and I can't decide if I wanna go with Warmoth or just mod the hell out of a Squier.

Basically, I'm doing a '72 tele bass. This is the squier:

http://bass-guitars.musiciansfriend.com ... D=62972185

The newer squires get great reviews-- apparently as good as the MIM stuff.

Warmoth would be the same, except it's a Warmoth.

With the Squier, the whole bass is cheaper than just the body and neck of the Warmoth (unfinished), but the body is basswood (which, in my experience, isn't necessarily a bad thing). I could easily mod the Warmoth pickguard to fit the squier, I'm sure, so that's a non-issue, really.

But, with the Warmoth, I know the neck is gonna be super stable for a long time, and that the woods are top quality. Plus, they'll do most of the routing for me.

To me, the biggest pro of the Squier is the fact I get a bass to play AS I mod it. Instead of having to do most of it before I even know if it's any good...

HLYSHT! I didn't know squier made Tele Basses! I want one, although I don't like the colour.

How close is the quality of the warmoth compared to a real fender?

smile_man wrote:HLYSHT! I didn't know squier made Tele Basses! I want one, although I don't like the colour.

How close is the quality of the warmoth compared to a real fender?

It's called Krylon, man.

A well built Warmoth is suposed to be better than an American Fender... but I've never played one.

Hey,

Warmoths are very good quality if assembled well however, squiers have improved alot in recent year theyve come back from the dip in quality that they suffered for a long time (unlike the 80's Squiers which many be consider to be better than the Fenders of the day)

I say go for the squier the only thing I might change on it is belt sand off the paint job and use a thinner paint and laquer combo that allows more of the woods natural tone through...

The main issue with squier as for hardware appears to be the tuners & nut, haven't tried the Bass ones but the guitar tuners aren't the best (although they do the job) and of course a nice new set of pickups (or rewiring the originals by hand if you want a truely nice project) will improve it greatly

Also no cost incurred for routing the squier as it's all done for you, i've modded my telecaster and it greatly improved with just a set up and a nut change (rewiring it with star grounding, new pots, new pickups (although mine came with a nice set of seymours which were nice enough for not wanting to rewire them, they didn't have the tonal qualities the guitar required for me and were saved for another project) and getting that paint off opened it up to an entirely new level, bridge change wouldn't go a miss on guitar for sustain, not sure if it's worth changing the Bass bridge out)

The necks I must say have an incredibly nice satin laquer finish (atleast on my telecaster) and the wood although a tad soft perhaps has great tone and with proper care I don't think it's stability should be an issue (and if one day it did go out entirely, could always just by the warmoth neck at a later date and stick it on!)

But thats just my $0.02...

Just have to change that headstock to say Fender instead of squier

Scruffie.

You think like I do... plus, I think modding cheap guitars is more my style. I was gonna paint the guitar white, probably-- depending on how nice the stock finish looked.

As for hardware, I'd have to buy that with the Warmoth anyways-- but with the Squier I can prioritize and do it in stages. For the bridge, I'm gonna put a Kahler tremolo on it anyways. <3 bass dive bombs.

I've played newer Vintage Modified Squiers, and, to me, they felt as good as anything else, so there's no reason to believe this won't, I suppose. Imma go out and try to find one. Hopefully a used one, but that's not likely.

i really wish you'd reconsider the finish.....
something that looks like it just crawled out of a lake after 20 years would be so much nicer than plain white....

Well you can always get hold of the proper paints and laquers so that the colour yellows in the correct fashion (or be lazy and get a tained laquer or paint) and then just gig it hard to relic it by hand (just dont buthcer the relicing horribly, dear god i've seen some that look like someone just stuck the back end in a woodchipper for a split second... which would only be cool if you got drunk after a gig and actually did it by accident)

If you haven't seen it http://www.projectguitar.com is a great source for tips, probably find some nice ways to do the paint job there

Yea stages is a good idea, incremental improvements, with whatever will improve it most being prioritized and as you grow to love it and acquire more cash, upgrade it further till it's the perfect guitar...

Make sure it's a newish used one or else you'll enter the poor quality of a few years back era (pre 2000 really, maybe a few years during early 2000)

Good luck!

Edit: Btw, Bass dive bombs lol awesome, never see anyone doing that here in the U.K really... infact, I don't think i've seen it, i'd like to though lol
Secondly I aquired an 80's Squier for about £3 (it was in such a state it had been hand painted in acrylic paint with a brush, frettboard, body (over the original paint) everywhere... and all the strap holders were so rusted I had to hacksaw them off as there was no screw left... why do people do this) but just finished sanding off the body and was gunna stain it black for my finish, but now im considering doing your lakey type idea... what would you suggest samurai as a good type of finish?

Basically, if you know how to put a guitar together and have the means to do it well, go for the Warmoth.

In the end the warmoth will sound alot better and last alot longer, you can control what goes into the Bass right from the beginning.

I would go this way if i had the cash!

But!

If you're not uber tech with tone, and you just want a new toy, that can do some sweet shit..

Get the squier!

it really just depends on what purpose you want it to serve.

My roommate just did a Warmoth Bass from scratch, and let me tell you, it's the best playing, best sounding bass he owns. And his other basses are a Pedulla and a Modulus.

Good luck! i love those projects!

My main axe is a Warmoth Strat and it is a great guitar. You might look for an already assembled Warmoth on e-bay. They don't have great resale value which can be a real boon.

I think with time and love, a cheaper guitar can be brought back up to standard, I've hand built a strat from a block of wood, assembled one from a U.K version of warmoth and redone guitars... if you want it to sound good you can get it to, for earlier projects doing up old guitars was great fun and alot easier and although my hand assembled one is nicer (it was gunna be, it was alot more expensive...mmm bareknuckle pickups...) it was work to get it right and tbh i'm still damn pleased with my upgraded guitars (my first encore that I decided would be my first project has gone through 3 completely different transitions, first stained dark blue, then metallic black and settled on metallic red & upgrading it for the minimal amount of money I could with a single sized humbucker added, slightly better nut, bridge off an old guitar I had spare, £20 tuners and a nice set up and for £130 (including the guitar and wire to hand wire the other 2 pickups), it's turned into something worth £240-280ish if I were to value it in comparisson)

So in summary, yea a fresh built one will be nicer and last longer, but you can still get a great guitar out of upgrading and if your not confident on putting it all together well, it's the best way to go, it'll last a long time, maybe it wont be with you in 30 years (unless you take care of it, as you should with all guitars... to an extent, half the time you should kick the crap out of them) but you'll have something good at the end and it wont cost twice as much and by the time it goes out or you decide you need something better, you can build that warmoth, with the experience of this upgrade behind you.

htsamurai wrote:i really wish you'd reconsider the finish.....
something that looks like it just crawled out of a lake after 20 years would be so much nicer than plain white....

The white is gonna be spray painted on there... and likely covering it in stickers, words, etc...

Fuck it... Imma do a Warmoth. >.>. I have the tools and the skillz.

I want a rosewood fretboard anyways,

I'm so stoked on it

please let us see how it turns out!

smile_man wrote:HLYSHT! I didn't know squier made Tele Basses!

Yeah I was gonna wither one of those or a Bronco until I decided to get a new guitar instead.
These were the ones I was considering: http://bass-guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Squier-Mike-Dirnt-P-Bass?sku=513882

(try to ignore the mike dirnt-ness and it would probably be sweet)

http://bass-guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Squier-CLASSIC-VIBE-Precision-50s-Bass-Guitar-?sku=519743

Warmoth. You can pick the would you want and color and everything including routing if you want something with weird pickup positions or something. Plus they're from here, and my friends work there.

Rory wrote:Warmoth. You can pick the would you want and color and everything including routing if you want something with weird pickup positions or something. Plus they're from here, and my friends work there.

............
im pretty sure he could do any routing or weird pickup combos needed
....
he bastardized this one good enough