Thin line Jazzmasters?

[tdbajus]

There's also Warmoth, of course, but then you have to put up with their stupid misplaced pickups issue.

What misplaced pickups issue?

Warmoth is really kind of a huge disappointment- they have every option you could possibly want, as long as someone else has thought of it and you can buy it just about anywhere online. Yay- humbuckers in a strat. Whoopty-fuggin-do. What?!? A humbucker in the neck of a telecaster?!? Why, that's some custom shit!

[601210]

There's also Warmoth, of course, but then you have to put up with their stupid misplaced pickups issue.

What misplaced pickups issue?

Warmoth is really kind of a huge disappointment- they have every option you could possibly want, as long as someone else has thought of it and you can buy it just about anywhere online. Yay- humbuckers in a strat. Whoopty-fuggin-do. What?!? A humbucker in the neck of a telecaster?!? Why, that's some custom shit!

The only way Warmoth can produce at the scale they do is if they make everything via CNC, same way Fender or Gibson does, so you can only order things that hey have tooling paths for. Obviously creating a tooling path for a new shape or pickup configuration takes a little overhead in terms of material and trial and error, so they'll only do one if there's a clear return.

If you want something totally custom, then go with someone that really hand-makes the stuff, pay a little more, and wait a little more. Warmoth is a guitar factory, not a luthier.

[tdbajus]

There's also Warmoth, of course, but then you have to put up with their stupid misplaced pickups issue.

What misplaced pickups issue?

Warmoth is really kind of a huge disappointment- they have every option you could possibly want, as long as someone else has thought of it and you can buy it just about anywhere online. Yay- humbuckers in a strat. Whoopty-fuggin-do. What?!? A humbucker in the neck of a telecaster?!? Why, that's some custom shit!

The only way Warmoth can produce at the scale they do is if they make everything via CNC, same way Fender or Gibson does, so you can only order things that hey have tooling paths for. Obviously creating a tooling path for a new shape or pickup configuration takes a little overhead in terms of material and trial and error, so they'll only do one if there's a clear return.

If you want something totally custom, then go with someone that really hand-makes the stuff, pay a little more, and wait a little more. Warmoth is a guitar factory, not a luthier.

Using CNC should make it easier, not harder. All you have to do is edit the CAD file. This is a trivial amount of work for someone who knows what they are doing.

[BoringPostcards]

What misplaced pickups issue?

Warmoth is really kind of a huge disappointment- they have every option you could possibly want, as long as someone else has thought of it and you can buy it just about anywhere online. Yay- humbuckers in a strat. Whoopty-fuggin-do. What?!? A humbucker in the neck of a telecaster?!? Why, that's some custom shit!

The only way Warmoth can produce at the scale they do is if they make everything via CNC, same way Fender or Gibson does, so you can only order things that hey have tooling paths for. Obviously creating a tooling path for a new shape or pickup configuration takes a little overhead in terms of material and trial and error, so they'll only do one if there's a clear return.

If you want something totally custom, then go with someone that really hand-makes the stuff, pay a little more, and wait a little more. Warmoth is a guitar factory, not a luthier.

Using CNC should make it easier, not harder. All you have to do is edit the CAD file. This is a trivial amount of work for someone who knows what they are doing.

Yes, it's trivial, but they need to pay somebody to do it and use time otherwise used for their regular manufacturing process.

[tdbajus]

The only way Warmoth can produce at the scale they do is if they make everything via CNC, same way Fender or Gibson does, so you can only order things that hey have tooling paths for. Obviously creating a tooling path for a new shape or pickup configuration takes a little overhead in terms of material and trial and error, so they'll only do one if there's a clear return.

If you want something totally custom, then go with someone that really hand-makes the stuff, pay a little more, and wait a little more. Warmoth is a guitar factory, not a luthier.

Using CNC should make it easier, not harder. All you have to do is edit the CAD file. This is a trivial amount of work for someone who knows what they are doing.

Yes, it's trivial, but they need to pay somebody to do it and use time otherwise used for their regular manufacturing process.

It does not seem unreasonable for people to invest in their business in order to better service existing and to attract new customers.

I am fairly certain they will not have to shut down their production line because someone is editing their autocad files, either.

[BoringPostcards]

Using CNC should make it easier, not harder. All you have to do is edit the CAD file. This is a trivial amount of work for someone who knows what they are doing.

Yes, it's trivial, but they need to pay somebody to do it and use time otherwise used for their regular manufacturing process.

It does not seem unreasonable for people to invest in their business in order to better service existing and to attract new customers.

I am fairly certain they will not have to shut down their production line because someone is editing their autocad files, either.

I understand where you are coming from, but I also know that many companies are simply lazy or cheap in that regard.

Rickenbacker dropped several models when they switched to CNC simply because they didn't want to take the time to CAD up the schematic diagrams for the CNC.
It's an extreme case, but you get my drift.

[Deed_Poll]

Using CNC should make it easier, not harder. All you have to do is edit the CAD file. This is a trivial amount of work for someone who knows what they are doing.

You would be amazed - most of these companies, even the bigger ones (I don't know specifically about Warmoth) don't even employ a single full-time CAM engineer who can do stuff like that. They just get them in as and when they need them.

If you order a custom shape from Warmoth, they will do it the old fashioned way and charge you a king's ransom. There are lots of better people out there to do the same thing for less.

I was begging them to take my CAD files a number of years ago, both the vectors and the 3D, because I'd designed the contours of a project guitar exactly as I wanted them, but they weren't interested. Said they didn't have anyone on payroll who can take care of it. Said I'd have to send them a 1:1 pencil tracing! I think it's more likely they just didn't want to mess with their process - I imagine it's pretty idiot-proof at this point and there's no sense stopping the presses and adding new files into a system that works.

I think this is part of the reason their Jazzmaster bodies have the wrong pickup routes - their routes are shared between all their models, and just in case someone wants a JM with a Floyd rose or something, they keep the pickup positions the same and versatile enough to go with any bridge, 22-fret neck etc.

Maybe the vintage correct positions of Jazzmaster pickups would conflict with some other option, and it would be opening a can of worms to do specific route locations to combine with specific bridges, body shapes etc. The way they have it is all modular and interchangeable. I bet it's impossible for them to make a pickguard that conflicts with a body, and that's a good thing for manufacturability.

[tdbajus]

SOmetimes I wish we could "like" posts. Like the one above. Thank you.

[Embenny]

Yes, the bridge pickup on the warmoth JM is further toward the neck for that reason - so that it doesn't conflict with the bridge that encroaches the most on the pickups - the Floyd Rose.

It's also why their pickguard ends so much farther from the bridge, so that it won't touch a Floyd, and still has enough material behind the bridge pickup to avoid cracking during routing.

Sure, they could employ an engineer and do a ton more variations and custom CAD work, but that doesn't seem to be their business model. It seems as though what they're doing gets them enough customers to keep them happy. I agree that it seems like a wasted opportunity for a motivated business owner, but whoever's running Warmoth seems to be happy with making material variations of their set cookie-cutter designs.

It's a shame, because they could for sure be doing more if they wanted to.

[tdbajus]

It's a shame, because they could for sure be doing more if they wanted to.

ANybody want to go in on a CNC machine and live near Brooklyn?

[sirspens]

It's a shame, because they could for sure be doing more if they wanted to.

ANybody want to go in on a CNC machine and live near Brooklyn?

Same question, but Austin.