free meat wrote: Wed May 15, 2024 4:25 pm That whole T series is great. One day I'll find a T15 at a decent price.

I've always wondered about a T15... what are those pickups? P90s?

cakes wrote: Wed May 15, 2024 4:45 pm

free meat wrote: Wed May 15, 2024 4:25 pm That whole T series is great. One day I'll find a T15 at a decent price.

I've always wondered about a T15... what are those pickups? P90s?

I think they are single rail humbuckers, but it has been a while. T15's are fricking tiny guitars. I've been on the lookout for one for Heather for a while.

I also really love the Patriots from around this same period and they can be found ultra cheap (2-300 bucks)
Super solid great sounding US made guitars that will last for ever.

Kniferide wrote: Wed May 15, 2024 5:11 pm I think they are single rail humbuckers, but it has been a while.

Nope... they were wide ferrite rail single coils. 23.5" scale length... for little folks. Fun guitars. All teh T's have rocketed in the last few years but you used to get a T60 or T40 for 400 to 500 bucks any day of the week. Good old days.

I remember Chris Jury, of the mighty Bismarck, once saying on here that those single rails made everything sound like unknown pleasures and I've wanted one ever since.

Kniferide wrote: Wed May 15, 2024 5:18 pm

Kniferide wrote: Wed May 15, 2024 5:11 pm I think they are single rail humbuckers, but it has been a while.

Nope... they were wide ferrite rail single coils. 23.5" scale length... for little folks. Fun guitars. All teh T's have rocketed in the last few years but you used to get a T60 or T40 for 400 to 500 bucks any day of the week. Good old days.

Word to the wise...

(Just get a Patriot, and save yourself some cash/hassle...)

(Also, my first guitar. Don't get bummed if you will never own one. It's not like they are all that....)

Fun fact:

Red Rhodes supposedly designed that pickup.

numberthirty wrote: Wed May 15, 2024 6:45 pm Fun fact:

Red Rhodes supposedly designed that pickup.

Love this!

[youtube][/youtube]

cakes wrote: Wed May 15, 2024 4:12 pm I wanted to add that I had an intention to build a Warmoth guitar, but boy... it has become quite expensive! In 2015, I built a Warmoth P-bass. It cost me about $1200, and that including Fralin pickups and the labor to setup the fretboard and some electronics work. In 2024, I just priced out a very basic guitar and with similar labor costs and a set of Fralin pickups, it would run about $2000. I've tried finding a used Warmoth that is close to what I wanted to build, they're running for about half the price. Nothing really stood out to me being worth that kind of money. Hard to justify buying a guitar for $2k, so I turned to my next desire. Anyway, thought that was really shocking and wanted to point it out. (No doubt, it would have been an awesome guitar for the money!)

2k? What did you want to get? I've built like 7 or 8 Warmoths in the past year and a half and they were all under $1300 including pickups, which were Fralins more often than not. Buy the bodies unfinished and DIY. Roasted maple necks don't need a finish, or you can get a regular maple neck unfinished and DIY that too.

They're unbelievably great guitars, their workmanship is killer. Everything goes together like it should, there's no sharp fret ends, they're easy to set up, they feel great to play. I know I sound like a shill, but I've just been super impressed with them.

Ok, yeah a little misleading. I should say it would cost around $2k to have a finished Warmoth guitar. The parts themselves would cost about $1100 from them, and another $325 for Fralin pickups, but that would not include shipping and taxes. Then, there's some labor costs with the electronics and dressing the neck. I know there's a whole debate about whether to do this, but if you follow Warmoth's philosophy on their neck construction, they do nothing in terms of dressing or setting up the neck, because they are a guitar parts manufacturer and not a guitar company. For me, I'd have to invest in some tools that I don't have, or for about the same money have a professional do some of those things. Either way, I couldn't justify spending $2k on a guitar right now. Finding a T-60 for under $500 was way more compelling.

FWIW, the guitar was a Tele Deluxe, with an alder body and a basic paint job. Roasted maple neck, no finish. Standard Frailin PAFs. The last Warmoth I built, it was a little fancier than this and it was a bass. The pickups were less, because it was one and not a set of two, but that is small potatoes.

Yeah, DIY finishes are key to saving money. I happen to prefer the more raw finishes anyway, I've never liked the candy-coated goop on store bought guitars.

A one-over by a luthier is a good idea but nothing that should cost more than $100 really.