Warmoth Black Korina "Nuno N4 Soloist" - FINALLY done!!!!

RockStarNick

RockStarNick

Active member
Hey Guys. Well, FINALLY, this saturday, I had a chance to complete my Black Korina Soloist "Nuno N4" Warmoth.

Woke up early on a Saturday, started about 9:30AM, and worked until about 5PM. I know that's a long time, but I did things slow, and really meticulous, and everything by hand. And of course, measure twice, drill once. haha. This is the 5th guitar that I've assembled, and my 4th Warmoth that I've put together myself. If there's one thing that I've come to realize, it's "expect the unexpected". You cant' expect to just take evrything out of the box, and slap it together.

I'm going to walk thru each picture step by step to explain what I had to do... and why it took so darn long!

SO HERE'S THE PICTURES!!!!


Well, here's the body, right after I received it. I was super excited about the finish. It was 100% exactly what I wanted. Perfect wood grain and burst.
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1. Here's a pic of the body ready to go.
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2. My dad, holding the neck. He helped me finish it. Mainly, because he has a lot more patience than I do. The neck is finished in about 10 coats of Minwax wipe on Satin poly, which he buffed out to a an amazing smooth satin finish. Definitely the best neck we've done yet, this one looks like a factory spray finish.
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3. Here's the headstock, with our Logo. I designed the logo, and it's based of my father's signature, which I've adopted as well. The headstock shape was traced from my friend's Washburn Nuno N4. I've always loved that headstock shape, even though lots of people think it's butt ugly.
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4. Here's the neck bolted on. Things are really starting to take shape.
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5. The first thing I had to do was decide what was going to be my measuring point. I decided that the bridge needed to go on first, so that I could line it up with the humbucker cavity, before the pickup was installed.
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Continued on next post...
 
6. Here you can see it is 100% parallell to the pickup route.

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7. Another view of the Gotoh Bridge. GREAT bridge by the way, for a great price.
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8. My pickups of choice for this project, ready to be dropped in. I'm a pretty hardcore loyal duncan fan, and I was NOT let down by these Full Shreds.
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9. Pickups dropped in, and temporarily taped in place.
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10. I decided to string it up before I screwed in the pickups mounting rings, to make sure that string alignment was perfect. In this case, the neck was 100% perfect after bolting on. Strings aligned perfectly on the neck, from the edge of the fretboard.
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11. I used rulers to "eye" it up, and make sure the bridge pickup was centered with the bridge.
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12. I also made sure the ring was parallell to the bridge plate.
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13. After screwing in the first mounting ring, I used rulers to make sure the neck one was parallel to the bridge. Totally lined up.
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14. Pickups = in!
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15. Next was the controls. I knew that I only wanted a single volume, and a 3-way toggle on this one, like the Nuno. I made a "dummy" switch out of a washer, switch tip, and some blue tape. I placed this on the guitar, and strummed away with my eyes closed, to make sure that the location that I chose was good, before I drilled a hole through that beautiful piece of wood. I wanted to be 100% sure that switch was going in the right place. No turning back after that!!!
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16. I had a drill bit that was as big as the toggle switch, but I was VERY afraid it was just going to kick-back and rip up the wood and poly. I decided to use an older, worn in 1/4 inch bit to do an initial hole, then widen it. Here, the hole has been drilled.
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17. Here's the reamer bit that I used to widen the hole. It worked perfectly, almost like a drill file. Saved me about an hour's worth of hand filing too.
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18. 3-way toggle in place.
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19. Next up, the hole was drilled for the volume pot. It almost lined up exactly with the stripe running thru the wood.
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20. Volume pot in, electronics wired up, almost all done!
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And now... the beauty shots.

I promise I'll get some clearer pics of the complete guitar sometime soon... maybe tonight!

SO...

I've gotta say, that all in all, this is one of the best guitars that I've ever played. The fretwork on the neck for this one was absolutely flawless. Usually I have to spot level a fret or two. Not on this one. Amazing. The neck shape, of course, is my favorite. And my dad's home-done wipe on finish feels factory smooth, thanks to meticulous buffing. This guitar does not feel or sound home-made, in ANY way whatsoever, and it would be a disgrace to call it a partscaster.

The tone is full, fat, but really punchy and stringy too. Great definition from the Korina and ebony combo. The Full shreds have alnico 5 for warm tone, but the hex pole pieces add a steely edge that's great to make stuff cut thru.

The reverse headstock just makes me feel like a badass when playing it. hahaha.

This was one of those guitars that, immediately after completing it, and playing it once, I IMMEDIATELY wanted to build another one... I'm already thinking of a "twin" in an ash top, bengal bust finish... perhaps glitter silver flake??? It's just a great guitar that took inspiration from the Nuno, used the elements that I liked, ditched the thing that I didn't like (smaller body, Bill Lawrence Pickups, FLoyd Rose, etc.) and turned out to be an amazing playing and sounding, super versatile instrument that looks and feels WAY more expensive than it actually was.

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That's a sweet looking guitar! Did Warmoth do the finish? If so, what's that color burst called?
 
dumb question here...did the neck come with the nut already cut and installed? The nut is one part of a guitar that I can't tackle.
 
The finish was actually "translucent brown to clear" burst. It really lets the grain of the Korina show thru.

Yes, the nut comes pre-cut and slotted, but does need the slots to be lowered.

As far as the pickups, I just centered them in the routes.
 
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