Warmoth Strat

Green Warmoth Strat
Four Green Warmoth Strats

The Short History of Erik's Warmoth Strat

      It's shaped like a Fender Strat, it has the body woods of a Gibson Les Paul, a switching system that allows 31 pickup combinations and it looks pretty cool, but... what is it? Basically this guitar is the culmination of 20 years of playing experience and the need for a guitar that could "do it all".

      It's hard to pinpoint an exact date when planning for this build started (birth maybe?), but it was probably sometime in 2005 that Erik began toying with the idea of getting a new guitar. After months of research, and sorting through all the options available from the major guitar manufactureres, Erik simply couldn't find a sinlge guitar that did everything he wanted. Some brands had the right woods but wrong scale length, others came close but were insanely expensive and still would require compromises. Eventually Erik decided the only option was to build a guitar from scratch with the best woods, best parts, taylor made to his exact playing needs.

      In December of 2007 Erik took the plunge and ordered a custom body and neck from Warmoth, a company that specializes in making custom guitar parts. The goal was to build a superstrat based off the Fender stratocaster, but with warmer body woods giving it a deeper tone and longer sustain as well as high grade quilted maple looks often found in only the best instrument. Taking the knowledge he had aquired in re-wiring his other guitars, Erik planned to make a guitar with as many pickup combinations as possible, to fully utilize all the different coils and their tones.

      Finally assembled in the February 2008, this guitar is now Erik's main axe. and Erik hopes will be featured prominatly on all future recordings.

The original kisekae mock up

Specs of the Warmoth Strat

      - One piece Mahogany Body with AAAAA Quilted Maple top
      - Green dye top, transparent green back, black burst over sides
      - Maple Neck with Ebony fretboard
      - Mother of Pearl inlays
      - Wilkinson VS100 Bridge
      - Stainless Steel 6105 Frets
      - 10-16 compound radius neck
      - 25.5" Scale Length
      - 1 11/16" graphtec nut
      - Planet Waves locking tuners
      - Seymour Duncan JB Bridge Pickup
      - Seymour Duncan SSL1 Middle Pickup
      - Seymour Duncan Stag Mag neck pickup
      - CTS 500K pots
      - CTS 5 way strat switch
      - .033 Mallory Capacitor
      - 2 on/on/on mini toggles, 1 on/on mini toggle

The switching system

     This guitar is equipped with one of the most versatile switching systems available. Both the neck and bridge humbucker are individually wired with 3 way (on/on/on) switches that enable each humbucker to be set in either Series, Parallel or Single Coil mode. There is also a "always on" (on/on) switch for the bridge humbucker that allows for the bridge pickup to be engaged at any moment. These three switches, along with the normal strat 5 way, give this guitar 31 unique pickup combinations.

Series/Parellel/Single Coil Wiring Diagram from a HSH Warmoth Strat by Erik Zukauskas
The original wiring diagram
Click for a larger picture

Erik playing his Warmoth Strat