does it matter how many pieces of wood a guitar body is made from?

sunvalleylaw said:
Or side your house. ;-)

really, I think they are cool.
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i dig them. they're quirky guitars for sounds you dig on rare occasion. the three that i have are a Convertible, 12 string, and baritone. the Convertible was my only acoustic for years. but now i use it for open tunings. the 12 and baritone are self explanatory. but really, how much are you going to use those sounds? not a lot. but when you do, having something that plays and sounds great for not so much money is ideal. that's what they're good for.
 
It's one of those things that doesn't matter until it matters. And the "how many pieces" magic number is going to depend entirely on things like design, quality of materials, workmanship, whether it's an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar, etc. IMHO. I'd have no problem believing that 7 pieces of well-glued vibrant wood will sound better than 2-3 pieces of acoustically dead material with an uneven bond.
 
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There are so many variables that I think it would be pretty difficult to even compare similar guitars made from one piece or mulitple. But even if you could, I dont know that I, or most anyone could hear a difference as long as they are both properly built guitars. And like Paul said, if they are different, who is to say the multiple doesnt sound better? I just dont think it matters the way the questin was asked. As far as an audience member or cd listener is concerned, I dont think they would know or care if it were plywood and wood screws as long as the guy could play. Lot's of great recordings over time have guitar tracks that sound pretty terrible if you isolate them.

I think it matters for aesthetics. Some people want to see beautiful grain and some put stickers all over their guitars. Both are right.
 
Yeah! Talking about solid-bodies in terms of acoustics is a lot of corksniffery.
But I have to defend my acousticness against solid construction technique.
Let me bump up this glue joint talk to something more attainable, for you.
Gluing a solid body together is adding a density different from the wood.
What other new density could we add to say, a Fender Stratocaster,
that will demonstrate adding a new acoustic density to the design?
Make a thin shape to fit between the metal tremolo plate and the wood body.
Find something you think is half-way in density between the metal and wood.
A piece of thin PVC plastic works, even rigid styrafoam, for a little while.
This should surprise you, how it affects the "resonance" and your feel up the neck.
This, what I call a "tremolo density plate", evens out the acoustics, especially the strings.
You'll find more notes have harmonic feedback, and you'll get an initial, softer sound.

Looking back at solid-bodies from this perspective, it's easy to riff about anything acoustic,
but that's because I see what limited acoustics there are, and what limited acoustics are functioning.
But these aren't the late sixties, and I'm not the only one around with a Stratocaster, any more.
So I won't get into taking the plastic, back tremolo cover off, and what that does.
No... no... please... don't even mention strumming the tremolo springs. Hey! Go away!
Leave them alone. I need all five.
 
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the fact that you edit your posts is mind boggling. i often wonder what gets edited and if it's even less cohesive after the fact.
 
I just don't like to see spelling mistakes.

It still boggles my mind, a little, trying to imagine what acoustics are working in different guitars.
And that's trying to imagine the effects on the magnetic field around the strings.

I don't like going back to edit after someone else has posted after. That could be interpreted in predatory ways,
what annoyed me the most about HC, others posting their sick sense and deleting after.

I'm still not sure what guitar is your guitar to play and what kinds of bands you've been in, if any.
Not that it boggles my mind, needing all that input to even start feeling boggled.
 
John Watt said:
I just don't like to see spelling mistakes.

It still boggles my mind, a little, trying to imagine what acoustics are working in different guitars.
And that's trying to imagine the effects on the magnetic field around the strings.

I don't like going back to edit after someone else has posted after. That could be interpreted in predatory ways,
what annoyed me the most about HC, others posting their sick sense and deleting after.

I'm still not sure what guitar is your guitar to play and what kinds of bands you've been in, if any.
Not that it boggles my mind, needing all that input to even start feeling boggled.
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none of this has anything to do with the topic at hand. as a reminder, the topic at hand is "does it matter how many pieces of wood a (solidbody) guitar is made from?".
 
For the longest time, talk about Stradavari's violins were all about the glue, his recipe.
But historic evidence now available from hiking friends, letters and diaries,
shows that Stradavari used walks out of town to visit ruins, bringing home old wood.
 
John Watt said:
For the longest time, talk about Stradavari's violins were all about the glue, his recipe.
But historic evidence now available from hiking friends, letters and diaries,
shows that Stradavari used walks out of town to visit ruins, bringing home old wood.
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What the hell does that have to do with guitars, or how many peices of wood they are made of?
 
I'ma gonna leave this here too

Damping in Glue
Glue used in lutherie is chosen for a number of different properties such as drying speed, shelf life and open time. A number of luthiers also consider that damping may be important when choosing glue as well. I know of no formal studies that attempt to measure damping in glue and also know of no studies that attempt to quantify perceived goodness of tone based on the glue used in construction. Such tests would be time-consuming and costly to perform.

My suspicion is that performing these experiments would not be an efficient use of resources. Glue makes up an extremely small fraction of the mass of a finished instrument and, based simply on hardness data, all glue typically used in lutherie is very likely to posses substantially lower damping values than the wood which comprises the bulk of the instrument. Both of these factors would likely render any measured difference in damping among wood glues to be irrelevant to perceived tonal differences in a finished instrument.
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http://liutaiomottola.com/myth/damping.htm
 
I know Yamaha has the resources to experiment with all of this, and more,
even if it's their piano manufacturing that influences their guitar build.
Peavey created a "plate" (I forget what kind of plate they named it) as a sort of electrical "soak".
Their electronic observations, and manipulations, are analogous to acoustics.
I used their "soak" reference, and their electrical invention, to name my new grounding system,
a "ground soak".
 
That might mean that you will immediately like the new Doritos flavor,
hamburger and cheese. I thought it was just like the original MacDonald's drop of glop in the middle.
It sloppied up my flatulent tones, a little, not as much as a bottle of Jack in Jimmy's hand, or a too soft pick.
 
Nope, I can't stand Doritos... And it is, I can only handle red meat about once a week... Now, too soft a pick I can't stand...
 
Doritos are a hard pick now, now that Zestys lost their zest when they lost the hydrogenated oil.
A too soft pick is the secret to my sloppy, Jimmy Page imitations, that I don't do any more.
Oh, it hurt a little, last night, visiting someone who bought their first guitar, for their teen daughter,
asking me to look at it and tune it up. The first song she wanted to learn? Stairway to Heaven.
When his wife said she liked country, I changed that A minor progression into "She Believes in Me", by Kenny Rogers.
Whew... that was a transition I almost didn't make, taking walking into heaven into walking upstairs.
She was a cute blonde too.
 
Oddly enough, I was served chicken quesadillas with a salad for lunch today.
I tried the salsa and a new salad dressing, but ended up using lots of sour cream.
While I was eating, I thought about how many pieces of wood a guitar body needs.
 
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