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

Help!I'maRock!

Help!I'maRock!

Mediocringly Derivative
Fender Mexican factory tour pics (not mine). MIM Standard Strat and Tele bodies being built.

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Looks like 7 pieces with laminate to me.

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Here are more pics:

2006 Fender Mexico Factory Tour
 
Personally I think it does, otherwise I wouldn't have paid an extra $150 for a one piece body for my Suhr Tele. I just think it resonates better without all of the laminations in the body. I'm probably wrong, but that guitar is much bigger sounding than my other Suhr with it's 2 piece (if Alder) body.
 
I can live with 1, 2, 3 piece bodies, but 7 pieces seems excessive to me. Even worse if they then add a chunk of veneer on top of that, glue it all together and coat it in plastic. Not sure when fender mexico started using so many pieces of wood. My MIM fender strat looks to be three pieces. I can't tell on my telecaster. I can't say if it hurts sound or resonance, but it certainly isn't a good thing.
 
Tiltsta said:
I can live with 1, 2, 3 piece bodies, but 7 pieces seems excessive to me. Even worse if they then add a chunk of veneer on top of that, glue it all together and coat it in plastic. Not sure when fender mexico started using so many pieces of wood. My MIM fender strat looks to be three pieces. I can't tell on my telecaster. I can't say if it hurts sound or resonance, but it certainly isn't a good thing.
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do you have a burst?

i know my 50s Classic Tele is at least 4 pieces.
 
Help!I'maRock! said:
do you have a burst?

i know my 50s Classic Tele is at least 4 pieces.
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My tele is solid black, and fairly recent. It is one of the special run blackout telecasters. I suspect it is probably about as bad as those in the photos you posted, but I can't really tell for sure. My strat I can tell easily. It is one of the vintage player series guitars finished in gold, and I can see a tiny bit of finish sink where the pieces join when looking at the body from an angle. I remember fender was using three piece alder body as a selling point of these player models when they were released, over the normal poplar MIM models.
 
Tiltsta said:
My tele is solid black, and fairly recent. It is one of the special run blackout telecasters. I suspect it is probably about as bad as those in the photos you posted, but I can't really tell for sure. My strat I can tell easily. It is one of the vintage player series guitars finished in gold, and I can see a tiny bit of finish sink where the pieces join when looking at the body from an angle. I remember fender was using three piece alder body as a selling point of these player models when they were released, over the normal poplar MIM models.
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this pic is of the standard MIM line. the blackout is probably one of them. so yeah, 5-7 pieces. the higher lines use fewer pieces. also, Fender switched to Alder about 5 years ago. my '98 Precision is poplar.
 
Thank you, thank you very much, for putting up all these pictures. I looked at each one.
I can see why you were having a good time, seeing the look that cute girl is giving you in photo #180.

But as to your query about "does it matter how many pieces of wood a guitar body is made from?"
When Mexican Stratocasters first came out, a lot of guitarists wanted to get a natural wood look,
and sanded them down, only to find pieced together bodies.
That's enough of a "does it matter" answer for now.
 
My tele sounds pretty good, and is fairly resonant, but I don't have another tele with which to compare it.
 
John Watt said:
Thank you, thank you very much, for putting up all these pictures. I looked at each one.
I can see why you were having a good time, seeing the look that cute girl is giving you in photo #180.

But as to your query about "does it matter how many pieces of wood a guitar body is made from?"
When Mexican Stratocasters first came out, a lot of guitarists wanted to get a natural wood look,
and sanded them down, only to find pieced together bodies.
That's enough of a "does it matter" answer for now.
Click to expand...

these aren't my pictures.
 
My understanding is that with the MIM Fenders, the guitar bodies with a solid finish were made from more pieces of wood than the ones with a trans finish, for obvious reasons. I do think there is a difference, but I'm not sure after you get to three pieces if there is much of a difference between three and six or seven.

My Benford is a two piece body.
 
And I was so happy for you too, being there, seeing all those parts.
That one photo with all the tremolo blocks stacked on the table got me going, looking for lefties,
and then the next picture is a pile of tremolo plates, all left-handed.
I got semi-excited... and... and... it crawled into my hand.... honest!

Now I can say, hey hey Jose, your mama made your guitar!

When building a solid-body guitar, from solid pieces of wood,
the most practical application is one piece down the middle, aligned with the neck grain,
and one piece on each side, with the grain going the opposite way.
That helps with tension from the strings, and has been basic construction from the start.
Anything else is cheaping you down.
 
John Watt said:
When building a solid-body guitar, from solid pieces of wood,
the most practical application is one piece down the middle, aligned with the neck grain,
and one piece on each side, with the grain going the opposite way.
That helps with tension from the strings, and has been basic construction from the start.
Anything else is cheaping you down.
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you should join The Gear Page. they would LOVE you there.
 
I don't think I could handle The Gear Page. I'm still upset about seeing Jimi's package, and not wanting to play with it.

Seeing a pile of unfinished guitar bodies in those pictures, Strats, Teles, one f-hole Teles, flying v's, other shapes, got to me.
They all just looked like pieces of wood, solid pieces of wood glued together, side by side, no acoustics at all.
Don't even dare typing resonance to me. That's low-balling acoustics.
 
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Tiltsta said:
I can live with 1, 2, 3 piece bodies, but 7 pieces seems excessive to me. Even worse if they then add a chunk of veneer on top of that, glue it all together and coat it in plastic. Not sure when fender mexico started using so many pieces of wood. My MIM fender strat looks to be three pieces. I can't tell on my telecaster. I can't say if it hurts sound or resonance, but it certainly isn't a good thing.
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That's kind of my thoughts as well. Most of my guitars are 3 piece bodies...my Warmoths, my Wolfgangs, and even my PRS. In fact, the only one piece bodies I have are my Gibson LP Standard and my Edwards. I've never felt that my 3 piece bodies were lacking in any way. :shrug:

I don't know if I've ever owned a 7 piece body. 3 is about my limit for what I consider acceptable.
 
I don't think it matters at all... My old Washburn Falcon has a 5-piece neck through the body, with two body sides, and two piece maple top... That is 9 pieces total, and it sounds great... A Gibson 335 has plates that are each made with 4-ply veneer, a center block, a piece at the end of the center block, and purfing on top and bottom... That makes 12 pieces in a famous guitar body that everyone loves...
 
Oh, it matters. It really matters.
The construction method that allows the most acoustic characteristics, and balanced design,
is using one board cut like a sandwich, so your top and bottom are same grain all the way.
In between, you can be built like a violin to anything like a solid body, with all the potential sounds in between.
Believe me, when your guitar starts making sounds back at you, all by itself, it really matters.
 
it only REALLY matters if there are any air gaps in the joints...air in the joints would increase the bodies damping factor quite a bit...but if the joints are tight and most of the glue is pressed out it shouldn't make a major difference if there are 2 or 7 pieces...

One of the primary reasons that 1-piece bodies are rare and cost premiums is because finding a log big enough to yield a stable piece large enough to carve a bidy is becoming more and more difficult...
 
jelloman said:
it only REALLY matters if there are any air gaps in the joints...air in the joints would increase the bodies damping factor quite a bit...but if the joints are tight and most of the glue is pressed out it shouldn't make a major difference if there are 2 or 7 pieces...

One of the primary reasons that 1-piece bodies are rare and cost premiums is because finding a log big enough to yield a stable piece large enough to carve a bidy is becoming more and more difficult...
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yep.
 
One piece solid-body guitars are bad designs, that's why you don't see a lot.
Any solid piece of wood the size of a guitar body will warp with string tension.
That's why cutting it into three pieces for neck placement is the basic technique.

Anything about a guitar body can't be described as a dampening factor, if it just doesn't create acoustics at the start.
You have to dampen what exists already.
Even if there is a component that could be seen as a dampening factor,
it's probably built that way to nullify acoustic activity, or balance the overall "resonance".

Although it's a small one, your air gap in glue joints, any interior space could be called a chamber.
 
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