MIM vs MIA wood bodies

[awilkie84]

Originally Posted by TigerInATrance

The two factories share the same wood pile. You may just be missing the joint(s) on your MIM.

A lot of MIM burst finishes have a veneer on the top & back.
The MIAs generally have better grain matching done when the bodies are being constructed. I had a MIA P5 that was so closely matched that you couldn't even tell it was 3 pieces.

[boamedt]

Originally Posted by bassbully

The amount of piece of wood in the body makes no diff IMO. I have has many multi piece bodys (MIM) that sound as good as a 2-3 piece body (MIA) Its all in your head if you think theirs a diff. Look at allot of customs and neck thrus that are multi-piece and sound good.

But neck throughs use multiple nice pieces of nice wood,(not agathis, which I'm sure they use scrap cuts not nice cuts) like mahogany, walnut and purpleheart to name a few, not a. fence post cut up and glued together ....but obviously price is the factor of why the don't use better wood .......don't se too many agathis and plywood neck throughs do ya

[awilkie84]

Originally Posted by boamedt

But neck throughs use multiple nice pieces of nice wood,(not agathis, which I'm sure they use scrap cuts not nice cuts) like mahogany, walnut and purpleheart to name a few, not a. fence post cut up and glued together ....but obviously price is the factor of why the don't use better wood .......don't se too many agathis and plywood neck throughs do ya

Some neckthru basses use multiple pieces of maple, with no aesthetic coloured woods in between. Agathis wouldn't be used more for the fact that it would be a terrible neck wood. Body wings, maybe.

[wcoffey81]

a glued up body should be more stable than a single slab too. think of laminated bowling lanes.

[southpaw420]

Do the MIM standard models still have Alder bodies? Now that Im looking at the specs, it doesnt mention a body wood anywhere. If Im not mistaken they've been using alder bodies for these for a long while. Has it changed for the newer models?

[awilkie84]

Originally Posted by southpaw420

Do the MIM standard models still have Alder bodies? Now that Im looking at the specs, it doesnt mention a body wood anywhere. If Im not mistaken they've been using alder bodies for these for a long while. Has it changed for the newer models?

Alder primarily. Sometimes Ash, depending on the model.

[Bongolation]

Originally Posted by southpaw420

Do the MIM standard models still have Alder bodies? Now that Im looking at the specs, it doesnt mention a body wood anywhere. If Im not mistaken they've been using alder bodies for these for a long while. Has it changed for the newer models?

FMIC leaves this open.

At one time it was interchangeably scrap poplar or scrap alder, "whichever is cheaper," according to FMIC, "because there's no difference." I haven't seen poplar mentioned in a few years, though. This was only for the basic MIM Standards.

[darkstorm]

Originally Posted by Bongolation

FMIC leaves this open.

At one time it was interchangeably scrap poplar or scrap alder, "whichever is cheaper," according to FMIC, "because there's no difference." I haven't seen poplar mentioned in a few years, though. This was only for the basic MIM Standards.

"scrap poplar or scrap alder" Disgusting enough on its own. At least use decent grade not scrap. Add, "whichever is cheaper" and you have double loser.

[Chuck King]

The continual heartburn about the number of pieces of wood in a body mystifies me. I have never even heard of somebody who could tell by listening to a bass or guitar how many pieces of wood were in it.

If you have a transparent finish, then yes, of course it makes a difference because it's an aesthetic issue. But in an instrument with an opaque finish, or a sunburst with a veneer on top and bottom, why would anyone care? There's no correlation between the number of pieces of wood in the body and whether it sounds good or not. From some comments, it sounds like people want fewer pieces of wood of some specific level of quality (not "scrap") just so . . . why? To prove it's "good"? Can't you tell whether it's good or not with your own ears?

Somebody will always charge you more for a body with fewer pieces of wood, nicer matched grain, etc. But why expect Fender (a mass producer) to do so when it's not a functional difference makes no sense. But hey, feel free to pass up that awesome black/white/CAR/etc. bass because, ohmigod, I don't know how many pieces of wood are under that finish!

[M.R. Ogle]

Multi-piece agathis/poplar/alder/whatever Squier body...BAD!

Multi-piece laminated maple/mahogany/alder/buckeye burl top Fodera...GOOD!

Ahem... both technically PLYWOOD basses.

[tjh]

... actually, the technical definition of PLYWOOD, is THIN layers of veneer glued together ... multiple piece bodies are in general dimension lumber that has edges run through a jointer, glued and clamped ...

... dimension lumber with a veneer applied, is just that ... a veneered body ..

... in any case, I like when folks snub potentialy very nice playing/sounding basses simply because they may be multi piece bodies ... there is less demand, and I can usually buy them cheaper ...

[tjh]

Originally Posted by darkstorm

"scrap poplar or scrap alder" Disgusting enough on its own. At least use decent grade not scrap. Add, "whichever is cheaper" and you have double loser.

... I am not sure that 'scrap' would be the accurate term here .. for instance, the slab of joined wood that will in most cases be used for (lets say) the current MIM Standards (alder), would leave sections that have been cut off when the machining process was taking place on (lets say) a MIA Standard ... then the 3-4" wide piece (or whatever is deemed the minimal acceptable width) would be re-squared, re-joint, and then glued and clamped with a similar grade/type of wood cut from another body, and so on ... the GRAIN match may be a less than desirable (which would be covered by the laminate if needed), but the GRADE of wood the same ...

.. years ago, poplar, etc were used on MIM Standards, but that has probably been close to a decade ago, they are currently alder, and have been for some time (unless like in the case of the FSR ash bodies) ... it would only make economic sense to utilize the pieces that were cut from previous bodies, or other pieces of the same grade, if they are indeed wide enough to be usable, ... if you choose to label these as 'scrap', I dont think it really matters other than the potential for an interpretation to a 'sub' grade lumber, when it would be the same grade lumber, just smaller pieces ... JMHO

[Mastermold]

Jaco's bass now has a veneered body. Carry on!

[mmx6]

I see

[bassbully]

Originally Posted by boamedt

But neck throughs use multiple nice pieces of nice wood,(not agathis, which I'm sure they use scrap cuts not nice cuts) like mahogany, walnut and purpleheart to name a few, not a. fence post cut up and glued together ....but obviously price is the factor of why the don't use better wood .......don't se too many agathis and plywood neck throughs do ya

Regardless does the type of wood make a diff? To me no. I have played and owned allot of basses in different woods from plywood, basswood even Dano's. If its a good sounding bass then its a good sounding bass no matter the amount of pieces or type of wood.

[mmx6]

Some of the MIAs do not look good with uneven grains for a bolt on neck.

I wonder why doesn't the MIAs use veneer to have a more consistent grain.

From the MIAs I have inspected in the shops, most of the mismatched wood grains is the back p the body. The front of the body looks to be quite even for the most part

[landau roof]

Originally Posted by mmx6

Some of the MIAs do not look good with uneven grains for a bolt on neck.

I wonder why doesn't the MIAs use veneer to have a more consistent grain.

From the MIAs I have inspected in the shops, most of the mismatched wood grains is the back p the body. The front of the body looks to be quite even for the most part

The pickguard covers nearly the entire top of a Fender bass, so naturally you see more grain mismatch on the back. They didn't do veneers in the Leo years, either.

What's the issue w/ a multi-piece body on specifically a bolt-on neck bass?

[P. Aaron]

Originally Posted by mmx6

Some of the MIAs do not look good with uneven grains for a bolt on neck.

I wonder why doesn't the MIAs use veneer to have a more consistent grain.

From the MIAs I have inspected in the shops, most of the mismatched wood grains is the back p the body. The front of the body looks to be quite even for the most part

Yet Fender makes enough good ones that when you get a keeper, it's groove, tone, vibe Heaven.

[C.Linton]

Originally Posted by landau roof

The pickguard covers nearly the entire top of a Fender bass, so naturally you see more grain mismatch on the back. They didn't do veneers in the Leo years, either.

What's the issue w/ a multi-piece body on specifically a bolt-on neck bass?

AFAIK, none. No issues for any kind of neckjoint, whether it's bolt-on, set neck, or neck thru. Multi-piece bodies are yet another non-issue in bass/guitar construction, IMO.