What's maximum number wood pieces in Fender Am.Standard body??

These days, three seems to be the norm.

 

hmm well with that price, it SHOULD be a 1 or 2 piece but most likely its a 3 piece. 4 i think is unacceptable.

 

Why?

Can you hear the difference?

Please post audio files.

 

I've got it from a respected luthier that there is no difference between 1, 2 or 3 piece bodies, even less if the bass is painted and the joins are not visible at all.

Also with the reduction in availability of sustainable/green woods multiple piece bodies are a good way to save a precious resource. It's also a good way to keep cost down making less go further.

 

*ding ding ding* We have a winner!

Add to this that using smaller wood stock also allows a builder to create instruments that can be overall more 'standard' in weight rather than super heavy or super light instruments. Consistency is a great thing.

I have a guitarist friend who bought into the mythology and sprung a good deal of cash for a one piece strat body. He paid a ton for it and got it and...has complained ever since. Because wood stock of that size is fairly rare, don't plan on being picky about the weight. His weighs more than most basses, and after one 1.5 hour set he's propped in the corner with a back ache. More sustain? Nope. No more than a humble MIA production line or his old MIM production guitar.

 

well, a 4 piece ash body would look horrible IMO. Alder? don't care much as well as solid finishes. But for woods with a nice figuring, 1 or 2 is ok, 3 is meh, and 4 is totally unacceptable. All of this is look-wise only.

 

Cosmetics on a natural finish do have a lot to do with it, but you'd be surprised at how well three pieces can be put together, looking like a single piece, except under close inspection. Obviously there is a bit of skill involved in that.

 

I think I paid $200 for a 5 lb Swamp Ash body one piece.
(Unfinished and I finished it myself).

Make it the way the you want go Warmoth and bring everything to a respected Luither for the build.

I know a lot will say it makes no difference.
If there is its going to be a subtle vibration difference at best.

However to get into chiplexic point...Yes $1299 I thiknk a 4 piece body is to much. Its like they are Frankenstein-ing it (in a cheap kind of way).

 

A one piece body is more likely to warp than 3 or more pieces.

 

That makes sense.
Multiple lams of wood be more stable.

Question: How stable do you need a Jazz bass body to be?

However
I have never seen a warped electric bass body ever.

If someone has please post a link, pic ect.

I have heard of the rare issue of a acoustic guitar top.

I'm not pressing an argument here just playing devils advocate.

If an instrument cost more then a $1000 and the body is made up of 4 different pieces of wood and its not some boutique build where this is done of tonal reasons first (with esthetiques being another reason but #2 IMHO)

Then I think its overpriced instrument period.

 

Mine has a trans finish and is a book-matched 2 piece swamp ash body. If it were an opaque finish, it probably wouldn't matter how many pieces of wood it has, but for natural or trans finishes, the less pieces the better. I actually like the looks of my book-matched 2 piece better than some of the one piece bodies I have seen, but that is a matter of personal taste and everyone has different tastes.

 

So what you are saying is that you don't really think that?

I will add, that there are no tonal advantages of multiple pieces of the same type of wood.

The great thing about most multiple piece bodies is that they are painted so there is no way of telling anyway. There is also the consideration that there is more labor involved in gluing pieces together - so you could argue that a multiple piece bass is more labor intensive than a single piece, therefore it should cost more!

 

What costs more...

Gluing cut wood or the actual stock for the one piece?

Honestly I don't know but I'm going to guess its the stock.

Also the more pieces you glue together the heavier that body gets (thats an issue to lots of folks) just look in the classifieds and you will see that weigh is one of the most common questions.

4 pieces of wood = 3 glue joints for something roughtly 1.75" thick by 21" long to 14.5" wide

If you think about that slab is not that big.

Gluing together sounds like a major cost cutting expense.

 

My guess is the body size is the same whether its a single piece of wood or 3 pieces glued together. The shaping and routing is done after the gluing. The thick paint on my MIA Jazz probably masks any tonal qualities of the wood.

 

I agree. I had a natural ash 2003 usa p bass that was three pieces. None but the best trained eye could see that except if you looked at the edge where the grain didn't flow in the same direction. Arguably good book matching can make a nicer looking body.

 

Totally agree with you re the good book match.

Here's a pic of multiple piece ash: any guesses how many anyone?

Clue: it's more than one!

 

4?

 

Hi,

I was just passing by and noticed this thread with information needing an update. I've taken a message I have posted about Fender Strats American Standard bodies on another forum, and adapted it cause it applies to basses as well.

I'm only talking about Fender USA Standard, as there's no rule for the CS.

Painted Fender USA Standard bodies are and have always been made of 3 to 9 pieces of wood. Today the norm seems to be between 3 and 5, in the early 70's it was commonly more than 6.

Natural and Sunburst USA Standard bodies are usually made of 3 to 4 pieces of wood, but some early 70 models commonly used up to 7 pieces : I've seen very nice looking sunburst 70's bodies with 7 "matched" pieces.

Ash bodies usually use fewer pieces cause Ash wood grain is not as easy to "match" as Alder.

Lately (since 2010) Fender seems to be using 3 and 4 pieces bodies for sunburst American Standard, more pieces for opaque finishes. 3 pieces bodies are often ugly in sunburst finish cause wood joins are not symmetrically positioned and located in the zone were lacquer is clear.

Personally I believe 4 pieces body to be superior to 3 pieces for a sunburst finish. With 2 well matched center pieces and 2 edge pieces : the darkening of the sunburst will hide the joins located on the edges leaving only the center join visible.

Fender quality has improved since 2010 or so, more attention is paid to matching body pieces in translucent finishes.

The weight and tonal impact of glue between pieces is negligible as long as quality glue is used, and glue joins are thin. In fact : for a Fender, joins are so thin that they can happen to be nearly unnoticeable even when looking closely. Some of the most high end boutique guitar bodies are made of more than 10 pieces, take Alembic for example, starting at $7000, but it's not the same kind of bass ...

JP