Disregard anything you read on Harmony Central. They can't spell the word Strat let alone offer any truthful info about it.

Let me just say this.. I have actually owned a guitar that was made of plywood. It was a TANARA flying-V guitar.

If a guitar is made of plywood, it's easily noticeable even with a thick paint job. I've been a custom woodworker for 20-years, and I have yet to see anyone be able to hide the ridges of the edge grain that make up the different layers of plywood without it being labor costly. Even with high grade Apple/ Birch ply. A woodworker would literally have to skim the sides with Bondo, and sand it in a way that leaves enough of it on the sides that it completely covers the whole edge. No guitar company cheap enough to make a guitar body out of plywood would ever even spend the money on the material or labor to do such a process to hide the ridges. You can EASILY visually see if a guitar is made of plywood.

I have never seen any Fender or Squier guitar with those ridges. Also, all you would have to do is look inside the pickup routing, and it's very evident that it's ply. I would personally like to physically see a Fender or Squier body made of plywood in person before I would ever come to that conclusion. I've been eye-ballin' Squiers of all makes, models, and years, for the past 15-years, and I've never seen one that would indicate it ever being made of plywood. And seeing as how that's the case, I would bet my life that no Fender Strat was ever made of ply and sent into production. I know what a plywood body looks like. I had one myself. All you have to do is tip it on the side and let the sun (or any light) hit the paint, and you'll see the ridges.

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Well for one thing Harmony Central Don't go to there for difinitive proof of anything!!!!
I have never seen a plywood Fender and if there is any such thing it would most likely have been a Squier labeled guitar and not Fender. Plus I would say it would have been the 89.00 Squier Bullets again not labeled Fender.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

I feel I have heard of Squiers with ply bodies from the early days. Never seen one, though. I have a Squier body from the late '80s or early '90s and it's solid timber - basswood, far as I could tell while doing some modification work in the trem block cavity.

So I'd guess Squiers have had solid wood bodies at aleast since that time. Affinity Strats - I have no idea.

I've also heard that some of the cheaper Far Eastern copies have had plywood bodies; but again I have no direct experience to go on.

The internet: where truth tangles with myth!

Cheers - C

I have a Fender "Squier Series" from the same time as original poster, Made in Korea, CN=serial number, from around 1992. i believe its a plywood body. As above poster mentioned, inside the trem cavity you can pretty clearly see the rough layers of wood.

That being said, its my favorite guitar. Second Korean strat i've owned. The first one i got rid of b/c i convinced myself that it was inferior to other strats b/c of it being a Squier and Korean. I've had a MIM strat and a USA Highway One since then that were nowhere near as playable.

I got another one recently that i plan on upgrading. The neck is outstanding. I realize its silly to sink cash into a cheap guitar, but its a beast that everyone who plays instantly falls for.

hope this helps...

Yeah most of the post I read where people said they had them with plywood, also said they liked them.

Hi again JasonSD: it crossed my mind there's one more issue with this plywood thing. There are folks out there who don't use words very carefully and sometimes talk about plywood when what they mean is the front and back veneer that are sometimes put on MIM bodies.

I've even heard someone refer to an upmarket Les Paul as "plywood" because it has a maple cap on the front!

Sometimes pays to be wary of people's use of terminology...

Cheers - C

I a agree with you Ceri, Some my see that the wrong way when spotting the veneer or a high end wood cap on LP's!!!!!

_________________
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Exactly.. There are a lot of people who just don't know wood types. I've worked for custom cabinet shops and stair companies my whole adult life.
If you were to make a guitar out of plywood, you wouldn't want to do anything over a 1/4" round-over around the edges. A contoured body would look like hell if it were made of ply. Because ALL plywood has voids going through them and differences of wood within the layers. And contouring would expose those voids and layers.

The differences between the grain direction is what keeps the layers from the edge as a whole from being smooth no matter how you sand it. Not to mention that outside of the top and bottom surface woods, there's never any real description as to what the layers are in between. Thus you have softer and harder layers of wood types within the same board, making it even more difficult to hide the edge layers. The grains are criss-crossed between layers on purpose for strength and warpage reasons and aren't meant to be a finished edge, unless you just want to stain it for drawers etc..

To skim the edge layers away (like I said before) requires a process that would cost more in labor (along with the cost of the plywood) than using cheap hardwood.

So the end result will look like this:


You will literally see those uniform ridges on the sides of the guitar (as well as any routed out pockets). Because anyone who uses it will just primer the edges and continue with the paint job. I wish I still had my Tanara so I could take a pic of it and post it on here. Even though it was a gloss finish over a metallic red paint, the edges only had a 1/8 round-over (like an Ibanez). And I know exactly why that is. You would see those ridges on a magnified scale on the face of the guitar if you were to contour it or even go with 3/8" or 1/2" round-overs.

I still have my doubts that Squier made plywood guitars. But I don't know for sure. I've personally never seen one. I'd have to see one to believe it and even then I'd want proof that it's a real Squier body.

A couple shots of one of my hand carved rails just to show off a little.

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The only guitar I have owned that i know is plywood is the squier mini strat i am refurbishing, possibly to give to my nephew, or to keep around my house for when he comes over. he's 5 can't really handle a full sized axe very well yet.

Anyway, from just a surface inspection, I think anyone would have been hard pressed to tell it was plywood, but it became readily apparent when I pulled the pickguard. i did have a VERY thick layer of polyester (was it fullerplast? i don't know.) That said, even with the stock pick ups it sounded surprisingly good, like surprisingly Strat-like. (I have a full set of texas specials sitting around, for over a year in the box from a non-started project, if i keep the guitar for myself they might just have found a home.)

Anyway, as far as Korean strats go, the only Korean model i am really familiar with is the Korean Lite Ash model. i would stack it up pretty well with any of the base production strats from US, Japan, or Mexico.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Well, I tried to look for pics to see whast people were talking about, but didn't find much.

I found one site where the guy was talking about a mini strat being made of plywood. Looks like when people look at the routing and see ridges, they think it's plywood. So maybe it's not plywood. I have a 87 MIJ Squier that is Poplar wood I think, and it has those ridges

here's a link to the page
http://www.fhsu.edu/biology/cbennett/mini-fat.html

You must of been typing that the same time as me lol. I guess maybe the mini's are plywood.

LOL not maybe.



I stripped all of the finish off the Mini Strat is IS plywood:

This picture is from when the finish is only part removed,but it's pretty clear.

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Now THAT's plywood.

The mini Strat? Doesn't surprise me too much. Even in the picks in the link of the black (mini) guitar I can see the ridges on the sides of the guitar.
But now we're talking about a guitar meant for a 5-year-old to learn on.

Ok, so I stand corrected. Squier made plywood bodies.. For the mini Strat. Sound the alarm.. Squier makes cheap guitars.
Beware everyone. Your mini Strat may not be what it appears to be. Send out the bulliten immediately.
The $50 (mini) Squier you just bought for your kid to beat his brother with, spill countless sodas on, tweak the strings till they break,
use it as a dart board, and to wipe the melted Snickers crud off his hands with, is made of plywood.

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LOL that wasn't the point. No one expects a 1 piece ash body on a mini. Talk turned to plywood. I said the only plywood guitar I know of is my Mini. then I posted a picture.

Actually you would be surprised how good this thing sounds. And the neck is NICE. better than the necks on some other brand full size guitars, that sell for 6 or 7 times the price.

Actually your post is what made me think of it. Especially where you said it would be hard to hide the layers on the round overs. The mini backs that up, the polyester sealer was the thickest i have ever seen.

i didn't mean to call you out or anything. i have never seen a plywood full sized squier either. Well, maybe we have, and just didn't know!!!

Squier sometimes get a bad rap, but in my experience they are usually really good, and doubly or tripley so , if you consider the price point they hit.

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.