Hello everybody. First of all, i'm going to apologize in advance for my bad english, i'm from Argentina and my first lang is the spanish. OK guys, my questions are:

1) How many pieces of wood should have the Fender Stratocaster California Series?

2) How can i identify the number of pieces that my guitar body has?

3) It's a cosmetic thing or it could have an effect on the tone?

4) The body is veneered?

5) This is kinda offtopic, but a guy is offering me to trade a Fernandes R8 The Revival (57 Reedition), it's a fair trade or should i keep my Strat?

Thank you very much and cheers!

Any help? bumping

1) No clue, two or three

2) If it is a natural finish look for seems or changes in the wood grain, if it's a solid color you're out of luck

3) This has absolutely no affect on the tone of the guitar at all, no more than the number of seems in your wall affect the electric signal sent to your light bulbs.

4) Usually only on guitars with special woods i.e. koa, curly maple, zebrawood, etc

5) No idea, thats your choice of what you would prefer and like the most

Hi Nacho. Is it the owner of the Fernandes R8 that you might trade for asking these specific questions about your California Strat? Tell him what Ryan said especially:

"3) This has absolutely no affect on the tone of the guitar at all, no more than the number of seems in your wall affect the electric signal sent to your light bulbs."

The only way that multiple pieces might affect tone is if there is more than 5, and it is not the wood's fault, since cheap guitars that have 5-7 or more pieces are crap anyway because it's a sign that the maker cuts corners elswhere also and it's bad electronics or a 1/2 inch thick plastic finish that makes it sound bad. Fender Your Cali Strat is fine.

About veneers and Fender: In the 90's, Fender started using veneers on the tops and backs of sunburst American Standards (Fender still does this today on sunburst Mexican Standards). This way, they could use unmatched pieces of alder for sunburst finishes to save time and materials. I'm not sure if this practice carried over to the California models. If your Cali Strat is sunburst, look at the back tummy contour. If you can see sunburst creeping into that area then there is no veneer. If that area is completely black then there is a veneer. Veneer doesn't really affect tone on a solidbody guitar like a Strat if done properly. Don't worry about it.

I'd say keep your Cali Strat since Fender only produced them for a year and some consider them collector's items due to the unique features and the shared US/Mexico production. They have great hardware, the same as the American Vintage reissues. I've never heard of a Fernandes R8.

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Obligatory gear list: Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson, Gretsch, Vox, Martin, and more Fender.

Thanks for the replies guys! the owner of the Fernandes RST-50 (known as R8 in Argentina) didn't ask any of this questions.

The guitar body is black (solid), but i think that i can see a few "vertical lines" (some of those strongest and another weakers), i'm not sure but i believe the body is like 4-5 pieces, do you want me to put some pics of what i'm talking about?

I lifted the pickguard to see the wood inside, but it's painted too.

Best regards!

Double post, sorry.