i have a 2010 usa standard strat and the craftsmanship looks really poor. guitar shows the bonding lines or the seams where each piece of wood was joined together. been kept in the case in moderate room temp. so its not that. the guitar shows all three joint lines on the body. do most of these show that???? none of the ibanez guitars i have do not

That phenomenon is not unusual -- some instruments exhibit the bonding seams, some do not.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

When I first got back into guitars, a salesman was trumping USA Fenders and telling me their advantages over the MIM. I told him I appreciated his pointing out the differences because just by comparing the two we were looking at, the Amer. Std. had seam lines like you mentioned whereas the MIM was perfect. I would have thought the MIM as the more expensive guitar just based on that. I have a couple dozen Fenders, made everywhere, and none have shrink lines. I often wondered what causes them, and why they pass Fender's QC. I also have a inexpensive black Agile that looks as good as anything until you see the big shrink line on it's back. Maybe the body blanks are not given enough time for the glue to properly dry?

This sounds like, "Orange Peal" to me. If that's so then I wouldn't worry too much about that. I personally like it, because it means that the guitar has a thin paint job and the guitar will resinate better. There has been an area of debate on this subject. I've owned guitars with thick and thin paint jobs and the thin ones sound better to me.

The same thing has happened to my Clapton Strat, Muddy Waters Telecaster, and my $2500 Les Paul.

PAris

It can happen on any guitar with a body made of several joined pieces of wood. Keeping the guitar in it's case when not playing it will help, but that will not prevent this. Temperature and humidity fluctuation is the ultimate culprit. If the guitar left the factory looking perfect, or these seams appear anytime after manufacture, then either the wood was not cured properly before being finished, or it has been exposed to humidity changes and temperature fluctuations. This does not affect value, or mean poor craftsmanship. Just poor handling and storage usually.

If memory serves last year Fender was touting having a thinner finish on their USA strats, thus improving it's tone. A thinner finish won't hide the seams as well as a thicker MIM one I suppose. And god are they fragile. I've dropped a tiny screwdriver 4 inches on one and made a small dent. Every time I look at it, it usually has a new dent.

None of them are one piece.
I have some with one seam others with two seams.
They play and sound great.

Seam lines, are we talking about a raised or sunken line in the finish at the seam? Something you can feel with your hands? Or are we just talking about being able to see with our eyes through the transparent finish that the body is made from more than one piece?

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

I think we're talking about a visible, sunken line, where the wood is joined. Easy to see in bright light, not easy to feel. Look at your guitar along the one or two places the wood is glued. Many have a sunken seam the length of the wood. More noticeable on a solid color, esp. the back of the guitar. Gibson LP's and many others that have a book matched top don't have this problem, except maybe on the back.

Species of wood will directly affect the rate of expansion or contraction....
Alder, Ash, Mahogany, Poplar, Basswood, Rosewood, Pinus....all will react differently.
As far as quality control, fortunately that is no longer an issue with FMIC.

I'm not sure where the expectation is here but the subject at hand is a Standard Strat...
Not a Custom Shop Deluxe or....

there are going to be minor visual flaws in the Standard Series, poor quality to me is an improperly set neck, or frets not evenly set into the finger board, tuners not inline with each other, faulty electronics.

From my Standard, to my Squier to my CS to the last addition an Aerodyne, I have not had a quality problem, which is not to say that the guitars didn't need a setup.
All guitars need to be set up to the preference of each individual player.

But I expect a certain level at each price point, but don't expect CS quality at the MIM level.

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Bonding seams... aside from the probable cost factor of 1 solid slab of wood, are there any other reasons why guitar bodies are pieced together?

It's not the cost factor as there are always people able to afford high ticket items.
It is now more of an issue of scarcity. We are running out of natural rescources for wood working applications.
The availability of excellent furniture/musical instrument grade material is steadily decreasing and is now at a point where in the case of a single slab body it is more likely to be destined for the high end Custom Shop orders instead of the mid to lower end production.

Which brings us back to economics.

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Wood can look great when pieced together to form interesting patterns as well as the beauty of a solid grain pattern of a single slab, but does putting together different grains side by side to form the body affect or improve the tonal qualities of the instrument, or is a virgin slab 1 piece body better?

Too many variables to specify a plus or minus in audible tone.
Wood can be of the same species yet if not cut from the same tree and from the same section, will vary as far as density, grain orientation etc..etc...

Multiple slab blanks, if you build a thru body neck with 5 laminates/pieces you can have a maple thru neck piece, sandwhiched between 2 mahogany strips then the body being alder, maple, Ash, walnut...

Each and everything piece/slab of wood will have different tonal properties, but on an electric guitar those tonalities can be seriously affected by the choice in pickups and electronics.

To get a grasp on this subject which if one does a search on the Forum, there are many discussions/debates on the particular subject of tonewoods as they relate to this application.
I would suggest researching woods and it's application throughout furniture making as well as instrument making.
Just in the Pine ( pinus ) genus, there over 100 varieties ranging from soft to hard density. ( Pine is considered a softwood however. ) depending upon the origin, North American West Coast or New Zealand pine offer very different species....

As a woodworker and about to embark on another 2 builds over the winter, I may experiment with unusual woods for one Strat Clone whereas the other will stay fairly standard.
A consideration is Poplar, Walnut, sycamore....

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Thanks for the info 53magnatone and I will research the references you supplied. One final question on this subject... you build guitars, I'm certain that you have built the multiple piece variety as well as one piece. All things considered, which do you prefer?