I'm looking for opinions on the tonal difference in between 3 piece and i piece bodies. I have a 89 US Strat 3 piece and a 85 MIJ 1 piece Strat. I just seen to be getting a fuller deeper more bottom end resonance out of the 1 piece, I've swapped pickups to eliminate that as possibility. We are also talking vintage bridge on the 1 piece which i am sure is part of the difference. But i would be really interested to hear anyones opinion on there thoughts on their experience.....

Thanks in advance.

_________________

In theory, a single piece of wood will transfer vibration and resonate better than multiple pieces. The thinking here is that glue has no tone quality and the vibration is dampened when it comes to a bonded joint. A sound theory.


In truth, each piece of wood can have different sound qualities (to a degree), regardless of how many pieces, or even if it's cut from the same tree. The density of a tree changes through-out it, as does how tight the grain is.

My advice would be, just pick a guitar that sounds good to you.

The wood is just a piece of the puzzle that makes for guitar tone. What matters is how the completed end-sum sounds.
People can tell you this is best, or that is best, let your own ears judge what's best.

I haven't noticed any difference.

_________________
Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

in theory the single piece body has a more consistant resonant frequency compared to a multi piece body. This could be a crock of BS but there could be some truth to it.

It's commonly believed that the more pieces of wood the lower the quality because it won't resonate so well. Again, there may be some truth as the logic as to why this is makes sense... but it could be a bunch of bull.

Just look for the best sounding guitar you can find and don't worry about it.

My strat happens to be a 2 piece body and sounds amazing, but it was still picked from a batch of seemingly identical guitars that all sounded slightly different. Based on that, I could argue that the Sunset Metallic finish made it sound better since it was technically the only real difference from a manufacturing perspective - but hopefully if I made such a claim someone here would call me out as a lunatic. lol

Yes, they sound different because they are different pieces of wood.

Cheers,
Robin

_________________
_________________________________
http://www.youtube.com/robinstrower
_________________________________

Perhaps because there is non?

_________________
No no and no

Agree with Mr. O. Hard to notice any significant difference.

Thanks for all your opinions...... I guess the difference I am hearing is the modern bridge then over the vintage bridge

_________________

Worth considering is the fact that if a one piece body starts to warp, the problems can become huge. With a 3 piece, if one of them has a proclivity to warp, the 3 glued pieces will be pushing back among each other, thus maintaining their preplanned shape. As far as glue joints dampening resonance, if anything, it should do the opposite.

As always, this is merely IMO where YMMV.

_________________
You dig?

I've heard guitars with single slab bodies that sound quite unremarkable and guitars with laminated bodies that sound heavenly. So add that into the mix...

Welcome, moonbeard!

_________________
You dig?

Eight replies before the first "one piece body warp" comment.
I believe that's a record.

_________________
Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

After these thoughts and" Thx all".... ......I pulled out the 2 piece SRV for a couple of hours..... haven't done so in ages and my god it's sweet.........those big frets are so forgiving huh!!!.... Its resonance feels absolutely lovely, though still a tad brighter than the 1 piece...... Its probably all in my imagination and I'm going senile early.... ........ It's no doubt just the sum of all parts more than likely.... If nothing else, damn strats can feel like different pieces of wood huh!!!! I feel so lucky I can play with a few anywaz!!!

_________________

Should have been the first one though we're improving ...

Cheers

David

_________________
"Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and buildings and start wars etc...and all that dolphins do is swim in the water, eat fish and play around. Dolphins believe that they are smarter for exactly the same reasons."

Mine's 3 piece and sustains forever .
(Although I believe it being sunburst as in my avatar, instead of a solid colour helps)

To all the "glue deadens tone " people out there , why not try what my old school woodwork teacher did, glue 2 pieces together and when dry, tap them and listen to the tone , if anything, it's brighter.
The glue is always stronger than the surrounding wood, so will if anything, improve the resonance, not deaden it (as Ed Roman thought)
Think about it, sound travels through the fibres of wood
Now, if it's just one piece, the sound will start decaying quickly
Glue 2 or more pieces together and each (smaller)piece will then resonate and the glued joint will carry on that resonance over to the next piece of wood without any noticeable loss, and so on to the next piece
Meaning that , as a whole, that jointed piece will sustain seconds longer and that tone will show through when amplified.

Ted

_________________
Ted

"All right, guys, uh, listen. This is a blues riff in "B", watch me for the changes, and try and keep up, okay?"