And right next to it the amazing Invisible Body Guitar. I thought that was just a legend but now we can see it is real!

Cheers - C

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Wow...ok so my 85 mij is not a one piece.... You would know better than most... Why is it that I see so clearly in my MIA's the contour of the part line in the paint but I see nothing in my solid black mij?

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I am 100% sure your guitar is at least 2 piece, or even three piece. And most likely basswood, which is a decent wood IMHO. Fender would never use a nice plank to make a one piece guitar for a solid color, as least in the last 30 years or more. As Mr. C brought out, that kind of wood is most likely saved for Custom Shop guitars.

EDIT: I see I forgot to answer your question. The reason you might see seams on your USA and not your MIJ is due to the type of wood, how long it was cured, the type of finish, how much humidity was in the air when it was finished making the wood retain a little more moisture which cause shrinking later.....could be a host of things that causes this to happen. Also the types of filler used as a primer could affect the outcome. With paint and wood there are so many variables.

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

Thank you Xhefrei, Great to know, I was putting this MIJ on a little to much of a podium, Incredible Guitar though, I would love to hear your opinions on the E series MIJ Strats, I just love mine...And its a Squier!!! I put fat 50's on Arjay's advice in it and re did all the wiring. I really have trouble justifying the money i paid for MIA's this thing is just a perfect strat i honestly think its as nice a guitar as my MIA!!...... Have you had much experience with the 80's MIJ??? Do you rate them??

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The E MIJ Strats and Teles are great guitars. For a short time, some had serial numbers (before the E) with a JV and a SQ. I have owned quite a number of both MIj and CIJ guitars. Nice pieces! And the E and older serial numbers are getting more collectable. It seems the HM models do not sell as well but the Vintage Reissue are quite popular. Sad thing is, some people do not know what they have and they think these guitars are some kind of Chinese/Korean equivalent. Just not true. The very first Squires were the start of the whole Fender Japan production lineup.

Here is a bit from my website dealing with the MIJ and later the CIJ:

"There are several theories about why some Japanese Fenders have MIJ and others CIJ. One is that there was a reorganizing of where the parts were being make in the large, expansive Fugi Gen Gakki company. The island of Matsumoto is where the Fugi plant is located. It houses 15-20 different smaller companies, Like Kawi, Gen Gakki Ten, Yamara, Gotoh, Yamoto, etc. I was told by a former Fender Rep that the necks were made one place and the bodies another, while the electronics were made in yet another. I was told that the contract with Yamoto stated if any major subcontractor was to be changed the weaning process would have to take place (MIJ to CIJ). They call it the “Squire countdown.” Since Fuji was pressing hard to get the Epiphone contract, a change was made. Kawi was moving the bulk of their piano building to a new facility in China, and would also be making their own “harp” frames there. This freed up a lot of space in the plant. Yamara and Gotoh retooled to handle the woodwork and finish aspects of the guitars—thus the Crafted in Japan line was created. "

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

Interesting..... Thanks..... And they are great guitars huh.... $450 for a good strat is bang for buck!!

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I used to have one of those '80's JV series Japanese Squires with EMG's in it. I bought it for $150 at a local pawn shop. I regret selling it now, but at least when I sold it, I got $400 for it.

It was one of the best guitars I've ever owned. The only ones that are better would be my American Deluxe strat, my Les Paul, SG and an Ibanez lawsuit guitar (copy of the Randy Rhoads Jackson that was deemed TOO SIMILAR by the courts).

Two things: Like some cat wrote earlier there are more factors (dynamics) to consider and, I feel people get too hung up on this really! Some guitars sound and play better than others, despite how many pieces they are made of. We should file this one under sweating the small stuff.

Just to go back to it for a moment, this is a very fine explanation:

All of that is exactly right. Sometimes you can easily find the join lines through a solid finish and sometimes you can't, even though they are there. And often it has nothing to do with nitro, polyester or polyurethane either. It's just about what's going on with the join in the wood itself.

For example, I recently stripped a cheapo Tele body. Under the paint it turned out to be a seven-piece body - but there was no sign of that on the surface of the lacquer:



Sometimes looking at the bare wood inside the neck pocket reveals when it's a two-piece body, but not always. And not if it is three pieces or more. There's no hard-and-fast test, short of pulling the paint off. Which mostly we don't want to do!

Cheers - C

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Very cool time-lapse Mr C. Amazing how you were able to get the body located so close to the same position for each shot and the screw driver aka clock is too much man! and the camera in the same place, so that took some planning. (Hey I am a geek and I like that kind of thing!) So you back in the saddle with working on some new projects? See this Tele is a top-loader.

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

But not forever...

Thanks for the compliment, BTW. That was my first try (I think) at time-lapse. Got better at it since. Stick around...

Cheers - C

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Awesome time lapse Ceri..... Great info also...Thx...

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Holy Crap! Are you telling me that tone wood matters???????? Who woulda tun kit?

Actually, it does matter. But not as much as other crap and not as much as one would hope in an electric guitar. But for the record, there have been several university studies to determine exactly what impact tone wood does have. There are two basic factors that influence tone. First, the overall density of the wood impacts tone. The denser the wood, the brighter the tone. Second, the variability of the density of the wood impacts tone. In other words, the consistency of the woods density matters. Both the density and the variability of density are largely determined by the growth patterns of the wood, which is often related to the environment in which the tree is grown. Trees that grow in colder environments, or with short growing seasons, produce grains and densities that are very different from those grown in warm environments.

The overall density is somewhat related to the variability of density, in that a highly variable density tends to DISTORT the sound vibrations, potentially to a point in equilibrium with surrounding noise. Thus, is the argument against multi-piece bodies. The joints and glues are sources of distortion. Thus a more variably dense wood will typically be less dense, generally, than a more consistently dense grain of the same species.

Basswood is used in multi-piece bodies because its a fast growing and variably and typically less dense wood. Plus its large cellular structure doesn't take stain vary well. So, its cheap and it doesn't matter if you cut it up because its not consistently dense anyway. Perfect for bodies encased in single color plastic....

According to Mike Eldred (spelling?), who manages the Custom Shop and who I personally asked this question, Fender prefers alder for guitar bodies because of its relative uniform density. Its consistent, which is perfect when you are trying to mass produce something that is supposed to behave similarly to the first and last unit produced in a mass production line. Its also not a bad looking grain that takes stain well. So, you'll see it in all sorts of bodies.

Ash, on the other hand, comes generally in two varieties, black and white. One is also known as "swamp" but I can't recall which. White ash (I believe) is very dense, as well as consistently dense, while black (again I believe), is less dense and slightly more variable. Thus, white is often heavier and to those that think they can split that hair, is brighter.

Now, whether you think you can hear the difference is up to you alone. We cannot tell how much you have damaged your ears playing your battery powered Hamer through a Marshall half-stack in your cement basement between the ages of 13 and 21. If that doesn't describe you, regardless, we cannot know what you can hear.

Moreover, we cannot in good conscience tell you what you must believe sounds "good", although there have been very many studies that show what sounds irritate the human ears more than others. But if you like 8k gained up, you like 8k gained up.

Lastly, as many have suggested, the sound you hear from your amp is influenced by everything between your fingers, woods, strings, circuits, wires, knob settings, cables, pedals, cables, amplifiers, speakers, wall surfaces and the number of little hairs and scar tissue on your ear drums. And don't forget about the ear wax you filthy bastards.....

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BigJay's Custom '69 Kickassocaster
'90 Les Paul Standard "Vintage"
'00 MIJ '62 Tele RI
'76 Fender BandMaster Reverb
'71 Acoustic Control 2x12 w/Celestion V30s
'71 Martin D18
Mesa Mark IV
'65 Deluxe Reverb RI

Interesting reading........ Stay out of people ears though huh...

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My 2009 American Standard is a 4 piece, it's light & it sounds great. Only 2 of those facts matter to me.