What's going on in this control cavity?

[alex1fly]

OP here. This Tele doesn't have a layered body as I suspected - the grain is incredibly straight in some spots so it just looks that way. In others, it's clearly the same piece of wood. And despite the thick shield of finish, the body rings out quite a lot. I can strum a chord with normal velocity and feel the vibrations in the body some 12 seconds later. Anyways, just wanted to close the loop after spending more time with the guitar.

[JB_From_Hell]

My Tele Plus is alder with ash on the top and back. I’ll pop the control plate out and see if it looks similar to yours.

[Mincer]

ppl claim that the less pieces of wood a guitar body is made of the better the quality, whereas for guitar necks it is the opposite : laminate 3,5,7-piece necks are considered supperior to 1-piece

When they talk about bodies, they are generally talking about plywood. Many-piece necks are usually made of aesthetically pleasing wood chosen for the look and strength. Look at some of Orpheo's multi-laminate necks. He can tell you how that differs from multi-piece bodies glued together.

[greekdude]

Could be. Any reason to think this affects the resultant quality of the guitar, as opposed to if it were a solid piece?

ppl claim that the less pieces of wood a guitar body is made of the better the quality, whereas for guitar necks it is the opposite : laminate 3,5,7-piece necks are considered supperior to 1-piece

[alex1fly]

My thought is that they were just using up some extra pieces of wood.

Could be. Any reason to think this affects the resultant quality of the guitar, as opposed to if it were a solid piece?

[Mincer]

I got a Kramer from this era (210) and it is very heavy (4.2Kg). Never got to the wood, but it looks solid to me, e.g. it has floyd rose screws instead of inserts, no problem in the 30 yrs I own it, my same year Carvin cd135 had the wood (maple) colapse near the floyd rose studs.

It isn't that these guitars are 'bad', but I think they were making them quickly, cheaply, and ready to rock. As long as it sort of looked the same as our idols. These companies were under dubious ownership at the time, too.

[Adieu]

I got a Kramer from this era (210) and it is very heavy (4.2Kg). Never got to the wood, but it looks solid to me, e.g. it has floyd rose screws instead of inserts, no problem in the 30 yrs I own it, my same year Carvin cd135 had the wood (maple) colapse near the floyd rose studs.

Collapsed maple?

Is that even normally possible??? Sounds like some kind of manufacturing error, dud wood, or maybe a really hard impact to the bridge that transferred the force to the studs imho.

[greekdude]

I got a Kramer from this era (210) and it is very heavy (4.2Kg). Never got to the wood, but it looks solid to me, e.g. it has floyd rose screws instead of inserts, no problem in the 30 yrs I own it, my same year Carvin cd135 had the wood (maple) colapse near the floyd rose studs.

[Adieu]

My thought is that they were just using up some extra pieces of wood. I know in the 80s, some Kramers and BC Riches were like 7 thin layers piled high like that.

I think THAT was just plain old plywood (or, alternatively, ash, which can sometimes look like plywood plies in a pickup cavity)

[Mincer]

My thought is that they were just using up some extra pieces of wood. I know in the 80s, some Kramers and BC Riches were like 7 thin layers piled high like that.

[St_Genesius]

I honestly didn't know anyone was doing pancake construction anymore - multi-piece side-by-side, sure, but not top-to-back- but damn if that doesn't look like fairly convincing evidence for it.

[alex1fly]

Makes me want to crack it open... You know, like a geode

[alex1fly]

yeah, different grain. looks like at least 2-piece front/back to me. not sure why there would be a top of the same type, unless it was supposed to be better looking grain, but then they painted it solid, so WTF? Maybe they didn't have a plank thick enough leftover to make a body?

Yeah that's kind of what I'm wondering too. Why do a top if you're going to paint it? Could it have been destined for a natural finish at one point? Does it really matter? I suppose I could write in to Fender and see if that brings anything worthwhile to the investigation...

[beaubrummels]

yeah, different grain. looks like at least 2-piece front/back to me. not sure why there would be a top of the same type, unless it was supposed to be better looking grain, but then they painted it solid, so WTF? Maybe they didn't have a plank thick enough leftover to make a body?

[alex1fly]

Couple more