What's going on in this control cavity?

[alex1fly]

Man, I don't know. Took 'er apart today just to satisfy curiosity about various things and here are some more photos. It sure looks like there's a top to me, probably of the same species. But then again, I don't know a whole lot about this stuff. Do these photos shine any light on what's going on?

[alex1fly]

Interesting, I didn't know the router bit could make marks like that. The finish looks pretty amazing overall on the outside. Glad to hear it's probably not a particle board pancake

[beaubrummels]

Looks like really thick paint on a multi-ply body, or like Artie said - possibly router marks. Though the top layer looks pretty rough to me, like it's a different piece of wood.

[ehdwuld]

are you talking about the wiring?

[ArtieToo]

I have a couple of solid body Peavey's that look similar. They did the routing in multiple passes, so it looks like multiple layers. Just the way the cutting head did it.

[ErikH]

Looks like one species to me. It's most likely 2 or 3 pieces, but not in layers like pancake. Could be coloring from the router lines. The top is the paint layer. There's a chloroplast or some other sealer on top of the wood to make the surface completely flat and smooth and then the paint layer over that.

[alex1fly]

So I'm on the hunt for a Telecaster to add to the family, and I opened up the control cavity of this new Fender Player Series Tele. I'm not an expert in guitar construction, but it looks to me like there's three distinct layers - the alder portion is on bottom, with a layer of another wood on top (the top 1\4 or so), and then the white part almost looks like a thin bit of painted laminate or veneer. I can't find anything in the specs about multiple wood types, but dang if it doesn't look like there's multiple layers of material going on. What do you all see here?