Plywood Guitars

Shark_Eyes

JezWynd said:

I'm pretty certain this is plywood too -

I used to have one of these and it had the deepest most bassy sound I've ever heard from a bass. I still miss it sometimes.

What's yours sound like?

JezWynd

Shark_Eyes said:

JezWynd said:

I'm pretty certain this is plywood too -

I used to have one of these and it had the deepest most bassy sound I've ever heard from a bass. I still miss it sometimes.

What's yours sound like?

It has a fundamentally very deep tone. The scale length is 24", I think I tuned it ADGC as any lower left the strings a bit too floppy but it has some issues. The sound is dirty, cuts in and out very quickly. It might just be a case of dirty pots and switches but I'm not certain about that. And it needs some truss rod adjustment and probably a shim.  I've never restrung it and I'm uncertain as to what strings I could use, it's been one of those that you pick up thinking I'll sort this out one day.  It's been lurking in the classifieds for months which is a shame as it's a lot of fun to play. Perhaps I'll look at it over the winter.

paulnb57

I had an Epi SG shortscale bass, that weighed as much as a small planet, is was multi layer  plywood, bimmed it, bought one with a proper wood body, no idea what, much ligher, both sounded the same...still sits here...dusty....

guitars4you

Simon_M said:

ICBM said:

There are loads of them, from the 1960s up to at least the 1990s, although they don’t seem as common now. Both Squier and Epiphone had some models, as well as many more highly-regarded brands.

Almost all the ones I can think of are true ply, with alternating grain direction. And no, they usually don’t sound bad - it’s not easy to tell the difference normally. Plywood guitars tend to sound bad because they were made to be cheap and are fitted with cheap hardware and electrics, not because they’re ply.

One of the exceptions are USA Standard Fenders from roughly 1993-2000, which are closer to a description of ‘blockboard’ - ie multiple roughly square-section blocks with veneers front and back. Some Mexican Fenders were also like this.

Truly fascinating answer, thanks! I kind of can't believe that a USA standard Fender was built like my chopping board. I've always assumed they were 3 pieces of wood maximum.

as @ICBM ; states, 'blockboard' or sometimes called pallet wood - often 4/5/6 long pieces of wood laminated together into a block - Then the body cut out accordingly with a thin veneer placed over the top of the 'pallet' so as not to show multiple body joins - Never really noticeable until any one takes them in for a refin

Andyjr1515

This Epihone LP Junior was plywood.  Weighed a ton, but one of the best sounding Juniors I've played.

impmann

guitars4you said:

Simon_M said:

ICBM said:

There are loads of them, from the 1960s up to at least the 1990s, although they don’t seem as common now. Both Squier and Epiphone had some models, as well as many more highly-regarded brands.

Almost all the ones I can think of are true ply, with alternating grain direction. And no, they usually don’t sound bad - it’s not easy to tell the difference normally. Plywood guitars tend to sound bad because they were made to be cheap and are fitted with cheap hardware and electrics, not because they’re ply.

One of the exceptions are USA Standard Fenders from roughly 1993-2000, which are closer to a description of ‘blockboard’ - ie multiple roughly square-section blocks with veneers front and back. Some Mexican Fenders were also like this.

Truly fascinating answer, thanks! I kind of can't believe that a USA standard Fender was built like my chopping board. I've always assumed they were 3 pieces of wood maximum.

as @ICBM ; states, 'blockboard' or sometimes called pallet wood - often 4/5/6 long pieces of wood laminated together into a block - Then the body cut out accordingly with a thin veneer placed over the top of the 'pallet' so as not to show multiple body joins - Never really noticeable until any one takes them in for a refin

NOT ALL WERE.

AND NOT ALL OF THE "PROPER WOOD" ONES WERE SUNBURST.

I've owned/worked on several mid 90s US Standards - and I've said it before but I was asked to strip the paint from two (to make them look like the guy's main guitar) and under the paint (solid colours) they were three piece bodies.

All if it sounds good - why is it an issue?

Flanging_Fred

I think the body of my Spongebob Squarepants guitar might actually be made from calcified sponge. Either that or a very old piece of Wensleydale.

The Hondo strat I had was ply and sounded ok once I had removed the terrible original pickups and put something else in there.

ICBM

impmann said:

NOT ALL WERE.

AND NOT ALL OF THE "PROPER WOOD" ONES WERE SUNBURST.

I've owned/worked on several mid 90s US Standards - and I've said it before but I was asked to strip the paint from two (to make them look like the guy's main guitar) and under the paint (solid colours) they were three piece bodies.

All if it sounds good - why is it an issue?

All true - and in fact many of the sunbursts were also blockboard. I did think they all were in the late 90s, but I can only go by the ones I've seen stripped and the sunbursts - which are easy to spot because the dark shading follows the edge of the belly contour on the back, not the edge of the body. (The front veneer is glued on after the arm contour is sanded and follows the curve, as you can clearly see in that pic.)

My guess as to the reason why the 90s USA Std Strats tend to sound thin is more down to the swimming-pool routs and the crap pickups, and I don't think there is any real difference due to the body construction. I had a couple of Strats and a Tele, and although the 3-piece (sunburst) Strat sounded much better than the later block one it could easily have been because the neck was much fatter. The Tele sounded amazing once I had replaced the awful stock pickups and the TBX.

ESBlonde

I've shown this before, but those vintage Gibson ES guitars are nearly all plywood...

http://www.es-335.net/laminations.html

Just remember that when you hand over several "G's" for a nice one!

BigMonka

ICBM said:

I nearly forgot this... probably the most plywood of all plywood guitars!





(If you don't already know, it's a Gibson Zoot Suit.)

I see your most plywood of all plywood guitars and raise you a Prisma recycled-from-plywood-skateboard-decks ;-)

Marshall_stax

baldy said:

I have a Hohner Rockwood LX250G LP copy which is plywood.
I think that it is a fantastic guitar & I prefer the feel & sound of it to a couple of £400-£500 Epiphone LP"s I have tried even as stock.



Looks identical to this one.

Had one of these as my first "proper" guitar. Still have it somewhere. Put some better pups in it and it's a belter of a guitar, well worth the £80 I paid for it. 

LuttiS

BigMonka said:

ICBM said:

I nearly forgot this... probably the most plywood of all plywood guitars!





(If you don't already know, it's a Gibson Zoot Suit.)

I see your most plywood of all plywood guitars and raise you a Prisma recycled-from-plywood-skateboard-decks ;-)

Was thinking of them all through reading the thread.
I think they look sweet

WezV

ESBlonde said:

I've shown this before, but those vintage Gibson ES guitars are nearly all plywood...

http://www.es-335.net/laminations.html

Just remember that when you hand over several "G's" for a nice one!

Solid neck, solid centre block.  Ply plates front and back and a solid wood (but kerfed)block to fill the space between plates and centre block.  I would say the majority of it’s volume is made of solid wood

Look at the Ply in your link... 4 layers of decent wood, not the ply most are familiar with.

compared to a solid body, an ES style of pressed ply construction is not a cost saving measure.

nor does it sound like a Les Paul with the same hardware

impmann

ICBM said:

My guess as to the reason why the 90s USA Std Strats tend to sound thin is more down to the swimming-pool routs and the crap pickups, and I don't think there is any real difference due to the body construction. I had a couple of Strats and a Tele, and although the 3-piece (sunburst) Strat sounded much better than the later block one it could easily have been because the neck was much fatter. The Tele sounded amazing once I had replaced the awful stock pickups and the TBX.

I'd agree with you on the pickups - and that TBX thing.

The swimming pool route isn't the end of the world though - there are some very famous Strats out there with a *lot* missing under the pickguard and they still sound big.

The guitars I modded/worked on ended up with a single humbucker, single volume pot and they still sound *MASSIVE* in the hands of their owner. The other change was the crappy two-post bridge went in the bin and I fitted six-screw bridges but blocked with lumps of mahogany (actually bits of an old wardrobe... might have been honduran... it was old!). He also has another that was modded by someone else with a Floyd and that sounds great too - albeit I'm not a fan of the floppy Floyd feel.

But back to the original thread... ply can sound good as its VERY stiff, and dense. It conforms to Les Paul's original concepts about true sustain - ie that the body should not absorb any of the vibration of the string to allow very pure sustain. After all, his fave sound involved using a railway track with a string stretched over it!!

Bridgehouse

WezV said:

ESBlonde said:

I've shown this before, but those vintage Gibson ES guitars are nearly all plywood...

http://www.es-335.net/laminations.html

Just remember that when you hand over several "G's" for a nice one!

Solid neck, solid centre block.  Ply plates front and back and a solid wood (but kerfed)block to fill the space between plates and centre block.  I would say the majority of it’s volume is made of solid wood

Look at the Ply in your link... 4 layers of decent wood, not the ply most are familiar with.

compared to a solid body, an ES style of pressed ply construction is not a cost saving measure.

nor does it sound like a Les Paul with the same hardware

Was the kerfed spruce layer just to cope with the curve of the top?

ESBlonde

WezV said:

ESBlonde said:

I've shown this before, but those vintage Gibson ES guitars are nearly all plywood...

http://www.es-335.net/laminations.html

Just remember that when you hand over several "G's" for a nice one!

Solid neck, solid centre block.  Ply plates front and back and a solid wood (but kerfed)block to fill the space between plates and centre block.  I would say the majority of it’s volume is made of solid wood

Look at the Ply in your link... 4 layers of decent wood, not the ply most are familiar with.

compared to a solid body, an ES style of pressed ply construction is not a cost saving measure.

nor does it sound like a Les Paul with the same hardware

I should have put a smilie in there, didn't intend to mislead anyone. I am the proud owner of a 335 (hence the online name) and fully appreciate the techniques developed back in the 50s to make these in a kind of mass production style.

Any guitar is just the sum of it's parts, some great music has been made on some very modest instruments over the years, it's just us guitarists that hold some of them in reverence.

Oh and the smilie   ;-)

TheRobLew

I had a Korean 90s Squier strat that was plywood. Lovely guitar, the neck was great, and it had Gotoh tuners, I was gutted when it got nicked.

Simon_M

Well, I didn't expect GAS to come from this thread but here we are:

Matt_McG

I have (although I have tried to get rid of) a CSL branded Fuji-Gen/Ibanez LP copy. It's ply. It sounds absolutely fine. I put a decent Gotoh bridge on it, and that was about it. I did change the pickups for expensive ones, but changed back, as I liked the originals more.

I lean towards the 'neck' theory of tone, too. The guitars I've played that sounded best to me all had really old (or roasted) maple necks.

baldy

Marshall_stax said:

baldy said:

I have a Hohner Rockwood LX250G LP copy which is plywood.
I think that it is a fantastic guitar & I prefer the feel & sound of it to a couple of £400-£500 Epiphone LP"s I have tried even as stock.



Looks identical to this one.

Had one of these as my first "proper" guitar. Still have it somewhere. Put some better pups in it and it's a belter of a guitar, well worth the £80 I paid for it. 

The neck feels really comfy to me, plays well, stays in tune & although I considered fitting a pair of 59 Alnico V PAF"s I have laying around I ended up not bothering as I like the sound of the stock pups.

.