How to find if it's plywood

[BetaFunk]

Many BCers probably know this but i've just found how to tell if your guitar or bass is made of plywood without taking the neck or pickguard off.

Put instrument in car and leave over night in freezing temperatures. In morning get instrument out of car and put in warm room. If it's plywood you'll see on the side of the guitar as the condensation forms the lines of the laminate clearly in the condensation.

[lowdowner]

Ouch... can't do the bass much good to be treated like that though?

Have pity on the poor little instrument!

[Fat Rich]

Or if it sounds rubbish!

There are some pretty good sounding ply basses out there but somehow they never seem to resonate like a solid wood body. Too gluey, probably.

Edited January 25, 2013 by Fat Rich

[BigRedX]

Does it really matter? So long as the bass sounds good and works as expected, is what it's made of even the slightest bit important?

Here's another plywood bass:

[IMG]http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n249/BigRedX/0457-4.jpg[/IMG]

[LukeFRC]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1359129691' post='1950385']
Does it really matter? So long as the bass sounds good and works as expected, is what it's made of even the slightest bit important?

Here's another plywood bass:


[/quote] yeah shoddy cheap looking thing too

[Dom in Dorset]

My fretless is ply , sounds great.
I suspect that crappy sounding plywood basses would be crappy sounding even if the body was replaced with solid wood, until someone built identical basses one wood , one ply , we'll never know for certain.

[White Cloud]

[quote name='Fat Rich' timestamp='1359128711' post='1950350']
Or if it sounds rubbish!

There are some pretty good sounding ply basses out there but somehow they never seem to resonate like a solid wood body. Too gluey, probably.
[/quote]
It could be argued that Alembics, Ken Smiths and any other laminated basses are merely hugely expensive ply construction!

[Paul S]

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1359125989' post='1950287']
Many BCers probably know this but i've just found how to tell if your guitar or bass is made of plywood without taking the neck or pickguard off.
[/quote]

Saw it in half and see if it is stripey in the middle?

[Marvin]

I have a bass made of ply and it sustains more so than the solid wood body one have. Never had an issue with it. I think I'd be inclined to remove the pickguard or neck rather than expose a bass to such temperature changes to find out though.

[Dave Vader]

I thought my bass was ply for many years, owing to an amusing grain pattern and a poorly placed chip in the paint.
It's not, I should probably not have told people how good my ply bass was.
(Amusingly did the same thing the wrong way round with a pair of stratocasters, still have the solid one)

I do have a ply one now though (checked underneath the paint and everything) and it sounds lovely. Weighs a $%^&ing ton, but sounds lovely.

[BetaFunk]

My original post was slightly tongue-in-cheek but i left an old MIK Squier Strat in the car for a couple of days and was surprised when i left it in my warm lounge today and noticed the condensation on the body clearly showed the laminate.

[BetaFunk]

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1359131378' post='1950442']
Saw it in half and see if it is stripey in the middle?
[/quote]
.........but take the strings off first.

[mcnach]

[quote name='Fat Rich' timestamp='1359128711' post='1950350']
Or if it sounds rubbish!

There are some pretty good sounding ply basses out there but somehow they never seem to resonate like a solid wood body. Too gluey, probably.
[/quote]


my nicest sounding strat was, you guessed it, plywood...

too much dogma about this.

[bassmachine2112]

[sub]Leave the strings on and saw the bottom horn off,then you can check it out.[/sub]
[sub]From a technical viewpoint a lamanated design is a far superior entity.[/sub]
[sub]A Les Paul is plywood-mahogany bottom with a top ply of maple-2 ply like toilet paper[/sub]
[sub]Neck through designs are plywood from top to bottom.[/sub]

[paul_5]

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1359131378' post='1950442']
Saw it in half and see if it is stripey in the middle?
[/quote]

This.

[Fat Rich]

[quote name='White Cloud' timestamp='1359131157' post='1950430']
It could be argued that Alembics, Ken Smiths and any other laminated basses are merely hugely expensive ply construction!
[/quote]

Plywood is thin sheets of wood glued together with each layer's grain at 90 degrees to the previous one. What you're talking about is laminated.

But as I said, there are some good sounding ply instruments out there, hence the

[Grangur]

Plywood is less likely to get splits and warping than a poorly seasoned solid wood. I'm sure there's plywood basses out there that are more solidly built than some solid ones.
Certainly the crappiest bass that ever passed through my ownership (I occasionally buy, do up and sell) had a solid alder body.

There's a good number of things that can be bad about a bass. A plywood body probably isnt' the worst. The best way to tell if a bass is a good construction is probably the name on the headstock and the herritage that goes with it.

[Conan]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1359197597' post='1951351']The best way to tell if a bass is a good construction is probably the name on the headstock and the herritage that goes with it.
[/quote]

Unless it's a Fender...

[Grangur]

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1359197926' post='1951361']
Unless it's a Fender...
[/quote]
I wonder, is it a coincidence that the part of the car designed to deal with knocks and scrapes is also called a "fender" in the USA?
..and what conclusions should we take from that?

I actually tried out a 1962 reissue Fender yesterday. I was impressed. Just shows how good my judgment is!!