Jump to content

Plywood or Not ?


Recommended Posts

Here's a pretty dumb question... but I thought I'd ask...

How can you really tell without stripping off the finish? I have a lower end Jackson that is way light !!!! A friend of mine has a Samick (Valley Arts Shop) Strat that feels like an anchor!!!! Can the weight be a giveaway that it is ply? Is there a way to tell by looking at the trem / pickup route? Would you see the plys if it was plywood ? Should I just go back to sleep and stop worrying about trivial stuff like this ? LOL

Any thoughts ?

Thanks.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking at the routes is the best way to tell if it is plywood or not. Plywood will be made up of several thin layers that are very easy to recognise once you know what they look like. Solid wood sounds much better than plywood so plywood is generally avoided if possible.

Jon

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If the guitar has a back plate for the tremolo, simply remove that one and you should be able to tell what kind of wood it is. I did that with my $120 new Martinez and found out that it is plywood. As I bought the guitar for travel, etc. I have no problem with that. It still plays nice and sounds ok and making a whole guitar for $120 NEW is a mystery to me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well ... As far as sound goes ..it sounded ok before I pulled it apart.... I'm replacing the pickups with some Dimarzio's and also shielding all the cavities. It did have a lot of hum and noise when plugged in. It my first attempt in rewiring a guitar... Well there was that time when I was 15 that I destroyed a perfectly good guitar trying to put a HB where a single coil was. Yeah I screwed up !!! I used a drill with a large drill bit to try and "route" away some of the body for access. It was an active HB and I had no room for the battery. 10 mins into working on it ... I wound up with a chunk of the body chipped away. The bit grabbed the edge of the body and just pulled it right off B)

That was the end of that .... I call it being young and over ambitious with actually taking my time to research the process. Now ... almost 15 years later ...I'm getting back into the 6 string groove .... Hopefully this will go smoother than it did 15 years ago!!!!! :D

So we will see if it sounds good or not.... Thanks for everyone's time.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...