Conventional Stratocaster with Scratchplate - one or two piece body?

jaymenon

With a scratch plate (which covers a large portion of the front of a Strat), I find myself wondering:

Is there any real value in having a one-piece body?  Is it just cosmesis - or are there any other advantages?

Expert opinions most appreciated…

mistercharlie

Is this for a transparent finish?

jaymenon

Sunburst...

WezV

It makes very little difference

victorludorum

I find that sometimes the joins are horrible, and with a sunburst they really stick out. It bothers me, but a lot of owners don't seem that worried as i see a lot like that on this very forum.

ICBM

In theory a one-piece body resonates better. In practice it's either a negligible difference or none at all.

Bear in mind that all the great-sounding vintage Fenders are two or three piece, or sometimes four by the 1960s. I could be wrong but I don't think Fender ever used a one-piece body on any production guitar. In the 50s they deliberately matched the grain, usually quite well - one of the reasons for the sunburst finish was that it hid the more obvious endgrain joins on the sides. They charged more for the blonde finish because the wood had to be picked more carefully, and even then they were usually slightly more opaque on the sides.

By the 1970s they'd stopped bothering! Coupled with the clear natural finishes, that's when you start to see the totally mismatching ones.

John_A

Also, a one piece body is more prone to warping.  A nice 2-pice centre join looks great and is stable too, as has been said a badly matched 3-piece with a transparent finish looks a bit rubbish.  There's an article somewhere of someone stripping a 1950's les paul gold top and the top was 5 pieces, still sounded great

Funkfingers

Many Fender bodies were two-piece with the join running on a line from the middle of the cutaway, under the pickguard and under the recessed jack socket plate. This would go a long way to disguising the join when viewed from the front.