Strat "universal" pup route and tone?

[B3Guy]

Hey, everyone! Does anybody have experience with the "universal" pup routing on a strat? Does this route affect the guitar's tone very much? (Obviously, this rout removes more wood from the body, so I was just wondering . . .) I am also thinking about having Warmoth build me a 7/8 scale strat. Would the combo of a smaller body and a bigger route affect the tone?

 

[D-rock]

well generally the more wood you remove; the more the sound changes, but not always in a bad way. A solid body guitar has a a very dense in your face kinda tone. When more wood is removed the sound becomes more open and big sounding. For a universal route I don't think it will affect the tone so bad. Might add some hollow body characteristics 

 

[bagman67]

Seems to me there wouldn't be that huge a difference (note that I don't speak from experience).

Consider:  On a strat, the pickups are suspended from a sheet of plastic (i.e., the pickguard), and don't contact the wood.  Maybe the pickguard itself would be more likely to resonate via feedback where the area it contacts the wood is diminished due to a larger rout; however, beyond that, I don't think the universal rout removes that much more lumber, so the body's resonance would not likely change in any significant way.