I've got an orville by gibson 89 terada with a neck heel piece and a 3 pce body and it is absolutely phenomenal. Beautiful 60's slim profile neck Resonates like crazy, and is very round sounding with balanced lows mid and highs....soooo smooth. I've played old gibson's and some new ones that don't sound anywhere near as good. So multi piece guitars can get it done...
Having said that, I think it's probably true that you would increase your chances of getting a good guitar by limiting the number of pieces of the body; finish, type of wood etc...
I would say the best ObG's are probably equal too most standard USA models but a cut below the Historics.
And even comparing them to Factory USA Les Pauls us Orville owners need to be honest....New gibsons are using long neck tennons again; they use 1 piece Honduran mahogany bodies...something the japanese builders choose for only their high end models as well; like Navigator. All of these features make them more desirable than an even the best ObG's (just going by specs). The one big flaw they have is the chamber though....if you want a historically accurate LP. So again I'd say the ObG's are probably even with the USA gibsons,..some better features..some worse.
But as mentioned above..it seems with LP's the only way to know is to play them. [/list]