Got bored and weighed some guitars. What is considered heavy/light?

BeZo said:
Comparing guitars to each other makes sense. Some are heavier, some are lighter. Weigh them all and create a scale. Science!

I usually use complaints about guitar weight to calibrate the strength of the complainer. Aww, is an 11 lb Les Paul too heavy for you? Shut up and go do push-ups!

I gigged with solid figured maple Spector basses for years. You guys and your 9 lb "heavy" guitars are humorous to me.

I should weigh my stuff for science though.
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I have been playing bass since 13 so yeah, guitar weight never really mattered to me.

On that note, I need to weigh my bass! Lol
 
blackba said:
I don't think for me there is a direct correlation with weight and tone. Only reason I care about weight is I don't want my shoulder or back to hurt after a long time playing live, otherwise it wouldn't matter to me. And with bass I have no options, both my jazz bass and MM sterling 5 are 10lbs, is what it is with bass.

I just got my 73 custom Les Paul refurbed and the bridge was collapsing. With the new bridge, its like a completely new guitar. I always thought it was dark before, but now it sings. I wonder how many norlins have collapsing bridges that really need to be replaced.
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IME there isn’t a correlation with weight and how good the tone is, but IME definitely a clear correlation with weight and certain aspects to the sound. Almost always I find the heavier guitars have also denser/heavier sounding, more compact notes that hit your harder and breathe a bit less and light guitars have airier sounding notes and often IME more complexity to them. These differences maybe not be super clear if you’re comparing say a 7.5lbs and 9lbs, but I think with say in general a 10.5lbs vs 7.5lbs guitar the difference would be very clear (to me at least), also assuming the guitars have at least somewhat similar specs other than weight
 
braintheory said:
IME there isn’t a correlation with weight and how good the tone is, but IME definitely a clear correlation with weight and certain aspects to the sound. Almost always I find the heavier guitars have also denser/heavier sounding, more compact notes that hit your harder and breathe a bit less and light guitars have airier sounding notes and often IME more complexity to them. These differences maybe not be super clear if you’re comparing say a 7.5lbs and 9lbs, but I think with say in general a 10.5lbs vs 7.5lbs guitar the difference would be very clear (to me at least), also assuming the guitars have at least somewhat similar specs other than weight
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100%. There is only one reason that wood account for that. I wonder what wood that be? Woodn't you agree? :D
 
My tone wood story involves a kazoo. Well, several kazoos.

I had a luthier buddy make me a kazoo. It ignited a new branch of his business, and he started making and selling kazoos as a side hustle. We would sit around in his workshop and mess around with different woods and configurations. The same way you think of body, neck, and fretboard woods, we would do body and cap woods on a kazoo. We tried everything. It was astounding to go from one to another back to back, "Do do-do" the same melody, and hear the differences. Mahogany is warmer, maple is brighter, ebony is snappier, rosewood is more rounded, etc. We would even sit around on Wood Database and look at wood specs to further our understanding as to why we were hearing the differences. Density and grain structure did play a big part of it.

My biggest regret is not doing a video. I wanted to homogenize all of them to the same size and record a test. We never did it. There are such few variables with kazoo, that it would have made the perfect tone test. I wish you all could have heard it.
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blackba said:
I don't think for me there is a direct correlation with weight and tone. Only reason I care about weight is I don't want my shoulder or back to hurt after a long time playing live, otherwise it wouldn't matter to me. And with bass I have no options, both my jazz bass and MM sterling 5 are 10lbs, is what it is with bass.

I just got my 73 custom Les Paul refurbed and the bridge was collapsing. With the new bridge, its like a completely new guitar. I always thought it was dark before, but now it sings. I wonder how many norlins have collapsing bridges that really need to be replaced.
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I worked on a 70 LP Deluxe recently. The bridge was collapsed on it.
I agree there is no correlation on light vs heavy for tone and sustain either.
 
BeZo said:
My tone wood story involves a kazoo. Well, several kazoos.

I had a luthier buddy make me a kazoo. It ignited a new branch of his business, and he started making and selling kazoos as a side hustle. We would sit around in his workshop and mess around with different woods and configurations. The same way you think of body, neck, and fretboard woods, we would do body and cap woods on a kazoo. We tried everything. It was astounding to go from one to another back to back, "Do do-do" the same melody, and hear the differences. Mahogany is warmer, maple is brighter, ebony is snappier, rosewood is more rounded, etc. We would even sit around on Wood Database and look at wood specs to further our understanding as to why we were hearing the differences. Density and grain structure did play a big part of it.

My biggest regret is not doing a video. I wanted to homogenize all of them to the same size and record a test. We never did it. There are such few variables with kazoo, that it would have made the perfect tone test. I wish you all could have heard it.View attachment 398393
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That is the most badass kazoo I have ever seen in my entire life. I never even imagined there was such a thing.
 
GuitarGuy08 said:
That is the most badass kazoo I have ever seen in my entire life. I never even imagined there was such a thing.
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That's the most expensive kazoo on the planet. It's solid figured koa with ebony caps, and all brass inserts and hardware. That's my studio kazoo.
 
Haven't weighed them all because I really don't care that much, but from what I have my heaviest is just over 13 lbs

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and my lightest are tied between these two at 5.5lbs

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A light strat is under 8lbs, a light LP is under 9.

I used to play 10lb guitars and make fun of the old guys who cared. I don't anymore. Standing under lights for 3hrs I want as little resistance as possible
 
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