Guitar Weight

[Infliktor]

Ok in theory when you compare a mahagony  Les Paul or PRS  with a maple cap  thats say 8.5 pounds versus 10 pounds, what kind of tone difference will be heard?

[Twinfan]

I find the heavier guitars fizzier, not as clear and defined, and too 'pushy' sounding.  The lighter guitars have more air and space in their tone.

In my opinion of course  :)

[WezV]

i think it varies too much to give specific answers

[Lew]

i think it varies too much to give specific answers

This   8)

There are no rules, every bit of wood is unique.

[Philly Q]

Yeah, guitars are unpredictable beasts.  A heavy guitar can sound plinky and "dead" acoustically, but really sing when it's amplified.

And light guitars can sound zingy and resonant, and sometimes that seems to translate when plugged in, but sometimes it doesn't.

It's more about comfort.  I don't like heavy guitars because... they weigh too much. 

[dave_mc]

well, with the really heavy ones you have the added tonal "thump" of me losing my balance and falling over... EDIT: seriously, though, i agree with the "too hard to predict" answers already given...

[Lew]

Yeah, guitars are unpredictable beasts.  A heavy guitar can sound plinky and "dead" acoustically, but really sing when it's amplified.

And light guitars can sound zingy and resonant, and sometimes that seems to translate when plugged in, but sometimes it doesn't.

It's more about comfort.  I don't like heavy guitars because... they weigh too much. 

I think that's really true, one of the best sounding guitars I ever owned was a Hamer with p90s, it was heavy and pretty dead unplugged but just wailed plugged in.

[indysmith]

Yeah, guitars are unpredictable beasts.  A heavy guitar can sound plinky and "dead" acoustically, but really sing when it's amplified.

And light guitars can sound zingy and resonant, and sometimes that seems to translate when plugged in, but sometimes it doesn't.

It's more about comfort.  I don't like heavy guitars because... they weigh too much. 

I think that's really true, one of the best sounding guitars I ever owned was a Hamer with p90s, it was heavy and pretty dead unplugged but just wailed plugged in.

+1 - that's what my 12lb Greco was like

[gwEm]

do you think this might be as a result of nice pickups?

[Lew]

Imo it's going to matter but changing pups has never transformed a guitar into something else for me.

I personally think the pickup can reinforce-shape what the wood rather than dictating the sound but I know alot of players that will say an electric guitars tone is 100% because of the pickups too...

[MDV]

I dunno about the weight thing. I've heard it both ways. Theres good sound logic to heavier guitars having more low end, and sometimes it works out that way and sometimes it doesnt. Theres a lot more than just weight going on!

On guitars + pickups - its a combination thing. A pickup can only pick up whats in the vibration of the string right above it, but it picks it up in a certain way and with certain frequency biasses, I suppose you could call them. Sometimes changing pickups has little to no effect, sometimes its vast.

[Zaned]

I tend to like lighter guitars. It's not a comfort issue for me really; lift some weights and eat some steak and you'll be fine, like Zakk Wylde said (take this with humor :D I know that people who have hurt their back or neck can have painful experiences with heavy guitars like Les Pauls).

Well, back to the weight. Like was said, every piece of wood is different. But in general, when the body is GOOD QUALITY and light in weight, it's easier for the strings to make the wood vibrate. Simple physics. And hence, more of the woods tone is brought out. I believe that is why I usually find the heavy guitars lacking in personality. They don't resonate that well. It's easy to make a lighter guitar feed back in a musical way.

My opinion, once again. And of course, you have to take into account that some wood species are naturally heavier than others, like maple vs. swamp ash.

On the neck, I think stiff and hard woods are the ones to go for.

-Zaned

[Bob Johnson]

This is the perennial question isn't it? Weight (density or SG) is only one tiny factor. You could find a bit of swamp ash and a some poplar for instance that have a very similar specific gravity but the swamp ash is light because it has a very open structure between much harder strata making it very stiff for it's weight, poplar is light because of it's slightly pulpy consistency and and tends to have a stringy fibrous grain structure. This makes them acoustically very different. Light weight woods with good hard strata like swamp ash transmit vibration very well and have a lesser tendency to loose top, woods with soft pulpy strata, whether they are heavy or not, will tend to absorb vibration and in these cases the top end is the first to go.

As Wez and Co have said the variables involved mean you virtually have to treat each piece of wood as a separate entity and treat the properties of each as mere trends and not absolutes.

[MrBump]

I think that it's less to do with how heavy they are, and more to do with what colour they are.

[Bradock PI]

The sound boards on an acoustic instrument resonate to produce audible levels of sound the wood and characteristics are hugely significant and a great deal depends on how thin the top is and what kind of wood but more significant is the luthier as they can in pinciple 'shape out' their tone from any wood.

For an electric guitar the stings moving in and perturbing a magnetic field are the principle source of the sound. The shape of that magnetic field and the way the strings move relative too it will be the predominant source of the sound and the character of it. Energy transitions from the field to the pickup coils will only depend on the string and pickup motion.

The ability of the neck and body to not disipate the energy or to move it into other modes of vibration within the string will strongly influence the character of the instrument and it is likely again that the structure and the luthier will have more influence on these mode changes than the wood used. The type of pickup and its relative positioning must make a huge difference.

In a solid body guitar the relative motion of the body vis-a-vis the pickups will be tiny the twisting and flexing of the neck will be much greater and therefore have a larger impact. In this sence the way the body holds on to the neck will be pivotal in affecting tone and character.