Does weight effect tone?

[thisisnickpaige]

yeah so those are some heifers, to be polite 0=) but Philly Q you always seem to be quite the knowledgeable gentleman and a fellow tele connoisseur do you think a mahogany thinline would be any warmer then a solid alder or do you think id be better off with a solid mahogany. I dont care how heavy the guitar is, i just want it warm and my thought of thinline was that i could play without an amp it would sound more audible. and i just love the f-holes. 0=)

[Philly Q]

I think a mahogany body will sound warmer than an ash or alder one, for sure.

As for Thinlines.... I've never tried a mahogany one but I have an ash one.  I believe the hollow construction emphasises the highs and lows, there's less "focus" to the sound than there is with a solidbody - it can sound sweet if you pick gently, surprisingly harsh if you pick hard.  I don't gig, so I've only played at low/home volumes - I don't know how it would behave at stage volume.

In general, if you play rock I think you'd probably be better served by a solid than a thinline.

There is another option - a chambered rather than thinline body.  The body's still partially hollow, but it's more like a honeycomb, so it's less "acoustic" than a Thinline.  It behaves more like a solid, but with lighter weight and a bit more resonance.

http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Bodies/Tele/ChamberedTele.aspx


If you want your Tele to be "as warm as a Tele can be", are you considering different neck woods?  You could go for a mahogany body and mahogany neck, maybe.  And get a modern six-saddle bridge with a thick baseplate, that'll help kill the "Tele twang"!   

[thisisnickpaige]

yeah im gettin a six saddle strat style and the neck is a 1967 maple on maple so its gunna be bright hence why i want it so warm of a body. hmm so no thinline i guess? lol i just like the thought of travelling with no ampl and being able to play and hear it just sitting in the airport or what have you.

[Philly Q]

You bought that guitar with the '67 neck then?  :D

[thisisnickpaige]

more then likely yes 0=) My mate is gunna buy the body and such, im snagging the six saddle bridge and neck for $450 so im pretty please, my brand new USACG neck cost me 450 with shipping and tax and such. It's cool how it all happened so weird. My uncle just recently met a professional guitarist and asked him to go check it out for me, i chatted with him, real nice guy. Then he went there just to find out the guy who is selling it is a really good friend of his from high school he hadnt seen in years! LOL soooo weird. God is crazy cool like that =) How it all works; mind blowing. But yeah so now im gunna make a guitar around it, my travel guitar so thats why i was thinking thinline so i could just chill outside with no amp and jam out with whom ever and still have it be kinda audible. Obviously i could just go get an acoustic but screw that i will be playing it plugged in mostly but i do love a good porch jam =) or whatever y'all call porches in England. I know the whole yard/garden bit so dont know if y'all have a difference word for that. but yes, jams out front of my house on the stoop/porch/front attachment. So im gunna build a guitar around it. What you think about it? Then once i decide Mahogany: thinline or not, i still gotta choose pickups and colour lol oy vey lol But first things first, mahogany definitely then? For warmth so the question is thinline or not

[Philly Q]

I don't think there is a UK equivalent of a porch jam!  :lol:  Our weather's too cold, our houses are too close together and only wealthier people have porches!  I suppose someone just might pull out a guitar at a barbecue...

I don't want to put you off the Thinline idea, but with that maple-on-maple neck you're probably not going to end up with the ultimate warm Tele you're hoping for.  A Thinline is acoustically louder than a solidbody, which is nice when you're sitting around playing on your own, but it's not really loud enough to compete with other instruments or a singer.  You might need to drag a little amp and an extension cable out to that porch of yours!  :)

So yes, mahogany for warmth... but if you go Thinline I'd guess the exact wood type makes less of a difference, because so much of the body is hollow.

[thisisnickpaige]

So then would you say a swamp ash or hard maple thinline would be spunky and super bright? The exact opposite?

[Alex]

Short answer: NO.

[Philly Q]

As I mentioned before, the hollow construction of the Thinline seems to emphasise the highs and lows, certainly when you play the guitar acoustically.   It may have less midrange, or it may just have more of everything else, I don't know.  As I also mentioned, I don't gig, so I can't really comment on how a Thinline performs under those conditions.

However, if you search "Thinline Vs. Solidbody" (or something like that) on the Tele forum (www.tdpri.com) you'll find loads of different opinions - some say Thinlines are warmer, some say brighter.... but most say that amplified there's not actually much difference at all between the two.

(Here's one quote: "There is a much bigger tonal difference between a Gibson solid body and an archtop, than between a solid Tele and a Thinline")

On "average" an ash or maple Thinline will be brighter than a mahogany one, but I think the bottom line is that all guitars are different, even when they're built exactly the same.

[Ribboz]

I'm really surprised no one mentioned this. Its a difference of Focus to Airiness. Its all within the midrange. See there is different ways to get a huge tone. You can either be FAT or WIDE.
Fat = /\
Wide= \/
I bring this up because the difference in weight partially determines how the body effects the midrange of the chain in the tone. With a light body you get more "air" and thus can get a really WIDE tone. OR you can get a really heavy body which can have a ton of PUNCH and some MEAT.

I prefer light bodies.
Look at it this way: Light body = WIDE (and comfy) + C-pig tuned in B = $%&#ING MASSIVE XD

I thought everyone knew this stuff. :\

[thisisnickpaige]

Nope i only play guitars and cut the wood i dont know tonal difference, hence why im asking. But i thank you for giving me a real and useful answer not just " play your guitar! ' lol i already do that but when buying a new guitar by parts id like to have a general idea of what ot go after, so sorry if im being annoying , im not trying to be im just very curious.  So i think i get what you mean but just to clarify what do you mean but wide sound? So then would a thinline be even more airy is what you're saying? And then what would you call Ash? and what would you call Mahogany (the warmest kind, i still dont know which is, after your last post in my other topic) ?

[jpfamps]

I'm a bit obsessive about guitar weights, and I'd say 8 pounds is better than "not bad" for a non-chambered LP!   Loads of LPs (and similar, like Yamaha SGs) are 9, 10, even 11 pounds.

A typical newer Fender American Standard Strat or Tele is nudging the 8 pound mark, I had a Tele a few years ago which was nearly 9.5.

There was an early 80s Fender "The Strat" in the shop which weighed in at 12 lbs.

Truly a "fighting" Strat.

[Philly Q]

There was an early 80s Fender "The Strat" in the shop which weighed in at 12 lbs.

Truly a "fighting" Strat.

I wouldn't want to fight it!  :lol:

If I remember right, that model had a huge chunky brass bridge and brass knobs, which can't have helped.

[thisisnickpaige]

LOL that sounds positively horrid! =)

[BigB]

8lb's is light what do you count as heavy

Hmmm, let's see... What about my 10lbs Vox custom 24 ? Huh ? Not enough ? Then I have a 11+ (almost 12 in fact) lbs Vox standard 25 for you