Guitar weight

[choucas09]

Got a freebee to the Fender Custom Shop show in Bath last week. Mike Eldred, head of FCS, said many interesting things including the fact that in all of his dealings with famous guitarists ordering customs not one of them ever mentioned weight in  their requests.

[Twinfan]

Maybe because they know they're not going to get a boat anchor from the CS?

[choucas09]

Well I played about 30 CS and MB guitars at the show and they varied from superlight to fairly heavy. His point was that concern over weight is a modern phenomena and seems to exist amongst the general public only.

[Twinfan]

Right - interesting then!  Mind you, Fenders are usually OK.  I'd be interested to see if Gibson have the same experience?

[choucas09]

I would too though I suspect that LP's being a heavy guitar there is probably going to be more concern there.

[Philly Q]

Mike Eldred, head of FCS, said many interesting things including the fact that in all of his dealings with famous guitarists ordering customs not one of them ever mentioned weight in  their requests.
 

His point was that concern over weight is a modern phenomena and seems to exist amongst the general public only.

I can't see why that should be the case, though - surely pros and rock stars must have personal preferences as well?

It may be partly because some older players grew up in the age when they thought "heavy = good".  So now if they get a custom guitar, whether it's light or heavy, they never think it's too heavy?

Mark Hopkin from Guitars4You told me Paul Reed Smith thinks players shouldn't pre-judge guitars based on weight, that it doesn't really tell you anything about what the guitar's going to sound like.  Obviously he's right, but I think he's missing the point that it's a comfort thing.  If a guitar weighs 10lbs I really don't care if it's the best-sounding guitar in the world, I don't want it hanging round my neck cutting off blood circulation and crushing my spine.....  :|

[dave_mc]

^ +1

I don't care how good it sounds, if i have to go to the hospital after playing it for 10 minutes, that takes the shine off it a little.

Plus in my experience there's a sort of a goldilocks weight for guitars where they sound awesome.

[Philly Q]

Plus in my experience there's a sort of a goldilocks weight for guitars where they sound awesome.

Yeah, depending on the type of guitar of course.  For example, I wouldn't expect a decent SG to ever be more than 7lbs, or an LP Jr to be more than 7.5, or thereabouts.  Strats and Teles somewhere between 7 and 8 (although I'd prefer lighter).

Les Pauls.... I'm prepared to accept they're very unlikely to be less than 8lbs unless they're chambered.  But I still look out for light ones!

[dave_mc]

yeah. I've never actually weighed them, but that sounds about right. :)

[choucas09]

Sorry guys, but I disagree. I've played too many guitars that go against the accepted grain to have any general opinions as to what a guitar should be like. For example you hear a lot about the merits of body resonance, well some of my guitars have got it in spades, but my JJ retro has precious little, but with the BK's I've put in it it'll go up against anything I've got and anything you've got. No offence intended it's just true.

[Philly Q]

Sorry guys, but I disagree.  I've played too many guitars that go against the accepted grain to have any general opinions as to what a guitar should be like.  For example you hear a lot about the merits of body resonance, well some of my guitars have got it in spades, but my JJ retro has precious little, but with the BK's I've put in it it'll go up against anything I've got and anything you've got. No offence intended it's just true.

This can be true - I think the "lack of resonance" thing applies more to heavier guitars, they can be acoustically quite "dead" but sound great amplified.  And some guitars can be almost too resonant, as if all those vibrations in the body somehow dissipate the energy from the strings so there's no sustain.

But I think a guitar which is both lightweight and "inert" will never sound good.

I'm sure you're right, of course you can't predict a guitar's sound based simply on its weight.  I know a good Yamaha SG sounds awesome, I would love one but they're simply too heavy for me.  As I said before, it's a comfort thing.

I also believe that the guitars we as individuals like the best aren't necessarily "great" guitars.  Something about them just feels "right", but to someone else there may be nothing special about them at all.

[Tellboy]

Mike Eldred, head of FCS, said many interesting things including the fact that in all of his dealings with famous guitarists ordering customs not one of them ever mentioned weight in  their requests.
 

His point was that concern over weight is a modern phenomena and seems to exist amongst the general public only.

I can't see why that should be the case, though - surely pros and rock stars must have personal preferences as well?

It may be partly because some older players grew up in the age when they thought "heavy = good".  So now if they get a custom guitar, whether it's light or heavy, they never think it's too heavy?

Mark Hopkin from Guitars4You told me Paul Reed Smith thinks players shouldn't pre-judge guitars based on weight, that it doesn't really tell you anything about what the guitar's going to sound like.  Obviously he's right, but I think he's missing the point that it's a comfort thing.  If a guitar weighs 10lbs I really don't care if it's the best-sounding guitar in the world, I don't want it hanging round my neck cutting off blood circulation and crushing my spine.....  :|

Ahem ..... I fall into the "older" guitarist category and I can never remember weight being a major factor when choosing a guitar up until the last 10 years or so - if you were looking for a Les Paul you accepted it was going to be heavy - if you were looking for an SG you knew it was going to be lighter, so I would tend to agree with Mike Eldred.

[Philly Q]

Ahem ..... I fall into the "older" guitarist category and I can never remember weight being a major factor when choosing a guitar up until the last 10 years or so - if you were looking for a Les Paul you accepted it was going to be heavy - if you were looking for an SG you knew it was going to be lighter, so I would tend to agree with Mike Eldred.

I'm old too.  OK, I'm not a "proper" guitarist, I'm rubbish and I've never been in a band, but weight has always been an issue for me - maybe in the past I'd only think about it in retrospect, when I'd buy a guitar and find it too heavy, then get rid of it.  Now I think about it in advance.

Gotta be honest, this is one of those "I can't understand why we're disagreeing" topics for me.  :?

If you wanted, let's say, an LP and found two which looked, played and sounded identical - but one was 8lbs and one was 11lbs - would you not pick the lighter one (or the heavier one, if thats your preference)? 

We're talking about something which costs 100s or 1,000s of pounds, something made of wood so no two are ever exactly alike.  We all have personal preferences in terms of sound and looks - so why is it (apparently) so weird to have a preference in terms of weight?

[Ratrod]

If I can have the choise, I prefer a lightweight guitar. It's one of the reasons why I like Gretsch guitars.

My DeArmond has the weight of a small moon but I can forgive it because of it's great tone.

[Tellboy]

I think probably the main reason that weight is now a factor in choosing a guitar is that there is much more choice available. Back in the 60/70/80s there were fewer guitars available and guitarists were happy to get any good name guitar irespective of weight. If you consider how many thousands of guitars that have been added to the 'pool' since then (certainly many more than have been scr@pped) guitarists can pretty much get what they want today.