Guitar weight

[Hsb]

Was perusing the Sweetwater website looking at guitars and I got to wondering when buying from them and there are multiple options of the same guitar, how much does the weight of the guitar come into play if you were to order it? Ive seen some guitars they have multiples of have a 1lb+ difference between them. Id assume and could be wrong that the heavier guitar would resonate just a little different than the lighter ones. Taking out the playing on stage aspect, how much does guitar weight play into your buying decision?

An example of this from their website, same guitar, Ibanez RGA742FM ranges in weight from 6lbs 13oz up to 8lbs 6oz, would that affect your purchase or would appearance be a bigger buying factor?

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Guitar weight

I believe that there is a difference in sound, but it's not always predictable what that difference will be. You really need to play a guitar before buying it if you want to know exactly what it will sound like. You might or might not like the difference . . . but the odds are that with some electronic changes (or even just fiddling with tone knobs) you can make one guitar sound close enough to another to not really be an issue.

Worst case scenario . . . if you end up really wanting a heavier guitar, just get a wider strap and it's not too bad on the ole shoulder.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Guitar weight

I have a nine pound Dean
and it doesnt bother me at all

but if I go from it to my six pound RG2
It is noticeable but they both sound good

I like playing the RG because it is light and resonate

some folks say they get better tone from heavier guitars

I cant hear that though

 

[mistermikev]

Re: Guitar weight

i have back problems so it's really very important to me. I have had extremely heavy guitars that sounded great, and I've had extremely light guitars that sounded great.
one of my teles is a thinline and it has become my benchmark for tone. it sounds great unplugged. feels incredibly light... in fact I was convinced it would be around 4lbs until I weighed it... almost 7lbs. I mention this because many of my guitars are in the 7lbs range but somehow this one feels lighter. I think that is due to balance. so long story long... I don't think you can tell much about a guitar by it's weight as a figure other than if it is 13lbs or 3lbs.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Guitar weight

I have two guitars that are right at 8lbs. My buddy's Les Paul is 9lbs (that one gets the 3" wide strap). Then I have 3 that are 7lbs or under (Frankenstrats are both 7lbs and the SG Jr is 6lbs). Crazy enough, my lighter guitars sound better to me, and I play them more often. Those same 3 happen to be the ones I built. Too heavy and I'm not comfortable with it for long. 8lbs is about the max for me, but I love that Les Paul and with the 3" wide strap it's better on the shoulders.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Guitar weight

My current stable is all pretty light. Don’t know exact weights, but all felt noticeably light when I first picked them up.

 

[AniML]

Re: Guitar weight

I recently bought a cheap luggage scale from amazon because I was curious about my guitar weights. My PRS SE is a little under 8 lbs, all others are 8 lbs and change. Other than maybe a deal of a lifetime, I would not consider anything heavier.

 

[metalchurch79]

Re: Guitar weight

90% of my guitars are single humbucker/1vol with a Floyd and they are all pretty much the exact same weight which is 8lbs 4oz.
Its so weird that they all hover around that particular weight because other than equipment they all have different body woods, but most do share the same style 3pc American Kramer neck, so who knows.
I don't mind the weight, in fact they're easy to throw around and do hip thrusts and the such, you guys know what I mean. Now on the flip side to that I don't like the feel of a really light guitar even if it does sound good.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Guitar weight

Lighter would always be better for me. But I would also say balance is a huge factor too, and weight doesn't tell that story. A 6 pound SG is useless to me if it has terrible neck dive. So I usually have had a way to try out that model before I would order it.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Guitar weight

Lighter would always be better for me. But I would also say balance is a huge factor too, and weight doesn't tell that story. A 6 pound SG is useless to me if it has terrible neck dive. So I usually have had a way to try out that model before I would order it.

Word. My Ibanez 8 string isn't SG neck heavy, and a leather strap offsets the oversized headstock well enough it's not noticeable, but if the body were any lighter, the dive would be bad enough that I'd get rid of it and find something else.

Oddly, my '62 LP/SG weighs nothing but balances perfectly with the slipperiest nylon strap.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Guitar weight

I usually order the lightest available, because they feel way better to me. I usually ask before buying a guitar too, just to make sure I'm not getting a 12 lb. boat anchor that would put my thigh to sleep (as does one of my LPs and my B00 bass).

I don't claim any predictable/controllable tonal effects based solely on the weight of a guitar. I just like the way light guitars feel.

If I can find a light Strat, Jag, or Jazzmaster, in particular, I find it a great selling point, as those guitars tend to run heavy based on the sizes and the extra hardware weight vs. a Tele.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Guitar weight

Weight doesn't enter into my decision to buy or not. There is no consistent effect of weight vs tone on a guitar. Solid Les Pauls tend to be on the heavy side, so I won't buy that model...doesn't matter whether it's 9 or 11 lbs, it's too heavy for me. All the guitars that I build weigh between 5.5 lbs and 7.0 lbs. That's the way I like it, uh huh uh huh.