Tone Tips: Body Weight And Tone
By Daniel Brooks
The search for truly stellar tone will, sooner or later, lead you to ponder the question of how much the weight of your guitar’s body effects your sound. Among those for whom the question is one of the more serious considerations when buying an instrument, there is some debate over which sounds better, a heavy guitar or a light one? Some guitarists believe a lighter instrument will resonate better in response to the full spectrum of string vibrations to deliver a more musical sound, with a more “open” tone and much brighter highs. Others argue that the full, rich sound of the traditionally heavier guitars is due, in no small part, to the relatively massive amount of wood used to anchor the strings, pickups and the tone itself.
There are good arguments for both heavier and lighter guitars, with excellent examples of each. Prior to the early 1980s, it was not uncommon to find a Gibson Les Paul weighing as much as 12 Lbs. and serving up all of the sonic impact, depth and clarity you heard in the music of Led Zeppelin, The Sex Pistols, Boston and Peter Frampton. On the other hand, the Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters of the 1950s and early 1960s often weighed only 7 or 8 Lbs. and delivered the equally rich palette of sounds heard in the music of Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, and the whole first Led Zeppelin album. Good sounds come from both ends of the light/heavy spectrum.
So, “which sounds better, a heavy guitar or a light one?” is something of a trick question. The answer may lie in other, equally important factors. For many, the weight of a 12 Lb. guitar strapped over one’s shoulder for an evening, or even just a set, is prohibitively uncomfortable, regardless of the quality of the sound. A guitar that hurts after an extended period of playing will probably not draw out your most inspired music. A lighter guitar may sound better to you simply because you feel better when you play it.
Perhaps the question is not one of weight but of the wood used in the making of the guitar. Mahogany and maple are both heavy woods, the heft of an all maple solid-body electric would probably be crippling, in fact, but the rich, bottom-heavy tone of mahogany wedded to the vibrant treble snap of maple creates a lush spectrum of tone that, despite the weight, inspires some people to be life-long Les Paul lovers. To address the difficulties some have with exceptionally heavy guitars, every American made Gibson Les Paul from 1982 to 2007 was redesigned for weight-relief by removing 2 or 3 Lbs of mahogany from the interior before the maple cap is bound to the body. Since 2007, the Les Paul has been further weight-reduced with a chambered body that can be as much as 5 Lbs lighter. Some argue that the reduced weight effects the tone, others embrace the difference and still achieve that lush articulate sound from their newer, lighter Les Paul.
Ash, alder and basswood, the tonewoods that tend to be lighter, each reflect, reinforce and conduct a different signature pattern of frequencies, with a significant influence on the overall sound of any guitar constructed from them. It is the sonic character of the wood rather than the weight that delivers the tone. Stratocasters and Telecasters rely heavily on the clean transparency of ash or the balanced tone-spectrum of alder for their tone almost as much as they do on the single coil pickups or the body’s design. You may occasionally find a Strat or a Tele that weighs a couple of pounds more than the norm, but it will still sound very much like a Strat or a Tele.
The quality of wood creates a much greater diversity of tone than its weight. Wood is an organic material whose character is shaped by the climatic demands in which it grows. No two trees are exactly alike and no two pieces of wood will have exactly the same acoustic properties. Older, lighter, better-seasoned wood will probably make a better instrument, and while the basic quality of wood used by the big guitar makers is not an issue, two otherwise guitars made from the same batch of wood may have noticeable differences in their weight, tone and character. Ultimately, the best way to select an instrument is not by weight, but by picking it up and playing it. It will sing to you if it wants to be your guitar.
Comments
“It will sing to you if it wants to be your guitar.”
Absolutely.
At just around 7lbs I love my Squier Bullet. I can lug it around for hours on end and never get tired.
50’s Les paul where the lightest ones, and the more resonant
and they had no weight relief
“The quality of wood creates a much greater diversity of tone than its weight. “
This is the single most important statement in this article regarding an electric guitars tone. It’s all contributing factors, including weight, but the quality of wood is the single most contributing factor. That’s why when you pick up a Custom Shop guitar & play it, unplugged, that it resonates so much better than a typical Standard run guitar. The tone wood is hand selected. It’s a higher quality wood, period. Ask Mike Eldred & see what he says.
I believe the weight=tone issue is complete BS, but believe tone is relative of the quality of wood and how the wood resonates, or even how cured the wood is plays a part in the tone. No two pieces of the same speices of wood will sound the same either. It is just nature of the beast. For sake of comparison..my hot rod strat is very light in the 7lb range and is very anemic sounding lacks punch, sustain even after 2 pickup changes. My 50’s RI tele weighs close to 9lbs and is very toneful and resonant..lots of punch, big tight lows, and great presence and loud when played unplugged. I also have a hot rod tele in the mid 7lb range that is also very toneful has lots of punch.
The last statement is the surest,the guitar picks you.
“The quality of wood creates a much greater diversity of tone than its weight. “
“Ultimately, the best way to select an instrument is not by weight, but by picking it up and playing it. It will sing to you if it wants to be your guitar”
These statements couldn’t be anymore true
An article on light vs. heavy guitars and tone, and you don’t even mention the Parker Fly? Not cool, PGS… not cool. ;-)
I have a all Mahogany Crafter Guitar (PRS copy) that is lighter than my Fender Tele made of Alder and Maple neck.. That makes no sense if Mahogany should be heavier. Right?
My les paul un-chambered weighs in at 8.4 lbs.. It sings
Here’s an interesting article on sonic difference in tonewood.It doesn’t have the “answer” but at least there is more data out there: http://guitarsquid.com/posts/university-students-research-shows-that-exotic-tone-woods-dont-make-a-lick-of-difference-in-the-overall-sound-tone-purists-beware-you-wont-like-what-you-read/12171/?frame=1
I think my 9.5 lb late 70s Asian strat sounds thicker and better than most strats out there. But then again, I don’t even know what the wood is, or if the guitar is even really Asian…
One of the best Telecasters i have ever heard or played was a Chinese Squier Classic Vibe made of Pine that weighed in at over 9 lbs - heavier than my Les Paul. But, as in cooking, a good chef can take marginal ingredients and come up with a great dish, but if you start with good ingredients your chances of having a good dish in the end are much better. But can anyone explain the profound mysteries of the Danelectro/Silvertone guitars made in Neptune, New Jersey in the 50’s and 60’s that were made of Poplar and Masonite - that sound great and are lightweight? I can’t. I also can’t explain why guitar amp cabinets made of heavy genuine African Particle Board sound good either.
I find it has to do with woods (hard/soft) weight (light/heavy) and the pickups interaction with those other factors. I had some pickups in a light hardwood body and then used the same in a heavier softer guitar and they sounded terrible. So the three factors determine it. The ultimate “right choice” is dependant on your personal desire for sound and style. You can use the pickups to alter quite nearly any instrument to sound how you want.
For miked acoustic guitars a small difference may be heard. But with all of the factors of picking, pickups, effects, amps, mikes, EQing, recording devices and processing, wood is just one tiny peace of the puzzle. If this aspect is so important to you then you should be listening to live symphony music, not rock or blues. Your coveted musicians made their breakout albums with dirt cheap second hand guitars. Go ahead and play the “blues” on a $3000 guitar. All guitars sound better when I play them due to the sound resonating off the tone wood in my pants.
I was a dedicated 335 or Les Paul player until my back and shoulder just couldn’t take it any more. Bought myself an SG and haven’t looked back (pardon the pun). Great tone and doesn’t hurt me to play.
I have to disagree with all those out there that wood choice greatly affects the tone one way or another in an electorofied solid body instrument. Wood choice has the greatest effect on acoustic instruments only. The fact is that string choice, pick up choice, fret type, or nut type is where most of the audible differences come from. Another key factor is the placement of the pickups relative to the bridge. Admittedly I’m an amateur luther so don’t take my word for it, check out some of Carl Thomsons videos on youtube or give a man a call. He’ll tell you all about it and that man’s opinion you can trust.
Heavy guitar Heavy sound….
Les Paul and PAF everyday and in everyway!
I,m about to sell my 4th LP I’ve had, I love to look at them, can’t play them to save my life, heavy, uncomfortable on the ribs, high strings on the bridge. Great for studio work, but nothing beats my Strats.
The Wand chooses the Wizard.
Total BS about wood affecting your electrified tones. The wood type only affects the ACOUSTIC sound.
Seems to me that tone is very subjective to to musician. Some folks like thinner sounding instruments while others like the thick fuller sounding axes…I love the clean pure sound of a Start with just a little verb….Others have to have distorted/stompbox from hell sound from whatever they play…Just saying…Different strokes…
I have an all-mahogany unchambered Les Paul and it sounds great. I also play a Squier Protone Strat and love it. I have built a few guitars using basswood and paulonia, both of which have very good tone qualities to my ear. I love guitars, truly I do, but they don’t make much music by themselves. If it isn’t in you, it isn’t going to come from the guitar.
I have three Agile AL-3100 single cutaways with ebony ‘boards, Alnico V pickups, each weighing in at 10 lbs. apiece, and they all sound and play exquisitely!
It’s interesting that this article only talks about the guitar’s bodies. When I listen to my electric guitars ‘acoustically’, I hear more resonance from the neck than the body. This also tends to translate when plugged in. My guitars that are loudest and most resonant acoustically, also tend to sound better and fuller when plugged in; regardless of overall weight. But I would contend that the tone of the neck is more prominent and important than that of the body.
I also totally agree that a guitar picks you as much as you pick the guitar.
+1 on the wand picking the wizard
also +1 on wood often being a very tiny component in electric guitar tone. If you played completely clean through a hi-fi amp and studio monitors, you’d notice a far bigger contribution to your tone from changing your pick, strings, pickup height, action, and especially pickups. Add overdrive, EQ, reverb, speaker selection, cabinet type, microphone, compression and the house sound engineer to the mix and the type of wood your guitar was made of simply fades into obscurity…
Disappointing. The article really says nothing, and simply restates the by-now utterly familiar question. And after copping out on that, thr writer gives us this “quality of the wood” stuff, without coming close to suggesting which aspects of quality might or might not be significant. To those of us who have a serious stake in these questions, this kind of article is a joke. And while any smart player knows to try many guitars even of the same model! And to trust one’s ears, that does not really address the weight question either. 100 percent cop-out.
I have four guitars (electric) 3 Ibanez and one Squier Mod. The S series is the typical lightweight sculpted mahogany very light, an SA series with mahogany body, but more typical profile and heavier. An Iceman, of basswood, and the Squier of some Asian wood. Tone wise, the basswood and the SA mahogany win out over the S series and the Partscaster. It’s subjective, but if you lay each of them on a wooden table top and pluck the strings, the Iceman is loudest, followed by the SA, then the Strat, then the S. I think density has a lot to do with it, and the grain and age of the wood. But then, who knows?
Tone is totally subjective to each individual. If you asked five different people to give their description of good tone you might get five different answers. That being said, you have to remember when seeking out the tone you desire that everything makes a difference, wood, string type and gauge, pickups , picks , scale length, bridge type , nut type, finish, amplifier, pedals etc. etc…....everything matters , but probably nothing more so than the way you attack the guitar, or your touch , if you will. As far as wood type only affecting your acoustic sound , well that acoustic sound is what you are amplifying via electronics. So if one type of wood sounds different than another acoustically it will also sound different when amplified and using the same electronics.
Remember folks, it’s not the wand, it’s the magician. An excellent instrument in unskilled hands is still a lovely pice of artistic wood and not much more.
And what about hollow and semi hollow bodies? Strat this and Les Paul that, but 99% of the electric tone of the Beatles came from Gretsch, Rick, and Epiphone. And they made a good record or two, I’m told.
After playing about nine or ten LP’s from Studios, Classic reissues and Customs I bought a ‘68 reissue Custom because that particular guitar “sang” to me.
I own more than a dozen guitars (GAS big time!) and they all have their qualities… My Squire Pro-Tone is ultra-light, my American Strat Deluxe plus W/ Lace pups and a Fender Floyd is a Swiss Army Knife, my PRS CE24 neck plays like butter, my Ibanez AS73 came cheap and can be as mellow as an aging Dead Head, but nothing sings like that “Paul”!
Rocco, the first step toward not being an amateur luther I think would be to learn how to spell it. Luthier. I thought Page’s Les Paul was super light, like 7.5 lbs… Maybe this article refers to his number 2 or his custom. Anyway nice read, I’ve been thinking about this, I think the heavier the guitar the better the sustain and the darker the sound. The lighter it is, the less sustain and a brighter sound. The rest is so minute that it is not so important unless you’re more worried about your “tone” than how well you play. Pickups and amp are probably your biggest sound changers.
“Perhaps the question is not one of weight but of the wood used in the making of the guitar.”
So that means I can’t strap a 5lb weight to my tele to make it sound like a Les Paul?!?
O.o
My first Les Paul a 1970 Goldtop Deluxe bought used in 1976, as soon as we touched we fell in love. My second Les Paul, a Heritage Cherryburst Standard bought brand new in 1999 the same thing, however, I played about 5 or 6 different ones before I played her and none of them even liked me. I haven’t found a Strat that likes me yet either…... and believe me, I’ve tried!!
My opinion: Every part of a guitar affects the sound - just pick one up, plug it in and if it sounds good to you and plays good, it is good, no matter the manufacturer, price, etc.
I love guitars, love to play them, love to find them, can’t live without them.
The un amplified electric, for the real players, will sing louder longer & generally wider tonally.
This is my experience over the decades! Quality wood Quality build light weight= a resonant
Singing guitar.
once read somewhere that there would probably never be another strat-o-various due to grain growth and an extended “weather pattern” in not so ancient history.
For those saying that wood does not affect tone and that’s just electronics what matters, have considered playing a plastic body guitar? Or rubber made guitar body? How would one material dampen the strings vibration compared to the other? Doesnt string vibration afect the pickup magnetic field which in turn affects how the electric signal is generated?
I have 2 strats….two teles…..and two Les Pauls….and NONE of them sound alike! They each have a different characer…and a differernt feel/vibe. That’s why they each have a “name” just like children each one responds to my playing in their own fashion….allow me to introduce my “kids” to you…theres (from Oldest to Youngest…LoL!)
Jimi - 1981 Left-Handed Stratocaster (Custom Purple)
“Doc” - 2001 Standard Strat (Brown Sunburst)
“Almond” - ‘52 Telecaster Replica (Butterscotch Blonde)
“Ripper” - 1991 Standard Telecaster (“Custom Sparkle Hunter Green)
“Aurora” - 1995 Standard Les Paul (Black)
“Butch” - 1995 Standard Les Paul (Custom Tobacco Burst)
I don’t play them all…...all the time…but when I DO play ‘em….there’s NO OTHER FEELING ON EARTH…that can compare!...
@ Sho - I think swapping wood for plastic would make a much bigger difference to your sound than (for example) swapping ash for alder.
Who are all these guitars and why do they all want to be mine?
Thanks for the spelling tip Dick, I mean Nick. Man, my spelling does suck!!
Have any of you guys heard of John Bolin, Billy Gibbons’ luthier out of Boise, Idaho? Apparently he’s developed a way to chamber a Les Paul so that the body without the hardware weighs something like 2 lbs without affecting the tone. He won’t say what he fills the chamber with, but I’m guessing some sort of lightweight resin. He charges $2500 to do it or I would have had mine done.
One more question: Has anybody else noticed that 9 times out of 10 a Mexican Fender Tele sounds as good or better than an American Standard? Mine does. It sounds better than some custom shop Teles.
I have about 14 ax’s everything from a very road hard nearly falling apart 57’ goltop LP std, original PU’s a another 57’, but it’s a light resonant strat with original PU’s also. This guitar has a broader tone and “wack to it the LP doesn’t have. The chunky singing thing the LP does well, but my 94’ PRS mac does even better, it sounds huge! and can either sing or be very agressive stock PU’s.
My 89’ PRS Maple cap std with a LP style bridge/tail piece (Formerly owned by Daved Grissom, He end up not liking non trem PRSi) is a bright ringy ax that no matter what PU’s were in it didn’t change the fundamental sound. I settled on Dragon II’s and it really have a place now between say the LP’s I have and the Strat types.
I have An ESP/LTD Jon Donais signature, and a 300 buck Ibanez RG321H Mahogany, both are as resonant and singing as the top self ones. So wood doesn’t have a bearing? most played guitar at the moment? a 2000 epi LP with duncan 59’s. Drop tune devil, sings like a bird and the low end chunk blows speaker’s. I have been doing this too long not to know how much weight, density, type, setup and build affect an ax. Reason I never buy a guitar unless I can play it.
I think the article also missed out on the importance of the finish of a guitar…....
I agree Greg. This article tried too hard to please everybody, especially guitar manufacturers. Wood and weight make a difference. The generalizations don’t always hold true, but if you pick up a heavy mahogany Les Paul, you know it’s not going to sound like a thin-bodied basswood shredder no matter how you play or what pickups are on it.
Two words: Hollow-body.
Evan, which hollowbody do you like best? I’ve been looking at the new Gibson Midtown Standard with P-90s and it looks pretty sweet!
Thanks guitarboy, and i totally agree. (plus I admit I am a sucker for all mahogany bodies.) And Hollow/ semi hollow bodies rarely get talked about, and I’m a session player! and I don’t own one,, that’s sad!... I love 335’s,, and many other’s….... :-( Greg
there are three factors that shape a guitars tone,they are wood,finish,and setup.a guitar made with the finest tone wood will sound like crap if not set up properly,finished well and built by a true craftsman. P,S,mexican fenders do sound better than the americans,Ican’t explain that one and I’m a luither with over 35 yrs exp.
The weight of the guitar has very little impact on how its going to sound , the type of woods you are using what makes the difference , the shape also has a little impact . That is it .
Hey Greg, good point about hollowbodies rarely getting talked about. Semi-hollows either. Like someone else said earlier in this discussion, lots of the classic guitar tones we all love were created on cheap guitars by guys who knew how to get tone out of them. John Lee Hooker played an Epiphone Sheraton and made it sound amazing!
Hey Red, thanks for the confirmation on Mexican Fenders. I first tried one after I read that jazz guitarist Bill Frissell plays a Mexican Tele, and almost every one I’ve played sounds better than the American version. I’ll have to try a Mexi Strat, too. Henry Garza of Los Lonely Boys plays one, which he modifies somewhat, and he gets awesome tone. I wonder why they sound so good? Maybe a big helping of Latin soul?
Just another useless article that is extremely short on hard facts and details but very good at generating controversy and passionate opinion. IMHO the last two sentences are the only part worth printing or reading. “Ultimately, the best way to select an instrument is not by weight, but by picking it up and playing it. It will sing to you if it wants to be your guitar.” YMMV
Electric guitar wood doesn’t matter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VEAjPaxpVOw
Yeah G-boy, I forgot semi hollow’s and i shouldn’t have, Rush was my first fav rock band. “La mia famiglia” are Itailian immigrant’s, and all us wops are all Catholic, So parochial school, Mass everyday, mandatory orchestra/choir if you wanted to play an instrument or not! So violinist I became. Later some of the “cool” kids started turning me on to rock. so I didn’t get into rock until my mid to late teens.
I remember that beautiful white 355 Lifeson had, and he rocked with it! Steve Howe’s ES-175 (?) Townsend’s ricks, Freddie King 335 or 355 I can’t remember, the Nuge etc.
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“Ultimately, the best way to select an instrument is not by weight, but by picking it up and playing it. It will sing to you if it wants to be your guitar.” Good point Fred
But Lot of other place’s I would got to for really hard facts if I thought I needed them Fred. Do you really expect it here? It’s a gear retailer,, I think do there best to ad some useful info for some player’s that may not have thought about or paid attention to topic’s PG touch on. Greg
My Strats have a thick (epoxy?) coating. Surely this has to be a factor in how they vibrate? Also, can the wood breath enough to “age”?
Guitarboy, I’ve played the Midtown recently at a guitar center in Beaverton, OR, and I’ve got to say, it’s got some nice tone to it! -Considerably more affordable than the other Gibson Hollow-bodies too. As far as a guitar with P-90s, it’s a great pick. If you like P-90s, specifically, I had an Epiphone Riviera Custom (which looks a lot like a 335 with a Bigsby) and it was about half the price, but hollow-body as well. I traded it in for credit only because this specific guitar had a string that would continually go out of tune from time to time. Just recently I made good on a promise to myself to get another Hollow-body to fill the gap and managed to find a used-mint ES-335 for $1650 at the guitar center in Beaverton and I’ll never regret that purchase.
Started with a ‘69 Strat with an Ash body (I think.. not 100% sure) and it has tone for days and is nice and light weight. When the Japanese started buying up all the old Fenders, the thing got to valuable to take places so I got an 80’s vintage Hamer SS2, and another, and another… love those mahogany body SS’s. Between the Floyd, the mahogany body, and a reasonably heavy set of 10’s or 11’s, those guitars are the perfect middle-ground between Strat and LP. I did get a Mexi Tele and LOVE it. Tone is awesome and thing is light as a feather. Only beef though that nobody hear mentioned is the quality is NOT as good… the thin E string is barely over the fretboard at the 14th fret. But… it is a delight to play. I think the weight of the guitar does have a psychological impact on how you play. I had a friend who had an old Carvin (three humbuckers and all kinds of phase switches) and that thing had great sustain but MAN was it heavy… could never feel ‘inspired’ when that anchor was on my shoulders. * No disprespect to Carvin intended.. great company and great products *
One of the most resonant guitars I’ve ever played was a 1957 Gold Top. That thing was alive. I also owned one of the 50’s Tribute LP Studio’s that was chambered, it sounded great.
I also have a pine Tele I put together that sounds phenomenal. When my hands are crippled with arthritis I may still have it. There are a number of other Tele’s here and a LP Special that are all on the lighter end of the scale.
I have a bad back and all of these guitars have proven to me that I don’t need an overweight guitar for great tone.
I forgot to mention, the Gold Top in my previous post was a feather weight.
The wood does make a difference, it is not just the type and weight though, also the shape. To the nay sayers, just because YOUR ear is not developed enough to hear it, does not mean it does not exist. Another guitar player friend and I did some comparisons on his collection of ~25 guitars ranging the spectrum of shapes and sizes. You can knock on the body with your knuckle, like when looking for a stud on a wall, and the guitar will have a resonant impulse response. They all sound different with the knock test. Then we played through an amp, and without changing anything but the guitar, listened to the tones. The thick, meaty bodies of Pauls and other large mahogany guitars have more low end and low mid frequencies. You can hear the frequencies that are emphasized by the body, and playing with a band, it makes a difference. I believe that the body wood, it’s DENSITY (which of course varies over the tree and even over a body since it is a natural material), as well as the shape of the body impact the sound. For example, one comparison was between and SG standard and the Diablo SG released a few years ago. The Diablo has a sculpted body thicker wood left around the pickup area, but the same SG shape. It sounds thicker and meatier than the standard. Go ahead and try this experiment yourself, it was very enlightening.
As a person that has done some instrument making and quite a bit of wood working it seems to me that it is the individual piece of wood, not even if it is from the same tree, much less the same batch from a factory.
I have a Mexican made Strat that I got from a Guitar Center opening and cost $99 that everyone that has ever picked up has said sounds great. I have other more expensive guitars but that is the one that ends up being played, even when I try one of the others first.
I have them all. Heavy, light, GIbsons, Fenders, Gibson Epiphones and even those overseas models that allow me to leave them lying around the place without worry. All things being the same (meaning they wear “Rock and Roll Slinkys” 11-48s) there doesn’t seem to be any difference regarding weight but each of them have their own personality. None of them stand out when it comes to tone. There is one exception and it’s my ‘79 LPC. The knot in the Mahogany happens to lie directly beneath the bridge studs. This guitar has extreme sustain and a bell like cleanness that is unusual for Les Pauls. Btw, the thing weighs 12.7 lbs.
Daniel, Nice article, but it’s how the weight “AFFECTS” your tone…not “effects” tone.
Evan Salbego, hold onto that 335. Great buy! Also, if you get another guitar where one or more strings goes out of tune, you might try an Earvana Compensated Nut or Buzz Feiten Tuning System. So what color is your 335? There’s a guy named Gino Matteo who plays a 335 and every time I hear him, I love that singing lead tone from the big Gibson.
ER, I’m with you all the way. It’s a matter of physics. Weight, wood, thickness or thinness of the cut, and density and length of the wood fibers have a lot to do with tone. So, according to a recent Internet article I read on the werewood phenomenon, does the lunar cycle in which the wood was cut. Other factors that influence it are the greenness or dryness of the wood. Neat story about the two SGs. Makes perfect sense to me.
To me, and i know you care about what i think, the ES-335 is the ultimate choice for a ‘Les Paul’ sound. A 335 sounds more like a Les Paul than a Les Paul does…quirky thing to say, I know.
The combo of the centre block provides a sustain plus the chambers give you a mysterious resonance that makes its way through the sound. Physics and Acoustics aside, you would be surprised how often that incredible tone and sound you hear on so many classic recordings are being produced by a 335 style Guitar.
Maleko, I’d love to hear that heavy Les Paul with the knot in the mahogany. A salesman at True Tone Music in Santa Monica, CA, told me that some of the older Les Pauls weighed as much as 15 pounds, but that the ideal weight for a Gibson, other factors being the same, is around 9 pounds. I wish I could remember his name because I’d like to ask for the source of his information. Mine is about that weight and it sounds great!
Michael Gorman, right on! The 335 is an amazing sounding guitar. The first time I ever played one, I hit a power chord and got a solid and powerful response out of those 57 Classics. I’ve loved them ever since!
How about I boldy secure a stainless steel pickguard (non-magnetic) to that Strat or Tele tone wood!!
Well the sound test is in, plastic vs steel…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Ab05eK_H8
Tone is in the woodshed not the wood.
I have over 25 guitars and the place of origin has nothing to do with how they sound,You love them they love you back.
There is just no doubt of the basic truth of this article. The tonewood affects the tone. That’s why they call it that. As for the masonite Danelectro thing, yes they have a unique sound of their own but you can’t call them resonant. Their tone comes from their lipstick pickups and could be said to be in spite of the material the body is made of, not because of it.
Further proof of the truth here is fretboards, which as has been noted are not even mentioned. A maple necked Fender will sound different from one with a rosewood fingerboard, and each will sound different from one with ebony. There’s no argument about this. It’s demonstrably true and quite obvious really. Give me maple for conventional playing and rosewood for slide. The rosewood neck will produce less brightness and help to tame the unruly nature of the slide guitar.
I liked how the writer pointed out the composite mahogany body/maple top construction of Pauls. I’d forgotten about that. Thought provoking! That Les Paul guy was pretty smart.
Tone Chambers concept has got me curious.
Then I found this interesting article at Seymour Duncan - Tone Chambers: a history, the reason
http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/the-tone-garage/tone-chambers-a-history-the-reason/
Great article Johnny. Thanks for posting!
I have been playing since 1965, and have bought and made many instruments. Some light weight, some unbearably heavy!!! It is not neccessarily the weight of the wood, but the type and density that makes a diffference in tone. Dense does not always mean heavy. One type of wood used to make a body, as compared to another body of equal weight made of two, or three types of wood will each have a different tone. I had a bass with a mahogany body and neck. I made a new bass made of maple and paduk, and took the pickups out of the first bass to see how it would sound. Both basses weighed the same. The first bass had a mellow sound, where as the second had an incredibly powerful output!!!!
Sorry guys,
but this is a load of shit. Weight and woodtype make a negligible, or even no difference on the sound of an electric guitar.
A recent scientific study conducted at La Trobe University confirmed what I suspected for a long time.
And it does not matter wether or not you personally hear differences… Your ears fool you and will make you hear what you want to hear
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