Does greater weight equal more tone?

Scott Powell

Scott Powell

Blackmore Wannabe
I have a 1976 Les Paul Custom with the Sandwich Body . I bought it in 1989 and about 20 years ago i replaced the 1979 Seymour Duncan Super Distortion pickup with a 1996 Super Distortion in the Bridge and this guitar has ALWAYS screamed. Its by far the loudest guitar I own and has the absolute heaviest ,thickest tone of any of my guitars.
Its a beast, it weighs almost 15 pounds and it kicks my ass to play four 45 minutes sets with it but that TONE!
so, is the extreme weight the secret to its massive tone?
 
You're playing a les paul through a marshall, it better sound just like that, lol. :rawk:

FWIW, my les paul custom is pretty heavy (not 15 pounds, maybe 10), and it sustains pretty well.



This tele was made for me by a friend, it's solid maple, maple top, birdseye maple neck with an ebony fingerboard. It's a tank, about 15 pounds. It has a seymour duncan hot rails in the bridge - sustains for days.... I do believe weight has something to do with it, but the makeup of the wood does as well.

 
No. Weight is not the factor that makes that guitar sonically what you like. Heavier guitar = heavier tone is in your head only.

Think about this from a different perspective. IF you think the string vibration is making the guitar vibrate and that's why it has so much sustain, physics says it takes more energy to impart movement into a heavier object than a lighter one. SO if it was to be the main factor for sustain, it would have the opposite effect with a high loss of energy right at the get go.

In the end it doesn't matter. The best sounding guitar on earth is the one that you WANT to play endlessly. If that's 15 lbs or 5lbs that's fine.
 
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The guitars I own that sound the best to my ears are lighter guitars. My heavier solid bodies tend to have a thinner sound.
 
My heaviest guitars have been my fat strat Texas special and my Schecter PT. The strat wouldn't sustain for crap and I was never happy with the tone -- always messing with pickup heights, etc. The Schecter had tone and sustain for days. My lightest (non-hollow) is my Ron Kirn Barnbuster which has monster tone and excellent sustain. I've got to agree with Mr. Kaiser on this one.
 
My two favorite guitars are my McFeely 454 at 6.5 lbs and my Les Paul Standard at 9.9 lbs. the lightest and heaviest guitars that I own.


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I used to believe that heavier guitars had more tone, sustained more, retained mojo better, blah blah blah. Then I started to switch between my massive Les Paul and an SG. I quickly realized that the SG sounded comparable, sustained just as well, and didn’t break my back. So I sold all my heavy guitars and bought more SGs.
 
dougk said:
No. Weight is not the factor that makes that guitar sonically what you like. Heavier guitar = heavier tone is in your head only.

Think about this from a different perspective. IF you think the string vibration is making the guitar vibrate and that's why it has so much sustain, physics says it takes more energy to impart movement into a heavier object than a lighter one. SO if it was to be the main factor for sustain, it would have the opposite effect with a high loss of energy right at the get go.

In the end it doesn't matter. The best sounding guitar on earth is the one that you WANT to play endlessly. If that's 15 lbs or 5lbs that's fine.
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I know, name dropping. Chip Todd (designer of the Peavey T-60) said that he thought that the weight and sustain connection was just a myth. Hartley Peavey wanted the T-60 made of Northern Ash. The damn things are too heavy!!! He would scoop out the wood to make them lighter and basically said the more wood he took out, the better the sustain became.

2013-06-28 00.22.19.jpg
 
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Personally, I believe that the way certain guitars resonate or vibrate tones makes a bigger difference on how they sound. Weight has no real factor in my buying / building choices.

I rarely if ever plug a guitar in when I am trying them out. I would rather hear its sonic qualities.

This piece weighs roughly 5 pounds and sounds outstanding

Beater_Front_Back_1800_01.jpg


This piece weighs in at 1 1/2 ounce under 10 pounds and also sounds outstanding.

CheckerBoard_Weight.jpg
 
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