Heavy guitars. Plus points.

stonevibe

I like a heavy guitar.

But I know the current trend is for a very featherweight instrument.

So I thought I would ask some opinions on heavy guitars and their plus points.

My first plus is you can floor the drunk idiot in the pub easily with a heavy guitar.

That and they sustain really well too...

Deijavoo

stonevibe said:

My first plus is you can floor the drunk idiot in the pub easily with a heavy guitar.

Those drummers, they are a pain sometimes.

ICBM

And they can sound chunky and powerful in a way no light guitar can.

I actually think there is an optimum weight for most guitar designs, which varies a lot depending on which it is, but in general I prefer ones that are heavier rather than lighter than that if I have to choose. I really don't like the tone of guitars that are too light.

The only exception seems to be SGs, which I have not found a lower limit for yet.

(Assuming this is about solidbodies and semi-solids, by the way - acoustics and hollowbodies can be different.)

stonevibe

I like for example a heavy Les Paul or Telecaster.

More balls.

Maybe not a technical term as such, but that is what it sounds like to me.

ThePrettyDamned

I like a reasonably heavy LP - best I've played was made from solid maple and was fairly heavy.

For PRS types, I tend to like a comfy middle weight.  

Strats I like light.

My jazzmaster is heavy swamp ash, but the contours make it so, so comfortable to play.  Sounds great, anyway.  I think super light bodies are rarer, therefore 'internet wisdom' leads them to be more desirable.

However, for some, light weight is a MUST for individual reasons.  For those, there are plenty of options like Paulownia, which is very, very light. I fancy trying a Paulownia strat.

fretfinder

I don't like heavy guitars, partly because I find them uncomfortable to play compared with lighter guitars. I've owned loads of heavy Gibsons and Fenders over the years but none of them sounded so amazing I couldn't let them go. They have all now been replaced with lighter models which, to me, are largely better tone machines and just as good in the resonance and sustain departments. I think a lot of your sound also comes from the pickups, electrics, amp and pedals, not to mention the fingers. So I'd rather be comfortable and also have guitars that, IMHO and in my experience, generally sound better than heavy ones.

Dave_Mc

^ +1

I suspect (nothing to back this up) that like ICBM says there's a happy medium weight which sounds best, but weight is a dealbreaker for me if it's too heavy.

DannyP

I have a really light Strat and I used to own a really heavy LP.

Tuning them with an old fashioned tuner with a needle display, the Strat would make the needle go straight to the note, come to rest quickly and then die away quickly. The heavy LP would send the needle dancing around for ages before coming to rest but then it would stay there for quite a while.

I imagine this might be a single coil vs humbuckers thing, but t me it reflected what I felt about the density of woods involved and their effects, Light guitar = responsive, heavy guitar = power and sustain.

So benefits either way, I guess. It's good to have both!

stonevibe

I have owned a few heavy guitars and by heavy I don't mean 'boat anchors'. I just find that they have a great sound and feel solid.

So as the trend at the moment is for light guitars, maybe there are bargains to be had based purely on weight.

imalone

Easier to chase someone running off with it.

JookyChap

I like a heavy LP & Tele, they just feel right..

On the other hand, I like a really light Strat - so I can throw them further..

stonevibe

I seem to favour fixed bridge guitars with a bit more weight. 

As I like my Strats light were possible for example. Just some guitars I prefer heavier and it tends to be the single cut and Tele style instruments.

I didn't choose them because they were heavier, it just turned out that way.

meltedbuzzbox

My strat is real heavy, easily 11 lbs, but fuck me it sounds fantastic, and thats what matters.

The thing that annoys me are people moaning that a 9lb guitar isn't good for their back.

If your back cant take a 9lb weight you need to fix it with some kind of strengthening exercises instead of buying a lighter guitar 

stonevibe

meltedbuzzbox said:

My strat is real heavy, easily 11 lbs, but fuck me it sounds fantastic, and thats what matters.

The thing that annoys me are people moaning that a 9lb guitar isn't good for their back.

If your back cant take a 9lb weight you need to fix it with some kind of strengthening exercises instead of buying a lighter guitar 

I get that, just some of my friends have had accidents and so they have little choice in the weight.

A friend of mine had a US Strat that was in the weight region of yours back in the early 90s and it sounded amazing. I'd have bought it , but he would never sell it to me.

Lew

I like heavy guitars. I've no problem with a 10lb'er. I did once have a Tele that weighed 13lb and that was a bit too much!

johnnyurq

Yep heavy guitars for me too, they just sing better for my tastes. As has been said great for twatting drunk fools.

Plus it helps pin me down to earth better too.

carlos

[first of all assume we're talking about plugged in sound, disregarding acoustic sound since these are magnetic pickups]

No relation between guitar's weight and sustain or "power" (whatever power means in this context). Otherwise the tiny Steinbergers would have very little or no sustain or volume which is not true as they have loads of both. Or check out the sustain on a cigar box guitar that's had a magnetic pickup installed - following the weight=sustain reasoning, they'd have very little which is wrong. As long as a guitar's body can hold the string tension without flexing they're all the same. Let's not mistake the marketing speak for fact.

If you want to look for sustain and power from a guitar's construction, then look at what's holding the string while it vibrates. For instance, a bridge that vibrates a lot when a string is plucked whether by design (floating) or by just being very light will tend to dissipate a lot of the string's energy resulting in less sustain and power. You could probably say the same for the tuners, but it doesn't matter really as most of the time it's a finger+fret holding down the string that end.

Also worth considering is pickup type and placement. The closer it is to string = more volume but less sustain. EMGs are good in that regards as they have little magnetic pull and high output overall although they are not to everybody's taste. I used to have a mahogany-body ESP that weighed a LOT and it had far less sustain and output than my lightweight Steinberger. The difference came down to the bridge (Floyd vs fixed bridge + tuners all same end) and the pickups (SDs fairly close to strings vs EMGs not that close to strings).

jaygtr

I never even think about the weight of a guitar unless it's stupidly heavy I.e. 13lb plus.

If I like it overall I'll have it.

Although I don't like the chambered les pauls they just don't sound or feel right.

randomhandclaps

Heavy guitars piss off Michael O'Leary - that's enough of a plus for me.

fretfinder

Good point re steinbergers and cigar box guitars. My Cunetto Nocaster that weighs a shade under 7lbs and is the lightest Tele I've ever had, is also the biggest and best sounding Tele I've had.

I'm not saying there aren't plenty of heavy guitars that sound great, rather that I don't believe the reason they sound great is because they're heavy. There's a reason why Gibson save their lightest woods for R9s, Fender for their CS guitars, and I don't think it's because that makes them sound worse than heavy ones!

Each to their own though and great that there's people who like both ends of the spectrum.

ThePrettyDamned

georgenadaintl said:

[first of all assume we're talking about plugged in sound, disregarding acoustic sound since these are magnetic pickups]

No relation between guitar's weight and sustain or "power" (whatever power means in this context). Otherwise the tiny Steinbergers would have very little or no sustain or volume which is not true as they have loads of both. Or check out the sustain on a cigar box guitar that's had a magnetic pickup installed - following the weight=sustain reasoning, they'd have very little which is wrong. As long as a guitar's body can hold the string tension without flexing they're all the same. Let's not mistake the marketing speak for fact.

If you want to look for sustain and power from a guitar's construction, then look at what's holding the string while it vibrates. For instance, a bridge that vibrates a lot when a string is plucked whether by design (floating) or by just being very light will tend to dissipate a lot of the string's energy resulting in less sustain and power. You could probably say the same for the tuners, but it doesn't matter really as most of the time it's a finger+fret holding down the string that end.

Also worth considering is pickup type and placement. The closer it is to string = more volume but less sustain. EMGs are good in that regards as they have little magnetic pull and high output overall although they are not to everybody's taste. I used to have a mahogany-body ESP that weighed a LOT and it had far less sustain and output than my lightweight Steinberger. The difference came down to the bridge (Floyd vs fixed bridge + tuners all same end) and the pickups (SDs fairly close to strings vs EMGs not that close to strings).

@ICBM found a document recently that conclusively proved that the wood does make a difference to the sound that comes from magnetic pickups.  Hopefully he can dig it out and show you, but the people that did the experiment came to the wrong conclusion.  There were in many places a 3db difference in peaks, and in some others 6db - that's well over double the volume of a frequency, yet they concluded it made no difference! Unbelievable. 

However, it *is* a good point about Steinberger, but for the fact I think they have a very different sound to 'regular' guitars, not so much the sustain but the sound, and I think that's why they quite often come with EMG pickups.  The ones I've tried have all actually lacked sustain too, but the tone was noticeably thinner sounding unplugged (and, as the magnetic pickup picks up the string moving, that absolutely MUST affect what the pickup picks up).  

For what it's worth, I think sustain has much more to do with resonant frequencies (which are real - check your washing machine if you don't believe me) than it does body weight.  My LTD sustains better when tuned to flats than e standard or D standard (which is where it is).  I think that means the body and neck happen to better support the frequencies produced.  

So marketing vs fact - check the facts.  I'll see if I can find this document, the conclusion basically ignores the evidence but the evidence is there.