Best value way to reduce Tele weight - chambered vs roasted wood body?

Mr_Claw · October 31

Hi all,

I love my Tele. It's a classy candy-apple-red, double-bound affair with a roasted maple neck, ebony board, great hardware, electrics and Klein pickups. When I built it, I tried to get it as high-spec as I could afford. The one compromise I had to make at the time was the body: it's heavy as all hell. So I'm considering replacing the body with a lighter one.

So the question is: what's the best value way to reduce Tele body weight?

A chambered (alder, basswood or poplar) body with a cap
A roasted alder or ash body

What's likely to reduce the weight more?

It'll probably need to be one or the other (for financial/import reasons). For ref I plan for it to look exactly like my existing tele - so I won't be having any contours cut out or anything.

Thanks as ever...

Jez6345789 · October 31

I would expect a chambered body to come up lighter. Obviously dependent on the level of chambering.

it used to be possible to find swamp Ash bodies weighing around 1-1:5kg but you will need to search far and wide these days as light swamp ash seems to be harder to find.

probably worth weighing just the body you have and seeing what weights people are advertising some can give you the weight.

Funkfingers · October 31

As a Blackguard enthusiast, I am bound to assert that swamp ash is the answer. The problem now is sourcing good stuff at a reasonable price.

I have two electric guitars whose bodies are made from reclaimed old timber - one from Brasilian labourers' sheds, the other from a Colorado railroad bridge and out buildings. Both are extremely lightweight. Neither sounds exactly like a swamp ash T-style.

stickyfiddle · October 31

Chambered will usually be lighter than solid except for the very lightest of bodies. I have a lightweight ash Tele that I built last year and that's a hair over 7lb. I've got a couple of thin lines on the bench since and they're definitely lighter than that, without making any specific effort to start with a light body (beside the inherent lightness from the thinline style)

You'll want to be slightly careful though, as you can get up with neck dive if the body gets too light, and particularly if you have heavy tuners. My Cabronita is also a thinline and used to neck dive very happily when it had locking tuners. I switched for non locking and it got better. I don't have a weight on that one because it currently has a Bigsby but it was sub-7 for sure.

Happy to weigh my other thinlines this eve if helpful.

Winny_Pooh · October 31

Many peeps at the TDPRI have bought Paulownia bodies for this reason, extremely light and some pine can be pretty light too but both ding easily.

I'd go chambered alder, in my limited experience it might have firmer lows than poplar or basswood/sen.

thermionic · October 31

Double bound Candy Apple Red would look GREAT with an f-hole…

wrinkleygit · October 31

Why not weight releave the body you already have, using the scratch plate as your guide, Swiss cheese the area below with a Forstner bit, it’s surprising how much weight can be shed using this method. Just be aware of the point of the bit so as not to drill all the way through the body.

paulnb57 · October 31

Chambered - Graham at GSPBASSES made me a chambered Swamp Ash, Tele body which is sooo light its almost toylike, but in a good way, pretty much a Thinline with a solid top, its fabulous!

fretmeister · October 31

Paulownia will be lighter than a chambered ash body. Not a cheap wood though.

I've got a paulownia shortie P bass that is only 5.7lb

WezV · October 31

wrinkleygit said:

Why not weight releave the body you already have, using the scratch plate as your guide, Swiss cheese the area below with a Forstner bit, it’s surprising how much weight can be shed using this method. Just be aware of the point of the bit so as not to drill all the way through the body.

Full smuggler style routes on a tele will remove about 150-200g. Fender only did it for a short period because it wasn't that effective. Going full thin line worked better for the heavy ash stocks they had available at that time

1" forstner holes in a body remove approx. 25-30g each.

Obviousy the heavier the wood, the more each route/hole removes.

In this case, i would go with light weight wood

stickyfiddle · October 31

Just looking at warmoth in stock stuff (unfinished), the lightest thinline body is 2.9lb, and the lightest solids are around 3.7lb, so your potential additional saving from thinline is 0.8lb, or 360g ish.

But if the guitar is already heavy you'll probably save more than that just switching to a lightweight solid.

What's the current weight of the whole thing?

victorludorum · October 31

@GSPBASSES could also rout it with a smuggler's cut.

Funkfingers · October 31

WezV said:
Full smuggler style routes on a tele will remove about 150-200g.

How much will HM Customs remove?

Roland · October 31

fretmeister said:

Paulownia will be lighter than a chambered ash body. Not a cheap wood though.

Cedar is also a good choice. I guess there are some lightweight native woods where you are.

PeteBo · October 31

Paulownia is horrible stuff in my experience, it's like balsa, you can dig your fingernails into it, I found when adjusting a neck pocket it just tears out end grain with ridiculous ease, I wouldn't go there myself

blueskunk · November 2

Light weight training and press ups will help.

ICBM · November 2

Chambered. Depending on how hollow it is you can take out more than half the body weight. OK it’s a different design, but a PRS Hollowbody has so much wood removed from what is still essentially a solid body that they can weigh under 5lb (the complete guitar), even though the woods are mahogany and maple.

Bear in mind that it won’t sound quite the same though. A standard Fender Thinline - which is only about 20-25% lighter - sounds ‘airier’ than a solid one. Even so, the PRS Hollowbody I had still sounded more like a normal PRS solid than I expected (or really wanted).

I’m not a fan of overly light woods, I don’t think they sound as good, and are usually weaker. (And I especially dislike roasted ones - edit having seen chris78’s post below, yes - I would say dull rather than dark.)

chris78 · November 2

I’d be thinking about the tone you want before deciding.

In my experience, roasting darkens the tone, chambering thins it

GSPBASSES · November 2

If you're still looking for a fully chambered F hole TC, I have one for sale. It's not quite finished yet, still needs the F hole machining and the bridge holes drilling, couple of hours work and it will be ready to go (you don't have to have the F hole if you don't want it). The weight is 2 lb 11 oz, Price £160 plus £12 P&P.

PAL · November 3

If you like the sound of your guitar and it's just a weight is it might be worth trying one of these. https://www.daddario.com/products/accessories/straps/guitar-and-bass-straps/standard-leather-end/dare-strap/?srsltid=AfmBOoongVWeFlmpkJh8D0vRJjqlJ2PG9UrHdqtb_ACXAv-0AAhc94Tk

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Best value way to reduce Tele weight - chambered vs roasted wood body?

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