Weight of the guitar?

[Kenan]

I noticed on many of these Epiphone vs Gibson Youtube comparison videos, people mention differences in weight, i.e. "cheaper" guitars being lighter..

 

What's with that? How much is weight of the guitar body important and why?

 

For example, my 1996 black Epiphone "Special Model" weighs around 3.6 kg so I could only imagine what would a "real", more expensive Gibson, following that logic, weigh like.

 

I'm not sure what to think of it really.

[dbrian66]

I think it all has to do with the quality of the wood. The denser the wood, the better it resonates, the more it weighs. Not sure if that's right but it's the way I have always seen it.

[antwhi2001]

You can't really generalise (but folks do). With some woods, heavier is supposed to give more sustain, but it isn't necessarily so. Old Les Pauls tended to be heavier, and sound good, but it isn't necessarily the wood. If a guitar has been around since the late 1950s it's going to be valuable, probably been expertly set up, and any weaknesses regarding frets, nut, and bridge would have been sorted out. Those all have at least as much to do with it as the wood density does. The old ABR bridge posts were screwed in rather than just pushed in, which would have helped. Glued-in frets (as opposed to just tapped in like most Asian guitars) help too.

A lot of modern Les Pauls now have chambered hollow bodies, making them lighter. Made well, they have excellent sustain, but a very slightly brighter tone.

[Ed Zeplin]

In the book "The Beauty of the Burst' there is a chart in the back pages indicating known weights of sunburst LPs. The heaviest one is 4309g or 9.5lb while the lightest is 3674g or 8.1lbs. These are considered by many to be the best guitars ever made yet nothing near 10lbs. From what I have gleaned it seems that the theory is lighter wood is less dense therefore it takes less energy to get it moving/vibrating/resonating since the energy isn't absorbed into the wood thus resonating longer.

 

LPs didn't get ridiculously heavy until they were reintroduced in the late 60s with guitars from the 70s (the Norlin era) being very heavy with some approaching 13lbs. Today LPs are weight relieved with my 2004 standard at 9.34lbs.

 

The lighter planks of wood are usually sent to the custom shop to be used on R9s and the like so that weight relief is not needed with the heavier slabs being sent to Gibson USA for the lower end Gibbys.

 

Also the type of hardware used, different makes of tuners, Bigsbys, Floyd Roses, etc are theorized to also have an effect on sustain. I have no personal, physical proof, only info that I have read in actual books, not on the web.

 

So that being said is heavier really "better"?