Put Your Guitar on a Diet!

knappelli · February 2008

Conrad,
my Cigano GJ 10 weighs 3,86 lbs. (I used my wife's kitchen scale to weigh it). It's a very light guitar, sounding loud and clear. I've had it for 4 months now and it's opening up nicely.
Regards,
Martin

knappelli · February 2008

- Martin -

Stringswinger · February 2008

Thought I'd weigh my Selmacs.

Dupont MD-20 (with a Mcintyre pickup and endpin jack) 3.8 lbs.

Park Elan (with bigtone and endpinjack) 4 Lbs.

Gitane Dg-250M (no pickup) 4.4 lbs

Cheers,

Marc

www.hotclubpacific.com

JonathanHoltslag · April 2022

Ive built a bunch of guitars myself and the heaviest one i made is around 4lbs and it feels like a lead brick to me. I thought these guitars would be way lighter but i guess around 4 pounds is a common thing. For comparison the weight i usually shoot for is around 3.4 lbs wich still seemed to be on the heavy end compared to what o think i can achieve with some more experience. Looks like bob has it figured out at 3 pounds with a trussrod i assume? That seems like a nice challenge.

Buco · April 2022

I always wondered about this and I'm assuming the weight is measured with strings on and of course tuners. But then it becomes not entirely accurate, right? Or would different strings and especially tuners be in the same ballpark? Plus some guitars, like mentioned, have internal pickups and output jacks. Then add a difference in density of various woods. That all tells me while this is all fun stuff to do, I'm not sure how accurate is it to take it as a rule of thumb, the lighter/the better.

Bones · April 2022

Buco, yes for sure. The weight of the tuners, truss rod and tailpiece can make a difference in weight but I'd say that would make negligible difference in tone. My Gallatos are relatively heavy but are very loud and have a very traditional dry tone. The tuners and tailpiece are Selmac copies made by Gallato and look to be fairly beefy so that could account for some of the weight but I have never removed them to check. No clue on the weight of the truss rod. The other MAJOR factor is density of the neck wood. I think it is generally accepted that you want a VERY stiff neck and some woods like hard rock maple and ebony are very stiff and also very dense making for a heavy neck which would make the guitar noticeably heavier but be a benefit for volume and tone. I think what Michael is alluding to is how heavily built the BODY is but of course no way to know without removing the neck and metal parts. That said, body weight is a function of the density of the particular pieces of wood that the top, back, sides, blocks, bracing, linings, etc. are made out of but that is just one variable. I would say the stiffness of the woods is a bigger factor. To get an equivalent stiffness out of 2 pieces of wood with different "modulus of elasticity" you need to make the more compliant piece of wood thicker. If the densities are the same, the thicker piece of wood will be heavier. Therefore, the thicker piece of wood will have a lower "resonant frequency" and hence a different frequency "response". How this all fits together in a completed instrument I'm sure is a very complicated and to a certain extent subjective topic but fun to think about.