There are a lot of musical instruments in the world and guitars are one of the most dominant among them all.
Guitars, especially Les Paul’s, have variations with producing a unique sound when the strings are struck.
The Different Weights Of Les Paul Guitars
Many Les Paul guitars are crafted of mahogany, with swamp ash being used in some instances. They make their fretboards from rosewood, ebony, or even maple, with the neck being made of maple or mahogany. The weight of Les Paul’s guitars ranges anywhere from 9 to 12 lbs (4 to 5.5 Kg), 12 lbs being the heaviest guitar available.
While some of their newer guitars are chambered, they will still fall under the “greater than 9 pounds” category. Despite this amount of weight, many guitarists, such as Slash of Guns ‘n’ Roses, continue to use Les Paul’s due to the deep and rich tone they produce.
Gibson’s ES-335 (Weight example)
Some sections of the ES-335’s body aren’t fully empty. The ES-335 weighs around 9 pounds (4.1 kg). This is much heavier than a typical Fender guitar. This is mostly due to its maple body with a maple center block and a mahogany neck, along with a rosewood or ebony fretboard.
Despite Gibson’s ES-335 semi-hollow body, the guitar is nonetheless hefty. Although, if you want a great blues guitar, then don’t be concerned about its weight. Despite its weight, Gibson’s ES-335 is one of the greatest semi-hollow guitars available.
What Affects A Les Paul’s Weight?
So, there’s quite a bit of variation in weight between the different Les Paul models. For example, a Gibson Les Paul typically weighs over 9 pounds (4.5 kg) compared to a Gibson SG weighing only 6 lbs (3.6 kg). How come two guitars that come from the same brand vary so much in weight?
There are a few factors that affect the weight of a Les Paul:
- Wood type
- Body size and shape
- Hardware
Body and Neck Wood
First, let’s consider the type of wood that Les Paul’s are often made of. Most Les Paul’s bodies are made of mahogany or maple.
If you’re looking for a lightweight guitar, then you’ll typically find that the body is made out of basswood, alder or ash. As Mahogany is a heavier wood, you’ll often find it on a Les Paul. Meanwhile, maple is the heaviest, an ES-335 is a good example of a maple-bodied guitar.
Another part of the guitar to take into consideration is the neck wood. A lot of guitar necks are made from either mahogany or maple. And again, maple necks are the heavier of the two, although mahogany is by no means a light wood.
Body Size and Type
Okay, so why are some guitars super light, but still, have a maple body? Well, this simply comes down to the body size and type.
First, let’s take a look at the different body types. There’re three main electric guitar types: hollow, semi-hollow and solid. Hollow guitars are most closely related to acoustics, although instead of a sound hole, while still have pickups. These guitars are typically quite large, but the inside is hollow, so they don’t weigh all that much.
Guitars with a semi-hollow body have some wood inside them. Sometimes they have only a centerblock inside the guitar, and in other cases, they have just small sections cut out called f-holes. It really does depend on what semi-hollow guitar you’re dealing with.
And of course, solid bodies are the heaviest of the three types, as they’re obviously a lot denser.
In terms of body size, some guitars either are much thicker or have wider bodies. For example, a Les Paul and SG both have mahogany bodies and two humbucker pickups, yet the Les Paul weighs half as much again as the SG.
Of course, this is due to the design of the body. The Les Paul has a single cutaway body, whereas an SG has a double cutaway design, as a result, there’s more wood adding weight to the Les Paul.
A Les Paul also has a much thicker body compared to the SG. A Les Paul’s body is around 2.5″ thick, whereas an SG is only around 1.5″ thick. This adds a lot more weight to a Les Paul.
Hardware
Hardware is not the most important factor when it comes to determining how heavy an electric guitar is, but it can make a bit of a difference, usually less than half a pound or so.
When talking about hardware, we’re grouping the pickups, bridge and controls, and the tuners can also make a bit of a difference here too. For example, locking tuners are normally around 0.5-1.0 ounces (15-30 grams) heavier than traditional tuners.
Does The Weight Of A Les Paul Affect Its Tone?
Does the weight actually matter when it comes to the overall tone? In short, one of the main things that weight can affect is the tone of the guitar.
When a guitar is made heavier due to thicker pieces of wood, then this tends to give you a more resonant tone, with better sustain, as the vibrations caused by the strings take longer to disperse.
