Light guitars, better sustain!?!

Dutch

Dutch

Fractal Fanatic
Light guitars, better tone!?!

Used to be that everyone said the heavier Les Paul's and such had THE tone. Meaning bold and strong and sustain for days!

But!
Recently I have been reading a lot of stories from people using lighter guitars and raving about the sustain they have...

Case in point would be the Gil Yaron Bone, that uses lightweight Paulowna innards to a mahogany exterior shell to yield a light but very responsive and sustaining solid body guitar, but I have read from many people raving about lightweight PRS'es and even surprisingly light LPs that sustain for days. I can imagine that lighter guitars would be more resonant, but like bells: the heavier the longer they ring...

Who has experience with several weights of guitars and preferring the lighter for tone? Or the opposite of course?

Thinking of buying myself a new guitar and secretly hoping I can tell the guys to use the lightest wood they can find...
 
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Can't offer any scientific input and tend to let the "It's all in the wood" evangelists knock themselves out, but over half of what Les Paul is all about for me is the weight
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I love that feel and vibe when lifting it off the stand at the start of a gig and pulling the strap over my head... it just feels 'right' to me
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However, I can appreciate why others may want something as light as possible!
 
I hate how heavy my LP is (over 10lbs). It sings and sings and sings and sings and...
I have no clue why. Maybe weight. Maybe design. Maybe pups. Hell, maybe ME!
 
I have noticed that my Parker Fly (~5 lbs) resonates in a way that it doesn't take much volume to interact with the amp. It took a while to come to that realization because my band generally uses in-ears.
 
Yeah it's a weird one, I have a 1986 Japan-made Fender Strat that's really heavy compared to most strats and it's pretty dead tonally and not a whole lot of sustain and I have a PRS Custom 22 which is a little lighter and much more resonant and more sustain. Of course the PRS has a glued-in neck like a LP, vs a bolt-on on the Strat and the woods are likely much better (not sure even what's in the strat).

So I think weight plays a part, but it's likely only one of several factors I guess?
 
I have guitars that are on the heavy side and sustain really well and guitars that are super lite and sustain well.. there's no guarantee. I think a good (small builder) builder who can source really good wood can more often than not get you a killer resonant lite guitar that sustains well but it's always hit or miss. Gil Yaron seems to be a good example of this.. larger companies like Suhr and especially PRS are much more hit or miss IMO.
 
I'm having a really light Warmoth put together in the next week, so I'm hoping the answer is yes! j/k.

I've read claims on both sides of that argument and I've played heavy and light guitars that sustain well and duds from both camps, so as others have said it's all in the piece of wood you get and how well it's put together. I went with a light, chambered swamp ash in part hoping that the resonance would be good sounding and it would have killer sustain, but also because I'm getting older and even though I'm a pretty big guy, lugging around a heavy guitar is not that attractive to me any more.
 
My old Travis Bean, with aluminum neck and the heaviest, denseset Koa body I've ever seen definitely outsustained any of my light guitars, (and just about broke my back - made an LP seem LIGHT!) but I think that except for extremes like that, sustain comes more from pickups and other aspects of gain staging than the wood. I've gotten good sustain out of semi-hollows with high output pups. Unfortunately, I happen to lean towards the tonality of underwound, low output single coils, but hey, I also have no desire to imitate Santana on Moonflower (yawn...)
 
I just listened to the clip in this thread: http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii-wish-list/89800-divide-13-amps.html

There you have another light guitar that's very responsive. I saw a rig rundown with, I think it was, our friend Brad Whitford. He'd been touring with chambered Gibbies and claims they sound every bit as great as the full wood ones. Now I know he's getting on in years and ears and back may shift his priorities a bit, but he's in the same band with Joe Perry... And his is not the only story. Like how Guthrie Govan preferred the sound of basswood to others when he was with Suhr. Basswood is often lighter than most.

Now how to be sure to get the good wood...
 
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I have always been under the impression that the quality and density of the wood and wood combination play a larger role in the sustain than anything else, but that everything else from fret's to strings to Hardware also play a smaller role. I've seen bridges replaced in a guitar that had just ok sustain that improved from the change.
 
Mostly when playing single notes higher up the board with cleaner tones is where I find sustain sometimes lacking. I find myself really digging in with the pick and wrangling the neck sometimes trying to get the note to last. I don't want to drown my sound in distortion and I dislike the compressor quack. So natural sustain and note bloom are important. Isn't that why some of us are willing to part with several thousands of dollars when the essentially same sort of hardware is available for 150?

And my guitars are all able to sustain a chords at the nut for a good while.
 
I just took delivery of my new Tom Anderson Hollow Short-T and it is light as feather yet rings out for days. I don't know whether it sustains any more than my other solid-bodied guitars but it has a fabulous tone.
 
Interesting..
I have been looking at a new Gibson LP that is very light. About 30% has been shaved off the back with a giant relief built in it similar to a Strat.

Les Paul Standard Light
GC calls it a "Les Paul Standard Lite". Found no reviews, little or no marketing, and yet I saw one the other day and really liked it..

Thoughts?
 
I liked the Custom Lite they released a while back, but it was a bit headstock-heavy.

Tonally, it was right there with most other LPs I've come across, not blown away, but solid - no major flaws.

Have you considered models with modern weight relief (as opposed to traditional) or chambered bodies? I once had a Supreme that was super light and played like a dream, but again kinda' headstock heavy.
 
For me a big part of making an electric guitar sustain is cranking the amp up and finding a sweet spot in front of it where the sound coming out of the speaker causes the guitar to resonate more. Doesn't necessarily mean a ton of gain, but it does need to be loud. I guess that's why IEMs have never appealed to me, although I suppose you can combine those with a speaker cab too like some players do.
 
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