Guitar weight and identifying body wood

So I weighed my G&L today and it comes in at a porky 4.4kg. While it always felt heavy, I had never weighed it before. So I am now wondering is this weight any guide in working out what wood the body is made from? From the little info around these guitars (early to mid 90s G&L Climax - precursor to the Invader) mostly used one of alder, ash or maple. I had always assumed it was ash but it came with a solid finish originally so maybe it's something else. I can see the grain under the transparent part of the burst and it is very straight and unremarkably boring.

This guitar is very close to mine, except that I have the HSS version.

Also, I have blocked the floyd with stacks of 20c coins taped together, but would only add 100g or so to the weight.

Anyone care to help ID the wood? I can post photos of the grain as seen through the finish, and can take the neck off to inspect the pocket when I change strings later this week (assuming the new strings arrive on time in the post).

Also, is 4.4kg considered a heavy guitar? Or just somewhere in the middle?

DC

This guitar is also very close to mine, and has a maple body.

I don't have photos, but mine originally had exactly that finish, but in red.

And this post suggests that the solid colours were mainly alder. All descriptions of the pickups (including the previous one) confuse me though. My guitar came with black Schaller active pickups (which I still have somewhere), but nothing I have ever read mentions them. Maybe they were a mod by a previous owner, or maybe the BBE-era factory was a bit random in what they installed.

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Also, is 4.4kg considered a heavy guitar? Or just somewhere in the middle?

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That's what I would consider on the heavy side for a strat-style guitar. That's very nearly 10 pounds in the old language. (9 lbs - 11 oz)

It's not unheard of, but I find strats usually in around the 8 lb mark (3.6kg). Interesting you bring this up, as I just bought a hanging digital scale last week just for weighing guitars. The average weight (ST & TL type) of my guitars arein the 3.6-3.7kg range.

Your FR would likely contribute some extra weight than a G&L 2-point vibrato, but I couldn't say how much.

The 10 lb neighbourhood is where I'd expect older non-weight relieved LP's to come in. I once owned a '69 LP that came in at 13 lbs! (5.9kg) I don't miss it.

Sorry for jumping in & out of imperial/metric... old habits and all...

My '94 ASAT bass weighs about that too. I routed for a battery box, and thought I might ID the wood. No such luck. Not much grain visible. Darker than I expected. No idea what the wood is...

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I found this, now I just need someone to dunk their strat body into some water to measure the volume of wood :)
https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/w...sity-d_40.html

Or, I could approximate and see what I get.

Hi, I before I bought mine second hand from a pawn shop I emailed them the serial number and they got back to me with all the details really quickly.

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From: Repairs@bbesound.com <Repairs@bbesound.com>;
Sent: Tuesday, 10 March 2020 5:32 AM
To: rossc0@outlook.com
Cc: Repairs
Subject: RE: Contact Page - GL Guitars

Hi Ross,
The candy apple red Legacy production date is May of 2012, standard neck specs for this guitar is a 1-5/8 nut width, 12’ radius, the body wood is alder, the pickups are the CLF 100 alnicos made in Fullerton Ca. USA. If you have any further questions please email me back, have a great day.

Best Regards,
Memo Romero
BBE SOUND/ G&L GUITARS
2548 E. FENDER AVE
STE. E
FULLERTON CA. 92831
714-897-6766 x156

Oh, that's awesome. I will email them now. I can't believe I have had this guitar for 20 years and never thought to contact the company!

Wood density will vary from example to example, so you get a range of densities that that type of wood will normally occupy. How much moisture is left in it will also have an affect on the density. So it's easy to get a cross-over of densities between wood species (which doesn't help identification).

And the volume of a Strat body will vary depending on the routing used (from a tight SSS to a wide swimming pool rout) and the body and paint thickness. So you'll get quite a range of volumes on that as well.

These days almost all Fender Strats are Alder, unless they have a clear/transparent finish, when they are normally Ash. Squires are normally all Alder, regardless. The very chepest ranges may be basswood. Woods like maple or even rosewood are normally only used for special edition bodies.

Yeah, the ranges for wood density overlapped a lot. I have emailed my serial number to G&L, maybe they will have records.

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Maybe. Hopefully they will be more accurate than they were with me. When I did my a wiring mod to my ASAT bass I could not find CTS pots with the right value for the bass tone control (1meg reverse audio). I also noticed that the OEM pots were not CTS but I could not identify exactly what they were. So, I wrote and asked them. They said "CTS"...so I sent them a pic of mine, and...they weren't sure, but admitted that they had used other mfgs from time to time. They noted that they only use CTS now (this was about 10 years ago). So, I asked them to send me a new 1meg reverse audio pot--still what goes into these. What they sent me was a Mexican made pot from a company I had never heard of (it had CGE stamped on it). Maybe they keep better track of their wood.

Not casting aspersions at G&L. My ASAT is the best playing bass I have ever had, and is as indestructible as a tank. Their products are great. I am just not convinced their inventory tracking is *as* great ;-)

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Originally Posted by fender3x

Maybe. Hopefully they will be more accurate than they were with me. When I did my a wiring mod to my ASAT bass I could not find CTS pots with the right value for the bass tone control (1meg reverse audio). I also noticed that the OEM pots were not CTS but I could not identify exactly what they were. So, I wrote and asked them. They said "CTS"...so I sent them a pic of mine, and...they weren't sure, but admitted that they had used other mfgs from time to time. They noted that they only use CTS now (this was about 10 years ago). So, I asked them to send me a new 1meg reverse audio pot--still what goes into these. What they sent me was a Mexican made pot from a company I had never heard of (it had CGE stamped on it). Maybe they keep better track of their wood.

Not casting aspersions at G&L. My ASAT is the best playing bass I have ever had, and is as indestructible as a tank. Their products are great. I am just not convinced their inventory tracking is *as* great ;-)

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None of the electrics are original in mine. I replaced everything a few years back. I am curious to see what they say even if it turns out wrong. I suspect I just have some heavy alder, heavy finish, and heavy bridge.

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On a solid color guitar, it could be anything that they got a good deal on that week.

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Originally Posted by fender3x

On a solid color guitar, it could be anything that they got a good deal on that week.

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Very true.

It does explain why I never liked playing this guitar while standing. And all that time I thought I was just soft (which I probably am, but still, heavy).

Well, G&L repairs got back to me. About all they had to say was "alder":

You are correct the body wood is alder, production date of your Climax is March 23, 1993.

Although I take the descriptions of tone woods for electric guitar with a large grain of salt, Fender have this to say about Alder:

Red alder boasts many sonic advantages. Not especially dense, it’s a lightweight, closed-pore wood that has a resonant, balanced tone brighter than other hardwoods, with a little more emphasis in the upper midrange. It imparts excellent sustain and sharp attack. It’s very easy to work with and it glues well. Notably, alder also takes finishes well — with a light brown color and a tight grain that’s only slightly visible, it’s ideal for solid colors rather than the transparent finishes that look so good on ash.

I think I just got an alder body at the upper end of the density range.

Case closed.