I prefer the heavy strat bodies as they give you more sustain and tone.

Sorry. It's not unusual for me to do 4 or 5 one hour sets a night. A 9 or 10 pound guitar is not an upsell for me. If Fender made a paulownia Strat, I'd probably give it a serious look.

Hey, that's something they could do in the china factory since it is a local tree.

It's a common misconception that heavier guitars provide more "sustain and tone." The fact is, they don't. I've played acoustics that sustain longer than the heaviest Les Pauls.... it's all about resonance, not mass.

Perhaps sustain is better achieved by a tight connection between strings and body than the type/weight of wood.

I tend to agree with you SlapChop!

I'm guessing this thread springs from something I wrote earlier today in the Strat Forum: that Mike Eldred once mentioned that the majority of their "name" artists specify heavier rather than lighter timbers for their CS guitars.

Which seems to run contrary to the pleasure many of us take in lighter guitars - my lower spine for one prefers something less brutal to the shoulder!

A quick canter through the Mike Eldred Forum hasn't found me that post - but I'm sure someone can dig it out.

Far as sustain is concerned (as distinct from tone): I'm pretty clear that rigidity is the controlling factor. And that's a track we've run round here more than once!

I have no doubt that someone is about to disagree!

Cheers - C

Mass (& hence weight) has a bearing on sustain and tone, but certainly isn't the whole story.

And, as others have said, if you play long sets then you'll appreciate a lighter guitar.

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The age old argument...only 2nd to maple vs rosewood.

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Actually density is what you guys are looking for. Mass doesn't matter the way you think it does. You can have two bodies of identical mass with different densities and the one that is more dense will resonate better and sustain longer.

Again, I direct you to the remarkable sustain qualities of a good acoustic or jazz box. No density: just air, with much of the sustain of the guitar controlled by the bracing. Density isn't it, either.

There are good guitars (and good guitar players) and bad ones. I've seen people kill the sustain of great instruments just by playing too hard (bass players are often guilty of this).

You can't quantify this stuff, why try? It's like arguing over whether or not there's a God and what he looks like. All you can know is:

1. Are you a good player?

2. Do you sound good playing this guitar/amp system?

Then it's good. That is all.

Mike you heard what ME said on the video on the thread titled-I thought this was cool- about the neck woods having more effect on tone than pups, etc. ? Straight from the man himself!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTi8ISIx ... re=related

I was not going to jump in on this one but as I have said many times the neck construction and connection is one of the most important parts. Sustain comes from how the neck allows the strings to vibrate along its lenth. Ands yes the mass in which it is connected does make a difference. Acoustic act in the same way but then you have to consider the soundboard and the amount and the way the air is being moved under the board helping the board to vibrate something not in a solid body.

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You can't compare an acustic guitar with a hollow body and a sound hole to a solid body electric. They are two very different instruments. The body of acustics are very effective amplifiers of sound because they are resonators by design.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resonator

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmholtz_resonance

If you read, and understand, the principles in the links it will become very clear how different sound production from the two guitars is different.

Wood choice for solid bodies will have a greater impact on the final product than it will with acustics. With a more dense, not massive or heavy, but dense body, the molecules are closer together and will transfer energy with less loss than a less dense wood affecting both tone and sustain.