As a player I found that the weight of some of my electric guitars made it hard to play for long periods of time. My acoustics weren’t a problem. I’m a big guy and I found that the weight of a Les Paul, or a Stratocaster, caused me grief after about a ½ hour of playing. So I decided to take a look at what could be done to alleviate the issue. I looked at all kinds of supposed solutions, wider guitar straps, multiple crossed straps to distribute the weight better, etc. I didn’t consider the actual weight of the guitar, since everyone was making guitars this weight for so long I thought it had to be a necessity to the playability or tone of the guitar. NOT!
At the time I was studying tone wood properties for acoustic guitar applications when the thought came to me. If I could decrease the amount of weight by decreasing the amount of solid wood used in a guitar then I could make something that would allow me to play longer without giving up any of the tone of the guitar. I researched many different design types and came to the conclusion that I could make a semi solid body that would sustain like a thick heavy body.
Voila, I came up with my own process for creating a light weight guitar the sounds as good as anything at twice the weight. My current prototypes have proven my theories correct and I have a couple of guitars that rock with the best of them and weigh in much lighter.
In addition, I have been able to source some very lightweight bodies that also decrease the overall weight of the guitar. I’ve built several guitars with Paulownia bodies and have been very impressed with the outcome. The give up weight without impacting tone. Makes for a wicked combination and an ax you can play all night long!