Electric guitar weight can affect the tone and how easy a guitar is to play.
Here’s a complete guide to the average weights of electric guitars and why it matters.
Electric guitars weigh an average of 8 pounds (3.6 kg) and typically weigh between 6 and 12 pounds (2.7 – 5.5 kg).
One of the lightest models is the Gibson SG, which weighs 6 pounds (2.7 kg), and one of the heaviest is the Les Paul, which weighs up to 12 pounds (4 kg).
Electric Guitar Model Average Weight Gibson SG 6 pounds (2.7 kg) Squier Telecaster 6.5 pounds (2.9 kg) Squier Stratocaster 7 pounds (3.2 kg) Ibanez RG Series 7 pounds (3.2 kg) Fender Stratocaster 8 pounds (3.6 kg) Fender Telecaster (3.6 kg)Fender Telecaster (3.6 kg) pounds (3.6 kg)Epiphone Dot8 pounds (3.6 kg)Gibson Flying V8 pounds (3.6 kg)Fender Jazzmaster8.5 pounds (3. 9 kg)Gibson ES-3359 pounds (4.1 kg)PRS Custom 249 pounds (4.1 kg)Epiphone Les Paul9 (4.1 kg)Yamaha Pacifica11 pounds (5 kg)Gibson Les Paul9-12 pounds (4-5 .5 kg)
What affects guitar weight?
So there is a lot of variation in weight between electric guitar models.
For example, the Gibson Les Paul weighs over 9 pounds (4.5 kg) while the Gibson SG weighs only 6 pounds (3.6 kg).
How come two guitars from the same brand vary so much in weight.
There are several main factors that affect the weight of a guitar:
Body and Neck Wood First let’s start with the type of wood the guitar is made of.
Most electric guitars are made from ash, alder, basswood, mahogany or maple.
If you’re looking for a lightweight guitar, you’ll usually find that the body is made from basswood, alder, or ash.
Mahogany is a heavier wood, you will find this on Les Paul’s.
Although maple is the heaviest, an ES-335 is a good example of a maple body guitar.
Guitar Body Wood Average Weight (lbs/ft3) Basswood25 Age28 Ash (Swamp)30 Mahogany40 Maple45
It is also important to remember the neck wood as well.
Most guitar necks are made from either mahogany or maple.
Again, maple necks are the heavier of the two, but mahogany is by no means a light wood.
Body Size and Type Okay, so why are some guitars super light, but they have a maple body?
Well, this depends on body size and type.
First, let’s start with body type.
There are three main types of electric guitars: hollow, semi-hollow, and solid.
Hollow guitars are most closely related to acoustics, but instead of a sound hole, they still have pickups.
They are usually quite large, but the inside is hollow, so they don’t weigh much. Semi-hollow guitars have some wood inside them.
It really depends on what semi-hollow guitar you are dealing with. Solid bodies are the heaviest of the three types, as they are obviously much denser.
Here you can see the “f-holes” commonly seen on hollow and semi-hollow electric guitars.
In terms of body size, some guitars are much thicker than others, or have wider bodies.
Take the Les Paul and SG for example.
They both have mahogany bodies and two humbucker pickups, but the Les Paul weighs half as much again as the SG. This is due to the body design.
The Les Paul has a single cutaway body, while the SG has a double cutaway design, so there is more wood adding weight to the Les Paul. The LP also has a much thicker body compared to the SG.
The Les Paul’s body is about 2.5 inches thick, while the SG is only about 1.5 inches thick.
Hardware This isn’t the most important factor in determining how heavy an electric guitar is, but it can make a bit of a difference, but usually less than half a pound or so.
Does weight affect tone?
Well, one of the most important things that weight can affect is the tone of the electric guitar.
Heavier guitars are usually heavier because they are made from thicker pieces of wood.
Heavier guitars tend to have a fuller and warmer tone for this reason.
You will also remember that solid body guitars are heavier than semi-hollow and hollow body guitars.
Solid body guitars have better sustain and less feedback than hollow designs.
Hollow and semi-hollow guitars tend to suffer from feedback when you turn up the distortion or volume on your amp, due to the space behind the pickups.
They tend to sound warmer and bassier than solid guitars, as they are more closely related to acoustic guitars. Check out this article I wrote about the differences between semi-hollow and hollow guitars to learn more about this topic.
If you have a fairly small frame, and you choose a 12 pound Les Paul, you may struggle after a while, when your shoulders start to ache. It can also be a problem when you sit down and the guitar rests on your leg.
So, lighter guitars are usually a better option if you’re concerned about playability.
After all, you can do a lot to change the tone of the guitar by using different amp settings or effects pedals, but there’s not much you can do to make a guitar lighter.
So we touched on the different weights of different models of electric guitars at the beginning of the article, but now let’s jump into a more detailed explanation.
I’ll go through the main models and explain why they weigh so much (or so little) and what this means for playability and tone.
Let’s go from the heaviest to the lightest, starting with the Gibson SG.
The Gibson SG weighs an average of 2.7kg, making it one of the lightest electric guitars available.
The width of an SG’s mahogany body is a touch under 1.5 inches.
It also has a fairly short scale length of 24.75 inches, so it’s generally quite a small electric guitar.
The Squier Telecaster weighs 6.5 pounds (2.9 kg) on average, making it a light guitar. The main reason for this is the tone tree.
Most Squier Teles are made from either alder or ash, and the cheaper models are made from basswood, which is very light.
The shell length is longer than the SG, 25.5 inches, so it’s a little bigger, but the single-coil pickups are pretty nice and hold it pretty easily.
The Squier Stratocaster weighs 3.2 kg.
It’s lightweight because it has a contoured double cutaway body, so there isn’t much that adds weight to this guitar.
Ibanez guitars are pretty light, and this RG series is no different, weighing in at 3.2kg.
This is mainly due to the slim body, and also the super thin neck.
The RG series has a fairly large scale at 26.5 inches, which makes it a little heavier than you’d expect for a normal, slim body with double cutouts.
The Fender Stratocaster weighs an average of 3.6 kg.
This is the standard weight for most electric guitars.
Strats have a fairly light body due to the alder/ash tone wood, double cutaway design and contour shape.
What makes them a bit heavier than you’d expect is the maple neck and fingerboard.
The Fender Telecaster weighs an average of 3.6 kg.
It is a fairly moderate electric guitar, with a light body (made of alder/ash) and heavier neck (made of maple), giving it a fairly balanced weight.
The hardware is quite light, as the single coil pickup and bridge design is not too heavy.
The Gibson Flying V weighs an average of around 3.6kg. While the body isn’t too big, it’s a tad thicker than the SG, just over 1.5 inches.
However, it has a rather thick rounded C-shaped neck, which definitely adds weight.
The Fender Jazzmaster weighs about 8.5 pounds (3.9 kg), so slightly more than a Strat or Tele.
It has a thicker body than the Strat and a heavier bridge.
The PRS Custom 24 weighs approximately 4.1 kg.
This is due to the mahogany body and neck, and also the dual humbucker pickups and tremolo bridge.
You also get a maple cap on the body, which makes it even heavier.
Gibson Les Paul
Gibson Les Paul guitars weigh between 9-12 pounds (4-5.5 kg), making them one of the heaviest electric guitars available.
This is due to the thick mahogany body, which is approximately 2.5 inches wide.
The single cutaway design also adds some weight, in addition to the thick rounded neck and large head.
Guitar Center is always the first place I look when I’m interested in a new electric guitar because I have a huge selection of models for sale and always have great deals.
That’s how much an average guitar weighs!
Here are some other posts you might find useful: 5 Reasons Some Guitars Sound Better Than Others 6 Ways to Make a Cheap Electric Guitar Sound Great