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What are some great vintage solid body guitars that are light weight?


rebsy

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I'm looking for a lightweight guitar because I'm petite and have some back issues and don't want to put too much weight on my shoulder. My friend has an awesome 90's Squier Strat that is amazingly lightweight. I recently found a Squier Strat from a few years earlier that was super heavy. Been finding in general that guitar weight is really inconsistent - probably depends on the type of wood and maybe even the particular piece of wood?

 

Any advice for models that tend to be light or which types of wood I should look for would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

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A Fender/Squier Telecaster, as long as it's not an ash body. Basswood is probably the lightest wood that's commonly used for making guitar bodies.

 

I agree that some of the ash bodies can be really heavy (especially those from the 70s) but I've also had some alder Teles over the years that were pretty hefty...

 

 

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Not sure if they're considered "vintage" or not, but the Rickenbacker 650 and 620 series are quite light.

 

Guitar Fetish has a bunch of "palowina" strat and tele bodies etc. pretty cheap. They are very light but the wood is close to balsa so if you will be doing a lot of screwing and unscrewing you run into situations where the threads can strip pretty easily. If you're just doing bolt-and-go, they should hold up fine.

 

The idea with ash is to find what is called "swamp ash." This refers to ash trees that have been submerged for quite a while. That apparently breaks down some of the wood fiber so when it dries it is super light. Heavy and swamp ash are an oxymoron.

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Not sure if they're considered "vintage" or not' date=' but the Rickenbacker 650 and 620 series are quite light.[/quote']

 

Good point Verne - my 610 (similar, small-body shape) is pretty light too - I've never weighed it, but I'd guesstimate it at about 7.5 pounds.

 

Guitar Fetish has a bunch of "palowina" strat and tele bodies etc. pretty cheap. They are very light but the wood is close to balsa so if you will be doing a lot of screwing and unscrewing you run into situations where the threads can strip pretty easily. If you're just doing bolt-and-go, they should hold up fine.

 

I've always wondered about those bodies. I'd imagine they ding pretty easily too, don't they? :idk:

 

The idea with ash is to find what is called "swamp ash." This refers to ash trees that have been submerged for quite a while. That apparently breaks down some of the wood fiber so when it dries it is super light. Heavy and swamp ash are an oxymoron.

 

Aaaaah, Swamp Ash. :love: :love: Light, snappy, and oh so toneful! :philthumb:

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my warmoth strat is swamp ash and based on my CIJ 68 reissue strat. for some extra money warmoth searched there stock for the lightest piece of swamp ash they had for my body

 

result is, its not much lighter than my CIJ but much lighter then my MIA strat

 

in my experience a tele or a sg would be light, but i personally prefer a strat or a les paul because of tonal preference

 

if you want a strat you could search for a used CIJ 68 reissue like mine which is from the late '90s, i don't know how the new(er) MIJ strats compare

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