How much weight should paint add?

[sdeeg]

Hey guys, I received a body (dinkycaster) today and despite ordering "extra light" wood it showed up at a whopping 4lb 3.4oz. It's got a flake finish, but I'm not sure how much weight that should have added. It's basically as much as the painted regular wood dinkycaster in the showcase. I know there's no guarantees, but I was expecting something closer to 3.5lbs (and hoping for even lighter). Extra-light roaster alder strat replacements in the showcase are frequently in this range, and sometimes lighter. Does a finish really add that much weight?

Feeling confused and a bit disappointed.

 

[rockandroller]

Acrylic, with clearcoats (polished)... yer typically looking at between 1-2 pounds for the body paint job. [those numbers from when i ran a custom shop more than a decade ago]

 

[Scab Pickens]

a whopping 4lb 3.4oz

"whopping"? Seriously? That sounds pretty reasonable to me.

I know there's no guarantees, but I was expecting something closer to 3.5lbs (and hoping for even lighter). Extra-light roaster alder strat replacements in the showcase are frequently in this range, and sometimes lighter.

This is why I only order from the showcase. I know exactly what I am getting.

 

[Tretgeraet]

I'll know exactly in a few weeks: In april I ordered a raw (multi-piece) swamp ash telly body from the showcase that was listed there with 3.88lbs, to be painted in spectra blue metallic.

I'll weigh it when it arrives here. Actually a fun experiment to find out how much mass is added by the paint.

 

[bagman67]

I'll know exactly in a few weeks: In april I ordered a raw (multi-piece) swamp ash telly body from the showcase that was listed there with 3.88lbs, to be painted in spectra blue metallic.

I'll weigh it when it arrives here. Actually a fun experiment to find out how much mass is added by the paint.

SCIENCE!

 

[NovasScootYa]

Light weight gossip is based "mostly" on snake oil. 4 lbs 3.4 oz painted may be enough to slow neck dive, sounds like Warmoth was looking out for you.

 

[sdeeg]

"whopping"? Seriously? That sounds pretty reasonable to me.

Perhaps a bit of an emotional overstatement. But, there's a painted dinkycaster in the showcase right now that is about the same and isn't extra light, so if I hadn't ordered extra light what showed up would have been reasonable. Paying an up-charge and getting something normal isn't a great feeling.

This is why I only order from the showcase. I know exactly what I am getting.

That is certainly the best strategy, and is what I did for the Meadowhawk I have on order, but unfortunately they don't make showcase dinkycasters in the configuration I was looking for.

 

[sdeeg]

I'll know exactly in a few weeks: In april I ordered a raw (multi-piece) swamp ash telly body from the showcase that was listed there with 3.88lbs, to be painted in spectra blue metallic.

I'll weigh it when it arrives here. Actually a fun experiment to find out how much mass is added by the paint.

I'm looking forward to hearing your results!

I'll have an idea about it pretty soon as well. I ordered a Meadowhawk from the showcase that was in the low 3lb range before pickup and trem routing. It'll be very interesting to see what it comes in at.

 

[sdeeg]

Light weight gossip is based mostly on snake oil. 4 lbs 3.4 oz painted may be enough to slow neck dive, sounds like Warmoth was looking out for you.

Perhaps. My Tele Thinline which weighs in at 6lb 3.5oz fully assembled is definitely top heavy. I put a Bigsby with a Vibramate on it as an experiment and it mostly fixes the problem. (I'll permanently mount it when I get the time.) I'm not sure that a Dinkycaster of the same weight would suffer the same fate though. The geometry is quite different with the longer upper horn and a lot of the wood shifted to the bottom. Plus, even best case, an extra light Dinkycaster wouldn't be as light as that Thinline.

 

[ghostrider]

Acrylic, with clearcoats (polished)... yer typically looking at between 1-2 pounds for the body paint job. [those numbers from when i ran a custom shop more than a decade ago]

Wow! That much?! I'll take your word for it because I have no experience and you clearly have lots, but that's a way bigger number than I would've guessed.

 

[Hodgo]

Light weight gossip is based mostly on snake oil

I tend to agree, but Derek Trucks said as much in interviews - given a rack of guitars to choose from, he finds the lighter ones tend to be a little more lively as a player.

What that means, I don’t know, but if anyone has the ears and years to know what makes a guitar great, Trucks might be the one.

 

[Tretgeraet]

Light weight gossip is based mostly on snake oil.

I care less for the gossip and more for my back

 

[rockandroller]

"Extra-Light", like "lightest-possible" is always a RELATIVE measurement... it all depends on what boards they have in stock at any given time.
At some point in every stocking batch, all the lightest ones will have been selected out and there is no telling what the next shipment will bring. It's possible the heaviest board in their batch from five months ago will be almost the lightest one in the stock they have they have now - or the NEXT batch. There can be considerable density variability from tree to tree in a lot of wood species! (a few are extremely consistent)

I used to select truckloads of boards from our local outlet of the largest hardwood wholesaler in Europe, and we never were able to spec a given species of lumber "by Weight range". It was usually presorted either by board size, or figuring. The 4x8 foot slabs of 2-inch-thick Bubinga carried a premium regardless if it had any figure or not! We would often spend half a day sifting purposefully through pallets and pallets of 'plain maple', selecting all the boards that were actually quite figured...

 

[sdeeg]

I care less for the gossip and more for my back

That's where I'm coming from! Although for me it's more my neck.

Well, I'm going pretty far off the reservation with this build, so I'll be making some mods that will shave some oz's. And I'm going to abandon one idea that would have added weight. It would have been nice to have started with a lighter platform, but c'est la vie. I can sit around complaining about the body I wish I had or I can work with the one I do.

 

[sdeeg]

"Extra-Light", like "lightest-possible" is always a RELATIVE measurement... it all depends on what boards they have in stock at any given time.
...

High variation in a natural product is a thing for sure, but I'll respectfully disagree that light and heavy are relative terms. For any species there is a normal distribution curve for weight, so terms like light and heavy do have meaning. If all you have in stock are pieces of wood that fall on the upper end of the curve, then all you have is heavy wood and the lightest piece in stock isn't light. The Warmoth folks have seen more than enough wood to have judgement about what is and isn't light. I feel if someone requests (and pays for) an extra light piece of wood and they don't really have anything in stock that fits that description, then they should contact the customer and give them the choice to accept what they have (and not pay the up-charge), select a different species where they do have lighter options (which I would have been fine with), or even potentially delay or cancel the order.

 

[supertruper1988]

High variation in a natural product is a thing for sure, but I'll respectfully disagree that light and heavy are relative terms. For any species there is a normal distribution curve for weight, so terms like light and heavy do have meaning. If all you have in stock are pieces of wood that fall on the upper end of the curve, then all you have is heavy wood and the lightest piece in stock isn't light. The Warmoth folks have seen more than enough wood to have judgement about what is and isn't light. I feel if someone requests (and pays for) an extra light piece of wood and they don't really have anything in stock that fits that description, then they should contact the customer and give them the choice to accept what they have (and not pay the up-charge), select a different species where they do have lighter options (which I would have been fine with), or even potentially delay or cancel the order.

This is how I see it as well. I paid for a light weight build and got what I paid for I selected woods that have a normally lighter weight so if you wanted a light piece of solid rosewood or maple I would be stoked with something 4.5 pounds but if it was alder or ash I would be raising heck especially when strats in the 3.5 pound range always come up in the showcase.

 

[teleme01]

Finish could add a significant amount of weight or an insignificant amount of weight, depending upon the finish, I imagine

 

[Tretgeraet]

but unfortunately they don't make showcase dinkycasters in the configuration I was looking for

Btw, what is the configuration of your Dinkycaster then?

Because I just noticed all in the showcase right now are top rout, with tremolo cavity and that strat flat mount jack, which is apart from wood choices probably the lightest configuration of the body itself on a Dinkycaster.

 

[sdeeg]

Btw, what is the configuration of your Dinkycaster then?

It's a dual TV Jones wood mount with rear cavity and tremolo. I got inspired by @Rick 's Inferno Flake Jazzmaster and am going for a similar vibe, but with Filter'Trons. I'm also going to have a pickguard. Although it won't be nearly as big as Ricks, it will let me carve out some of the wood. It'll be interesting to see how light it gets after the mods.

Because I just noticed all in the showcase right now are top rout, with tremolo cavity and that strat flat mount jack, which is apart from wood choices probably the lightest configuration of the body itself on a Dinkycaster.

It's a fair point, and you're probably correct about that being the lightest configuration, but the rear cavity is no small route and I also have the trem cavity, so I'd still expect it to be withing spitting distance of the standard configuration they have in the showcase.

 

[ragamuffin]

It's a dual TV Jones wood mount with rear cavity and tremolo. I got inspired by @Rick 's Inferno Flake Jazzmaster and am going for a similar vibe, but with Filter'Trons. I'm also going to have a pickguard. Although it won't be nearly as big as Ricks, it will let me carve out some of the wood. It'll be interesting to see how light it gets after the mods.

Sounds awesome!