ruscio
Junior Member
- Messages
- 186
I've weighed Warmoth bodies when received, with paint, and compared to the listed weights for the unfinished bodies I ordered. I can look up the exact figures another time, if anyone wants, but to the best of my recollection the paint (with clearcoat) will add about 3-4 oz to a strat body. If you're having any routing done that will take off a non-trivial amount of wood (e.g., a universal pickup route, a recessed Floyd trem route), that will reduce weight a bit, but not all that much--maybe by an ounce or two?
Picture a typical strat body, at about 4 lbs, and then picture 1/4 of it to represent one lb. The finish you add will be nowhere near that heavy, nor will routing options remove anywhere near that much wood. (Chambering can, though. I think I read someplace that Warmoth's strat chambering removes about 25% of the original body weight.)
FWIW, I agree that the weight you received shouldn't be considered light weight, particularly with respect to an upcharge. I'd be disappointed with that, and it's what always kept me from ordering custom bodies. Weight is important to me so I stick to the showcase. I know from poring over so countless listings that a lot of the rules of thumb don't amount to much. For example, roasted and/or chambered bodies can still be relatively heavy (granted, not as much as without the roasting or chambering).
There's just too much variation in density within any type of wood to make many generalizations, even about what types of wood are usually on the light or heavy side--save for something like paulownia, which is very light, or maple, which is very heavy. But these are just a couple of extremes, most of the woods that most of us have in our solid-body guitars fall someplace in between and are highly variable. There may be a small difference between, say, ash and alder, on average, but the variation within each kind is much larger than their small average difference. Assuming that a randomly chosen piece of either will be lighter (or heavier) than a randomly chosen piece of the other will barely beat 50% odds, it's nowhere near 100% certain.
I've bought maybe a half dozen Warmoth bodies, all strat style, and the two lightest (less than 3 lbs, prior to finishing) were both chambered alder on alder. I also bought an "extra light roasted" one (swamp ash I think) that was just over 3 lbs. The lightest I recall seeing in the showcase was 2.5 lbs, but of course they've produced a *lot* more than I've viewed so I don't know what's the lightest ever or how common these sub-3 lb bodies are. Light ones definitely do come up, if you have the patience to wait for them. Of course, that wait might be a lot longer for a less popular body style, I assume they make a lot more strat and tele style bodies than others.
Picture a typical strat body, at about 4 lbs, and then picture 1/4 of it to represent one lb. The finish you add will be nowhere near that heavy, nor will routing options remove anywhere near that much wood. (Chambering can, though. I think I read someplace that Warmoth's strat chambering removes about 25% of the original body weight.)
FWIW, I agree that the weight you received shouldn't be considered light weight, particularly with respect to an upcharge. I'd be disappointed with that, and it's what always kept me from ordering custom bodies. Weight is important to me so I stick to the showcase. I know from poring over so countless listings that a lot of the rules of thumb don't amount to much. For example, roasted and/or chambered bodies can still be relatively heavy (granted, not as much as without the roasting or chambering).
There's just too much variation in density within any type of wood to make many generalizations, even about what types of wood are usually on the light or heavy side--save for something like paulownia, which is very light, or maple, which is very heavy. But these are just a couple of extremes, most of the woods that most of us have in our solid-body guitars fall someplace in between and are highly variable. There may be a small difference between, say, ash and alder, on average, but the variation within each kind is much larger than their small average difference. Assuming that a randomly chosen piece of either will be lighter (or heavier) than a randomly chosen piece of the other will barely beat 50% odds, it's nowhere near 100% certain.
I've bought maybe a half dozen Warmoth bodies, all strat style, and the two lightest (less than 3 lbs, prior to finishing) were both chambered alder on alder. I also bought an "extra light roasted" one (swamp ash I think) that was just over 3 lbs. The lightest I recall seeing in the showcase was 2.5 lbs, but of course they've produced a *lot* more than I've viewed so I don't know what's the lightest ever or how common these sub-3 lb bodies are. Light ones definitely do come up, if you have the patience to wait for them. Of course, that wait might be a lot longer for a less popular body style, I assume they make a lot more strat and tele style bodies than others.
Even so there'd be 12 ounces of lacquer on the body weighing about 10 oz - less than 3/4 of a pound. Acrylics and metallics may be heavier too. 
