Official Luthiers Forum!

I have a heavily modded Tele, but the addition of heavy locking machine heads, and cutting a cavity behind the bridge for a 6-way tone filter switch have left it top-heavy.
I can move the 6-way to between the volume and tone controls, since I never need fast access to them, so it will help the balance some if I fill the cavity. It's about 4" x4" and almost the fill depth of the guitar. I'm thinking it would be hard to fit wood in there as it was only routed out with chisels and isn't perfect. And something like E-metal...I don't know how that would impact the tone.
I tried moving the strap-buttons around, but the only thing that really works is the lead sheeting wrapped around the strap.
Lighter Machine-heads isn't really an option. The idea of forking out cash like that when I only play standing up once a week..ugh.
These are quite old Schallers, and much heavier than the ones I see today.

use lighter tuning machines

"Lighter Machine-heads isn't really an option. The idea of forking out cash like that when I only play standing up once a week"

Once drilled a 3/4 inch hole deep into the side of a neck heavy bass guitar, filled it with lead shot (bought it at a gun shop), and superglued the shot into the body. Veneered the hole, touched up the finish.... voila! Balance achieved. (I got lucky and didn't weigh the shot)

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Just not sure how putting lead in the guitar would affect the tone. Ideally the upper strap button would be much closer to the headstock, like on a Strat.

Problem is, weight added to the body has much less effect than weight added to the headstock. I guess i'll just have to weigh the lead on the strap, and adjust to allow for moving the weight inwards a bit, but we're talking a few pounds of lead at least. I wonder if I can make it lighter by using a few pounds of feathers instead...

How did cutting a hole in the body affect the "tone"? How about those heavy tuners on the peg head? Did they destroy the "tone"?
The guitar won't have a good "tone" sitting in the corner unplayed because it's neck heavy and you can't stand to use it. Get over this magical "tone" bs that others have sold you on and put the weight in the guitar so you can enjoy playing it once again.

Steve

^^^^
exactly what he said !!!!!!!!!

I posted a lengthy reply explaining why these things DO affect tone. To not do so would break the laws of physics. For some reason it's no longer here.

Maybe it's a conspiracy on the part of this "only the electrics affect tone" movement of people who are angry that they paid over the odds for some exotic wood that didn't make them sound better.
I can't be bothered to type it out again.

But...why doesn't an acoustic sound like a Les Paul if you put PAFs and steel strings on it? This whole anti-tonewood movement has grown from people being rightly annoyed at manufacturers charging a fortune for some weird exotic sounding wood as a marketing gimmick, into a full-fledged conspiracy theory.

It will probably affect the tone, but it has a 50/50 chance of making it better. And probably not enough that you will notice.

Ed

Gabe,
Thank you for not going back and retyping your dissertation on what affects the "tone" of an instrument. I am well aware that many things can affect the sound of a guitar from humidity and temperature changes to the emotional state of the player as well as the redistribution of weight at the ends of the strings. Some changes are so minor you can only find them through the use of some very expensive testing equipment. Some changes, like new pickups for instance, you can actually hear. Obviously you missed the point of my post, so I'll go a bit slower this time.



Well that's pretty straightforward, was there a change? Did you like it? Hate it? No preference?


Did this mod change the sound of the guitar? Did it change it in a way you found displeasing?


There is that "emotional state of the player" thing. One of the most under rated as far as its affect on instrument's sound as far as I'm concerned. If your not happy with a guitar, you won't play it and if you do, you won't play as well as you could.



This is the one you seemed to misunderstand the most.
There is no equation to tell you the effect adding a "couple of pounds of lead" will have on your guitar. The "magical "tone" bs" I was referring to is the idea that someone can say well if you add 2 lbs of lead in a 4"x4" cavity 1" behind the bridge, you will cut the fourth order harmonics by 4.713 db and this will change the voice of your instrument in quite a dissatisfactory manner. You haven't even told us anything about the guitar except its a modified Tele.
So, stick a chunk of lead in the guitar. Will it kill the tone? Who knows? If it ruins the sound pull it back out and try something else. Pull the strap button out of the upper horn. Drill a 4" deep hole and stick in a 6" rod to attach your strap to. That will rebalance your guitar. Will it affect the tone? Not if you use brass that was smelted by Leprechauns by the light of a blue moon when Venus was in Capricorn.

Steve

Xgabrielx i would definitely change the machine heads ..adding weight to balance the guitar will turn it into an unusable heavy "ball and chain" around your neck and you will probably not use it at all.

You could probably get a reasonable price for your old tuners on ebay and use that money to buy some lighter ones preferably not locking to keep weight down
Gotohs are a good choice

Cheers

I've never sold anything on Ebay, but I've been meaning to look into it. Locking heads aren't necessary as there's no tremolo, and the guitar has never had tuning problems. I can't even remember the last time I had to tune it.
So, Ebay sounds like an option. I'm about to take a huge shafting at the hands of the tax man, so money's going to be extremely tight for the foreseeable future.
I'll be filling the body cavity I mentioned behind the bridge anyway, but probably with wood.
The overall weight doesn't bother me, and I have no reason to need to play standing up at the moment, since the entire band scene has died completely around here, so I guess I'll save the fishing weights for fishing.