Albert Lee Music Man weight difference

[happiegolfer]

Hope you guys can help me out. I'm now an owner of 6 great EBMM's with a combination of different necks and bodies. Axis Sport(1), Silhouette Special(1), Axis Super Sport(2), Albert Lee(2). So here's my naive question.

The two Albert Lee's greatly differ in weight. One was born in 1994 (much lighter) and the other one was born in 2007. Both are hard tail's/unfinished maple neck and when I called into customer service, the 1994 body was called a Southern Ash body, while the 2007 was considered a Swamp Ash body. Can it be that the 13 years changed the weight or are these different bodies? Thought that Southern Ash/Swamp ash are the same also...

I could have asked asked the folks at EBMM who are always great answering such questions, but I thought I could learn a lot by posting this question. Thanks for your help!

 

[beej]

Wood varies a lot from piece to piece. It's pretty common to have guitars of the same model with different weights (within reason- there's a tolerance that's acceptable to builders). I have two ALs from 96/97 that are quite different, for example. Just how these things go.

 

[kimonostereo]

Beej is right. Wood weight varies from body to body. My pinky Albert Lee is the lightest guitar I own aside from my hollow body parts strat. I've picked up other AL's and they all vary.

If you check out Warmoth's pre made body page, you will see that the same wood type and shape often have varying weights.

 

[happiegolfer]

Thanks. Funny, my 94 Pink Albert Lee is the lightest guitar I own... but it sounds awesome. It's even lighter than my Sport that is pretty darn light. I'm actually not liking my 07 heavier blue Albert Lee now... How unfaithful I can be after so many years being together...

 

[robelinda2]

Ive had ridiculous weight differences with AL's. Really light to quite on the heavy side. All the heavy ones didn't last long. Gave up buying new ones without playing them first, at one stage i bought 3 in a row that were just miles away from the weight they were supposed to be. Now i'm just stuck.

 

[Big Poppa]

its wood....not being a smart ass but ash can be super light and extremely heavy....there is a range that we make them in but there is no such thing as too light

 

[ScoobySteve]

Some shrugs, stiff legged dead lifts and some good mornings fixes this problem right up.

 

[Spudmurphy]

my vintage sunburst is super light. My LEAL is the heaviest and in between is my BCB.

Yup they vary quite a bit.

2 of 'em have blocks of brass for the trem - and the LEAL does have solid gold on there to weigh it down a bit more !!! lol