Why Don't More People Play Aluminum Guitars?

King Buzzo from the Melvins loves his aluminum neck guitars And Doyle has fabricated his guitars and his brother Jerry Only's (both of the Misfits) Basses in his father's shop for decades. in their father's shop for decades. It seems to me that I have most often have seen them being played by sludgy doomers, jacked into a Big Muff in front of their Old Sunn or New Orange Amps.

Dang, I bet a titanium neck would be slick and even lighter

No neck breaks, good for shipping

I owned an Ovarion made acoustic guitar with a graphite neck and aluminum fretboard. Got it for cheap at a pawn shop. Found the cold fretboard to be distracting and the Ovation style rounded back to be awkward playing sitting down.

I would describe the sound of the Aluminati as cold or clinical. I listened to the video while walking the dog. It was clear which guitar you were playing at all times.
Wood for the Win.

Can I touch that guitar after handling Gallium?

Riveting

The aluminum one sounds almost like a Dobro, IMHO. It's not at all bad, per se, it's just different. Kind of a neat sound, which I could see being useful in some styles of music, perhaps. I could totally see someone adding it to their collection, just to have something interesting and quirky, as long as it wasn't stupid expensive. Given a choice between the Les Paul and the Aluminati, obviously I'd take the Les Paul, but that's not to say the Aluminati doesn't have its place somewhere.

Because they’re expensive…

It’s called “Al lu min i um”! Not aluminum!

I thought the aluminum guitar sounded fine but yeah the neck feel alone would be deal breaker. I hate lacquer necks. I thought Illuminati sounded better on cleans than the Paul

Can it be used as a Festivus pole though?

In a decade or less, do you think the hollow aluminum neck will warp?

I put car seat belt pads around a few of my guitar straps that I use for my heavier guitars and position them so they are on top on my shoulder. It helps quit a bit.

What about carbon fibre or just plastic?

Same reason I don't drink from lead pipes

I like the idea of wood

I have a Kramer bass aluminum neck. Sounds great for recording. Don’t use live.

In theory, no re-setup needed when the weather changes would be nice.

As a dad, former professional guitar player, former lawyer and blues enthusiast, I take exception to your disparaging tone and assumptions about what gear is and is not for me!

Jk… I don’t care ;)

Conjecture: A big chunk of any difference sound is the different guitars making Rhett play differently because of the different psychophysical feedback loops Rhett forms with them.

LOOKS? Like the most important factor in buying aluminum guitar?
What about:
SUSTAIN-i know it’s not that important for Rhett, but ask SUNN O))
DURABILITY- hoe much you loose with a broken headstock on an R9? How long can you jump around the stage in a punk rock band before damage your Gibson? You can slay zombies with your Aluminati
HARMONIC CONTENT- check the video from Joe Gore about difference between wood and alu necks, on sane guitar. You can hear it…
ZERO MAINTENANCE-ever, with a steel fretted alu necks. Maybe you have to clean your pots some decade later.

I know there are drawbacks, neck dive for me is an absolute no-go, but looks as the most important factor is quite absurd…

Some of that distorted fuzz stuff you did had that first Black Sabbath album kind of tone.

I would buy that guitar. Love the clean tone of it. I would possibly change the pickups and tailor it to my taste, but that does not sound bad to me.

Danelectro guitars have brass nuts, or metal nuts in any case. I put a brass nut on an Epiphone EB0 bass which made a BIG difference for the better.

Rhett, I've been seeing lots of Carbon Fiber necks (Klos) and was wondering how you felt about them.

Must remember to send a link of this video to PRS...

The brass nut changes the sound to that "metallic" less warm tone, put on a regular guitar and you can hear it immediately.

In the 80's? I have two guitars with brass saddles and brass nuts. And yes it does have an impact on the way the string resonate on the guitar. Brass kinda settle the highs down a bit. A steel ashtray bridge will give a guitar a different twang like Tele, the brass saddles tame it a bit. Toss in some cheap steel saddles instead and you will see what I mean. Same way when a top loaded string on the bridge, from a body loaded string thru. String through the body will make it a warmer resonance.

Not trying to sound mean but people don't play them because their cost to how much they suck ratio is crazy.

probably because of the price i'm gonna guess

Steve Albini’s Veleno is now in a museum, Kurt used it on In Utero. Has a really bright punk sound to it.

Mark Farner(Grand Funk) played a Messenger w/aluminum neck from ‘69-‘72.The neck when taken out of the guitar was shaped from the end of the fretboard to the ending of the neck where it met the bottom of the body,like a tuning fork.Messenger info.said it was tuned to A 440 like a tuning fork.Farner retired it because it needed a fret job and as it was an aluminum neck he said he didn’t trust
anybody to do a refret.He then switched to a Microfrets then to a Veleno which had an aluminum body and neck.

With the muted trebles as heard on the r9 it is still bright....

Nice tones

The first ever aluminium neck guitar was made in Italy by Wandre Pioli, in the late 50's :-) i'm 100% sure about that.
Have a look at Wandre guitars, these are considered like museum pieces nowadays.

Isn’t the bridge an Aluminati as well? You can buy those from them separately

Aluminum neck makes humbuckers sound like a single coil. Much more bright and articulated.

Still poopoo on aluminum.

Stainless steel neck, Titanium neck review ?

Seeing King Buzzo playing his aluminum guitars made me really want one, they look and sound so good and I bet they play really well (minus the weight lol). Way too rich for my blood though sadly.

You always "only hear the pickups" with an electric guitar on a loud amp!

tuning problems with temperature changes on stage

There are a few good synthetic material guitars out there, but the selection is limited. I wish there were more companies making them, because I live in an area with extreme temperature and humidity changes, and wood guitars tend to move out of tune. I don’t have good climate control (or insulation, for that matter) in my home, so a synthetic material guitar would help a lot.

Heart Shaped Box was played on a Veleno owned by Steve Albini.

I would never play that ugly thing BUT I do think it does sound “better”.
I would say pickups and scale length effect the sound more than construction material

I read once that with metal, all the super high frequencies travel through the metal with almost no damping.... but they haven't been able to figure the weght/ heavy neck problem out yet.

Aluminum guitars make soooo much more sense if you think about it! Aluminati is peak fr!

sounds like like it had the opposite of a mid scoop. Felt like it had a pronounced mid and mid low with a much more muted upper and low range

For all the angry British people in the comments, here in the States its Aluminum. There are two different spellings based on region, both are correct.