Aluminium in guitars – It's all music to our ears

Think of a guitar and the classic wooden version comes to mind. There are hundreds of types and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some passionate players even go for custom made guitars just to suit their movements and taste. The simple guitar is still evolving with newer uses of the instruments in concerts and other forms of music. The use of wood in the body and the neck of a guitar is not going to cease in a long time. However, the use of other selected materials by modern guitar manufacturers has significantly improved the sound quality and handling of the guitars.

“Manufacturers were making custom guitars from solid billeted aluminum. I was still in graduate school and couldn’t afford such instruments. So I decided to make a competitively priced guitar. Instead of wood or plastic, I opted to use 0.080-in. aircraft-grade aluminum sheet metal because of its quality and durability,” says the then-future CEO of Normandy Guitars.

Aluminium Guitar

The use of Aluminum in crafting bodies for guitars has become widespread as one of the most popular alternative materials. The inherent characteristics of the metal being low in weight and high in strength has made it extremely favorable for popular guitar manufacturers such as Normandy Guitars and Xtreme Guitars. The versatility of aluminum in the neck and body of the guitars can be attributed to its property of being able to withstand the tension created by the strings on the neck and the body while maintaining a comparatively lower weight for better handling. The metal is easy to weld and quite comfortable to integrate into the architecture of the instrument.

Aluminium neck of a guitar

The long wooden extension in a guitar is called its neck. In choosing a guitar, it is imperative to examine the rigidity of the neck with respect to the body. This is due to the fact that the bending stress of the instrument is mostly put on the neck of the guitar while handling and thus increases the chances of damaging the instrument altogether. The sturdiness of a good guitar neck is the difference between a good instrument against a poor one. This becomes all the more important when heavier gauge strings are used. The types of material used to make guitar necks are graphite (Steinberger guitars), aluminum (Kramer Guitars, Travis Bean and Veleno guitars), or carbon fiber (Modulus Guitars and ThreeGuitars). 

Aluminium body

Let us understand why a great body is the soul of a guitar. The mass and density of the materials used in the manufacturing play a crucial role in deciding the transference of sound through the guitar. Normally, a high-density material will give a high transference of pitch. One who has dealt with a guitar will know the difference between the solid and hollow body guitars. Porous (lower density) woods like Mahogany will sound warmer and deeper than Ash or Maple wood. The differences are also apparent in the weight of the materials used. If you simply knock on a thin sheet of Maple, you will hear a lower pitch than a thicker piece of the same sheet size. Aluminum guitar manufacturers use computer aided modern designing tools and engineering techniques to fine tune the thickness and properties of the metal to condition the guitar. The most common material used is the 6061 aluminium alloy. In some cases, these guitars produce a better and clearer tunes than their solid as well as hollow wood antecedents.

The advantages of the 6061 grade of aluminum are:

• Crisp acoustics
• Low weight
• High tensile strength
• High bending resistance
• Complete RF shielding of the electronics which cancels feedback noise

Aluminium castings

Even cast aluminum parts for music instruments is gaining popularity. Seasoned musicians prefer instruments which can produce a clear sound with as much longevity. Aluminium castings are way tougher and acoustics favoring than plastic components. Hence, in spite of the plastic components being cheaper, the aluminum castings have a clear advantage over them in malleability, casting into desired shapes and robustness.