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Little Les Paul Humor.


bubs_42

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Hmmmm...I can’t recall (back in the 70s) folks saying, “I LOVE my LP, but dayym, the thing is heavy!” Didn’t seem to impact sales, IIRC. 

Our graying, obese population of boomers with blown-out backs and fukked-up knees are the ones noticing guitar-weights today. They wouldn’t be heavy if one could physically handle them, right?

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1 minute ago, RobB said:

Hmmmm...I can’t recall (back in the 70s) folks saying, “I LOVE my LP, but dayym, the thing is heavy!” Didn’t seem to impact sales, IIRC. 

Our graying, obese population of boomers with blown-out backs and fukked-up knees are the ones noticing guitar-weights today. They wouldn’t be heavy if one could physically handle them, right?

I’m just a weakling, working towards a state of decrepitude, but would say something like that and keep playing until my spine or shoulder snapped. That’s the real fun. 

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2 minutes ago, RobB said:

Hmmmm...I can’t recall (back in the 70s) folks saying, “I LOVE my LP, but dayym, the thing is heavy!” Didn’t seem to impact sales, IIRC. 

Our graying, obese population of boomers with blown-out backs and fukked-up knees are the ones noticing guitar-weights today. They wouldn’t be heavy if one could physically handle them, right?

Get a teenager to play a 10-pound guitar through a couple of 3/4 hour sets at a gig, then ask them what they think of the weight.

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I've had somewhere between a half-dozen and ten 70s Standards and Customs in my playing life and all were hovering in and above the 10-pound range. My '76 LP "Standard Deluxe" custom order weighs an even 10 pounds, 0 ounces. The heaviest I've ever had was a black '79 Standard that weighed like it was made of meteorite remnants. I could not play it for more than one set during gigs because a full set would have me on a heating pad the next day. It was one of those LPs that guys who knew and tolerated heavy Les Pauls would grab it and say "now THAT is a heavy Les Paul." I never knew how much it weighed until I sold it online in the early days of internet (the old Harmony Central classifieds) and had to ship it and I had a scale handy when it was time to pack up. I don't remember the exact weight 20 years later but I distinctly remember it was just under or just over 14 pounds. 

Heavyweight guitars were obviously an intentional trend in the mid 70s because the strats and teles that come to see me tend to be on the very heavy side compared to modern ones. Custom booteeky guitars of that era - Moonstones immediately come to mind - also weighed like they were built of granite and marble. Apparently the builders of the day equated "tone" to sustain, and subsequently sought that increased sustain via excessive mass and weight. And just like guitar playing consumers of today, I'd suspect players then bought into the hype. I can just imagine a 70s sales floor rep putting a lawsuit LP copy in a buyer's hands and then the "real" LP and saying "you see? you can feel the difference and how much better it is immediately."

 

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1 hour ago, kizanski said:

At quick glance, I thought the title of this thread was "Les Paul Hamer," which sounds like it would be a pretty cool mashup.

There was actually one of those made...and an all-Korina body made at the same time.

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1 hour ago, Jeff R said:

Heavyweight guitars were obviously an intentional trend in the mid 70s because the strats and teles that come to see me tend to be on the very heavy side compared to modern ones. Custom booteeky guitars of that era - Moonstones immediately come to mind - also weighed like they were built of granite and marble. Apparently the builders of the day equated "tone" to sustain, and subsequently sought that increased sustain via excessive mass and weight. And just like guitar playing consumers of today, I'd suspect players then bought into the hype. I can just imagine a 70s sales floor rep putting a lawsuit LP copy in a buyer's hands and then the "real" LP and saying "you see? you can feel the difference and how much better it is immediately."

People seem to forget the whole trend towards heavier guitars and adding mass for "sustain" and "tone".  I'm not sure if that evolved out of the higher percentage of bricks Norlin and CBS were shooting out in the '70s or not, but DiMarzio, Stars and Schecter (and others) really capitalized on the whole "Brass Mass" and heavyweight parts market.

Maybe it was a macho thing to sling a 12lb Lester to go along with your powder blue leisure suit, floral shirt, white platform shoes, gold chains, tinted Aviators and Brut33, maybe not...

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14 hours ago, RobB said:

Hmmmm...I can’t recall (back in the 70s) folks saying, “I LOVE my LP, but dayym, the thing is heavy!” Didn’t seem to impact sales, IIRC. 

Our graying, obese population of boomers with blown-out backs and fukked-up knees are the ones noticing guitar-weights today. They wouldn’t be heavy if one could physically handle them, right?

image.png

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5 hours ago, Steve Haynie said:

If some of you guys got in a fight with an accordion player one would be wise to bet on the accordion player to win. 

My Dad - farm boy/WWII vet - played that 26 lb chick magnet 3-4 hours a night every weekend. Badass.

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26 minutes ago, cmatthes said:

There was actually one of those made...and an all-Korina body made at the same time.

Oh yeah, I remember that, but I was referring more to the two men: Les Paul Hamer.

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2 hours ago, cmatthes said:

People seem to forget the whole trend towards heavier guitars and adding mass for "sustain" and "tone".  I'm not sure if that evolved out of the higher percentage of bricks Norlin and CBS were shooting out in the '70s or not, but DiMarzio, Stars and Schecter (and others) really capitalized on the whole "Brass Mass" and heavyweight parts market.

Maybe it was a macho thing to sling a 12lb Lester to go along with your powder blue leisure suit, floral shirt, white platform shoes, gold chains, tinted Aviators and Brut33, maybe not...

I haven't.  Vintage '70's guitars with brass nuts still surface on the resale market fairly frequently.  I've got a few old Schaller chrome plated brass/plain brass LP pickguards in my parts stash, and they've got some heft to them; though it doesn't do anything to/for the tone.

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Then again, THIS is probably what people might think reading the thread title...I mean, Howard...those BOOTS!

 

Little Les Paul Humor.jpg

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5 hours ago, Jeff R said:

I've had somewhere between a half-dozen and ten 70s Standards and Customs in my playing life and all were hovering in and above the 10-pound range. My '76 LP "Standard Deluxe" custom order weighs an even 10 pounds, 0 ounces. The heaviest I've ever had was a black '79 Standard that weighed like it was made of meteorite remnants. I could not play it for more than one set during gigs because a full set would have me on a heating pad the next day. It was one of those LPs that guys who knew and tolerated heavy Les Pauls would grab it and say "now THAT is a heavy Les Paul." I never knew how much it weighed until I sold it online in the early days of internet (the old Harmony Central classifieds) and had to ship it and I had a scale handy when it was time to pack up. I don't remember the exact weight 20 years later but I distinctly remember it was just under or just over 14 pounds. 

Heavyweight guitars were obviously an intentional trend in the mid 70s because the strats and teles that come to see me tend to be on the very heavy side compared to modern ones. Custom booteeky guitars of that era - Moonstones immediately come to mind - also weighed like they were built of granite and marble. Apparently the builders of the day equated "tone" to sustain, and subsequently sought that increased sustain via excessive mass and weight. And just like guitar playing consumers of today, I'd suspect players then bought into the hype. I can just imagine a 70s sales floor rep putting a lawsuit LP copy in a buyer's hands and then the "real" LP and saying "you see? you can feel the difference and how much better it is immediately."

 

I had an old late-'70's Peavey T-60 a few years back, I put a used Gibson 490/498 alnico set of humbuckers in it as an experiment, they weren't much of an improvement.  The guitar body was made from ash, it wasn't the heaviest I've ever played, but it wasn't the lightest either...dense was a probably more accurate term to use regarding the body.  Acoustically, it was about as resonant as a granite countertop.

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