texasguitarslinger
Mo Cow Bellologist
Re: Best weight for a Les Paul? Whats your thoughts?
8 to 8.5 lbs.
8 to 8.5 lbs.
Best weight for a Les Paul? Whats your thoughts?
- Thread starter GuitarGuy503
- Start date
Re: Best weight for a Les Paul? Whats your thoughts?
Red this thread today. So much of this is just talk and things people have said and heard. It´s not the weight r if it´s weight relieved, it´s not the type of mahogany and from where it is. What makes a guitar sound good or bad is the sum of all parts including the player. A guitar mustn`t be better because it has certain parts and is made in a certain way like with the long neck tenon. There is many guitarists that´s got 70´s Les Pauls or later ones with small neck tenons that´s got amazing tones. I guess the wood they used in the 50´s also differed and wasn´t always top notch. They didn´t think about all the details we do today back then. They just made guitars like they made them then and i´m sure they made some real dogs back then also. I know they all vary greatly even the necks. There isn´t such a thing as a 58 or 59 neck on the real Bursts. There are 58´s with slimmer necks than some 59´s. The neck do got slimmer a bit into 1960. They all differ and you can´t say i Les Paul will sound great just because it´s made in the Custom Shop like they did them in the 50´s. Also it mustn´t be old to be great. Some things can even be done better today like the Plekink. Weight relief or chambering can also be a good thing since it can be quite tiresome to stand and play with a heavy guitar for a long time. The chambered ones can in my opinion sound a bit different when you play them acousticly. But when you plug them in they still sound like a Les Paul. From what i´ve seen and heard they sound great.
Red this thread today. So much of this is just talk and things people have said and heard. It´s not the weight r if it´s weight relieved, it´s not the type of mahogany and from where it is. What makes a guitar sound good or bad is the sum of all parts including the player. A guitar mustn`t be better because it has certain parts and is made in a certain way like with the long neck tenon. There is many guitarists that´s got 70´s Les Pauls or later ones with small neck tenons that´s got amazing tones. I guess the wood they used in the 50´s also differed and wasn´t always top notch. They didn´t think about all the details we do today back then. They just made guitars like they made them then and i´m sure they made some real dogs back then also. I know they all vary greatly even the necks. There isn´t such a thing as a 58 or 59 neck on the real Bursts. There are 58´s with slimmer necks than some 59´s. The neck do got slimmer a bit into 1960. They all differ and you can´t say i Les Paul will sound great just because it´s made in the Custom Shop like they did them in the 50´s. Also it mustn´t be old to be great. Some things can even be done better today like the Plekink. Weight relief or chambering can also be a good thing since it can be quite tiresome to stand and play with a heavy guitar for a long time. The chambered ones can in my opinion sound a bit different when you play them acousticly. But when you plug them in they still sound like a Les Paul. From what i´ve seen and heard they sound great.
Last edited:
Myaccount876
Amira-Maker
Re: Best weight for a Les Paul? Whats your thoughts?
Over 100 courics
Over 100 courics
astrozombie
KatyPerryologist
Re: Best weight for a Les Paul? Whats your thoughts?
As heavy as ****. Mine is 10 lbs.
My tech picked it up and instantly said
I've held much heavier
As heavy as ****. Mine is 10 lbs.
My tech picked it up and instantly said
I've held much heavier
muttznmongrelz
New member
Re: Best weight for a Les Paul? Whats your thoughts?
Totally Agree!!! The '82 Standard I use to have weighed 10 pounds 6 ounces. The '09 Maple Studio Raw weighs between 8.5-9.
Totally Agree!!! The '82 Standard I use to have weighed 10 pounds 6 ounces. The '09 Maple Studio Raw weighs between 8.5-9.
Nostalgic Distortion
New member
Re: Best weight for a Les Paul? Whats your thoughts?
View attachment 74329
Lol, somewhere between 6.5 & 11lbs....
View attachment 74330
No, I enjoy playing my Double Cut Special more than a full size L.P. because of the lighter weight. That said, a true solid body H/H L.P. is supposed to be heavy, 8.5-11lbs? That massive piece of Mahogany, set neck, & Maple cap (depending on who you ask, I prefer them without) are a big part of the recipe makes up a L.P.!!!
I think really the only way to make them lighter after a certain point is to start removing wood and chambering them or to use different types of tone woods & building materials? Both of these things will change the guitar's tone & personally I don't think they're really true solid body L.P.'s unless it's got most of these things going on?
Other than that I guess you can make them thinner??? Although they do tend to start sounding a lot like S.G.'s then!!!
View attachment 74329
Lol, somewhere between 6.5 & 11lbs....
View attachment 74330
No, I enjoy playing my Double Cut Special more than a full size L.P. because of the lighter weight. That said, a true solid body H/H L.P. is supposed to be heavy, 8.5-11lbs? That massive piece of Mahogany, set neck, & Maple cap (depending on who you ask, I prefer them without) are a big part of the recipe makes up a L.P.!!!
I think really the only way to make them lighter after a certain point is to start removing wood and chambering them or to use different types of tone woods & building materials? Both of these things will change the guitar's tone & personally I don't think they're really true solid body L.P.'s unless it's got most of these things going on?
Other than that I guess you can make them thinner??? Although they do tend to start sounding a lot like S.G.'s then!!!
some_dude
Raging BB Gunologist
Re: Best weight for a Les Paul? Whats your thoughts?
My best sounding Les Paul is 8.5 lbs. It's slightly scooped and has a twangy top end that makes solos scream.
My second best sounding Les Paul is 9lbs. It's fairly even sounding across the spectrum. Thicker mids that make it a little less interesting than the first guitar.
My worst sounding Les Paul is 8 lbs. It has a big midrange spike that I can't dial out and pickup swaps never fixed.
None are chambered/weight relieved.
Long story short, I'm not sure how much of a difference the weight makes to the sound... but a lighter Les Paul sure is easier to play for hours at a time.
My best sounding Les Paul is 8.5 lbs. It's slightly scooped and has a twangy top end that makes solos scream.
My second best sounding Les Paul is 9lbs. It's fairly even sounding across the spectrum. Thicker mids that make it a little less interesting than the first guitar.
My worst sounding Les Paul is 8 lbs. It has a big midrange spike that I can't dial out and pickup swaps never fixed.
None are chambered/weight relieved.
Long story short, I'm not sure how much of a difference the weight makes to the sound... but a lighter Les Paul sure is easier to play for hours at a time.
zanshin777
New member
Re: Best weight for a Les Paul? Whats your thoughts?
When I bought my 2013 LP Traditional I tried around 10 LP's. (Standards and Traditionals)
All Standards were obviously lighter and better sounding than Traditionals. (Both Unplugged and Plugged)
When I bought my 2013 LP Traditional I tried around 10 LP's. (Standards and Traditionals)
All Standards were obviously lighter and better sounding than Traditionals. (Both Unplugged and Plugged)
Southbound Suarez
New member
Re: Best weight for a Les Paul? Whats your thoughts?
Any Les Paul that weighs less than a Les Paul Custom. Custom's sound "hard" to my ears.
Any Les Paul that weighs less than a Les Paul Custom. Custom's sound "hard" to my ears.
eclecticsynergy
Well-known member
Re: Best weight for a Les Paul? Whats your thoughts?
Customs always sounded harder to my ear too. I think it may be the ebony boards. The only two I ever bonded with were a 1972 '54 reissue, and a '76 with DiMarzio PAFs that warmed the tone considerably.
I prefer LPs in the 8-9 lb range, mainly because heavier ones tire me out quickly now that I'm pushing sixty. And I often find it's the lighter guitars that sing more freely at volume. My take on this is that it may simply require less ambient sound energy to get them vibrating fully, compared to ones that weigh more.
Tone is a more important consideration for me than weight though- balanced response or scooped is OK with me, but I couldn't deal with a big mid spike like the one some_dude described.
Still, for me the biggest factor is liveliness, particularly in the neck. This is where long tenon guitars have a real advantage. I love to feel the vibrations humming under my hands, from an axe that really comes alive in my arms. It's gotten to the point now that I'll tap the back of a headstock and can usually tell from the way it shivers whether the guitar is going to suit me in terms of liveliness. Then I'll check out the neck feel, tone, weight, etc. after that. There haven't been many Les Pauls that passed the shiver test and didn't sound good. The lively ones mostly sound great. In fact, I'd have to say that most LPs seem to have pretty good natural tone; in my experience there have been very few genuinely dead logs among them, and I've never owned a Standard that had real midrange problems. Of course I'm partial to open-sounding pickups too; some of my LPs might not sound as good as they do if I were using pickups with a more congested character.
My #1 Les Paul weighs in at 8.1 lbs. Not sure whether it's lost any weight over the years, since I didn't weigh it when I got it 33 years ago. But I keep them pretty well humidified so it likely isn't any lighter than it was. My others range from 7.8 to 8.9 lbs, not counting the LP Special and an SG-style LP Custom which are lighter. Heaviest guitar I own is a '72 Ibanez lawsuit Jazz Bass that tips the scales at nearly 12 lbs. Man, that thing is a beast!
Customs always sounded harder to my ear too. I think it may be the ebony boards. The only two I ever bonded with were a 1972 '54 reissue, and a '76 with DiMarzio PAFs that warmed the tone considerably.
I prefer LPs in the 8-9 lb range, mainly because heavier ones tire me out quickly now that I'm pushing sixty. And I often find it's the lighter guitars that sing more freely at volume. My take on this is that it may simply require less ambient sound energy to get them vibrating fully, compared to ones that weigh more.
Tone is a more important consideration for me than weight though- balanced response or scooped is OK with me, but I couldn't deal with a big mid spike like the one some_dude described.
Still, for me the biggest factor is liveliness, particularly in the neck. This is where long tenon guitars have a real advantage. I love to feel the vibrations humming under my hands, from an axe that really comes alive in my arms. It's gotten to the point now that I'll tap the back of a headstock and can usually tell from the way it shivers whether the guitar is going to suit me in terms of liveliness. Then I'll check out the neck feel, tone, weight, etc. after that. There haven't been many Les Pauls that passed the shiver test and didn't sound good. The lively ones mostly sound great. In fact, I'd have to say that most LPs seem to have pretty good natural tone; in my experience there have been very few genuinely dead logs among them, and I've never owned a Standard that had real midrange problems. Of course I'm partial to open-sounding pickups too; some of my LPs might not sound as good as they do if I were using pickups with a more congested character.
My #1 Les Paul weighs in at 8.1 lbs. Not sure whether it's lost any weight over the years, since I didn't weigh it when I got it 33 years ago. But I keep them pretty well humidified so it likely isn't any lighter than it was. My others range from 7.8 to 8.9 lbs, not counting the LP Special and an SG-style LP Custom which are lighter. Heaviest guitar I own is a '72 Ibanez lawsuit Jazz Bass that tips the scales at nearly 12 lbs. Man, that thing is a beast!
Nostalgic Distortion
New member
Re: Best weight for a Les Paul? Whats your thoughts?
View attachment 74340
Hay, you could always just get a chap hollow body, cut her in half & stick the sides on your very own "Broomstick with pickups"!!! Les thought it was a reasonable way to keep the weight down....
View attachment 74340
Hay, you could always just get a chap hollow body, cut her in half & stick the sides on your very own "Broomstick with pickups"!!! Les thought it was a reasonable way to keep the weight down....
beaubrummels
Well-known member
Re: Best weight for a Les Paul? Whats your thoughts?
The best wait for a Les Paul is les than 24 hours.
The best wait for a Les Paul is les than 24 hours.
Rand-O-Monium
New member
Re: Best weight for a Les Paul? Whats your thoughts?
Play 'em all,narrow down 2 3
Pick 1
Play 'em all,narrow down 2 3
Pick 1
blueman335
Mojo's Minions
Re: Best weight for a Les Paul? Whats your thoughts?
Regardless of how they sound, I like the feel of a heavy LP, gives me a feeling of stability. I've never noticed any LP seeming heavy at gigs, but then, I'm 6'5".
Regardless of how they sound, I like the feel of a heavy LP, gives me a feeling of stability. I've never noticed any LP seeming heavy at gigs, but then, I'm 6'5".
