Weight range of the lightest les pauls

[Lhdr]

How light can they get?

 

[ARandall]

How much wood do you want to keep?
ES models are very light. Billy Gibbons has had chambered neck shafts on some of his custom creations.

How long is a piece of string.....is there a point here??

 

[musicmaniac]

What he said! Depends on the model and the wood.

 

[Barnaby]

In the 6-7 pound range, I believe. Lighter ones may exist.

 

[Ph03n1x]

In the 6-7 pound range, I believe. Lighter ones may exist.

I have an MIJ Ornetts 54 that is 7.5lbs. It is a solid body. I can't imagine getting anything under 7 without chambering. However, I wonder if they can roast mahogany like they do with maple? That might get the weight down. Especially with a roasted maple top. I am surprised no one has done this yet...

 

[Lhdr]

I'm talking with chambering.

 

[redcoats1976]

my 2017 GT tribute weighs 8 pounds,thats about average though.

 

[LocoTex]

Go the Sweetwater site. They list the weight of their Gibsons. I believe I recently saw a solid body Les Paul Junior there that was under 7 lbs. You can find a light guitar if you have patience.

 

[Elmore]

I am wondering how light they get without any wood removed. Different volumes of mahogany have different weights. I have heard that R9s get the lightest wood because it is considered desirable in the vintage world.

 

[Christosterone]

My HP models are really light....they have ultra modern weight relief and shaved heel..

before I added 3rd pups and bigsbys they were under 7 lbs...
just the wood though

i haven’t weighed them since...

here’s a good example sans hardware..
my Es is light as a feather btw

2018 Gibson USA Les Paul Standard HP BODY & NECK Project AAA+ Hot Pink Fade

Your finest resource for guitar parts! Fender, Gibson, Charvel, Seymour Duncan, Guitar Bodies, Guitar Necks, Loaded Pickguards, Guitar Pickups and more...

stratosphereparts.com

-Chris

 

[Cjsinla]

I'm talking with chambering.

Under 8 for sure, maybe under 7 for some, especially the ES Les Pauls.

 

[MSB]

less plus is less than 7.5 w/ a trem installed

 

[mgenet]

Some comparisons (by wt):

2009 Studio 50s Tribute -chambered = 7.23 lbs
2008 Standard Plus - chambered = 7.36 lbs
c 2003 Special II (Basswood) - solid = 7.71 lbs
1998 Studio Double Cut - weight relieved = 7.89 lbs
2012 Studio 70s Tribute - strategic trad. weight relief = 8.59 lbs
Lou Pallo Signature - trad. weight relief = 9.85 lbs

Different wood densities I would assume. I am far from
knowledgeable about woods, weights, etc.

Also I think that some LP can be different thicknesses; say Studios
vs Standards or the like. The MLP LP historians can comment
much better on this than I.

Of course the lighter Gibson are not LPs per se. Semi-hollows and
hollow guitars are, of course, lighter sans whammy bar.

 

[jktxs]

However, I wonder if they can roast mahogany like they do with maple? That might get the weight down.

In 2018 the custom shop made a few '57 LP customs with roasted mahogany body for the Japanese market.
The 3 pickup ones still weighed above 9 lbs, and although the 2 pickup ones weighed anywhere between 8.6-8.8 lbs (3.9-4.0 kilos) I've seen non roasted '57 customs lighter than those.

 

[grumphh_the_banned_one]

The real question is: Is it still a Les Paul when it is chambered to the point of being a semi without F-holes?

My personal opinion is that a semiacoustic concealed as a solidbody is not a "Les Paul".
In the same way that the early 60's SG shaped "Les Pauls" were not Les Pauls.

 

[kakerlak]

I'm actually curious to see folks' anecdotal weight observations on fully solid, normal mahogany+maple LPs. In just poking around FS ads over the years, I've seen a handful of historics in the mid-7s, but can't recall ever seeing one dip into the 6lbs territory w/o being chambered. But, if somebody deliberately tried to source the absolute lightest wood blanks they could find, I wonder how low it could go. Anybody got a luthier build?

I almost bought a 1960 Epiphone Wilshire years ago that was maybe the lightest solid body I've ever picked up -- maybe even the lightest electric guitar, period. I have to believe that guitar was way under six pounds and that's a fairly thick slab of mahogany. It was an anomaly, but it existed just the same. If you had something like that as a starting point, you might get under seven with the maple top. But maple is almost always heavy...

 

[bross63]

I have heard that R9s get the lightest wood because it is considered desirable in the vintage world.

It’s not just R9s. They select the best mahogany blanks for all their historic reissues. My 2019 1960 LP Standard reissue weighs 8.2lbs which is what I consider light for a true solid body Les Paul. I’m sure there are lighter ones out there, but that’s an example of the difference in wood used in the historics and how it can affect the overall weight of the guitar. My 1982 LP Custom (silverburst) is one of the last ones before they started chambering all LPs (except for reissues), and it weighs well over 11lbs. It’s a beast! (and a shoulder killer if played with a strap for an extended period).

 

[dancsgrv]

My 2018 CS Modern Standard is 7.4. It is chambered.

My personal opinion is that a semiacoustic concealed as a solidbody is not a "Les Paul".
In the same way that the early 60's SG shaped "Les Pauls" were not Les Pauls.

Of course they are Les Pauls. Gibson made them and put that name on them. By this logic, no Les Paul since the original model is real because they changed something on it. Or thinking a Corvette is not a real Vette because it looks nothing like the original model. It's up to Gibson what a Les Paul is these days. No disrespect, not wanting to start an argument, just my opinion.

 

[gball]

The lightest I have owned was a weight-relieved Standard that was right around 7.75 lbs, and I thought it was freakishly light to the point of being weird feeling. I also didn't like the somewhat nasally sound of any of the chambered/weight relieved Les Pauls I have owned, so I am exclusively non weight relieved/chambered now. On the other end, I had a '77 Custom at one time that was just under 12 lbs., and the '79 I have now is slightly over 11 and its one of the best sounding guitars I have ever played.

 

[grumphh_the_banned_one]

My 2018 CS Modern Standard is 7.4. It is chambered.



Of course they are Les Pauls. Gibson made them and put that name on them. By this logic, no Les Paul since the original model is real because they changed something on it. Or thinking a Corvette is not a real Vette because it looks nothing like the original model. It's up to Gibson what a Les Paul is these days. No disrespect, not wanting to start an argument, just my opinion.

Just because a company acquires a name (that was given to a famous original thing) and starts slapping that on just about everything it doesn't make everything with the name on it the original thing.

The SG shaped LP's never were LP's - they were just called that (to cash in on the name).

Same with the fully chambered "LP's" - sure, they have the shape of LP's, and they have the correct logo on the headstock - but they are not solidbody guitars any more - and that is pretty much a prerequisite for any guitar to be a Les Paul ....