Jimbob

Congrats on the new guitar purchases! There's certainly nothing wrong with a nice plain top regardless of brand! Also, I've mentioned this before, but the bridges on these new H-150s and other Custom Cores have been upgraded to the more traditional zamac/brass tune-o-matic style bridge and, in my honest opinion, they're vastly superior tone-wise to the Pinnacle bridges that were installed up until 2025. They may not be locking, but the materials do matter! Can't wait to hear how you like the new guitars!

Sorry to hear of your trouble with the Schaller tuners! This scenario reminds me of a time back in the '70s when there was a huge debate about installing heavier Grovers on Norlin-era Les Pauls. Of course, at the time Gibson was installing those shoddy chrome tulip tuners that no one cared for, and everyone was raving that not only were the Grovers far superior, but the shear mass of the tuners themselves helped to give the guitars better tone and more sustain, or at least that was the claim. I don't recall how much of a tonal difference they really made, but I do find it interesting that modern-day Gibson Les Paul Historic Reissues continue to feature lighter-weight Kluson-style tuners. Rarely do we see anyone replacing them with the heavier Grovers or Schallers these days, but I'm sure there are exceptions. That said, I think we posted about this before, correct? Anyway, I decided to try the Gotoh SG381 tuners after reading the reviews that Kuz and a few others had written here. They're a direct drop-in replacement for the Heritage tuners, and I honestly didn't notice a bit of a tonal change in the guitar. I also tend to be super picky about what I'm hearing out of a guitar, too. The biggest difference that I noticed was that the tuning quality of the Gotohs was far superior to the Heritage tuners, so I've never felt any need to look any further. Plus, they're relatively inexpensive: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B012EBV47A?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

Well, to be honest, I use a small hand truck to get my amp from the car to the stage and back - same within my house to the car - so the only lifting I really need to do is to heave it in and out of my car and perhaps occasionally on an amp stand or on to the stage itself. Thankfully, the lifting is so minimal that it doesn't bother me much. If I know that I'll need to haul an amp up and down a full flight of stairs, though, I'll definitely choose a lighter amp. My primary amp is a Two-Rock TS1 combo, and even though it's a 100-watt beast of sorts, between the loop and the master volume control, I can dial it in for the kind of tone I like at any stage volume without having any issues. I'd be the first to say that I'd go for a modeling amp or a much lighter tube amp if I could produce the same kind of vibe that the TS1 puts out, but since I have yet to find anything that'll do that, I just tolerate the weight. Funny, but since the TS1 1x12 combo is still relatively small in size, the other guys in the band think I'm just using a small amp. Little do they know that I could run that same amp at the Madison Square Garden and get away with it.......LOL.

I have a bad back as well, but I'm still lugging around a 60-pound combo. It's heavy, but I still manage to get it in and out of gigs. I just love the sound of big iron and tubes.

I just turned 71, and I'm going out with my tube amps! For whatever reason I have absolutely no interest in buying a modeling amp.