New weight relieved 150s

[MartyGrass]

https://youtu.be/3Y1BBMVfTXo?si=Ri50Y29PJOlpsOLR

 

I had one long ago.  I bought it new.  The dealer did not know about the LW treatment.  I should have kept it.  Back then there was a bias against it, saying it steals tone and sustain.  Gibson got bad press about the Swiss cheese butchery.

In theory some of that may be true.  Yet I have great sounding small and medium sized semi-hollows.  The LW H-150 did not have neck diving, was about 7 lbs, and sounded excellent.

I'm glad Heritage is promoting such an instrument.

 

Edited 5 hours ago by MartyGrass

[nuke]

I've played a few of the H150's with the weight relief and I think Heritage got a good balance of weight distribution that some of the earlier weight-relieved Les Pauls from Gibson didn't. 

I have a 1998 H150, that once I changed some of the hardware on, tips the scale at about 8lbs and 14oz, definitely one of the lighter ones. Unlike most H150's of the era, it had from the factory, a standard Nashville bridge and a heavy zinc tailpiece, and was just over the 9lb mark. Swapped the Grovers out (super heavy they are) and put a Faber aluminum tailpiece and ABR1 on it. That knocked a lot of ounces off. That guitar always had a ton of acoustic resonance. Which is was why I bought used so many years ago. 

Just a few years ago, I got a Gibson custom shop 1960 Les Paul reissue (60th anniversary model). That one is solid, one-piece mahogany body, and total weight is 8lbs and 1oz. It is a joy to play, light and resonant. 

[HANGAR18]

It used to be that I couldn't stand weight relieved guitars like these but in recent years my back has persuaded me to reconsider that opinion. I like the 3rd generation of weight relief that Gibson came up with because it kept a desirable tone and distributed the body weight evenly so that the guitar didn't feel fake and lopsided when you picked it up. I wouldn't mind taking one of these on a test drive but my local Heritage dealers all vanished.