Sorry , no pics , I'm useless about taking pics when working on anything
A couple of years ago , I bought a used 2005 Les Paul Studio. I can't believe it was ever white , but it's a really nice banana yellow , ebony fretboard , 490/498 pickups.
After a fret level , it was a nice playing guitar , but.......it was 4255 grams , or 9.3 pounds. Not a problem as such , but like my Teles , the heavier ones tend to stay on the rack
I decided to see what could be done to ease the burden a bit , and gathered parts slowly when buying stuff anyway from vendors.
Aluminum stop bar saves a bit over 60gr , original was 90 , Faber was 28
Pinnacle alu Nashville bridge 30 gr lighter than stock
Alu stop bar studs weigh 10 gr , stock 30
Top hat knobs and plastic plate for the jack , minus 20 gr
Removed pickguard 29gr with bracket
Removed pu covers 20 gr each
This guitar had the long threaded Gibson marked pots , and grounding/assembly plate
Used 4 CTS pots without the plate ,plate alone 37 gr. The Gibson pots incl all the extra nuts and washers weighed quite a bit more , maybe 30 gr
Drilled a few holes in the body , a couple of 22 mm in the bottom of pu routs , same depth as the holes for the Pu feet. Also drilled a few holes through the jack hole , with a 22mm spade drill bit. Rounded out edges in the control cavity etc
About 100 gr of wood removed.
Guitar was now at about 3900 gr/8.6 pounds.
That was a couple of years ago , have used it quite a bit since.
Got hold of a set of Gotoh Stealth tuners , these are very small , very expensive , and REALLY light , 71 gr for six.
The Kluson look a likes Gibson use on so many models weigh 192 gr , with threaded bushings and screws.
If you have Grover tuners , you could be having 300gr hanging on the headstock. Same with the Robot tuners , about 300gr.
Heard about Lace Alumitone pickups. A humbucker sized Alumitone weighs less than 50 gr
A normal humbucker weighs 150/160 gr with cover , cover weighs 20gr alone
Alumitones use way less windings than normal , and is constructed from alu. Signal is low impedance , and converted to high impedance via a transducer.
They are passive , no batteries , mount like normal pickups , and sound great to me at first test.....they also remove half a pound from your guitar with normal humbuckers !
These are used with 250k pots , so decided to go to short shaft pots. Those long brass threads are heavy !
Removed some wood in the control area , and installed short shaft pots, not very hard to do. 28gr saved compared to long shaft pots.
Did my own pickguard in thinner material , and made up a bracket in alu. 14gr instead of 29.
After all this fun , the guitar now weighs 3585 gr , or 7.89 pounds.
None of this was really needed , but it was fun , and modding from a different angle than normal.
Besides , lots of people ask on different forums , if anything can be done . Usually , no real advice is given . After all , Les Paul's should be heavy , right ?
If like me , you mod stuff all the time for fun , the work can be done over time.
All the parts used on this guitar is better made than what came off.
Anyway , this was fun , gotta go play my guitar !
A couple of years ago , I bought a used 2005 Les Paul Studio. I can't believe it was ever white , but it's a really nice banana yellow , ebony fretboard , 490/498 pickups.
After a fret level , it was a nice playing guitar , but.......it was 4255 grams , or 9.3 pounds. Not a problem as such , but like my Teles , the heavier ones tend to stay on the rack
I decided to see what could be done to ease the burden a bit , and gathered parts slowly when buying stuff anyway from vendors.
Aluminum stop bar saves a bit over 60gr , original was 90 , Faber was 28
Pinnacle alu Nashville bridge 30 gr lighter than stock
Alu stop bar studs weigh 10 gr , stock 30
Top hat knobs and plastic plate for the jack , minus 20 gr
Removed pickguard 29gr with bracket
Removed pu covers 20 gr each
This guitar had the long threaded Gibson marked pots , and grounding/assembly plate
Used 4 CTS pots without the plate ,plate alone 37 gr. The Gibson pots incl all the extra nuts and washers weighed quite a bit more , maybe 30 gr
Drilled a few holes in the body , a couple of 22 mm in the bottom of pu routs , same depth as the holes for the Pu feet. Also drilled a few holes through the jack hole , with a 22mm spade drill bit. Rounded out edges in the control cavity etc
About 100 gr of wood removed.
Guitar was now at about 3900 gr/8.6 pounds.
That was a couple of years ago , have used it quite a bit since.
Got hold of a set of Gotoh Stealth tuners , these are very small , very expensive , and REALLY light , 71 gr for six.
The Kluson look a likes Gibson use on so many models weigh 192 gr , with threaded bushings and screws.
If you have Grover tuners , you could be having 300gr hanging on the headstock. Same with the Robot tuners , about 300gr.
Heard about Lace Alumitone pickups. A humbucker sized Alumitone weighs less than 50 gr
A normal humbucker weighs 150/160 gr with cover , cover weighs 20gr alone
Alumitones use way less windings than normal , and is constructed from alu. Signal is low impedance , and converted to high impedance via a transducer.
They are passive , no batteries , mount like normal pickups , and sound great to me at first test.....they also remove half a pound from your guitar with normal humbuckers !
These are used with 250k pots , so decided to go to short shaft pots. Those long brass threads are heavy !
Removed some wood in the control area , and installed short shaft pots, not very hard to do. 28gr saved compared to long shaft pots.
Did my own pickguard in thinner material , and made up a bracket in alu. 14gr instead of 29.
After all this fun , the guitar now weighs 3585 gr , or 7.89 pounds.
None of this was really needed , but it was fun , and modding from a different angle than normal.
Besides , lots of people ask on different forums , if anything can be done . Usually , no real advice is given . After all , Les Paul's should be heavy , right ?
If like me , you mod stuff all the time for fun , the work can be done over time.
All the parts used on this guitar is better made than what came off.
Anyway , this was fun , gotta go play my guitar !
I was very close to pulling the trigger on a blem they had but was traveling for work and it was still a little more than I wanted to spend.
