H-150 Weights- an obsession?

[TalismanRich]

I wonder if this is the same Jim Fielder who was the bassist for Blood Sweat and Tears.  He also played with Buffalo Springfield and Mothers of Invention.

[MartyGrass]

41 minutes ago, rwinking said:

The trick would be to make one for guitarists that would still allow them to look cool at all times.

Only an accordionist would look cool with that strap.

[davesultra]

19 hours ago, Spectrum13 said:

So Brent's record is still intact

I believe Brent could easily have purchased 3 guitars in the time it took you to type that. And it’s likely he did!

[rwinking]

34 minutes ago, TalismanRich said:

I wonder if this is the same Jim Fielder who was the bassist for Blood Sweat and Tears.  He also played with Buffalo Springfield and Mothers of Invention.

 

[rwinking]

Just now, rwinking said:

I wonder if this is the same Jim Fielder who was the bassist for Blood Sweat and Tears.  He also played with Buffalo Springfield and Mothers of Invention.

That would be him. He is a great player for sure. He was around Austin for a while and also up in Dallas doing session stuff.

[HANGAR18]

2 hours ago, davesultra said:

I believe Brent could easily have purchased 3 guitars in the time it took you to type that. And it’s likely he did!

Hell, even Brent's guitars get online and buy more guitars when he's not looking.

 

[yoslate]

On 1/10/2022 at 8:52 AM, MartyGrass said:

I like the way you write!

All of Seacup's posts are ghosted....  Always have been.

[Dick Seacup]

13 hours ago, yoslate said:

All of Seacup's posts are ghosted....  Always have been.

Nobody was supposed to know a certain retired English professor possessed of a split personality clandestinely controlled this account as an outlet for his more crude impulses. All these years everyone thought it was someone else entirely. Someone whose impulses were all, and exclusively, crude. Or worse. The jig is up. You've outed myself!

[buzzy]

Had to log in after so long to say that this is a most enjoyable thread.

 

my relevant comment:   Too light or too heavy does bother me.  But mostly, I have to enjoy playing.  If I has great tone, but I can't feel it, then no one would really hear the tone.  And, when it weighs over 9lbs, I can 'enjoy', the 'feel' of it the next day.

[High Flying Bird]

15 hours ago, Dick Seacup said:

Nobody was supposed to know a certain retired English professor possessed of a split personality clandestinely controlled this account as an outlet for his more crude impulses. All these years everyone thought it was someone else entirely. Someone whose impulses were all, and exclusively, crude. Or worse. The jig is up. You've outed myself!

His mouth moves but the sound comes out of his pants.  

[zguitar71]

Well I’ll put my 2 cents in. 
I’ve played light and heavy and in-between guitars (all LP type) and have found great (acoustic) sounding guitars in all categories. I have played two Black Beauties, a ‘59 and a ‘60. They were both heavy(ish) but I don’t know the weight. The ‘59 was very lively and the ‘60 was worthless even though it sold for $60K! There isn’t  really a way to know if a guitar will sound good by weight, only by playing it will you know if it is good. I love my 150GT because it vibrates like mad and has a nasal tone I love and it weighs 9.6 pounds which isn’t really light. 
 

I have played with pickups in my guitars and have found they make a big difference in tone on the same guitar. The amp is a huge player in the tone of the guitar as well but it relies on a good guitar with good electronics. Electronics can’t fix a bad guitar and a good guitar can sound like shit with bad electronics. 
 

The magic of the Burst LPs was not just the wood but the electronics and the newly designed amps of the day. They all came together to be able to have sustain like never before and controllable feedback (which is beautiful). The big power in the amps back then blasting a guitar body just feet away did something that wasn’t really known in the early 60s and before. If a brand new Custom Core with unpotted pickups was in front of a 100 watt plexi with an 8x12 cabinet full of 25 watt paper coil speakers it would do the same thing as the original Burst. There is not anything about the originals that cannot be replicated today except the horrendous value. We are currently in the best time for great guitars, never have there been so many excellent guitars being built with such consistent quality. 
 

Here is what I know about trees and wood and my hypothesis: Trees that can grow in both dry or wet conditions will produce dense or light wood (respectively). A Mahogany tree can reach an immense size when it grows in a wet boggy area just like a White Ash will (swamp Ash). The wet grown tree will have larger pores and larger growth rings and when dried will be lighter than the more dense, dry land tree. Back in the day Ash trees were cut down to drain swamps and make farm land and the result was a cheap wood for Fender to make guitars from. Mahogany from Brazil was cheap and plentiful and often came from wet boggy areas. This was also a cheap wood for the G brand and used on their less expensive archtops and flattops and found a place in their new LP in the early 50s. The less dense wood typically is more resonant with the larger pores and made a great solid body wood that could sustain while being lively and also was not oppressive to pickup and play. The swamps were all drained and Brazil started limiting harvesting from their forest. Planed obsolescence became a serious quality issue in the 70s and into the 80s (for everything not just guitars) and the vintage guitars became known as the greats and a mystic was born. Now light wood is available from plantation grown trees that are grown quickly with fertilizers and irrigation and the clock can be rewound to the glory days. Aren’t we all lucky as hell. 

[MartyGrass]

I have to agree with your thoughts.

The greatest variable in the signal chain is the artist.  If he or she has nothing interesting tonally, melodically and harmonically, the show ends quickly.

To illustrate this point, here is Tim Lerch.  One video shows him with one of his Teles.  Many mistakenly will attribute his great sound to Charlie Christian pickups.  That is most wrong.  First, they aren't Charlie Christian pickups.  They are single coil pickups that look like Charlie Christion pickups externally.  They are good, somewhat thin sounding single coils like Dearmonds.  Second, Tim sounds great with stock Tele pickups too.

The second video shows how the player can make a cheap guitar sound beautiful.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJWPwfMdecQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwt4ZYPRXa0

[MartyGrass]

Here's a H-150 at 7.5 lbs.  A chambered one.  Sounds good.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLWSj8ye9jg