Maybe this has been covered but it is of some concern to me.

Evidently gibson was routing nine round holes in the bodies of the LPs since the eighties, as told to me by the customer service guy at gibson on Friday, and recently the chambering.

The gibson customer service dude said that they did not publicize the weight relief routing of the nine holes and it was not revealed by the company until some dudes x-rayed their LP bodies and the holes and chambering were revealed. The company is now open about it and only the custom shop guitars have solid bodies, possibly with an exception.

This may have been a proprietory trade secret in order to keep the weight down while the Chinesse and other competitors were making heavier LP copies due to the absence of purchaseable light mahogany varieties.

I must say I really like my HEAVY Xavier solid body xv500 that I paid 208 for and it is an awesome guitar all the way around.

I have been considering a gibson LP studio and weighing my options against other guitars in this price range and comparing the LP studio to the Fender American Deluxe Strat, the Musicman Sillouette HSH, and even an Agile with a maple cap.

I'm sure a lot of you guys have the weight relieved or chambered LPs of recent vintage and I'm wondering what you think about them and if you think they are as good as the old style solid body versions. Subjectivity aside, generally speaking, that is; what do you think about the weight relief and chambering techniques and the overall quality effect that it has on the LP?

Viewpoints are definately appreciated from anyone with an idea on this subject.

Evidently the silverburst LP studio is a MF exclusive and is weight relieved while the gibson USA LP studio in the regular colors is chambered.

If you haven't seen the x-rays, you might find them interesting possibly shocking or maybe even like the idea, especially gigging muscians.