Big Daddy Class
Active member
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2020
- Messages
- 136
I believe Class 5s have 17 smaller swiss cheese holes.
View attachment 11133Here is my other Class 5, a 2002 (in tangerine burst). Clearly with the same weight relief as the 2006 posted previously. Obviously the 17 "round hole" models are not the only type they made since I have 2 that look like this, made 4 years apart.
It is a little hard to say. Some days I feel like one sounds better than the rest, or I hear something in one of them that I do not hear in the others--then I try to repeat it the next day only to feel like they are all more similar than I had thought the day before. Truth is I am far better at buying guitars than I am at playing guitars and they are all better than my ability to play them. My fully chambered studio is lighter than the rest and somehow just screams "pick me up and play me". My tribute seems to have the best neck. My black Class 5 seemingly sounds the best to me and until today I thought it sounded best acoustically, but in playing both Class 5s together in the same quiet room (seems strange but I have never done that before) they are very very similar. I also have a standard prototype model (that I was told is actually a custom shop model although labeled as a USA model--no proof other than a guy at Gibson's word) that I thought was my best sounding but lately I am questioning that. Lately I have felt it is a bit too bright? "Lowest" (and cheapest at "free") of my guitars is a Chinese Chibson guitar that was given to me by a guy who runs a pawn shop (and actually lost $800 thinking it was a real Les Paul Custom--he was subsequently scared to re-sell living in Nashville with Gibson down the street)--I recently spent about 2 days playing only that guitar and then when I switched back to my Orange Class 5, I immediately was able to recognize the real Gibson's superiority in sound and feel.Do you notice much sound difference between them all? I've read the ones with a lot of chambering sound different, some people say the same...
Remember from Geometry that a doubling of the radius of a circle actually increases the area of that circle by 4x, so 9 1 inch holes would be more weight removed (as a function of the volume of wood removed) than 17 1/2 inch holes. Still an invalid point with my 1/2 inch ovals, but in case your sophomore Geometry teacher is reading this--9 one inch holes are more volume than 17 1/2 inch holes.Well then I'm more inclined to believe that the Class 5 weight relief standard is the 17 1/2" elongated holes like you have. It never really made sense to have 17 1/2" diameter holes as a different weight relief scheme from the traditional 9 1" holes, because it's actually less weight relief by 1 1/2" hole. That doesn't seem like it would be worth the effort. But the elongated holes certainly make a significant difference.