Heave Before You Buy: A Hefty LaBoz Bison

After I got home, I started thinking about the way we buy guitars nowadays, and how that’s most often online. It would seem like we’re really rolling the dice by buying guitars without holding them and hearing them, but a lot of models have become a bit standardized and often have a consistent feel across their mass-produced copies. I guess quality control is a big part of this. Almost every factory Fender neck feels the same to me, and most of the newer Gibson Les Paul guitars are of a similar weight and feel, too.

“Now, back when quality control wasn’t such a priority, one could find some crazy variations on a theme.”

Now, back when quality control wasn’t such a priority, one could find some crazy variations on a theme. When I was younger, the older players would gripe about guitar weight all the time, and there would be these epic discussions on the merits of such things that I never cared about. But I will say that if you did find a guitar that was above the 10-pound range, it was noticeable! Just like that short-scale National, heavy guitars are a bit of a drag, and I was always worried about them falling off a strap. The heaviest guitar I’ve ever owned was a B.C. Rich acrylic Mockingbird (in beautiful, see-through slime green), but the second heaviest is this LaBoz Bison that dates to the mid 1960s. This guitar laughs at the puny Norlin-era Gibsons!