Leaderboard

I forgot I made this slide show of some of the Custom Orders I made. Old School Heritage Custom Shop.

Custom Core 150

I attended the Kalamazoo Fretboard Festival on March 2. I wandered into a performance room and was surprised to see and an acoustic Heritage 12 string guitar. I couldn't get a closer picture of it during the performance. I did see the owner as he was leaving the festival and told me it was custom made in 1986.

For those who don't know, Scotty Moore was Elvis's main guitarist for a very long time. He also was a studio musician and an extraordinary player. Here is a page from his website about his friend and fellow musician Don Dean. http://scottymoore.net/dondean.html Some years ago a friend of mine, who is a great player, really wanted a Heritage Johnny Smith. Both he and I are Johnny fans but he couldn't afford a Gibson. We searched for a few weeks but found nothing. Late at night I found one in a national Craigslist search that was in Kentucky. I called, probably first thing in the morning, and learned that the guitar belonged to Don Dean. Don had died recently and his widow asked the guy on the phone, a pedal steel guitarist and friend of Don, to sell his many guitars. The HJS was stored under Don's bed with a couple of other guitars and was found a bit later than Don's main collection. I drove to Kentucky that morning and arrived in a modest country house with gorgeous scenery. The seller and his wife were very nice. I had a meal with them as they talked about the old days. The seller was a studio musician and road player with Elvis and others. Scotty and Don were friends to both him and his wife. Don died slowly with dementia. They talked about the lean and the better days. It was great. He brought the case out. It looked like someone had vomited on the top and the clean up was less than thorough. The guitar was mint. Further, it had the extra rose inlay in the pickguard, which was a $500 upcharge. I measured it and it was 18" across the lower bout! To my knowledge there were only two of these made, one finished in rose natural and this one a natural. Both were special ordered by Don, a Heritage dealer at the time. Even more surprising was the body depth was between 3 1/4 and 3 3/8", making this truly unique. I made the long drive back that night. I emailed my friend to say I got him a guitar. The next morning he let me know he found a standard HJS while I was in Kentucky at a pawn shop in Ohio and ordered it. Some time later he tired of his HJS, sold it, bought the 18" HJS from me. He had Kent Armstrong rebuild the Floating #3 pickup to increased output, something quite a few people did with that pickup. Eventually I got the guitar back. It is now my favorite, in part because of the story but also because it plays so well and is stunning. In Don Dean's photos you can see him playing this guitar. On the same page you can also see an 18" Heritage American Eagle, probably the only one made. Here is the HJS in action played by my friend 6 years ago. It is seasonally appropriate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xH_0qJ0Pt0&list=PLZKJqrSIMuspiR9CbV8ztncKUecx6o1Qu&index=2

I guess a good time for me to come back, after a reset/reboot. 😄

Since it’s Friday again,

I play George Benson's "Affirmation" with Heritage guitar. If you have time,please listen to it. Thank you.

Venerable and Stalwart Heritage Owners, Am straggling in with my contribution: a "C", 1986 Golden Eagle, the 38th they made. Bought it about a year ago from Dan Keller, of Kansas. It's not in mint condition, having a few minor dings and I'm thinking there's a slight twist to the neck that needs a luthier's TLC, but overall in wonderful condition given it's age. X-braced. It has a handwound Kent Armstrong floating humbucker. The neck is a bit thick for my hand, and am struggling with whether to sell, as it's the nicest guitar I'll ever own. I found where this guitar had been posted on Reverb five years ago, but have no other knowledge of it's provenance. Dan said that he owns the first Kalamazoo Award, and that the Golden Eagle was meant to be Heritage's take on that. I'm 70, and have been playing since 10. Got as far as a garage band playing an SG Special through a Marshall stack in the early 70s. But got off drugs, and sold that gear before college and raising a family. For many years just banged on a Seagull acoustic and howled at the moon to folk and the cowboy songs that Dad used to sing us to sleep by. Around 2016 decided to take guitar playing more seriously. Took jazz lessons and purchased a 575. Wanted something with better acoustical sound, and meandered a bit before lucking into this Golden. Have since bought a 1999 Eagle Custom, my fave with a neck that makes my fretting hand smile more than the Golden's. Even with my geezer's hearing, the Golden sounds better, though. You might see this Golden posted for sale here sometime this year, after my luthier works whatever magic it needs. Well, thank you for all your contributions to this site. Your collective wisdom has educated and guided me. I believe this is my first time posting to the HoC, though I joined 6-7 years ago prior to purchasing the 575. Best, Latham

One I still have.

My Super Eagle and a stop-tail 150 built for the late Sam Moss, who introduced me to Heritage guitars almost twenty years ago. I think Guy still has that 150...maybe?

I got together with a couple of friends again this afternoon to play some tunes. Mostly I've been taking my H140. Once I took my G&L ASAT. A couple of weeks ago, I took my G&L Legacy. I like the way they all play. They sound pretty darn good, although the guys commented that the Legacy sounded "thin". Yeah, it's a SSS, so it doesn't have the beef on the bottom. I haven't taken the 157 or Millenium, and while I took the 525 once as a backup, it never got out of the case. Today, I took my H535, the one with the new machine heads. After playing for almost 3 hours, I have to say that if I had to pick a favorite, that would be it. I don't know what it is about that guitar, but it sounds good, to me, it plays like a dream, it's got great upper fret access, and it's comfortable to hold for 3 hours (well 2 3/4 after taking a short bourbon break). It looks sexy as hell with that nice Faded Cherry finish. There's nothing that guitar can't do. I even did some finger picking on Helplessly Hoping! It's a winner!

...but it is it's solid body step cousin! Figured we could all use an extra pallet cleanse after seeing the bolt-on neck overseas thread.

I post this every year. Ren playing a guitar I custom ordered.

I had a nice Gibby ES-347. Now I have something that sounds better. A 535 with flamed bat-wing and ThroBak ER Custom pickups. If I wanted a 335 I'd have one.

How fitting that this is right under Kuz’s pic..

Heritage has some great maple!

My entry for Throwback Thursday (Friday) is my very first Heritage. It was love at first sight and still takes my breath away when I open her case. This 31 year old 1993 Golden Eagle has aged nicely and sounds better each year.

G serial number. My first Heritage, bought new in 1990.

I got this quite a while ago and sold it to a fellow HOC'r and friend years ago, and now I bought it back. This was built for Vince Lewis. Looks good, sounds good, plays good.

My experience is Market. Usually not making a lot on them. Most don't appreciate or know what goes into these.

Hi, I play "Milestones" with Heritage Sweet16. If you have time, please listen to it. Thank you.

Have yourself a Merry Heritage Christmas!! Merry Christmas to all HOC Members!!

Tim Pierce is a Pro's Pro Guitarist. Nothing is ever flashy, but everything is perfect for the application. He has said before is working on trying to play faster and he really is not a shedder at all. I believe many on this forum could play faster than Tim. BUT he can play over any chord progression and have the perfect melodic solo. He doesn't play the same old tired licks, but is imaginative and melodic. I love TP's playing and he seems like a really super guy. He is also an adamant proponent of new guitars overs vintage guitars. He says new guitars (including PRS) play better, have better intonation, and sound just as good as vintage guitars. He believes we are in the golden era of guitar making and I absolutely believe he is correct. It doesn't surprise me that he loves Heritage Guitars along with other new company's builds (Heritage, Collings, PRS, Harmony, Novo, ect.... Great video Tim!

I just picked up my first Heritage last week from Sweetwater - an H-150 in Vintage Wineburst. This "sweetwater exclusive" has SD Alnico Pro IIs instead of the usual SD '59s. So far, I love it! Plays wonderfully, sounds great, is resonant as hell/sustain for weeks! I don't ever buy new guitars, but this was a special treat for myself! There are a couple of issues I found though - nothing world ending to me, anyways. There was a ding under the pickguard where the bracket screw hit the top of the guitar (sucky but not a huge deal for me) and the neck pickup ring is cracked. Neither of which are a huge deal, but kind of bummers. You'd think they'd put some felt under the pickguard screw or something...Sweetwater offered to exchange for a different guitar, but the only other one in this color is heavier and uglier They said they'd try to get me a replacement p/up ring. The only other thing with fit & finish that has me going "wait, what?" is the wiring job: That is some SLOPPY solder work - the only thing I can think of is that it originally had the SD 59's then there was a "oh s**t this one is supposed to have the Alnico IIs" and it was a Friday before a long weekend (You can also see the stepped carve from the CNC; I don't know that I've seen a cavity like that before.) Anyways, other than those teeny issues, I absolutely love this guitar and it absolutely blows away several other LPs I've played lately.

Hi all, ‘I just got my Heritage H150 Custom core aged (dirty lemon burst). Tried it in the shop and the guitar speaks to me ? Cheers!

Upgrading the harness will do certain things depending on the parts used. You can get pots with different tapers, which means that how quickly or smoothly the sound changes will be different with a 15% audio taper vs a 30% taper or a linear taper. What these numbers mean is that for a 500K pot, a 15% will measure 75K ohms when turned 50%. A 30% taper will measure 150K ohms at the mid point. Linear taper means it will be 250K when turned half way. Since volume is a logarithmic function (because we hear that way), the use of a log measurement is supposed to make it more like what you hear. Turn it up from 50% to 100% and it sounds twice as loud. The capacitor value will make a huge difference in the brightness. In the typical humbucker setup, a .022uF cap is used. The higher the value, the darker the sound as you roll off the control. You might even want to have different values, like .015 for a neck pickup vs .022 for the bridge. I really don't hear a difference between the Vishay metal film caps that Heritage uses and an oil filled cap. The Vishay caps are good units. If you can solder, then it's not hard to make up a harness. I made a template out of a piece of cardboard, and soldered everything except the pickup and switch on the cardboard. Then I mounted the pots, connected the caps and ground wire and installed it. This is the result. Finally there's vintage wiring scheme vs modern wiring scheme. You can read how these differ lots of places. Seymour Duncan has wiring diagrams for each type. https://www.seymourduncan.com/resources/pickup/wiring-diagrams For Heritage guitars, you want short shafted pots. That's all for now. It's a fairly easy job assuming you can solder.

I checked with Grant Green about keeping the pickguard. Here's his reaction...

That would please me. When I bought the H535 with P90s that Kuz sold me, he already took care of the bridge mount with the Faber screw in ABR inserts! He and I are both so OCD, I just knew when the guitar got here, that it would set up as good as it could be, and I was right, it was I waited a long time till I got a semi-hollow Heritage, and I'm glad I did. I seriously doubt a custom core would be any better than this one...

Just picked this up from Nick Hall. Looking forward to hearing those P Ralis! And the 'Heritage' of this guitar is impressive too. I'm surprised no one snapped it up before I did. I'm glad I have another Heritage H150 in the fold. It's been years! 😎

Happy 'Flametop Friday'!

Just finished setting this Esquire up and recorded this song with this pickup, the Cavalier Nocaster HolyGrail. The Esquire has a 3 way switch and it's set for the cocked wah position. Man this pickup sings. Check it out...

The guitar arrived yesterday. Shipping went from California to Michigan, but timing was right to avoid great temperature changes. The packing was excellent. It came in a large Reverb box. I owned this guitar once upon a time. I forgot how 3D the figuring is and how it really pops out. I also like how the maple back and neck are the same color. The mahogany color shift on a natural maple body is fine on other guitars. But the white (now yellowing) continuity from top to bottom is appealing. The action is ridiculously low without buzzing. Let's shift to shipping. This was $190 UPS ground. The UPS man told me how costs are going up. I'm sure part of it, probably a large part, is due to personnel. Another component is the cost of diesel. One barrel of crude oil only produces about 11-12 gallons of diesel, compared to 19-20 gallons of gasoline. Insurance costs may also be higher. I have a similar vintage H-555 that shows what Floyd Newton could do to create a tri-burst. The transitions in coloring and the symmetry are an artist's work. My observations over the years are that the old Heritage was very flexible in custom makes. Sometimes the quality was uneven, but usually they were great. Today there is more consistency in good quality but less flexibility in design. Yes, you can get custom builds but not so whimsically anymore. And guitars are expensive.

Roy Clark Signatures have many variations over the years. There was a limited run of essentially H-535s with his name on them and with exception wood figuring. But the original design is a single cutaway that's deeper than the H-535s for higher fret access. The thinking of the single vs. double cutaway is that there is more bling facing the audience, a larger resonance chamber, and a little more body weight to avoid neck dive. You'll find them with double and single cutaways, maple and mahogany necks, dots, blocks and split block inlays, and some with Bigsbys. Some will have traditional black headstock veneers and some will have matching maple figured woods. Here's a ten year old thread that shows my old natural Roy Clark. I found one a few days ago that I managed to close a deal on. It's among the last ones made AFAIK. I'm a fan of the chestnut burst and the block inlays like on the H-157. I believe it has Seth Lovers, but I'll know eventually. This is basically a hybrid of a H-530 and a H-555. Here's him funking around showing off his skills. Anyway, here's the incoming porn.

For those not familiar, Heritage made an artist model designed by David Paul. This is a H-550 that is 2" deep and has a Bigsby and full center block. Some were cherry but most were blue. I got one a few months ago. Yesterday I pulled one of the pickups to make sure they were HRWs. I tried using a scope instead, but the center block wouldn't allow it. The photo I include shows an HRW. It also shows creator Ren Wall's "floating 4 point mounts". These are small brass spacers that reduce the pickup bezel contact and, in theory, allow more frequencies to come forth through the pickup. I asked him long ago if they work. He smiled and said some people say they can hear the difference. On this guitar it is hard to imagine, but they made me smile. My guitar is the final prototype. It doesn't have David Paul's signature on the headstock or pickguard. Below is my favorite David Paul tune. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-XeMwpCNzY Here is his more typical style. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAwGG2MY-kg David quit playing years ago as far as I can tell. If anyone knows what happened to him, I'd like to know.

I'll jump in. I haven't seen a bad one yet.

@FredZepp... Awesome work of Heritage art!

This one is still in my gallery, but it fits. Happy Holidays everyone!

Well, I said before that if they ever introduced a pelham blue with P90's, my wallet would be powerless to resist... Someone at Heritage must be calling my bluff now -

Here she is with the full Faber tail piece kiit in antiqued nickel and Seymour Duncan Antiquity Humbucker Set. Electronics are on the way and will be installed over the weekend. Quite a different animal now than with those dark Schallers

I just did this! I like it. it's staying~

I'm going with off! ?

I think I will keep this one.