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Custom Core 150

Since it’s Friday again,

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

Heritage has some great maple!

About 10 years ago I bought this guitar from someone in Ohio. He wasn't a player, but a friend of his recommended he invest in a couple of new guitars at a guitar show in Cincinatti, if I recall right. This is a Heritage Johnny Smith with an 18" body. I'd like to tell you a good reason I sold it the next year. I think it was a matter of money. I'm not sure. I sold it to a great guy and a forum member. Later he bought a couple of other Heritages from me. Fortunately for me, he agreed to sell the HJS back. There were two 18" HJS made AFAIK. Both were in Cincinatti. Don Dean, of Scotty Moore and Elvis fame, ended up with one. That one is a natural and is 3 1/4" deep. The incoming is the traditional 3" deep. The natural finish one was owned by a friend of mine who had the Floating #3 pickup rebuilt by Kent Armstrong, making it a little hotter. You can hear a difference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsM3VeXzpVw This is the incoming sister of the natural. It's a rose natural and has the standard Floating #3, which to me sounds warmer. I'm excited!

The guitar and case survived intact. It came with a lot of documentation from 9 years ago that the guy I sold it to obtained. The guy I got it from obtained it from Don Dean, the king of 18" archtops (sorta). Heritage noted that they did only make two of these guitars. Both were made exactly the way they built them at Gibson except the size. I forgot how low the action will go without buzzing. It's very impressive. I put TI 12s Jazz. The guitar is pretty loud and sounds great. There is a signed label by Johnny Smith, and there is a second label handwritten saying it is an 18" Johnny Smith and is signed by the four original Heritage Company orders. I included some quick photos to show the impressive woods. The grain is tighter in the middle and widens at the side. So I had to research as to whether the opinion that tight grain is more responsive. The Heritage old timers and Aaron Cowles said it's a myth. A review of the Internet opinions by good luthiers say no tonal differences, probably because thickness and carving dwarfs any grain tightness factor. Anyway, I'm happy.

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! 😎

I don't know about going back to the old business model. It may have something to do with actually making a profit (silly concept, I know). I'm not privy to the financial status of the old company, but I had heard several times that things were indeed often on a "shoestring budget". There were times that I wondered if the owners even paid themselves. It seemed to be more a labor of love. This isn't Jim and Marv building a few guitars. I'm sure that they make a lot more guitars today than they did 15 years ago. Sweetwater alone has 65 guitars listed. CME has 22 listed. Jay Wolfe has 25. That's just 3 dealers. You didn't really see those numbers years ago. Have you visited the factory? The "big money" helped pay for a new dust collection system that makes the place safer, a humidity and temperature control system, a new spray booth where you don't really have to worry about dust contaminating your fresh lacquer, the Plek machine and more. The old factory, while quaint, was really pretty scary from a EHS standpoint. Lots of dust and wood laying around. The spray booth upstairs was open air, so dirt and dust was floating around. It was also quite dangerous, with nitrocellulose coating the entire booth. That stuff is a lot more flammable than some people realize. The business will need to pay for that upgraded equipment. It wasn't free! To their credit, Heritage is still making archtops (the 575 and Eagle Classic). Try to get a new archtop from Gibson. The last one listed was the Chuck Berry ES 350, but it's discontinued. There are a few dozen people making teles and strats. Fender, G&L, Suhr, LSR, PRS, and ton of low cost import versions.

Other than my 80s 357, my oldest is a "J" serial H150 I think. Don't have a lot of gtr pics but here's an old one.

Happy 'Flametop Friday'!

And here is my all time favorite guitar.... my H170 with a C serial number. It's not my go to guitar, but my favorite. I got this one and the afore H140cm at the same time back when nobody really cared about Heritage guitars except maybe you folks. There were in a mom and pop store. I traded a Greco Les Paul copy (which was actually pretty cool....) and $400 for both of them. Both sound great but there is something about the H170....feel and sound. I did take out the Schallers and put in some Dimarzio PAFs, probably anniversay series or something. Maye the 140 has Seth Lover's....I can't remember nor do I care as they both sound so great.

Welcome LL. The resident "expert" on lefty guitars would be Lefty Alicia. She has been at most of our PSPs with various guitars. Here's her Millennium.

Found another. A trans black H150 I got off Brent. Thanks again! Hard to see unless the lighting is bright enough: the black hides the flame. Which is kinda cool in a stealth way. That's a one piece top too.

My STAT

It's not Friday, but I'll put this up anyway....

(IMO) I don’t really believe that any years of the “Pre-Plaza” era H-150s’ were any better or worse. You really have to take them on a case by case basis.

To bring back some classics? How about the H-357, Stat and H-140? It gets a little boring seeing the same shapes coming out of Kalamazoo. This is just my personal opinion but I feel that if you have seen one of these current H-150's, you have seen them all. They say that variety is the spice of life. Please Heritage, bring back some spice. y2kc

I think the fret wire is standard Jesco stuff. It's pretty much used industry wide, unless you go with stainless. I don't remember the number, though. The caps in most Heritages are Vishay MKT metalized film. They are yellow axial capacitors and are good caps. The pots can vary over the years, depending on availability. They use standard audio taper pots. I have tried changing pots and to be honest, sonically there was no change. I had one that was scratchy, so I replaced all 4 with CTS pots. The only difference was in the feel, as I used low torque CTS with a 15% taper which changes the rate of volume change as you turn the knob. They also made it easier to turn, which might be good or bad, depending on your style. Wire is wire... You can get nice cloth covered vintage style wire, but it won't change the sound. It's pretty and if you want it to look like 1959, then go for it. Jacks and switches are pretty much generic. If they are clean and work, they're good. If they get dirty and noisy, or cut out, then change them out. I've used Switchcraft and cheapos from China and as long as they are quiet and solid, they're fine. Depending on how you like to roll off volume, I added a treble bleed to my 157 for a while. I liked it's effect more than 50s wiring or standard wiring. Here's my 157 control cavity with treble bleeds and the stock pots and caps. As I had changed a noisy switch, I changed the cable running up to the switch with a shielded cable. (the grey stuff).

Thanks so much. Would love to chat with her about her guitars and previous PSP's. Can't wait for the one this year and an opportunity to meet you folks.

Flame On. Let us see them!

It would seem, to those paying even casual attention, that I did. Yes. You may refer to the first post in the thread if you're unsure.

Can’t remember a time when I only used one pedal ! the zinky overdrive channel and the deluxe memory man are all that’s required!

94 H150 from practice this week. Dimarzio Super+Super2 installed pretty recently and faber hardware put on a year or two ago.

Here is my H140 with an F seriel number.

This was their 20th Anniversary edition. Bells and whistles. I upgraded pickups and electronics.

That’s funny because his behavior was more like a pissy school child than any manufacturer I’ve ever seen. Some of the rants and fights he got in with his customers long before his BLM behavior should’ve put him out of business. It wasn’t until his BLM remarks though that a size-able group of people saw his true colors. No mob put him out of business, his mouth did and he quit the business himself. I won’t support that guy again.

It wasn't just the SJW class that thought he was a dick. He treated many of his customers like absolute sh*t. Do a google search and I'm sure find plenty of people that he severely pissed off! There are so many pedals that are better than his why bother.

Hey everyone. It is a different guitar journey when you're left handed. Going into a Guitar store maybe you'll get to try one or two guitars but normally there low level guitars. I have mostly purchased online in various ways and hoped for the feel and in person sound. (after much research of course) Fortunately I have found some really awesome guitars over the years. Two weeks ago I found a H-535 lefty in Grand Rapids MI. and wow have I hit pay dirt. The neck was a bit chunkier then I have had previously but man it has settled in and feels so solid. Please reply with a story and pic of your lefty Heritages. (and sure your righties too) Thanks. I look forward to being a part of this community.

You're right, Rob. That looks a lot more like my Chestnut Burst Millie LE but with even more red in the middle..

WOW! Thanks my HOC experts! I really appreciate your combined wealth of experience! i'm glad I picked this guitar up. No plans to change electronics, but I do have a Gibby Historic Bridge and Tailpiece I might pull out of the closet. Glad to be a 'legit' member of HOC again. Hi Milliniuim! 😵

Both of these are Almond sunburst.

I think it's more Antique SunBurst. That's primarily a brown to yellow sunburst. Like Mars Hall said, ALmond SunBurst has red to it. My H157 was ALSB. OldStyle Sunburst goes black to brown to yellow. Vintage sunburst is a more pale sunburst. Of course, since they were all hand painted, there is quite a bit of variance, but these were the "targets".

Duncan makes better pickups in my opinion. the JB is an A5 wound to 16.4K... Not a design from the Gibson line available similar. Enjoy your oxblood!

Not sure on the neck angle older v newer 150s. Maybe another HOCr can comment?

I've got an Alesis SR18. I like the drum sounds, but I never had the patience to do any programming of it. It does have some usable patterns. I used it with my Yamaha AW1600 years ago to do a version of Inner City Blues with only factory patterns. You can also feed it midi tracks from a computer and feed that to your 8 track. I've since moved to MT Power Drumkit in my DAW, although you could send the audio output from your computer to your recorder.

My buddy has the No 2 of D production year, he was wondering if it was the 2nd one ever made.

I still have the Anniversary Fulldrive that KUZ sold me. Amazing box.