tbonesullivan

Jol Dantzig, one of the founders of Hamer Guitars, had visited the Kalamazoo factory many times, and he picked up some used / PAF pickups that had been pulled from guitars for some reason or another, and were just thrown a drawer, if I recall. Those ended up being used in the earliest Hamer guitars, some after being rewound by Larry Dimarzio. I need to re-read that part in the Hamer book to get the full history, but its always amazing how things that were considered "junk" back then would now be highly desirable.

They really seem to have pared down their lineup, though after the leadership transition and issues that's to be expected. When I put my H535 "back to stock" years ago, they still had the tailpieces, but now they seem to no longer be offered. The roller bridges are still relatively popular for use with bigsby and other tremolo style tailpieces. I've never really noticed a huge deficiency in sound quality from using the bridge, and still remember Vince Lewis saying he liked that bridge because he said it gave him a warmer sound. Still, I don't play my H535 much at all anymore. I've tried to love the stock Schaller Golden 50s for years, and they are great clean, but I really need to get around to having them replaced with something else.

Honestly, the P90 is one of my favorite pickup sounds. Just wish there wasn't the hum. I know that they have all these "hum free" versions, but they are never quite the same. Then there's the staple top, which I have unfortunately not gotten a chance to really own. I have a Jazzmaster, and also like the sound of those pickups, but again, wish there wasn't so much hum. My favorite humbucker pickups are always the vintage style ones with lower output. Yes, they don't push the amps as hard, but they just have a type of snarl that the higher output pickups lack. I'm fine with SD '59s, Seth Lovers, or Dimarzio 36th Anniversary PAFs. While I admit the high end PAF style pickups are enticing, I feel the law of diminishing returns is definitely in effect.

Man those do look nice. Wish I was in the market! Only so much room in the stable, and after playing my H150CM last, I don't see anything ever replacing it. Still, those are NICE.

My $0.02- that is 100% a reflection of the tremolo arm. you can see more of of the reflection under the strings inside the bigsby itself. There's also how unlikely a crack shaped like that with such a clean appearance would ever occur on a semi-hollow body made from a laminate body with a solid centerblock. Would usually cracks along the grain.

I keep thinking about a Jazz box. My guitar teacher has a Herb Ellis and I keep thinking "maybe I should have one of those". I'd probably only put 11's on it, as somehow I think i'd end up also playing more blues stuff on it. Man these are some nice looking guitars in here.

Ahh, I didn't notice that they were stacked humbuckers. Looks like even the "vintage stacked' set has quite a bit of DC resistance. They just use a different type of design than the Dimarzio stacked single coils, which have a much lower DCR. My experience with the stacked pickups is limited to a Dimarzio Paul Gilbert "Injector" set in a G&L legacy I picked up years ago. I do think they have a really nice sound, definitely a bit more bark than regular single coils. Regarding P90s, I thought I would chime in with Lindy Fralin pickups. I picked up a set used to put in a Hamer P90 special, and I love them there. The stock pickups were the Seymour Duncan Hot and Custom P90 pickups, which are BEASTLY, but also do sound quite good. You just really need to plug into the low gain input or you're gonna get nothing but Mississippi queen all day long.

Wow, I was just checking out the DC resistance for those pickups. 17.7k for the neck and 29.2k for the neck. That's a lot of turns! I also noticed the "Hot Chicken" set with Neck: 15.8k, Bridge: 26.46k.

"As New Old Stock". Basically used tubes that still test as new on a tube tester and still have plenty of getter, etc. Often they have worn paint markings, or may be OEM supplied tubes from Mullard, Amperex, RCA, etc.

Based on the time stamps, we were literally writing them at the same time.

This is one reason I almost prefer ANOS... at least I know they work. Some dealers pretty much won't even touch / test the NOS stuff.

I mean, Chicago Music Exchange has a used one from 1994 for about 3700. I was tempted.

It definitely is reasonably priced for what it is, and now that Gibson has pretty much pulled out of that market entirely, it was time for Heritage to get back into it. Still, I'd think you'd at least be able to specify a color for that price. Then again, compared to flat top acoustics, archtops are definitely a much higher end and more limited market item. I was always amazed at how Heritage was able to offer different types of archtops at a relatively low price compared to G-brands. I wonder how it compares to the archtops that Heritage used to make like the Sweet 16. Which of them were tap tuned? I admit I never paid nearly as much attention to the Jazz Box side of things.

I'm still in mourning over the closure of the "The Tube Shop", which is where I got a lot of ANOS (As New Old Stock Used) preamp tubes, as well as some NOS rectifier tubes. Yes it was all order by email and they would get back to you, but I got some great tubes at nice prices. There's still KCA Nos Tubes out there, which has some good deals on the ANOS tubes. JJ Tubes, unfortunately are now the tube of choice for a lot of amp companies, as they can withstand high cathode follower voltages, and are rugged. My Mesa Mark V was full of them when I got it, and I think my Friedman JEL-50 probably is as well. When I get some time I've gotta get rollin' rollin' rollin'. Keep those tubes a rollin'.

I had thought that the days of the Tap Tuned Archtops was over, but apparently it's not. I hadn't heard anything about this before until I got the email. I'm glad that they are once again making them, but oh boy, that price. I'd probably rather get something truly bespoke for that price. https://heritageguitars.com/pages/core-collection-h-717 https://heritageguitars.com/products/custom-shop-core-collection-h-717-archtop-guitar-honey-burst