MartyGrass

I know she can't be including you!

I have a H-530 that is just great. Part of it is how it feels. It's very light. Acoustically it's louder with resonance I can literally feel. Mine has humbuckers, which is fine with me. The H-576 is a very nice model. They tend to be stunning and have a nice feel to them.

Thanks so much for the answer, Rich. I purchased their Ascent+ model earlier this year, and the playability of that guitar, especially considering the price, is so good, I now want to upgrade to a Standard as a Christmas present to myself. You sound like me. My wife would say that since I like the Ascent+ so much, I should stick with it and shut up!

Time can alter memories. I do remember Pete telling me about the buried PAFs. He said it was a matter of them taking up space, along with some other stuff. The PAF was no longer put on Gibsons. They advertised an improved pickup on their models. There were also a lot of other things discarded. For example, Charlie Christian pickups were tossed. The high volume discards were wood in various stages of evolution into guitars. I remember the conversation pretty well because the military buried a ton of leather flight jackets at the time. This was in the news. They dug a crater, dropped in a large number of jackets, and bulldozed dirt over them. The news article said there was a reason not to flood the Army surplus market. I told Pete that new old stock PAFs could fetch $500 each at the time. He told me that McCarty wanted them taken to the dump. Gibson had a pickup truck that Pete put a couple of heavy boxes filled with them into the truck along with other stuff and disposed of them. No one thought the PAFs were particularly special, and they were of no use to Gibson. I heard from a few sources that those who worked assembling guitars were expected to bring anything with a flaw on it to the shift supervisor. There were spring loaded stamps that would imprint the back of the headstock with a 2 for second or BGN for bargain. If the employee wanted a particular guitar, they would not retract the spring and would leave a very shallow impression of 2 or BGN that didn't go into the wood. The employee had to show the supervisor the headstock stamp. If approved, the guitar could be acquired by the employee for a very low price. The 2 or BGN could easily be sanded and touched up once taken home. This came up in my discussion with Pete Moreno because a friend of mine had a LP Custom with a very light 2 on the back of the headstock. I showed him. He said that there was probably a small ding somewhere that happened in the factory, possibly intentionally. The guitar being quite old at the time I showed Pete, there were a number of dings and scratches. The guitar was white. He said with the yellowing now it would be hard to match. Later, Aaron Cowles confirmed what Pete told me. It all depended on the supervisor and the employee as to how that worked. Whether Pete took the PAFs to the dump or not, he told me that McCarty asked him to do that. Dump runs were common for Pete. Pete picked up wood discards from Gibson and Heritage for many years and fueled his shed heating stove with them.

I recall the classics had Seth Lovers and a stop tailpiece and ABR bridge. That was Jay Wolf's baby. In another few decades the HRWs may approach the value of the PAF. HRWs do sound different than the SD 59s and Seths. Some really like them. I have a set on a H-555 with a Bigsby. I've had several other sets over the years. The bridge pickup seems bright but can be managed. The neck pickup is very nice in an archtop. I do recommend that anyone who is in the guitar sales world get a scope. They are not expensive. It can make a big difference, especially with archtops and flattops. You can see things that are hard to capture with a mirror plus pics are a cinch. I recently got a Heritage Johnny Smith from a reputable dealer. I scoped it and found a cleat for a minor crack. The dealer didn't know about it. The guitar is so great that I accepted a discount to keep it. In semihollows you can usually find a way to the back of the pickups through the f hole. You'll see the HRW sticker easily if it's there. Sellers/buyers can also see the electronics.

I definitely heard Pete talk about the PAF dump. Gibson moved on to another pickup design and was promoting it. Pete said there were to factors that led to burying them. The first was that they were not going to put them in new production, and the second was the boxes of PAFs took up shelf space. They were put in a pit in a dump Gibson used. Pete would have told me if he kept any, and he did not. However, there were a lot of billets and damaged guitars that Pete and other employees took home, presumably for firewood. I mentioned before my 15 year old bandmate got a LP ebony Custom that was sawed in half due to some defect. They put it back together at home with dowels and glue. The mother worked in finishing, so this became an ebony. It was a beautiful guitar. Pete Moreno had a ton of guitar wood and metal parts. He kept his shop warm with wood discards from Gibson and Heritage. When Pete died his son managed the estate but didn't know much about guitars. I believe he sold it off as a lot. The really interesting collection Pete had was Marilyn Monroe memorabilia. He had tons of it in his basement. But there was no way I could take that stuff to my home. Another strange Pete Moreno story is that he got four upright basses from Western Michigan University that needed some work. They were being discarded. He fixed them then sold them.

That means it left the factory with HRWs usually. I've put HRWs into guitars and had the switch tips drilled and and sidemarker dot glued in, which is what Heritage did in the factory. Bob is right that the dot is a good indicator.

I wonder how much free publicity and advertising they get from the existence of HOC.

Well, one thing is that they do sound different than the Schallers they once were. It's hard to put that difference into words. The bridge pickup seems brighter. You can get a dental mirror for a few bucks if you don't want to pull the pickup. The truth is that it is faster to loosen the strings and look for the sticker on the back than it is to get a mirror and futz around with it and a flashlight. I recommend getting a fiberoptic scope. It comes in handy for all sorts of things. https://www.amazon.com/Endoscope-Borescope-Semi-Rigid-Smartphones-KEEMIKA/dp/B0F2PQTT1G/ref=sxin_16_pa_sp_search_thematic_sspa?content-id=amzn1.sym.2da95b6c-f59a-4699-bc43-d0ff036c6388%3Aamzn1.sym.2da95b6c-f59a-4699-bc43-d0ff036c6388&cv_ct_cx=Fiber%2BOptic%2BEndoscope&keywords=Fiber%2BOptic%2BEndoscope&pd_rd_i=B0F2PQTT1G&pd_rd_r=ebd8a8ea-c575-4304-8839-bbacb633b3ed&pd_rd_w=t4eyH&pd_rd_wg=jWuCz&pf_rd_p=2da95b6c-f59a-4699-bc43-d0ff036c6388&pf_rd_r=YFHZAEV3BGXF2SCBWR0E&qid=1749560793&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sr=1-4-6024b2a3-78e4-4fed-8fed-e1613be3bcce-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9zZWFyY2hfdGhlbWF0aWM&th=1

My recollection about the classics is that these were ordered by Jay Wolfe and had Gibson-like bridges and tailpieces. I also think they had SD pickups. The maple neck was common back then but inconsistently done. I've had a one piece, two piece, and three piece on H-555s made in that era. Custom select could mean anything, but the select probably refers to the woods. They probably charged extra money for each of those two words. Currently those words are custom core.

I do remember this when it came out. I never saw it in person.

Blue really shows up those major cracks!

Yours is a dark blue but is translucent, but it should say on the label. The appearance depends on lightling. There probably is a name like Neptune blue. Skydog's is a blue burst. Mine is called translucent blue. But look at the two pics with different lighting. Some finishes make no apologies for looking unnatural. Blue, black, white, green, red, gold and silver are examples.

In the long run, the money difference doesn't matter when you find the right guitar. It saves time and anxiety plus increases goodwill just to pay a little more. You won't find another one just like that for a very long time.

Large crack alert!!!