MartyGrass

Great presentation on Heritage. Many will get their introduction to 225 Parsons from CME. Bravo.

Actually 225 Parsons St. has changed a lot. There was 70 years of change compressed into the last few years. Has the soul changed? Yes. The results are less personal but with better precision. Heritage is a better factory that makes a good commercial product efficiently. That's not a bad thing at all and is more secure for its employees. The old school approach is still there but to a smaller degree. Progress is inevitable for survival.

I harken back to the spirit of the origin of Heritage guitars. Four guys broke off from the Gibbons corporate establishment and decided to use what Gibbons left behind to make old school, hand built guitars. That was a decision to swim against the current. They had financial problems and difficulties with the administrative parts of the business, yet they survived for decades. A large part of what they did was "custom work", meaning it was normal to configure a neck, finished, and adornments to what the customer or dealer wanted. The guitars were built one at a time with tags on them as t

A Bigsby.

If it does alter tone, it can also add a lot in the hands of someone who can play it IMHO. That's said, I'm not one of them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL3mvkZ6mVk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IRetoeEecc David Paul, a Heritage artist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-XeMwpCNzY

Did they have electricity back then??

That could be a desert island guitar. It does about everything.

I did not know that. Mine was the natural.

I once had a Les Paul Raw Power, which was 100% maple. It was surprisingly light at 9 lbs. I had previously thought maple is heavy.

That's a thinline Super 400.

They say the fireburst, tri-burst or sunset burst is the hardest to get right. Floyd Cramer and Marv Lamb were absolutely super at that. There was a lady, and I forget her name, who lost her job in the great shakeup a few years ago at Heritage. She also was a true spray artist. The challenge with getting a good looking natural is the woods. The challenge with the sunset burst is creating delicate transitions from color to color. Not easy at all.

Nothing like a well done sunset burst!

Looks like I am hanging on to this. My friend in New York and I trade/buy and sell guitars with each other. I don't even remember what transaction got me this 555. But yesterday he wanted the 555 back and offered to send me one of my guitars back. A couple hours after I started this thread he told me he had a change of heart. So I get to keep this. He used to have over 30 guitars. He pruned down to only three or four. But those few keep changing! That's fine with me. I'm glad that didn't happen after it was in the hands of UPS. I did get the old box out to ship it in. There

This guitar was custom built for fellow forum member Vince Lewis, who sold it some years ago. It is extraordinarily playable, light and beautiful. I had the honor of holding on to it for about half a year. Tomorrow it goes back to my friend who lent it to me. It's hard to capture the flame in pics. Nonetheless they are worth a look. https://www.flickr.com/photos/151972168@N02/albums/72157712723586332