MartyGrass

Heritage has made thin bodies with solid tops but not as a sustained model. I don't know the worth of a solid top over a full center block with mounted controls and two pickups on a thin body. Maybe. I don't recall such a model. The Gibson Johnny A used solid woods in a small hollow archtop. I really couldn't hear a difference in recordings with this design compared to a weight relievied H-150 or Gibson Les Paul Supreme. But that's just me. I know people who hear things that I have no idea what they're talking about.

At 24:50 of the video you will see Rob. He gets maybe two seconds tops of this video- no more. I point this out as an example of the incredible talent Heritage has. Of course Pete Farmer is a seasoned excellent luthier. Rob has been a luthier building solid bodies, flattops and archtops for decades. He also is a master in designing and building pickups. An entire video of an interview with just him could take up an hour easily without being boring. He's rewired creatively severaly guitars for me without breaking a sweat. The talent Heritage has is impressive. I have been in the plant since the Gibson days. IMO, the factory has never run better from a quality perspective. That is not to say Gibson and early Heritage didn't make masterpieces. They did, of course. Nowadays the consistency seems to be very high. Dogs and borderline instruments don't appear to make it through. We should be proud of and grateful to these guys. I'm impressed.

Yes, a push-pull turns it off and on plus adjusts the volume. Every time I strap this bad boy on it takes a minute to reorient. I remember this guitar well from when I saw it at the factory. Stunning!

I don't know that this is my favorite, but it is up there. I posted this years ago. It's a 1999. If you flip the last three digits upside down, it's the mark of the beast. Pete Moreno did the circuitry. There are push-pulls for coil splitting and for blending the middle pickup.

One other thing to note on the original photo is residual buffing compound on the f hole edge. That is easily removed but should not have come from the factory that way. Years ago it slipped by sometimes.

I'll add two more pics. This is one of their Gretsch Synchromatics.

It's hard to choose favorites. Here are two. The first is a Johnny Smith 18". The second is a H-530 custom made with humbuckers.

I'll choose one focal point, the bridge base. Was it drilled at an angle, were the holes too large, or did the angle migrate over time due to factors like heavy strings with slight reduction in string tension due to storing? It's not expensive or difficult to replace the base or to fill the holes and redrill them. Tuner alignment seems to be much better these days. It was a common issue in the earlier days. That's a third world complaint since the tuners generally function when canted. But it is annoying to not line the tuners well. It's not that hard to get that right. This discussion is in part about what is the function of the electric guitar. Is it merely a tool that allows musical expression? Is it a tropy or work of art? Is it a blend? Is it an extension of our ego? The cost of perfection in the complex process of creating guitars is quite high. That includes wood sourcing, which can involve experience, expertise, traveling, patience, etc. The final step for the factory is shipping to the retailer. These acts may seem simple to the naive. They are not. Every step between can be complex. There is the business of maintaining employees, particularly skilled ones. The point is that there are a lot of things that have to go exactly right to get an excellent instrument. These steps each cost money, yet guitar sales is a very competitive area. So then what is the purpose of the instrument? A couple of days ago I saw a Beatles tribute band during its tour. A lot of finesse went into making the show excellent. The audience loved it. But I looked at the guitars they used. They had a Les Paul, a couple of J-160Es, some Ricks, a Hofner, a Fender and an Epiphone. The finish was worn off in the strummed areas. There were dings and scratches evident. These were superb musicians. They appeared to play effortlessly. The natural ease of playing and the resulting sound told me that their focus was primarily their performance, not their tools. We have all known people who have great pride in the appearance of their possessions. This can include their homes, their cars, and even the tools in their toolbox. With ownership comes responsibility. Some say this is a midwestern mentality: you own it, you maintain it. But I've lived in enough places to know that this thought is more universal and pretty much essential for a manageable life. Things have slipped through Heritage in the early days, back when the viability of the company was in question and the owners were pushed to their limits. Things are much better for years now. My advice based on the experience of decades is that you learn to take care of your stuff. And if you don't like something, don't buy it unless you can fix it.

This is my Roy Clark. It's the size of a 535 with a deep single cutaway and a bit more bling.

I've had a few guitars that came with HRWs. Archtops with a single pickup sounded great. The bridge pickup being a HRW was too bright for me. I tried but couldn't come to terms with that. Many had a positive experience though.

My favorite Heritage inlays are the abalone blocks. I haven't seen an example come out of the factory for a very long time. The H-555 inlays are less than subtle. The design came from the same guys who produced the controversial headstock. Both have grown on me. I don't even notice. If I do, it's part of old Heritage's personality, and I smile.

Heritage began with an arrangement with Schaller for pickups and hardware. I assume they got some discount for bulk purchases. But there were some complaints about the pickups, not the engineering but the tones. Decades later, I believe that they are pretty decent and have more options for adjusting the heights. I think that many had a prejudice against them or simply wanted to personalize their guitar with the pickups of their choice, often expensive ones. Nowadays I don't hear as many complaints. Of course everyone can have an opinion. Here's a comparison with Seths v. Schallers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mURVofPTnY

After the repair.

My H-575 had binding separation on the back. It wasn't subtle. I took it to one of the Heritage guys who has a shop in his house. He is a friend. I don't think he usually does commercial repairs. Anyway about a month later it's done. He had to head the binding and reapply it, which took several steps and a lot of patience. Once it was on well he had to touch up the lacquer. It is very hard to tell anything happened there anymore, although there are subtle indicators that I wouldn't have noticed much if he hadn't shown me. I've had binding work done before elsewhere but never better. Here are gratuitous pics.

I can't estimate how many string choices there are out there, but it's a big number. I listen to jazz players, especially the old school ones, who use flats. Surf music commonly involves flats. They sound great. I tend to use the hybrids (Brite Flats and Half Wounds). They get rid of the squeaks well enough and are brighter. I am well stocked with different string gauges and windings. I can't settle on anything really. I've made peace with that realization.

The extra value of a Marvbird is the man who made it, the craftsmanship, and the woods. I played a Firebird V from the 60s for years. I have no idea if Marv ever touched the guitar. The Marvbird is on a higher level. Once you get used to the design of the body and the neck being out so far, it feels very natural to play.

The old surf sounds seem to use flatwounds with single coils. https://surfguitar101.com/forums/topic/35423/

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/is_it_cool_or_not_cryogenically_frozen_gear_explained-108422 I can't find any recent references to cryo treatment of pickups, but 20+ years ago they were a thing.

Neither Aaron nor his wife would have hesitated. I didn't know his son as well, but I know he was well trained with firearms and was an electronic warfare specialist in the Air Force. They were all very nice people with even tempers and a sense of humor. Aaron's shop was in a very small town. He had some expensive equipment and instruments. I'll bet many shop owners in that circumstance kept a gun nearby. My father owned a party store, where I also put a lot of work hours. There was a loaded revolver in the safe in back. We all knew how to pull it out and shoot to kill. Why, you ask? Because it often happens that once the thieves get the money, they kill the witnesses. I know of one time my dad held two at gunpoint until the police arrived. I understand the idea that merchandise and money can be replaced if insured. I also get that these were desperate men who robbed. The owners also had families to feed. Even if insured, the payouts would take a long time and would depend on the investigation outcome and whether they could prove the amount stolen. The best insurance at the time was to have it known that if you rob a small store, you can be shot as a means to prevent the robbery. Back in the day, I was quite a liberal polically. I met Bobby Kennedy about two weeks before his death. That was soon after the Martin Luther King shooting. There were also murders in our city, also. In our part of Michigan many boys learned to shoot and hunt. I did so since I was 5. There were strict rules about safety that were always primary. My grandfather and grandmother lived in very rural Minnesota. They lived off the land and hunted routinely. So it was a very different culture then in which guys, like fishing poles, were simply tools. I don't know that we will ever get that sense of respect for life back again, which is absolutely necessary for those who own any deadly weapon. But returning to the question, Aaron would have shot a robber with his .380. He was deeply Christian. That may be a paradox to many. And even beyond that, I'll bet he would have prayed for his soul. Our world is different now. It may be better-IDK. But here are recent statistics on home break ins and violence. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/URLs_Cited/OT2017/15-1498/15-1498-1.pdf Here are some data from the Department of Justice as to where robberies occur. Back to our regular programming now.

My 13 year old grandson now owns it. He is a dedicated guitarist. He's likely going to be 5'5" as an adult. He currently has a large guitar, which is hard for him to play. I gave it to him last year. He's swapping an 18" Gretsch for the 575. https://www.flickr.com/photos/151972168@N02/albums/72157718796977248/

The secret remains.

I'm still setting it up. It was down-tuned for a very long time and a string was missing. I didn't see it before it was renecked, but the first neck was mahogany. Few of us had the good fortune of meeting Aaron Cowles, a master craftsman of the highest order yet very pragmatic. That was the description also of the original Heritage owners. The H-575 is a jazz workhorse. I took video lessons from Mimi Fox and Alex Skolnick years ago, two extraordinary players both using the H-575. It does the job well and is sturdy. Unlike thin topped spruce jazz boxes, this is built for amplification and to take it. (As an aside, here's a fabulous rock solo by Alex that brought tears to the audience.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X07ssteuM8o&t=245s Here's what I don't like: the tailpiece. It functions, but you have to learn how to keep the string ball in it. Previously I had the ball slots deepened in another guitar. If someone knows an easy swap out for the tailpiece that is more solid and secure, please let me know. Bigsbys need not apply.

A friend of mine bought a natural 575 from a Guitar Center years ago. When he got it, he found some neck issue that could not be corrected by adjustment. He took it to the legendary Aaron Cowles, who was doing some upscale work for Heritage at the time. Aaron told him the neck needs replacement. I don't recall the details. Aaron did the replacement. Here's an interview with Aaron. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/gibson-guitar-oral-histories/1/ Aaron died quite a few years ago. I ended up hanging on to the guitar for my friend but didn't play it. Yesterday he sold it to me without ever taking it to his home. If you are feeling sorry for him, consider he has more guitars than anyone else I know. So this is has Schallers. I scoped the innards. It's parallel braced (not all are). Aaron made the neck and but a plain ebony board on it. It's a 3 piece maple. The only piece he got from Heritage is the headstock overlay. My friend requested a five piece neck but Aaron recommended a 3 piece. Aaron fretted it. There are no nibs. That's true with other Aaron builds. Aaron was one of the best of the Kalamazoo luthiers yet a simple man to understand. He always had his pistol handy in shop. He charged very little for his hard work. His humble presentation contradicted his master skills at making guitars and mandolins. The guitar plays well. The neck is to me a medium C carve, maybe a medium plus. It sounds good.

My small experience with Gibson (Memphis and Nashville) has been pretty good. There may have been some rough times in the beginning. Heritage has had its ups and downs but seems quite good the last decade. Most of the earlier guitars also were nicely done. It takes an occasional bad apple that inspires a post on some forum that takes the shine off a reputation.