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Heritage Owners Club

MartyGrass

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Posts posted by MartyGrass

  1. Here's the process.  You first find the ideal guitar.  Next, you search for the optimal pickups.  Once successful, you focus on the right strings.  Then it's onward to the amp.  Finally you can concentrate on the pedals.  Then you're dead.  The whole time the technology keeps changing and guitar pundits tell you why you're wrong about every opinion you have.  And in those last breaths you remember why you picked up that first guitar and smile.

    • Like 2
  2. The guitar arrived yesterday.  Shipping went from California to Michigan, but timing was right to avoid great temperature changes.

    The packing was excellent.  It came in a large Reverb box.

    I owned this guitar once upon a time.  I forgot how 3D the figuring is and how it really pops out.  I also like how the maple back and neck are the same color.  The mahogany color shift on a natural maple body is fine on other guitars.  But the white (now yellowing) continuity from top to bottom is appealing.

    The action is ridiculously low without buzzing.

    Let's shift to shipping.  This was $190 UPS ground.  The UPS man told me how costs are going up.  I'm sure part of it, probably a large part, is due to personnel.  Another component is the cost of diesel.  One barrel of crude oil only produces about 11-12 gallons of diesel, compared to 19-20 gallons of gasoline.  Insurance costs may also be higher.

    I have a similar vintage H-555 that shows what Floyd Newton could do to create a tri-burst.  The transitions in coloring and the symmetry are an artist's work.

    My observations over the years are that the old Heritage was very flexible in custom makes.  Sometimes the quality was uneven, but usually they were great.  Today there is more consistency in good quality but less flexibility in design.  Yes, you can get custom builds but not so whimsically anymore.  And guitars are expensive.

     

     

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  3. 13 hours ago, Gitfiddler said:

    Awesome H555! 

    Did Heritage also build one of these for Vince Margol?

    Maybe.  This one has a placque on the case saying it belongs to Vince Lewis.  It's a heavy case, not the usual TKL.  I think the label says that, but I don't recall.  This will be my second Vince Lewis Heritage.

    I haven't thought of Vince Margol in a long time.  He was kind of the normal person stuck in a strange world of personal dynamics.  I liked him.

    He's a tax attorney.  I know what you're thinking- Trump needs help!  Vince is not a high profile guy.  https://www.margol-law.com/

     

  4. I got this quite a while ago and sold it to a fellow HOC'r and friend years ago, and now I bought it back.

    This was built for Vince Lewis.  Looks good, sounds good, plays good.

     

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  5. I don't know the number, but I know there were several prototype.  The guitar begins as a thinline H-550.  They added some Gretsch-inspired electronics, HRW pickups, and a Bigsby.  David didn't like the sustain, so they put in a center block.  That's the final prototype and the one I have.  The next ones had signatures on the headstock and pickguard.

    Pros:

    Play well, sounds great, dramatic and beautiful blue

    Cons:

    Heavier than a H-555, although I have H-157s that weigh as much

     

    • Like 1
  6. I was able to check the guitar out in detail.  It is in excellent condition.  The binding shows some yellowing and the gold shows some age.  Electronics are fine.

    I weighed it at 8 lbs 7 oz.  That is about a pound more than my H-530s.  Then I noticed it has a full center block, which someone must have custom ordered.

    The absence of a cutaway, a bit of a fatter neck (not like a '58 LP though, and the center block accounts for the weight difference.

    This is a 2011 build.  Back then Heritage made custom changes on signature guitars, I'm almost sure without the artists' consent.

     

    • Like 3
  7. I do recall that Roy did have quite a hand in designing his two Heritage types.  I also recall that some of the original guys, maybe Marv and Ren, told me he "stole" some guitars.  I may have it wrong, but as I recall they lent him a couple of guitars that he wouldn't return, and Roy was mad at the Heritage guys.  I know they were mad at him, at least for a while.

    I think it's possible that there was a disagreement about what constituted a RC Signature model.  I personally got one that did not having any Roy Clark markings on it, which probably means Roy got no royalties.  There was fallout with Johnny Smith as well.  I can surmise why but don't know.  Nonetheless, the Roy Clark and Johnny Smith guitars are among my favorites.

    Life is complicated.

    Here's a RC solo that is amazing.  

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DjQ650DK5k

     

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