TalismanRich

I've only got 5 Heritages, ranging from 1987 to 2006. None of them have any checking. You'll probably have little to no chance of determining if there was a "formulation change". From the visits we've made to the factory, the cans of lacquer were Behlen/Mohawk, if I memory serves me. It's been quite a few years and I don't see any photos of the cans in my gallery.

It's good to see that the crazy back and forth lawsuits have been resolved. Get back to the business at hand, making and playing nice guitars and posting guitar porn of them.

The refinish is absolutely an improvement. The Pelham Blue isn't a big favorite for me, and when it starts looking booger green, it's less of a favorite.

Very nice. That looks very similiar to one that I was playing this afternoon. My '87 which now has SD Alnico Pro IIs.

That won't fix the problem of the guitar tipping forward. Personally, I never found that to be a problem, even with an rather substantial protuberance pushing the guitar forward. I can see how it might be bothersome depending on how low slung the guitar is to start with.

Welcome back to the "family".

There MIGHT be enough wood to hold a strap button. I found this photo in the PSP2 group. If you look closely, you can see a small piece of wood on the inside of the upper ear. It might be worth giving the Heritage folks and asking if they are still doing this and if it would be sufficient to hold a strap button securely.

I don't remember there being any wood block added to the upper bout corner during any of our tours. There are several pictures in the PSP archives of guitars in the course of being built. You might look through some of the early ones and see if there would be enough wood to support a strap button.

Mediocre... you're a funny guy!!!!

It sounded pretty nice in the video. Was this a kit that you grabbed, or did you just get a board and start soldering parts to it based on the schematic?

Its hard to say what "good smelling" means here. Some amyl solvents can have a fruity or sweet smell. Certain esters that are used for solvents can give a bit of a sweet odor. These can be very slow in evaporating, so you might smell them for quite a while. Eventually they should go away, though. The same holds true for some of the nasty smelling compounds. By itself NC has very little odor. It's all from the additives. I was reading some things about Gibson's lacquer spraying and it appears that they are using a robot to spray the finish (don't know if custom shop does), and the it's electrostatically charged to draw the resin to surface, much like they do with car finishes. (Josh might be somewhat familiar with this process). I have no clue what additives they use to make the lacquer react properly. I think HinesArchTop has the right idea. Some vanilla extract should do the trick! Just don't get too much, as it might attract the bees when you're playing outside. As for the checking, it's going to be hard to determine if they are using pure NC or adding something like an alkyd or phthalate to make the film more flexible. And looking at a safety data sheet may not tell you all the ingredients, since it only has to report the hazardous materials. The Behlen based lacquers appear to be primarily NC, but if you look closely, there is a bit of silicone in there that probably makes it feel a touch slick. Sometimes you see a small percentage of silica which is used to give a lower gloss, like a satin look. Cardinal lacquer is definitely plasticized. Sherwin Williams is resin modified. I can't find info on Akzo Nobel. A lot of people that sell lacquers are just repacking from manufacturers. Ok, I've nerded out log enough.

Congrats. Will takes good care of his stuff, so it should be mint. So did you name her "Goldy"?

I've seen pics of older Heritage guitars that have checked. Mine haven't, but I don't subject them to wild temperature swings. My old Guild from 74 only has a few cracks in the nitro, and it was actually in water for a short time. My 157 was water damaged and the nitro did check quite a bit. I had the guitar refinished and it's been fine ever since. What type of "authenticity" are you looking for? Lacquers come in various levels of gloss, with and without other materials. Lacquers aren't necessarily 100% pure NC. Various additives are used to make the finish more durable. The actual manufacturing of NC resin can change the properties, making it more or less brittle. Different grades of NC can have various levels of gloss. How much you buff the finish will also affect the gloss level. Unless you actually know the manufacturer's name and what grade nitro Gibson or Fender was using 60 years ago, it's unlikely that you'll find anyone using "authentic" nitro. I'm guessing that the original company isn't even in business. There are only a few companies in the US and Europe making NC. Nitrocellulose is a material that is very tricky to manufacture safely, and most companies that make it have been bought and sold, and factories moved (I was in the coatings business for 40 years and suppliers were changing all the time as resin companies changed hands.) Much of it comes from Asia these days. So, what is "authentic"?

Wow, sorry to hear the news about both of these fine gentlemen! Here's hoping that they both come through things and get back to enjoying life.

Rockin' the Blueburst H-530, EXCELLENT!