TalismanRich

Absolutely. If I remember correctly, someone (might have been Eljay) had a Vintage47 version of my amp. The differences that I noticed were probably due the speaker. Maybe its hard to reproduce the sound of a 60+ year old field coil speaker.

Yes I did, back in 2012. Its the little Tweed National. I found a pic from Thurs night's sho-'n-tell session. I've heard that harp players like them. I would have liked to hear Wezo with that thing cranked up.

The trick is to use the real Youtube.com link, not the shortcut Youtu.be link. The board software seems the Youtube link and pastes the video.

That tube compliment is similar to what is in my 53 National Supreme amp. Hand wired with the 6SJ7, 6V6 and 5Y3 should be a nice departure from the Fender sound. Its very typical of late 40s/early 50s Valco amps. Vintage47 makes the same amp for $625, as the Mini. For $400, that's a bargain. Old Valco style amps are fun and make great practice amps.

I have a humidifier for the house. It holds 3 1/2 gallons which in the winter lasts about 1 1/2 days. I also have a Martin tube humidifier that I keep in my Taylor acoustic. The humidity in the house stays around 40% in the dead of winter. I don't worry about the electrics with that level, even the 525. The Taylor seems to be more sensitive to humidity changes.

I think you hit the nail on the head there, FoJ. The Schallers have more bottom end and top end, which become mud and glare when you hit the overdrive. When you're playing clean, they just give it a wider overall response. That leaves the impression of a scooped midrange to me. Since most blues/rock players use OD, the more midrange focused pickups are a better choice.

We didn't have tacos back then. But we did have:

That tag is legit, and yes, an Ultra is an upgraded top 150. I wonder if our resident Puerto Rico member GPuma is close (or is it his?)

Its funny that people used to complain that they couldn't buy a Heritage because they didn't sell through places like GC, MF or Sweetwater. They simply didn't have the staff and facility to crank out the numbers that it would take to supply those places, especially with the broad catalog they had. Plus the largest number of models were archtops which aren't the biggest sellers. I've said this before, but I think that Marv, Jim and the rest of the old staff just loved making those nice archtops. They take more effort and time than cranking out a 137 slab or even a 150. The company HAS TO MAKE A PROFIT, or it wouldn't exist. Otherwise its an expensive hobby for somebody. So they have limited the line, updated the distribution channel, and concentrated on putting out a more consistent, and still high quality guitar. I think its a good path. As for the prices rising, I don't think they are outrageous. I look at Heritage in a similar light to folks like Anderson, Suhr, Collins. A Suhr or Anderson strat will cost you $2500-3000. I haven't bought anything simply because I've got all the bases pretty well covered with the ones I have. Likewise for amps. I keep looking at Ceriatone OTS and HRM amps, but I REALLY don't need one. I've got a half dozen amps and I can find a sound I like from one of them. I prefer the path they are on to the one that Heritage Amplification went down, or Hamer, or Parker, or Robin.

I seem to recall similar serial numbers over the years with just the USA, and with the letter above the number. That being said, the numbers don't look like the standard font of the serial number stamp used by Heritage. I would ask the seller to pull the cover from control cavity and send you a photo of that. I'm guessing the guitar is legit but as Steiner said, it might have been refinished. Update: I was just browsing Reverb and there are a couple of other guitars with the same font from the 2006-2007 era. Here's a screenshot.

I used to use D'Addario EXL110s on most of my electrics, 10-46, with an occasional change to a pure nickel or a set of EB Slinkys. Over the past two years, I've moved to 9-42s except for my 525 which still has 11s on it. Right now, I've got a box of ELixer 9-42s to use the next time I change strings. It was a deal at Sweetwater the last time I was in there (after PSP). I've also got a couple of Hybrid Slinkys that I might put on the 535. Its 9-46, so it would be an intermediate.

This ain't Facebook or Twitter, so you don't really have to worry if you have a lot of "likes" or any of that stuff. Its all just fun and games. Warning points mean that you're stepping outside the boundaries of decorum, and need to clean up your act. As for you're status being a "Distant Relation" I think that just means that you've only got a few posts, so you're like that cousin that shows up occasionally at the family BBQ. For those with "Skewed Priorities" and "Need to Get Out More", its a reminder that there's more to life than sitting in front of the computer and posting 20 times a day! Not that we would ever consider going outside unless it was to go to a jam session or a gig or a trip to the music store! I don't think postings in the For Sale sections count in the posting number. Maybe they could count the number of posts in the Sale sections divided by general discussion group posts. Anything from 1-2 would be "Junior Sales Rep". 3-10 could be "Salesman of the Month", and anything over 10 would be "Willy Loman". Just a thought! So, welcome to the BBQ. Hope you stay around for a long time!

Ok Hangar, gloves are off. You just called 4 of my guitars "Unsafe" and 3 of them as unfinished! You can say my playing sucks, but don't insult my geetars! I'm with you on not refinishing. I think a green semi looks good, especially with gold hardware and binding around the headstock. I'd play that thing anyday without giving it a second thought. Too many people worry about what the other guys think about their gear. I only worry about what I like. If they like it too, that's fine. I mean, who else would play one of these? (Yup, those are palm trees and dolphins!)

I love some of the threads on TGP, The latest was the SRV bashing. The prevailing feeling was that a) his tone sucked b) his playing sucked and C) his song sucked. I commented that the real shame was that there were no internet guitar forum when he died, so he never had to chance to read about all the stuff that he SHOULD have been using to get the right "tone". A pity, really. He could have been famous!

I've been buying from Sweetwater for years, and never had a problem. In the last 5 years, I've probably gotten 3 calls from them. I get a couple of emails from them each week. In contrast, I get at least 2 or 3 emails a day from Musicians Friend, and most are not from "Musicians Friend" . Instead, its Amy Podunk from Musicians Friend, or Joe Schmoe from Musicians friend. There's no easy way to sort them and quickly delete 20 or 30 messages without going through each one. I've got at least three different "personal reps" none of whom I have ever dealt with. The only good thing is that occasionally they will send out 20 or 25% discounts. I've used that to get some equipment that I was thinking about purchasing but just looking to see if I could find a better deal. The funny thing was that a couple of times I mentioned it to my rep at Sweetwater, and they gave me the same discount. When I was looking for a case to use with my Guild S100, I call my rep and asked about a particular Gator case. A couple hours later, I had an email with pictures of one of the current S100s in the case. He made a couple of comments about the fit (tight on the upper horn but not binding or anything). It turns out that I was making a trip up to our plant 30 miles west of Ft Wayne a few weeks later. After work, i drove over and talked to him. He went back to the warehouse, pulled the case, and an S100 for me to look at. I took it home with me. That was serviced that's just as good as I've gotten from some of my local stores (there are still a few). Unfortunately they don't have the selection that Sweetwater has. I'm surprised that they would recommend recording equipment that wouldn't work together. Chuck started the business doing recordings on old Teac and Tascam gear. Maybe it was a rep who wasn't that up on recording gear. There is SO MUCH stuff out these days, and it is changing constantly. FWIW they've got 3 REALLY NICE recording studios on site. Their mic locker is the size of my bathroom, and filled with mics. I always stop by on my way back from K'zoo in August, just to see what's new. Its a huge complex. I remember when it was a little store front with a metal warehouse behind for the mail orders. They've grown a lot, and that wouldn't happen it they were just a bunch of screwups.