TalismanRich

Maybe there's a reason why Buzz Feiten and Earvana have come up with those fancy adjustments nuts.

ELChoad, You have one of the fancy ones with the hard stamped numbers. Standard Collection: 1 (identifier) YY (year) XXXX (numerical ID) Custom Shop: HC1 (identifier) YY (year) XXXX (numerical ID) I don't know what the identifier is. All the ones I have seen with the stamped numbers are H150s, which have a 1. Anyone have a hollow or semi with a hard number? Personally, I like the quaint old silver stamped ones with the "Made in Kalamazoo MI USA". Sometimes it smeared enough that you couldn't tell what the letter or numbers were. I think they had to retire the old stamper...it only had one letter, and it was probably getting pretty worn out.

There should be no issues with a 2018 era guitar. By that time, they had the new manufacturing space going, with the new spray booth (big improvement), the Plek was working, and Pete Farmer was overseeing the operation. Jim Deurloo, Bill Paige and Ren Wall were still roaming around. We visited the factory that year, and things were running smoothly. Also, there was no CNC being used. The same old machinery was being used, necks were still being hand shaped, the binding hand wrapped, and bodies hand cut and sanded. The changes were a cleaner work area, more organized work flow, a more limited line which meant that they were concentrating on nailing down the process more tightly. The folks there were still putting out excellent guitars. One of the big pushes was to improve overall quality. At that point, Edwin Wilson was coming on board after leaving the Gibson Custom Shop. Everything I've heard about his artisan aged guitars has been positive. I wouldn't hesitate at all if I was in the market for another 535.

Sorry to hear about your friend's passing.

Ah... that makes sense. Hexavalent chrome materials are used for a lot of chemical processes. Testing for hexachrome was standard for many pigments that we evaluated since it is also carcinogenic. I worked in the printing industry where a lot of chrome plating was done and most of it was done with Chromic acid, which is hexavalent. It's pretty well controlled by OHSA. Once it's plated on a surface and washed, the plating won't contain any hexa or trivalent chrome. Still, I think the gold hardware might look cool with the EVO wires! (I like the gold hardware... got it on two of my Heritages)

Do you have a gold allergy? I would be looking to avoid both the nickel and chrome if you have allergies to both. It might mesh well with the gold toned EVO wire.

I was wondering if this was going to resurface, since Gibson "technically" won their lawsuit against Dean. On the other hand, the award was only something like $4000 instead of $7 million they asked for. The critical part was that their trademarks appear to have been upheld, even though they were filed about 40 years after the fact.

Well, didn't you make out with a nice birthday present! It's only right since nobody gave you a cake.

Hmmmm.... a bit like someone else that we know that plays a Heritage.

I was turning 50 in 2003, and decided that my birthday present to myself was going to be a new guitar. The Heritage dealer here was an old school mate of mine, and I placed an order for an H-157 in Almond Sunburst, hoping to get it by my birthday. It came in a couple of months early, which was fine. I still have the guitar. Here it is next to my Guild S100 that I've had since the early 70s. It started me down the path to acquiring a total of 5 Heritages, all of which have made the trip back to K'zoo for at least a couple of PSPs each.

Did you get rid of that nice gold top? That thing felt really good, an easy player.

Yep, that's an issue that I faced with my 140. The neck pickup is pretty much bottomed out. It's also part of the reason that the 157 still has the Schallers. I had bought a pair of gold Seth Lovers to put in there, but they didn't fit, and I wasn't in the mood (or have the proper tools) to deepen the route. I thought of having a set made with short legs, but in the end, decided that the Schallers are ok to keep.

I remember that mushroom, and the 18 wheeler mudflap cover. 😁

The Schallers in my 87 H140 had an obvious problem. I tried changing pots and caps, but it remained. Sound was grossly out of whack. I changed them to AlnicoPro2s and all has been fine. I don't know if it had a short of what, but it didn't sound anything like either my 157 or 535 which both came with Schallers. I still have the Schallers in my H157. I changed out the ones in my 535, and all I can really say is that it's different. It has Sheptones in it now, they seem to be a bit more even from high to low, but as for a massive difference, nah... My Mille has Seth Lovers in it. Schallers aren't bad pickups, they are just different. To me, they seem to have that scooped midrange sound.. almost a "smile" on the EQ curve. That seems to make them a bit on the bottom heavy side. Of course I just tweak the amp setting to tame the bloom on the low strings.