TalismanRich

Agreed! It sounds like any other guitar, shoved through a Fuzz Face with full distortion. If I didn't know what P90s sound like, that demo sure wouldn't give me a clue. I want to HEAR THE GUITAR!

See my post earlier. It's available from the Wayback Machine!

There is actually a copy of the movie in the Internet Archive. It says it's the UK version. Vanishing Point - Internet Archive.

Vanishing Point - 1971 A weird kind of movie, where the "hero" is supposed to deliver a Dodge Challenger to California. Of course, he's doing it at Cannonball Run speeds, so the cops are chasing him across the desert. The final scene has them pulling a pair of bulldozers into the road to stop him, which is the last pic that Bolero posted.

It was actually the radio station that triggered it for me. I really don't remember the pics of the Green Frog Grocery, or Ray's beer joint. But I remember SuperSoul talking to Kowalski over the radio, trying to get him home. Also, Delaney and Bonnie were doing gospel music out in the desert with the snake handler. As for the beer... make mine A&W! ?

Does this movie involve a white Dodge Challenger R/T? I think I have it, but the odds are vanishingly small. But the point is, I THINK I know where it came from. It was on the news.

Is that the last Green Frog Grocery store?

I'm surprised that Sweetwater didn't see the cracked pickup ring. An indentation under the pickguard is a different matter. You would have to remove the guard to see that. That's one weak point with the elevated pickguard. If you press hard enough, it can bend enough to allow the screw to hit the surface of the guitar. Putting felt on the guitar under the screw might not be the best thing. You need to make sure an adhesive doesn't react with the finish. That said, I've replaced 4 pickup rings that have cracked. When the Schaller ring on my 157 cracked, I took a new ring ($4), and drilled four extra holes so that I could keep the 4 adjustment screws on the Schaller pickups. I hate soldering to the back of the pots. I've thought about just doing the joint where the tab gets grounded to the case and then solder to that lab. It would all be the same point electrically and wouldn't risk overheating the case. It would be nice if CTS would just make a little tab on the back to use as a soldering point.

Everything is looking pretty tidy. I try to do that once in a while. It lasts a few weeks.... ?

...which is crazy because people take out the HRWs and then sell them for big money. It's true that one man's trash is another man's treasure.

I swapped out the original Schaller pickups from my 535 for a pair of Sheptone Tributes. I can't say it was an earth shattering difference, but they were a different flavor. SD 59 are a pretty typical Alnico V PAF from what I've heard. What type of "character" are you looking for? Maybe looking at an Alnico II Pro or Seth Lover would work better.

I wonder sometimes why my H140 doesn't say "Clown Burst" on the control cover..... ? My H-535 says Faded Cherry, which is apparently different from Transparent Cherry. Some of the newer 535s seemed to me more opaque than transparent.

Welcome, Daniel Be sure to post some pictures when you get it. We always like to see good looking guitars!

I'm thinking maybe an employee build, although the guys certainly could have done a one=off special for a friend. The dot neck would be either from an H140 or maybe an H150P. They should use the same neck. Is the body mahogany or poplar? I thought the 150Ps were pretty light. The Made in Germany tailpiece suggests Schaller gear. The pickups are definitely Schaller. Everything on it looks typical of Heritage builds from the early days. Maybe it was an early prototype build for the H-150 style guitar that was later sold off. Hopefully Ren or maybe Jim will remember the story.

A wop bop b-luma b-lop bam boom

I generally don't care for the Gibson pickguards. They just look so big and overdone. They don't follow the lines of the guitar the way that Heritage had done with their 535 and 150 style guards. If it was 25% smaller, it would be fine and still perform the function. I also prefer the wooden guards. A touch of wood grain showing through is classy and they don't generate static like many plastic ones do. For me, its one of the things that Heritage REALLY got right.

Groovedoggie, Isn't it great when you pick up a guitar and it sings to you? Nice choice on the 530.

The bigger headstock isn't that much of a selling point. It's a touch more weight, but I don't think it would create neck dive or change the sound. You really can't go for much lighter wood, it's already full of open space. The pickup change? Heck people are yanking out the 225s and replacing them in the CC150s. They did the same with HRWs, then they sell the HRWs as if they are gold. You can buy a hundred different pickups today! The 555 had an inlay in the headstock, and the "sans The" isn't a selling point, it will have ZERO effect on anything. I like the headstock inlays on my 157 just fine. Block or enhanced fretboard inlays are a plus over dots to me. Binding on the headstock, I like. Multilayer binding looks nice but not a necessity. Gold hardware, it's not mandatory. With some colors it looks great, with others, silver works better. 5 piece necks looks sharp, and I always wondered if they would be more stable since you can have the grains crossed to minimize the tendency for a piece of wood to move in a single direction. None of this has much to do with trying to reinvent a "vintage spec" guitar, which is more what the Custom Core seems to be aiming at. I'm not one who worships at the altar of the '59 LP. I don't necessarily agree that the only guitars that have "magic" were built in 1959. '58s and '60s were essentially the same spec. The fact that it stopped from '61 to '68 meant that the pool of those original guitars was small. Therein lies the resulting supply vs demand issue. Yeah, it's cool that it's old, but other than the fact that certain people played certain guitars on certain albums they were just standard production guitars. You don't see the same thing with 22 fret Washburn Hawks. Bob Marleys Hawk sold for $1.2 million, yet you can buy a late 70s Hawk today on Reverb for under $1000. That's not so much an issue with the 335/345/355. It's been in constant production since 1958, with gradual changes over the years. So what would a Custom Core 535/555 bring to the table, other than some upgraded parts?

Yeah, the LP obsessives go nuts if the binding isn't the right color, or marker dots aren't perfect. Is the neck fat enough? Is the wiring vintage? Is the tenon deep enough? 535/335 players just pick 'em up, plug 'em in and PLAY! When I would walk into Dee Wells Music School at the tender age of 11, I didn't even look at the Les Paul, or the hollow bodies or acoustics. My eyes went straight to the 335. That's what I wanted! It took me a long time to get my red semi, but I've got it now and I play it. It's great! They would need to do something super special for a CC to be a lot better than the standard 535. I would rather they just bring back the 555, for those of us who like some bling.

Welcome aboard, DrFred. Lets see some pics of that Johnny Smith. There aren't that many of them out there.

Guitgamer, Download Irfanview, and you can put the picture in there, resize it to something reasonable (like 1280 horz res), and save as a jpeg file which will easily fit in the 1.5MB limit. With cameras and phones having 10 and 12M pixel cameras, the file size is just too large to fit the space. You really don't need a 4300x2400 pic for posting on a forum.

The switches control the Var-i-phase VIP system. You have both a phase adjustment and coil tap. They work like this: The 2 Lower Knobs (Looking down at Controls from playing position) Left:Master Volume Right: Master Tone Upper Knob is the Vari-Phase Control - On 10: In Phase, On Zero: Out of Phase. Note: Vari-Phase only works when Mini-Toggles 2 and 3 are Down Again Looking Down from Playing Position Mini-Toggles are #1 #2 and #3 #1 Toggle Up: Is Neck Pick-up Coil Tap Down: Tap Off # 2 and #3 Toggles Down is Vari-pHASE for Bridge PU #2 and #3 Toggles Opposite each other 1-up 1-down is "Stand by Dead" or Both Coils #2 and #3 Toggles Both Up is Coil Tap Bridge Pick-up! If you pull the wiring harness, you'll want to carefully map out the switches. It's not anywhere close to the standard 4 knob / Vol-Vol Tone-Tone with 3way selector setup. The nut should be standard Gibson style. The Heritage guys were all ex-Gibson people, and as such, that's how they designed their guitars. A V serial number indicates a 2005 build. The Serial number scheme is explained here: Date Your Heritage

Mark, good to hear from you again. Glad to hear you're enjoying your time. I missed reading your tales (sometimes good, sometimes tales of woe). Should there come a day that you get the bug, you'll surely find some like-minded mates to scratch the itch. Don't stay away so long next time.

Blog is a four letter word!

Welcome aboard, UnkyHarv. Glad to hear you're enjoying your H-530. What type of stuff do you and your mates play? I'm guessing if you're into the Johnny Smith sound, some jazz must be involved.