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NGD Patrick's Masterpiece

Guest mgoetting

By Guest mgoetting
in Heritage Guitars

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Patrick Enthusiast

Patrick

Posted
Posted

I apologize for my absence from this thread. First off, thank you to Mark Goetting for being kind enough to post that picture. I'm still trying to learn how to reduce the MB size of the pics my new camara takes so that I can post. I sent one photo to tulk1 and he told me that it was in excess of 5MB. I adjusted the size down on the cam and it still takes photos at 2MB . . . too large to post on HOC. I have an appt today with the cam shop. They have an Adobe program that I'm going to buy . . . and hopefully, they'll walk me through how to use it. Then you'll all get more pics than you really want.

 

Regarding the 2 labels; As I did in 1994 when I ordered my first custom made Golden Eagle, I asked for a second label with the signatures of everyone at the plant who had something to do with making this outstanding instrument. The Lord knows that I bothered each of them at nauseam about every little detail every step of the way. I just wanted to give them all the respect and acknowledgement they deserved for the time, effort and attention they gave to creating my guitar.

 

The Story; I'm checking with Marv, Ren, Vince & Jim every week . . . sometimes twice a week on the progress of the guitar. Each time they assure me that they're right on schedule . . . but they also offer the caveat . . . "ya know Patrick . . . anything can happen, at any point during this process to throw a monkey wrench into our completion". Little did any of us know how prophetic that statement would be. The target date for me to pick up the completed guitar was last Thurs morning . . . which meant leaving my home in NJ very early the day before. I left home at about 5:00 AM Wed morning. I get a call on my cellular at 6:30 AM. I see that the area code is 269. I figure that it's Mark Goetting calling to remind me to remember not to forget to remember not to forget ( that's a Ralph Kramden thing I can't shake) to bring the Johnny Smith. The voice at the other end is a very somber sounding Marv Lamm. He askes "how for down the road are you, Patrick?" My first thought is " . . . . . . . . . . OH SHIT!!!!" I tell him . . "about an hour and a half, Marv. What's wrong". He calmly tells me in very matter of fact inflection . . . "go back home and go back to bed . . . your guitar won't be ready for at least another week and a half to 2 weeks". Here's what happened, I insisted that they make this Golden Eagle with the 3 layers of finger board binding that they used to use. (They have now gone to using just 2 layers of WBWB) Marv reluctantly agreed. The extra layer of WB binding caused a longer than normal Cupid's Bow at the end of the finger board. Marv gave my guitar a final personal inspection that Wed morning. He discovered that the top, under the Cupid's Bow, had been left in a "raw" and unsanded condition. He said that the guitar had to be resanded at that point, over sprayed and sanded again, then buffed out. I know it was a call he did not want to make to me. He was angrier than I was . . . as he agreed that this should have been detected long before now. I told him to not have the guitar disassembled . . . I was not turning around! I was sure that the area was not as bad as he was telling me. We have all seen the older Gibson L5s where the buffing wheel can't get under the elevated finger board. I though that would be the extent of it. WOW . . . was I wrong! It was quite bad. I assured Jim & Vince that I was not leaving without my guitar . . . and that I didn't want it to be sanded to the point where it would need respraying. The sunset burst was exactly what I had asked for and I was concerned that extra tampering would change that. They said they would wet sand it lightly and finish it out on the buffing wheel. They assured me there would be a considerable improvement, but that it wouldn't be perfect. About 20 seconds after Jim told me that, Bill came in the office and informed Jim and Vince that the 3 phases electricity had just gone out. They had lights .. . but no production equipment, as it all requires 3 phase. The electric company was on its way there and when they arrived, they told us they would have it fixed within the hour. That was at about 8:45 AM. At about 11:00 AM Vince decided to send everybody home. Without 3 phase, they were dead in the water.

 

At that point the guy, whose name always escapes me, he does the final hand rubbed wet sanding, elected to not go home, but to take my guitar over to his bench. He reached for a bottle, about the size of a Visine Eye Drop bottle . . . wrapped a cloth around his finger and started to work. Jim Duerloo asked him . . . "what the hell is that stuff??" this young man just smiled a returned to working on my guitar. After about 1 hour of intense work, he called me over to show me the results. He actually apologized that he had only corrected it about 99.9% and that it still wasn't perfect. If he had tits, I would have kissed him full on the lips!! But, still no 3 phase. So now my still disassembled guitar had to be hand buffed and polished. That was done by the young man who does the labels . . . . affectionately referred to by Vince as "cup cake" When he was done . . . it looked like a sheet of glass was covering my guitar!!

 

Then Ren got the guitar in his hands. He and I were not satisfied with the initial bridge that he chose, so he took it apart . . . again . . . and cut in a new ebony bridge.

 

There's still more to story . . . but I've already made this into a "War and Peace" type of a read. Needless to say, this was an event and an experience that has brought me even closer to the people at Parsons Street and obviously to my guitar. I know that none of you will be surprised by the concern and attitude of the folks at the plant that the guitar was "right". However, even though off the clock . . . almost all stayed behind to make sure that the guitar was as perfect as possible and that I was pleased.

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Kuz Experienced

Kuz

Posted
Posted

Patrick, I LOVED the story and would like to hear the rest.

 

They are passionate and just plain GREAT people at Heritage.

 

One of these days, I will have to tell you the story about how Marv helped me escape out the back elevator.......

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Gitfiddler Mentor

Gitfiddler

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Patrick, that is a magnificent Golden Eagle. Now whip out that camera and take more pics please!

 

And your Odyssey was amazing. The folks at Heritage are truly unique and special.

 

Congratulations on the new custom build.

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Patrick Enthusiast

Patrick

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Posted
Patrick, that is a magnificent Golden Eagle. Now whip out that camera and take more pics please!

 

And your Odyssey was amazing. The folks at Heritage are truly unique and special.

 

Congratulations on the new custom build.

 

 

Gitfiddler . . . . I'm really not that into naming guitars. But, I really like your summation of the whole experience I described on my previous post. If you don't mind . . . I'm going plagiarize your post. From here after, I will refer to this Golden Eagle as . . . . "The Odyssey". It's really quite fitting.

 

I just got back from the camara shop. They burned me a disc of the Picassa set up. We'll see what happens.

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cod65 Community Regular

cod65

Posted
Posted

great story, and great example of turning 'lemons into lemonade' by all parties involved.

 

you could've easily road-raged off the highway, ranted for hrs, beat the wife or child, etc.

 

But instead you all practiced 'true dignity' and respect .

 

thanks !

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Gitfiddler Mentor

Gitfiddler

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Gitfiddler . . . . I'm really not that into naming guitars. But, I really like your summation of the whole experience I described on my previous post. If you don't mind . . . I'm going plagiarize your post. From here after, I will refer to this Golden Eagle as . . . . "The Odyssey". It's really quite fitting.

 

I just got back from the camara shop. They burned me a disc of the Picassa set up. We'll see what happens.

 

'Odyssey' it is! I'm honored. Your new instrument now has a name befitting its origins and your efforts to claim her.

Play it in good health.

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Guest HRB853370

Guest HRB853370

Posted
Posted

Darn Patrick, what a story. Picking up this guitar sounds like the time that I picked up a new Corvette at the plant in Bowling Green, KY. What an experience that was!

 

So with all the hours they put into this guitar, I am not even going to speculate as to what she cost you!!

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BMG Rookie

BMG

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Great Story and beautiful guitar. I think the idea of all the staff signing on a second label is great. Very cool to add to the custom build, a custom label too! Congratulations on a beautiful guitar and I too am looking forward to more pics.

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Patrick Enthusiast

Patrick

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Posted
Geez, Patrick. Nobody wants to click a link.

 

newguitars026.jpg

 

newguitars017.jpg

 

newguitars016.jpg

 

newguitars012.jpg

 

Especially since all you have to do is copy the IMG code. :nono:

 

 

copy the IMG code . . huh. . . OK . . . what's an IMG code?? Now, we both knew that you were anticipating that question. But, give me a little credit here . . . (a little is all I deserve) . . . I'm starting to learn this stuff!!

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tulk1 Experienced

tulk1

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Posted
copy the IMG code . . huh. . . OK . . . what's an IMG code?? Now, we both knew that you were anticipating that question. But, give me a little credit here . . . (a little is all I deserve) . . . I'm starting to learn this stuff!!

 

:nono:

 

post-220-1286210845_thumb.jpg

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