All Activity

My old H-550 had big issues with sympathetic vibration between the bridge and tailpiece. They would really ring out. It was distracting while playing acoustically or with the amp turned down really low.

Doug Harrison, who built my custom archtop seen here, is well aware of unwanted resonances happening on the string area between bridge and tail piece. He included three rubber grommets (like you'd use where a power cord goes through an amp panel) to tame them. I haven't had to use these grommets, but then again, I'm pretty well deaf anyway....

Great looking guitar, I bet it sounds as great as it looks. Let us know what you think when you finally get that thing plugged in!

Just for the fun of it, I checked to see what notes rang out on my H-530. The first two string were "1/2 step" lower than the relative bottom 4 strings, probably due to the placement of the bridge over the short "scale length". Of course my Starfire would be completely different since it has a harp style tailpiece instead of the straight one on the Heritages. String - Note behind bridge High E - Bb B - F G - D D - A A - E Low E - B

Please do it. Report back. Educate the collective. 😀

Well, I decided not to reverse the tail piece,I own about 50 guitars and every no we and then I like to experiment a bit..

That's going to buff out real fine! Dave is the best.

All the time??? I see like maybe 1 a year come up for sale

Yeah, I’m still waiting for you to ship yours to me since I paid you for ot 10 years ago

Nothing elusive about them I see them all the time. But congratulations on getting the one you want.

Neither have you!

Hopefully will be picking it up Saturday !!!!

Very sorry to hear it.

Excellent!!!! Well done Brent. 525’s are terrific.

Thanks. Yes, certainly I will play it first. Like I said in the original post - I’ve been surprised before by pickups that I “knew” from prior experience weren’t right for me- but in a different guitar I found them to be terrific. I didn’t think I liked Duncan ‘59s - then I got a 575 with them in it, and it was a great combination in that specific instrument. Lesson learned there.

It would only be harmonically in tune with a single note. Each string will have a pitch depending on the length between the bridge and the tailpiece. If you were to tune it to match the open pitch, all the fretted notes will have the same open pitch as well (although probably 2 or 3 octaves higher). But I find the same thing.... you have some sympathetic vibration from the string behind the bridge. I hear it on my DeArmond Starfire, my 525 and 530. I have seen people use cloth and rubber to dampen the string vibrations. I never felt the need.

Nice guitar. I still love those old style wooden pickguards!!! I wouldn't swap out anything until you played it. Schaller pickups are like any others... they have a sound that may or may not be what you prefer. If you go back and read comments you'll hear that they are hard, soft, bright, full, like an SD59, Alnico Pro II, a Dimarzio PAF or a Gibson PAF. That pretty much covers the range from left to right. They are a potted, Alnico 5 based pickup, with 4 wire connections for coil splitting if you want to go that route. Schaller quit selling pickups which is what prompted Heritage to switch to Duncan (59s and Seth Lovers). They have 3 mounting holes on the baseplate, so you can adjust the tilt if you need it. I've got Schallers in my H-157, Sheptone Tributes in my H-535, Seth Lovers in my Millennium, and Alnico Pro IIs in my H-140. I can make more of a change in the sound by changing my amp than I can between any of the guitars. Playing clean through the Princeton sounds nothing like the Patriot or the DSL401. In the end, what's most important to me how the guitar feels in my hands. Then I can tweak the tone to what I want.

Looks great!!

@tsp17...Congratulations on your latest archtop score. GE's are wonderful, world class instruments. Play it in good health.

That’s great to hear. Thanks. Always a little bit of a crap shoot when buying on line. But Jay and team at Wolfe are super professional, reliable and they have the really good stuff (like HOC member owned Green Oak). They have never steered me wrong. I always have confidence buying from them.

Nice!

That's a beauty. I saw that guitar at Jay's place when I bought my H530. Pictures do not do your guitar justice. Congratulations and enjoy.

What an improvement! You were right about Dave Teski, Awesome work!

The more the string weighs,the more tension to bring to pitch. The longer a string is,the more it weighs, the flexibility of a longer string has to do with its increased elastic modulous,wich also increases with overall lenght,so even with higher tension,it can feel more flexible...but my main point from this original question is, What are your experiences in having reversed the assembly of the finger bridge ?