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Well rock and roll can be unkind, but we keep our stage volume and rehearsal volumes at a totally reasonable volume. Now that nonstop cacophony at Heritage, which doesn't let up, is sure to kill some ear drums! And BTW, my main gig is playing acoustic, and it's funny, I went acoustic so I wouldn't damage my hearing

They have had ear protection available for years. I remember Jim Deurloo cutting a backplate during a tour and he had in a pair of earplugs. They also have safety glass available. Everyone who goes on the tours is required to have a pair. I took my own since I had to use them at work.

Nice tripletts! Good comparison of the cutaway horn on Heritage & Gibson, too

I noticed one guy had ear plugs hanging around his neck I worked for a huge international company and hearing protection (and many other things) was mandatory. If you got caught break certain safety rules you were fired. There's no way to make these fine instruments w/o violating the rules that company imposed. I also wonder how often a guitar gets dropped when using those buffing wheels.

Says the guy who plays in a rock band......

The one on the right is from a special run of '58 plain tops done for Eddie's Guitars in St. Louis. Several of the ones on Eddie's website have lighter FBs and some are darker. I liked the top on mine and it weighs 8 lbs. 4 oz. which is why I chose it. All things being equal, I probably would have had a slight preference for a darker FB. A non-issue for me.

That Gibby on the right has a rather light-colored fretboard. Gibson used to stain them darker, wonder if they stopped?

Oh yes. That looks like a whole week of fun and gains. Happy NGDs!

I believe they were the 101s, whatever they claim to be PAFs. I primarily play through Metropoulos remakes of Marshall 1959 and/or JTM45-100. The Imperials are a far better pickup IMHO. I was getting noise through the throwup 101s and was told by the owner that I had to pay to assess the defective product that is “guaranteed for life.” I’ll never use their crap again. It seems to me that I pulled 101s from a H-150LW and improved it with HRWs

for the 150/LP devotees

How the guys that work there avoid hearing damage is beyond me. That is one noisy environment.

Well, it just arrived . . . I'll unbox it soon and give a report . . . the Gibbie showed up a couple of hours ago and it's a keeper! btw, I have a Wildwood Spec Lester and it's da shizzle!

Thanks for this.

I got the impression that the "factory special" was a Sweetwater spec'd guitar. The Lollar PAF and jumbo frets vs the CC spec 225 and Medium Jumbos frets. Plain top vs figured top. I would guess they move enough that they could specify a factory run, a bit like Wildwood does with their "Wildwood Spec" guitars.

Just curious, but what set of Throbaks did you have installed, and what was it that you didn't care about them? The reason I ask is because I'm thinking of installing a set of Throbak SLE-101s into my H-150 CC goldtop, and it happens to be a set that I've always liked in the past. Of course, a 575 is an entirely different beast than a 150, so I can understand why the Imperials might be preferred for that guitar.

Congrats on the new guitar purchases! There's certainly nothing wrong with a nice plain top regardless of brand! Also, I've mentioned this before, but the bridges on these new H-150s and other Custom Cores have been upgraded to the more traditional zamac/brass tune-o-matic style bridge and, in my honest opinion, they're vastly superior tone-wise to the Pinnacle bridges that were installed up until 2025. They may not be locking, but the materials do matter! Can't wait to hear how you like the new guitars!

For those interested, this is how the H-535s are put together. You can see the center block, how they add the kerfing, and how the top is made and curved. This is from almost 10 years back, but the process is the same now. It's not a process that would be done by CNC.

@rockabilly69 nice prs !! But i guess mine is legit schaller M6 cant be wrong it came with the white package box... and the regular schaller S stamp at back of the tuning housing... perhaps on the pegs i wont not say sharp but rather pointy? Its just not ad comfortable to handle compares to grover type tuning buttons ?

Pictures, cause people like pictures... Gotoh 510 standard 18:1 Gotoh Luxury Engraved 510 21:1 Schaller M6 Schaller M6 top locking back view Schaller M6 top locking top view...

I've switched between Gotohs 510s and Schaller M6s, for both aesthetic reasons and for different tuning ratio, 21:1 on the Gotoh 510, and cannot hear a difference. I personally love M6 tuners. I have them on a PRS and 3 Zemaitis guitars. You sure you got genuine M6 tuners, I've never heard of sharp buttons.

I've only changed out one set of tuners on all of my guitars. A few of the original Grovers on the 535 were getting tight, so I swapped to a set of Grover locking tuners. I didn't notice any change in tone or sustain. The improvement was merely in tuning and easier string changes. I can change picks and hear all kinds of differences. I've changed strings and heard differences. For sure there is vibration going on there... clip on tuners work even with fretted notes. I wonder though, how much of that vibration gets all the way back down the string and into the pickups from the headstock. Or maybe I just don't worry about minor changes. I'm more likely to twist a knob and do gross changes.

Sorry to hear of your trouble with the Schaller tuners! This scenario reminds me of a time back in the '70s when there was a huge debate about installing heavier Grovers on Norlin-era Les Pauls. Of course, at the time Gibson was installing those shoddy chrome tulip tuners that no one cared for, and everyone was raving that not only were the Grovers far superior, but the shear mass of the tuners themselves helped to give the guitars better tone and more sustain, or at least that was the claim. I don't recall how much of a tonal difference they really made, but I do find it interesting that modern-day Gibson Les Paul Historic Reissues continue to feature lighter-weight Kluson-style tuners. Rarely do we see anyone replacing them with the heavier Grovers or Schallers these days, but I'm sure there are exceptions. That said, I think we posted about this before, correct? Anyway, I decided to try the Gotoh SG381 tuners after reading the reviews that Kuz and a few others had written here. They're a direct drop-in replacement for the Heritage tuners, and I honestly didn't notice a bit of a tonal change in the guitar. I also tend to be super picky about what I'm hearing out of a guitar, too. The biggest difference that I noticed was that the tuning quality of the Gotohs was far superior to the Heritage tuners, so I've never felt any need to look any further. Plus, they're relatively inexpensive: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B012EBV47A?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

Now that makes sense, I've heard about some problems with the tuners, I've had my Heritage H150 for a couple years now without issues. I gig my H150 regularly and hardly ever have to adjust. But part of quality is consistency, if there is a variance between one set of tuners to the other, there is a quality issue. I've had many Heritages over the years, one of which is over 40 years old and still has the same Grover tuners on it that have no issues.

Ohh the stock tuner sucks lol its not as fine tuning up... at times i experience tuning up and winding up not consistant .... and the stock tuners bushing washer and bushing on my H150CC has already turn rusty... am from singapore and humidity is a big challange...i did some cleaning thou and back on... i wasted 100 bucks venturing on schaller M6.... ouch....