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Marv told me he never made a prototype. They are all Marvbirds to me. According to Marv he made them all. He did all the tooling and templates for them. His best estimation of how many he made was around 75. He told me he wished he would have kept a complete list of them. He said he named the model a 357 was a little dig at Gibson for their Firebird 3, 5 and 7.

Thanks! Yeah I was pretty sure there weren't any "Marvbirds" before 2010- so good to know.

I have the first Marvbird. it’s an AA code

I agree. I'm as guilty as anyone for calling them ALL "Marvbirds." Anything that has that 357/Firebird shape and was put out by Heritage, many of us have gotten used to calling them "Marvbirds" but I agree there is a difference. From what I've seen, the 357's started in about 1988 (the prototype was built in 1987), and the latest one I've ever seen was a '93. Heritage stopped production of the 357 in 1991 from what I've heard. There seems to be a million stories about "what really happened" as to why they stopped. I've heard they were forced to from a Gibson lawsuit, and I've also heard they were just too costly to make, mainly due to the whole "neck through" construction, with no neck to body separation. There's also been much said about Marv legally being the only one that could work on them for a short time, as he was in on the original creation in Kalamazoo back in 1963. That story always sounded a little out there to me, as I don't believe anyone would have those kind of rights exclusively, unless they owned the design on a guitar. To my knowledge, Ted McCarty and Ray Dietrich were the only two names on the Firebird, although Marv did build them. Then Marv started taking custom orders in later years. I've seen those run from about 2011-2015. There very well could be some 2010s out there. Has anyone seen an earlier one? Chime in as I'd love to know. To me, those later models were the "Marvbirds", and the late 80's/early 90's run were "H-357s", and there is a difference, as you mentioned. ALL great guitars though! Hopefully more people chime in here! Interesting stuff with a million different versions of "what really happened." All great to read though!

I've seen a lot of Marvbirds, played a few of them, even the very first prototype build H-357. I'm lucky enough to know some great people that own them over the years, just not lucky enough to own one. But it had me thinking, I don't believe all H-357's are Marvbirds. When the H-357 model was a regular production guitar, it was simple guitar compared to later versions; opaque finishes, unbound dot inlay necks, slim neck profiles, standard Schaller pickups and hardware. It wasn't as an aesthetically pleasing guitar like many that came out of the factory at that time. Essentially it was a very simple rock machine made out of neck through chunk of mahogany with glued-on wings. Just an exotic shape like the Terminator and Exterminator models. When the model was discontinued yet available via phone call to the Marv Lamb hotline at 225 Parsons Street did it seem the H-357 really come alive. Natural finishes, exotic woods like Korina, multi-laminated five-piece necks, unique finish options, pickup options, Bigsby's, stingers, huge fat necks; it all became fair game.... No two were alike after that. The HOC forum here was booming with activity and membership, almost every new Heritage post was a unique custom order, and people shared the experiences to really push the dream of owning a Marvbird. The HOC was arguably the biggest enabler of the resurgence of the H-357 design. But those later H-357's were vastly different than the original production line. I believe there is a distinct difference between them and what they originally factory runs started as. In my opinion, the only thing that binds them together was two things; only Mr. Lamb could make the rough assembly and the shape of the H-357 itself. From there, the original era's of H-357's depart to the later years in the 2000's. Maybe some historians on here can tell when the H-357 made its first and last appearance in the catalog, but I believe there were several years in-between the catalog and the highly customized orders. Please disagree with me if you like, but there really a difference between the H-357 and the Marvbird.

Beautiful H-150! Enjoy!

It's ebony. Whatever the neck is, I'll adapt to it. But it's a 2022, so I'm guessing that it's fairly beefy.

I also appreciate the functionality over function. First question I have to ask is how's the neck? Newer Heritages have a nice beefy neck these days. That's definitely nice one there, congratulations; hard to tell, is that ebony or oxblood? Sweetwater had a special run of Oxblood H150 which was a rather difficult paint to get right from what I was told. Hope you enjoy it!

For the last several months, I've been having financial issues and had to sell off most of my name brand guitars. I ended up refinancing to ease the pain a bit. Living on less than $100 a month is not fun. And I have equity in the house, so I'm releasing the pressure and living off of it. It's not like I have heirs to pass anything to. The payout will happen this week, so things will be much easier after that. I just found this on Reverb at a price too good to pass up. It's a 2022. I've been getting away from flame maple, etc. While I appreciate the beauty, I'm far more interested in function right now. So I've been looking at black and oxblood and was torn between a Les Paul Standard and an H-150. The H-150 won. I'll bring it to PSP. And I'm not rebuilding the collection to what it was before. I'm fine with what I have. The guitar should arrive within the next week.

sweet!!

It’s listed as “tr blue” on the label. That’s a super nice guitar I bet it sounds great too!

Blue really shows up those major cracks!

this the Sebatron...

Thanks I got a new preamp in the house, a Sebatron VMP2000VU, I use the 4 channel version of this in my studio, although my studio one doesn't have the VU meters. I don't think there's better multi-use tube preamp for home and project studio use. I love it on everything. All the drums you heard from my studio were through the Sebatron. And it sounds great on bass and guitars too. I recorded a cleaner and slightly longer version of this song with my Jaguar through the same mics and pre...

those blue hollowbodies look fantastic

nice amp, congrats!

btw that cliop sounded really good!

Yours is a dark blue but is translucent, but it should say on the label. The appearance depends on lightling. There probably is a name like Neptune blue. Skydog's is a blue burst. Mine is called translucent blue. But look at the two pics with different lighting. Some finishes make no apologies for looking unnatural. Blue, black, white, green, red, gold and silver are examples.

Congrats, and as Rich said glad it turned out great for you!

well that's a great idea!

He's also a fine guitar player, and as such adds such useful touches to the designs; for example the footswitch for the Drive King has two 9v outlets for powering pedals.

nice picture, when I contacted 633Eng he demonstraed to be reliable and a very down-to-earth man that amplifier is one of the best in the UK in my opinion thanks for sharing your story, enjoy the great tone

Congrats on the new guitar. I'm glad that it wasn't any kind of scratch or crack. A slight nick or ding isn't a structural issue. The fact that it plays and sounds good is the real issue. There really isn't any other reason to have a guitar unless you want wall art! Enjoy!