Leaderboard

Dave Teski (lead paint artist for Heritage) is doing a refinish on just the top of my H525!!! He sent me this pics yesterday. He’s going to be buffing it out Saturday!!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=9I8x1qvgtG4&si=dZJp39wWA_JoK1qC Happy Holidays to all!

I love Marshall style amps, and frankly, these amps were at the top of the pile when comes to modern interpretations of the really great Marshalls. He really cracked the code of how to get a great overdriven Marshall sound at a reasonable volume, and that's no easy task. What a loss to the guitar community losing another great company. But he had to do what is good for him, and taking care of his health is the right priority. It broke my heart ready his letter. But I wish him the best. If I didn;t already have a great Marshall style amp, his would be the first I would look at, and I think, as others have said, his amps on the used market will really go up in price.

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.

Good Luck George! Your new priorities are absolutely required. Your health is the most important thing. As a small business owner for all of my adult life I can relate. It's not easy for sure. Get Cris to laugh a lot.

I don't think that's actually true. I went and looked in my old physics book and then confirmed a few other sources as well. The reference calculation is called Taylor's Formula: F = m * f^2 * L^2 The length (L) only refers to the vibrating length of the string, between the inside edge of the saddle and the inside edge of the nut. What we guitar players call "scale length". These links discuss orchestral instruments, but the math is applicable to guitars as well. https://www.thomastik-infeld.com/en/stringtelligence/string-technology/do-changes-in-frequency-or-vibrating-string-length-affect-the-string-tension This one is also by TI but covers more of it in a single article: https://www.thestrad.com/accessories/stringtelligence-by-thomastik-infeld-vibrating-string-length-and-string-tension/9132.article I know this comes up a lot in electric guitars, and acoustic flat tops as well, with regard to the break-angle over the bridge. For instance, the practice of top-wrapping the strings over a Tune-O-Matic tailpiece versus using the holes. It is often said it reduces string tension and make them more "bendy" but tuning the same mass to the same pitch on the same scale, would necessarily mean the same string tension. The break angle does though, alter the down-force of the bridge against the soundboard or body of the instrument. Here's a calculator that will compute the force exerted on soundboard once the string tension is known: https://www.liutaiomottola.com/formulae/downforce.htm

There is not much money swimming around out there! many of us are being tested. I feel George's pain.

Yep he looks like he plays effortlessly through the changes. I've watched a bunch of his videos, especially when I was hunting for a decent archtop, I wound up buying an earlier version of this guitar (with original HB1 pickups)... Here's my actual guitar, which changed hands a few times before it got to me...

That guy is a really good guitarist!

The Mean in a neck sounds KILLER DILLER! As a matter of fact, it was the first neck position P90 (in a modern guitar) that I really ever got along with. And I love the Meaner too. All the electric stuff in this song is my SG Special with a Wolfetone Mean and Meaner set...

Anyone out the ever reverse the finger bridge pieces so that rhe low e string is short and the high is in longer,everything in the opposite direction, I know it will increase the tension on the high end and lower the tension towd th low e. But waht dynamic results has anyone found.

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..

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

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

Always wanted one of these. I have a 550, 575 and SKB- so this one slots nicely in a missing spot as a 17 inch solid wood spruce top masterwork that I can gig with since I don't play my SKB at clubs/restaurants/bars. Nice bonus- comes with fitted Doug's Plugs to make it all the more gig-worthy without feedback issues. Should arrive late next week. Pickups are Schaller Golden 50's, which I've never played but the guys at Jay Wolfe's shop tell me they are on the bright and articulate side, kind of like HRWs. Will probably swap them out, but we'll see. I've been surprised before by pickups that I thought I wouldn't like, but turned out to be great in a specific guitar. More to come.... Anyone here have experience with Golden 50's? If so, please let me know your thoughts. Picture from the guys at Wolfe:

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.

Looks great!!

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

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!

Wow, that's awesome!

As Nuke said, this isn't true. The mass and length of the extra portion of the string does not come into play. The tension is dependent on the scale length, not the total string length. You can get the calculations on Stringjoy's page. https://tension.stringjoy.com/

Yesterday’s Happy Friday Post from George Metropoulos on Facebook: (First Line from Post)

I think only the length of the scale determines tension for any particular gauge/weight of string. So the distance between the nut and saddle a determinant, but the distance from saddle to stop bar is not part of the equation. There are a certain amount of harmonics present on the string outside of the scale length, and this can have an effect on sound. The string between tuner and nut, and between the saddle and tail piece are audible if plucked, and a certain amount of sympathetic vibration happens when the intentional note excites the string beyond the nut and saddles. I've occasionally stuffed the head stock of basses and a guitar or two to stop the weird ringing overtones that come that. It seems more apparent to me on bass, FWIW. I'd tend to think that the finger tailpiece was probably designed for appearance primarily. It sure looks nicer than a trapeze tail.

Jazz guy. His lessons are excellent.

Well check out his videos. He's a pretty damn good Jazz guitarist, the guy knows his way around a guitar neck!

Good to know!

Never heard of him

I think he was referring to the tailpiece fingers where the strings anchor.

He has that economy of motion thing down to an art form.

That was quite enjoyable to watch, thank you some outstanding guitars there too

It's all subjective and what your ears personally want to hear but I've had better luck with other P90s. Lollars wouldn't even be in my top 5, but to be fair I think we all play through different amplifiers and that makes a hugh difference. In the video they sound great, much different than what they sounded like in my Special that was just like the one in the video. I have never played Sanford Magnetics P90s, but these sound pretty great at the end of this video... Of the ones that I've owned and liked/loved, I've had GREAT luck with Wolfetone P90s, they are probably my favorite. Throbak makes killer P90s. Another shout out to SHED pickups, his P90s slay! Tyson Tone winds some great P90s! And for raunch, stock Gibson P90s are right up there!

If you have please let me know This was the very first heritage guitar I ever bought, back around 1997?? Id like to get it back

I like it better with the guard on too, but I personally prefer the shape on the Heritage H150 guards. They just go with the flow of the body shape. And I think whatever guard is on it would need to be aged to match the body. It's not a '59, it's a Heritage.

Quest is ovah, found the sound! Wolfetone Legends in 535 I bought used from Dave's. Neck pickup with tone rolled all the way down. A-B'd with the 535 (Duncan 59s) I purchased at PSP. Noticeable difference . . .