Leaderboard

It sounds great but what about the headstock?

I was checking out this video from the Howard Stern show of Kate Hudson's band, and her guitarist used a Custom Core for a few songs. On the original song he does some nice fills, and the rhythm on Vasoline sounds good too.

It has one!

Those pesky Heritage headstocks!!!

To me it makes perfect sense for working musicians who don't have an endorsement deal with a major legacy brand to gravitate to Heritage. They need the best tool for their trade. And that's not to say they're looking for a 'knock-off' or 'discount brand'. Heritage of late has greatly improved its QC, build consistency and bang-for-buck value. Professional musicians need the best tool for their trade. It's great to see more and more of them using Heritage guitars.

To be candid about this, around a decade ago I really didn't like HRWs, at least in the bridge position in solid bodies. The high frequency output was too sharp to my ears. Eventually I sorted it out. The neck position was always fine. It's odd to me because I've never had an issue with Schallers. I'm pretty sure HRWs were cryo treated. I asked Ren once. He just smiled. In that particular context it would have been easy for him to say something like there's more to the story. He didn't. This conversation occured when I brought in a Johnny Smith with a Floating #3 pickup and asked about getting a tone control added. He did the work while I was there, which took maybe 15-20 minutes. He charged very little, no more than $50.

But I thought Schaller glued the magnets in, so they aren't so easy to replace.

When I got my H150 I thought it had Seths in it. It didnt, it had 59s. I cant remember why I thought they were seth's. I loved the sounds I got out of the guitar, cleans, low gain, high gain, neck or bridge. I talked about Seths as though they were the best things. After a few years I found out they were 59s....lol. So I swapped them for seths. Didnt like the guitar so much after that, played it less. Eventually I put the 59s back in and joy was restored. Then I temporarily swapped the guitar with a friend for a gibson R59. When we traded our guitars back to each other the SD 59s were in the case and it had SD antiquities and new potentiometers. He thought he was giving me a gift, a nice surprise. He is a lovely guy, a good friend, he meant well... it had lost some of the immediate rocknroll crack and snap, there was a lazy fizz and ear fatiguing boxy mid honk. It lost some the sweetness and clarity when played through a clean amp. It had lost chug and that deep percussive "thunk" That was 10yrs ago, the SD antiquities are still in it. I never got around to putting it back to original. Sounds great, its a really good sounding guitar. Some where during that 10yrs the pick ups just conformed to my expectations and developed all the traits I liked of the SD59s.