Leaderboard

While at PSP, I was checking out a few guitars, but since I had to get over to the VFW, and had little room in the car there was no time to sit down with Mike and discuss things. So yesterday, I gave him a call and now there will be a new addition to the family.....

And here's the guitar. I like it with the guard off.

just off the Fedex truck!

These are not quite identical twins and are old-school H-555s. One of them was made for Vince Lewis. That one I once owned and can tell you it plays perfectly. I'm told the other one is about the same. I'm trading one of my Heritage ghost built Gretsch Synchromatics plus some dough for these two with a long-standing friend and trading partner. Heritage wasn't run as tightly back in the days these were made, but the Vince one is perfect. I believe the other one is as well based on my friend's experience. The Vince build has Schallers, which I wouldn't change. The other one is stated to have HRWs, but I'm not sure. I recently got a newer build H-535 that has PRS pickups. It is extremely nice. I like the general formal of the semi-hollow.

Back in the club. I had to sell my H-150 Vintage Wine Burst about 6 months ago and immediately regretted it. I recently found another Vintage Wine Burst, this time a 2009 H150 and I am happy again. It needed some TLC as a number of things were not working, switch, pots and the pickups had been swapped out. I completely stripped the guitar and used Virtuoso cleaner and polish to buff out a fair amount of scratches. I had a pair of Seymour Duncan double creams and thought it would be a nice contrast to the darker burst and they seem to match the binding well. I added aged Faber hardware to allow the pickups and reflector knobs to pop. I also removed the pickguard to show off the top, because why should that top be hiding behind a boring piece of plastic. The guitar weighs an impressive 8.4 pounds and has a nice authentic and woody tone. Out of curiosity, does anyone know why the burst is so wide on these? My previous VWB from 2017 was more of a typical burst around the edges only. This one seems to graduate almost to the center of the guitar.

Hi All! I write for Buddy Guy's Legends "BG Blues and Music News" here in Chicago and my recent interview with Ren Wall went up today. Thought many of you would enjoy reading it. Thanks everyone! https://www.bgbluesnews.com/post/ren-wall-ren-aissance-man-of-music

Well I finally figured out how to post the picture - My new H535

Hello everyone I am fortunate enough to own 3 Heritage guitars - H530, H137 and an H575. The H137 was purchased 5 years ago and the other 2 guitars were purchased last year. All 3 are great high quality guitars. The H137 is a real blues rock monster of a guitar. I get stoked every time a play it. For the most part I play clean (some reverb/delay) with a sight bit of OD when necessary. I use the H530 primarily for western swing blues (still learning). The H575 is for jazz (ie George Benson etc.). I gig about 2-3 times a year and have been playing guitar for many years (modest talent). For those of you who have a H530, I am curious to hear what types of music you play with it. I don't take great pics, these are from the dealer - they are pics of my guitars.

Yesterday’s Happy Friday Post from George Metropoulos on Facebook: Happy Friday! The last Friday before Christmas. So, get out there and get your shopping done this weekend. Today I'm here to make a major announcement. After months of deep soul-searching, I've decided to step away from the amp business. There are many varied reasons for this and I'm sure it's the right decision. With this announcement made, here are some points: The whys. Health. This blood pressure is kicking my ass and surely indicates a serious health issue. I need to focus on being more healthy. One way to do that is to eliminate stress. Running a small business is nothing if not stressful. For nearly 25 years now I have given 100% day in day out. I've joked that I sold my soul to the amp industry and everyday it comes to collect. Keeping this business running requires me to overachieve at all times. It demands far, far more than I have the stamina to give these days. When I can't give 100% I can't provide the Metropoulos experience I want each of our customers to have. That wears on me. Metropoulos demands and deserves a tireless force of nature at the helm. The market / industry. Slow sales, part shortages, tariffs. These things affect us everyday. We need to sell about 10 amps per month to cover our payroll and overhead. Since Labor Day, we've taken 5 amp orders. That's unsustainable. I can't promise our crew there is work to do and paychecks coming on Fridays when we don't sell amps. It's not just our little amp company feeling this pinch, the entire industry is down right now. Every week another guitar or amp manufacturer is closing their doors. Demand. I've parsed my observations down to a few sentiments: first, we're building steam engines. The World doesn't really need any more of them. Second, everyone who wants a vintage Marshall, likely has 3 or more already. Anyone who wants a high end tube amp, likely has several of those, as well. Those players are likely plugging into a modeler or digital emulation more often than their beloved tube amps. It's the trend, the technology is exciting, the tone isn't as far off as it used to be and the convenience supersedes the tonal benefits of big, heavy, loud, expensive tube amps. I get it and I don't begrudge anyone! Finances. Not to disclose my finances, but suffice to say I'm not making any money in this business. I've lived like a starving artist, made many sacrifices, poured every dollar made back into the business and operated with zero financial safety net for two and a half decades. I have no savings, no retirement, no health insurance. I followed my passion and have no regrets for that. But, I have to make some money and have access to health treatment. It's time. Mission accomplished. This goes to the literal heart of the matter and sheds light on my character. I'm obsessive and relentless. I started with a self-imposed mandate to separate cranked plexi tone from sheer volume. I obsessed over vintage amps, documented everything I could measure trying to "crack the code" and learn why they sound the way they do. Eventually, the Audio Precision came into my life and I began archiving DNA samples of every old amp that crossed my bench. Armed with this genetic data, I started over from scratch and after several months emerged with the Metro-Plex MK II. At last, authentic plexi tone at any volume. I fulfilled the mandate. The engineering challenge was complete. I believe the Metro-Plex MK II is the best amp of it's kind. Not being boastful or arrogant. Just knowing that I didn't stop until it satisfied my obsessive expectations AND held it's own against the best of the best reference amps I strived to emulate. Here in my 50's I'm at the end of a journey that started as a teenager taking everything apart to see it works. Then taking electronics classes and opening a repair shop. Later, as a professional guitar player, building my own gear and torture testing it on the road. Finally, in the amp business, setting out to create what is now the MK II. Mission accomplished! After decades of pursuit, I'm done. I finished it. I need a new challenge. The How and When. We have less than ten 100 watt amps left to build to fill our orders. All 50 watts are built and the last few have burned in and will ship soon. Over the next 6 weeks we should have filled our amp obligations. Most of the parts bins are nearly empty now. We've been buying only the quantity of things we need to fill the orders. There are some chassis left, but no extra transformers or tubes. If there are parts for a few extra 100 watts, we may build those. But, I'm not going to order 25 expensive pc boards just to build a few amps. Effectively, when the parts are gone, that's it. I'm not interested in building a few amps per month in my basement as a hobby. I've built 100's (possibly 1,000) of amps over my career, I've scratched that itch. Speaker cabinets. Despite our best intentions, we just can not reliably deliver the 2-12 slant cabs that you have placed down-payments for. I've been holding out for this to not be true, hoping I might somehow to will it to be. But, I have to concede. The mandatory elements are just not in place. The money for parts and speakers, the shipping cartons, the payroll and the time needed do not exist. I believe we have 13 down payments for these cabs. I'll begin refunding those weekly until everyone has their funds back. I can not express how sorry I am and how defeating it is to fail on this. I hope that you will accept my apology and I beg your forgiveness. Regarding cabs, all is not lost! Despite my journey coming to an end, Chuck's is ramping up. Our in-house cab artisan will be open for cab business. I'm providing all of my CAD files, old cab data, hardware documentation, parts resources and the tools for Chuck to hit the ground running. I won't speak for Chuck, but I suspect his first product will be a 2-12 slant cab. I'm giving all of my love, support and full endorsement. FX loops. The inventor or the Zero Loss FX loop, Steve Miller will be taking it back and keeping it available. Our omnipotent guru is the obvious and only choice to carry on the legacy of his design. His circuit has found it's way into countless amps. It's OEM in many brands every guitar player knows. It's been copied, knocked off, stolen. Yet, remains ubiquitous. I'll post updates as he gets a website up and running. The Future. What's next for me? Everyone keeps telling me I'll be back. I'll miss designing and manufacturing amps. I don't think so. What else do I have to prove? I've designed and manufactured for my own Metropoulos brand, as well as companies you know well. What I do not aspire to do anytime soon is run a business. I'm exhausted. The administrative workload is relentless and never ending. Eternal crisis and problems to solve. A big commercial building to maintain. Machines that break down. The list of tasks that only I handle for Metropoulos is huge. Most days are triage in the shop. At times, when I have spent time away from the shop....those mission critical tasks are all waiting for me upon my return. What I look forward to moving forward, is to be creative again. Whether playing guitar, recording and mixing music, cooking, writing or just bugging Cris and doing silly stuff to make her laugh. That's where I feel I'm leading with my best traits. It's time to rejuvenate. To prioritize my health. Lower my blood pressure. Cleanse that anxiety induced Cortisol from my system. Gratitude. I want to sincerely thank everyone who has been a part of this journey. Your friendship, support, patronage and enthusiasm for Metropoulos has provided me the opportunity to chase this dream and indulge these passions. I'm eternally grateful. I still recall the names of my first two customers who bought turret board kits from me back in 2003. Chris L and Stan M. Thanks for giving me a chance to get started. I've developed true friendships with some really outstanding people that I'd never had met without the amp biz. You can't place a price on that. In my heart, I'm ready to move on to my next challenge. My next creative adventure. Something I can give my 100% to emphatically. Something that drives me to be the best version of me that I am capable of being. With that, I bid you this single parting wisdom: PLAY LOUD!

Nice work with an Eagle. Lots more like this on his channel.

But how does it sound, now, Steiner? Quickish ancedote: Headed to a party in my S-10 about thirty-five years ago. Rutting season, and I was being careful! Middle of nowhere, small herd pops out of the scrub pines to my right. I t-boned a large doe. Stove in the front end, radiator Swiss Cheesed. Truck, with the headlights still on, sits there steaming like the Union Pacific's Big Boy. This is pre-cell phone days. I have about ten miles to hike back to town. About that time a car, big Buick Estate Wagon, rolls up from the other direction. I wave, and the car stops about twenty-five yards past me, about where I hit the deer. Great! A ride home. Two Good Ol' Boys pile out of the Buick, pitch the deer into the back...and take off. I got home at about 3:00 a.m.

All this talk of H530s started me thinking that one would be quite nice, then I got a message from Cliff Brown of 633 amps. One of his customers had an H530 to sell and, knowing I was a fan of Heritage guitars, would I be interested? Er, yes... Cliff gave me his contact details, I got in touch and arranged to have a look at the guitar, which was located about 1.5 hours drive away. Suffice to say it's a 2018 model in Antique Natural, and playing it through a 633 Firefly (like the one I recently bought) was enough to convince me to buy it. It's light, 2.69kg or 5lb 15oz, and those Lollar P90s sound great! Some pics...

Thanks for the suggestion to buy from Green Oak, unfortunately they didn’t have the color I wanted but I was able to talk to Heritage and order this!

An image has been leaked to the press.

I've had this guitar for years, and the more I play it, the better it sounds. To be honest, that applies to all the guitars I own, they're all great as I tend to avoid impulse buying: I'm a professional guitarist, so quality is of paramount importance, but this Heritage is something else! The serial number tells me that it was made in 2000. I've had it since 2004, and the only changes I've made are a set of OX4 'Beano' pickups and a Shadow pickup ring tuner, as I like to stay in tune(!) but this guitar excels even in that department: once it's tuned, it stays that way forever, no matter how wild the bends!!! Anyway, after I'd used it regularly for years, it ended up in storage for the last three years, as I ended up playing other guitars, all of which really served the purpose I have to admit, however a few days ago I took it back home, and I'm delighted to say it's by far the best Les Paul, not only in my collection but also the best I've ever had the pleasure of playing, and that includes some very expensive vintage "Holy Grails"! Playability, resonance, range of tones, and ultimately looks, it ticks all boxes. This is one guitar I'll never part with, that's for sure.

Paul @ Green Oak has been serving HOC members for over 20 yrs as a very straight guy. I also have some incredible pieces of unsold, full warranty one of a kind Heritages. https://www.gbase.com/stores/american-classic-guitars I REALLY stepped back from selling during my divorce and I should get on getting about 50 guitars out in the real world!

Or Green Oak Guitar. Green Oak Guitar | Gbase.com > Guitars Amps & More

Having just been through the factory 2 weeks ago, things are a bit more modern, but it's still a relatively small operation compared to a Fender, Gibson, Cort or World Music. There aren't any conveyor belts carrying a hundred guitars around the building. What you see is people at benches with a guitar, maybe 2 people in the spray booth with a rack of 15 or 20 guitars hand spraying the guitars as they did for decades before. On one side, there's a guy hand wrapping binding with a half dozen guitars hanging next to him as the binding. My oldest Heritage is an 87 H140, and my newest is a 2025 H-530 that I got yesterday. I play all my old ones, I'm sure I'll play this one just the same. I love 'em.

The lighting in my office was just right this morning.

I started building amps a couple of years ago and really enjoyed doing it. I started taking them to all my gigs and then sold all my other amps (aside from a ‘62 Concert). Then one day after a gig I was approached by a guitarist that wanted me to build him an amp. Hmmmm, so I do it or not? Well I did it. First I got business insurance and an LLC then I got to it. A few weeks later I sold him an amp and Southbound Amplification was born! The Cypress model is what he bought. It is based on a 6g3 only channel one is cleaner and two is dirtier. There is also a master volume, a cut control, a negative feed back switch and a boost for channel two. The picture is the amp he bought. I have a Cypress amp that looks like this too, which I gig with but I don’t have a cut control on my amp. I really don’t think it needs the cut control imo. I’m still experimenting with features and design for what I think is the perfect 6g3 type of amp. This amp has the ability to run either KT66 or 6v6 tubes for 30 or 20 watts. With KT66 tubes and a Alessandro neo GA-SC-X speaker the amp weighs in at 25 pounds which is still portable. I added test ports to rebias the tubes without having to pull the chassis. The switch in power tubes does require a rebias since it is a fixed bias amp and the transformer I’m using supplies a switchable voltage variation. The KT66 tubes sound really good in this design. I’m super excited about building amps and have other models I’m working on with more and less wattages. Who knows if I can make it a successful business, which for me would be just a small supplement to a retirement I hope to take in a couple of years.

I was looking for a dedicated performance photo thread and didn't see one (apologies if I missed it!), but wanted to share a few photos since I've been playing the '94 H150 as my primary live guitar lately. Band has had a wave of local gigs lately and hoping to have debut album out August/Sept: https://makingfriendsasadults.bandcamp.com/track/bad-time