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That is a beauty!

Hello everyone from Rome! This picture says more than one which shows the details of the wood

Actually, it was about a week ago at PSP. The display room was filled with temptations and i succumbed. I've been thinking about a 530 for about a year but I hear first with my eyes, which so far has about a 90% success rate. I just didn't see one that I was willing to pull the trigger on. I was afraid if I tried one in a color I wasn't thrilled with, I would love the way it plays and wind up with a player not a stunner. I think I have bases covered on this one! I heard this one from across the room, and it was everything I was wanting. The neck is perfect for me as was the factory setup. Mike at Heritage told me this is one of two, River Blue, they did last year. The other one went to France. Anyway, I brought it home and am loving it. One other superficial feature I love on this one is the headstock inlay is white/ pearl and not amber. I can't wait to get home from this current work trip and do some more bonding.

Late to the thread here, but I drove over to Dave's the other day and brought this one home. I ended up playing six CC H-535s and two Gibson CS Historic ES-335s, and this one was clearly the winner in terms of tone and playability. I honestly believe that the new 2025 bridge systems on both the H-535 and H-150 guitars are a huge improvement over the previous Pinnacle bridges:

This guitar is a monster player. Playing it with three different amps, with and without a drive pedal. Sounds huge and beautiful no matter what it is paired with. I had to stop because my ears were ringing.

A while ago, I started a band devoted to paying homage to the British Blues phenomenon, a movement that, quite simply, gave the world Rock(!) as we know it. It started with Eric Clapton essentially inventing "the Rock" sound in APril 1966 by plugging a Les Paul into a cranked Marshall and proceeding to let loose playing long, articulate, screaming and and soulful lead guitar, something that had never been done before, not to that extent and which spawned a myriad of bands that we all know and love in the process. For the record, this band's not a "tribute" as it's generally intended, I have absolutely zero desire to mimic someone else and/or reproduce someone else's solos note-for-note, no matter how famous, great, cool and historically important the player is; in truth ("Truth", great album!!!) I have been offered the position in 3 or 4 of such outfit and even though the players in question were among my main influences, I love 'em dearly, I graciously declined, it just goes against what I believe, which is to pay respetful homage to such cats by capturing the spirit, not the notes. By doing that you take your chances, of course, but that's excatly what those guys did in the first place, right?. Anyway, the band has played a handful of gigs in the Lndon area and next month we'll have the official launch in a specialised, highly respected top London club and this, my Heritage H150 will be the guitar I'll be using. A wonderful Custom Shop Les Paul Custom, which I love, will be there too but only as a spare in case I break a string or something, which very rarely happens! Yesterday we had a reharsal, just to finalise the set while next week a dress rehearsal is in the cards, but let me tell you that this guitar plugged straight into a valve 1/2 stack with just a Tube Screamer in between (an Ibanez TS808 DX, to be precise) didn't even sound close to perfection...it was actually perfect!!! The sound, the feel, oh my God, I hadn't played this guitar for few months and I was actually contemplating getting a XXX McCarty 594, an amazing guitar for sure, but once you have an Heritage H150 set up to perfection, and on this one I also replaced the original pups with a set of OX4 "Beano" pups (yeah, Beano, I know....!) frankly if you want a righteous Les Paul tone you don't need anything else. And my wife agrees.... For the record, according to the serial number this guitar was made on Nov. 13th 2000. I was also born in November, good month indeed...

At 24:50 of the video you will see Rob. He gets maybe two seconds tops of this video- no more. I point this out as an example of the incredible talent Heritage has. Of course Pete Farmer is a seasoned excellent luthier. Rob has been a luthier building solid bodies, flattops and archtops for decades. He also is a master in designing and building pickups. An entire video of an interview with just him could take up an hour easily without being boring. He's rewired creatively severaly guitars for me without breaking a sweat. The talent Heritage has is impressive. I have been in the plant since the Gibson days. IMO, the factory has never run better from a quality perspective. That is not to say Gibson and early Heritage didn't make masterpieces. They did, of course. Nowadays the consistency seems to be very high. Dogs and borderline instruments don't appear to make it through. We should be proud of and grateful to these guys. I'm impressed.

I know, this is a silly, maybe even sophomoric topic. But, that said, this is the Heritage Owners Club, right?! 🙂 And haven't we all thought about all of the many Heritage gitfiddles we've owned, played or lusted after? You know, that uber-flame-top H-(whatever) model that you never should have let go. Or maybe that sweet axe that you've worn down the frets on, and rubbed the finish off, due to its irresistible tone and feel? It doesn't matter if your favorite is an Ascent, Standard, Custom Shop, Core, Artisan-aged, Custom one-off, or an old school from the early days of Heritage. Bring it! And share a photo if you have one. No model is off limits as long as it is a Heritage Guitar. I'll kick things off with my all time favorite model...it's the no longer in production H525. I've been blessed to own two of these great instruments, but my all time favorite is the one-off custom that Marv built to my specs back when they built almost anything customers or dealers asked for. Here's a photo of Marv just after spraying it, taken by our dear friend, Ron (High Flying Bird) Warren. OK, YOUR TURN!! LET'S SEE YOUR FAVORITE HERITAGE!!

Would have to be my 2019 DLB with ReWind Electric '58 PAFs and a pair of NOS black beauties. Gives that Tele on steroids vibe!

Multiple favorites for different reasons, but here’s one (if i have to pick just one):

Yeah, it's the horn that's going to make or break a guitar. You simply can't play a guitar if the horn doesn't have the exact dimensions of that someone drew up 70 years ago and endorsed by a Youtube personality. Sorry, I don't get your point other than trying to start a pissing match. Oh yeah, that horn of which you speak has changed numerous times over the years at that "other company". Personally, I think it's the silly poker chip that is holding back the Les Paul player from being successful. Seriously, if the stupid guitar player has to stop, look down at the front of his guitar and decide if he's playing rhythm or "treble", he needs to find another occupation. Speaking of which, how exactly do you play "treble"? Does that mean you can only use the notes on the treble clef?

Today was designated as a work-around-the-house day, so I went to my T-shirt drawer and pulled one out at random. Haven't seen this one in a while. From the very first PSP! That led to an unbroken string of PSPs Marg and I attended, until Covid interrupted things. I recall that first PSP very well. Only something like 16 or 17 of us HOC members there. Plant tour by Ren. As Pressure would say, good times. But good grief, that was 18 years ago! Were you there?

the Millie i bought from Brent showed up last night. Haven’t had a lot of time with it yet, but man oh man this is a great guitar! Brent comes through again! Minty fresh, like it has been played very little. Tuners still feel new. Sounds more like a semi-hollow because of the chambered body, which is exactly what i was looking for. No feedback issues but still a big and round enough sound for jazz, soulful blues, R/B, and fusion. My band has been getting loud and my archtops often feedback. I guess I’ll be one of those players that switches guitars depending on the song. Yes, overkill for the kinds of gigs we get, but it will give me more flexibility to get funky or louder jamming and use some drive/breakup when the moment calls for it. Just plain FUN. I’ve been playing straight ahead for so long I’m ready to get down and dirty before i get too old. I’ll post some pictures over the weekend, but they probably wont be as good as Brent’s. It really is as gorgeous in person as it is in the photos in his for sale post. Thank you @brentrocks for the great transaction and fast shipping, well packed as always. I also got it a friend: a UA Enigmatic ‘82 pedal. They make a great pair.

This is a Heritage that I’m VERY excited about. (I don’t get too excited about much anymore. Lol) It’s a 2006 H157? I think? I say that because it does have binding on the back of the body….but…doesn’t have multi ply binding on the top. It does have an Ebony board (with abalone blocks) and it does have a bound and inlayed headstock. I haven’t seen the control cavity sticker yet. Lol This guitar was sold by the original owners brother…his brother was a gigging musician in Georgia. Unfortunately he had passed away recently. He told me that his wife custom ordered this guitar for her husband in 2006. I really don’t know much about it. Don’t know how the frets are, don’t know the neck size, don’t know what pickups are in it, don’t know how much it weighs….. Look at that top though….nice bubble quilt, definitely a custom order!!! The fella I got it from seemed very honest and trustworthy, so I decided to take a chance on it. These were the only 5 pics I had to go by… Its on the UPS truck for delivery today!! STAY TUNED!!!!

2006 Heritage H157 Custom order one off. *AAAAA Quilt top *Single ply binding on both sides of the body (it’s usually 5 ply) *Abalone blocks (usually pearl) *Ebony fretboard *One piece mahogany body *One piece mahogany neck *Bound and Inlayed peghead *Gold locking Sperzel tuners *Gold hardware *8lbs 14ozs *Really nice 59-ish neck carve Just got this today from a gentleman in Georgia. He was selling it because it belonged to his late brother, who was a gigging musician. He said his wife custom ordered it in 2006 The original pickups, SD Seth lovers, were poorly wired into a rats nest harness…the tone pots didn’t even work. So I rewired it, new pots, Russian PIO caps and different pups. I wanted something with more bit…so I went with a SD JB/Lollar Imperial combo…and it sounds great!!!!! The original nut is pretty worn. The D and the G buzz just a bit. I’ll probably take it in for a new bone nut soon. The frets are original. With minor wear. You can tell it was played. There’s a bit of buckle rash on the back. A few dings n dents. Nothing more than a Murphy lab relic. Lol. 😆 The neck on this guitar is perfect, IMO. To me it feels like a custom core neck that went on a little diet. Lol. 😂 It’s not a boat anchor ⚓️. Basically 9 lbs. for a 157….thats not terrible. It plays and sounds so dammm good. Wow!! 🤯

I’m so happy that after 25 years…. Im still providing beautiful guitars to people across the country and making new friends and seeing responses like this!!! It really makes me happy. 😃 @tsp17 I hope this guitar brings you much happiness!!!

Finally was able to get signed up, keep running into problems but now all is good. Really love my 2 Heritages (pics below) also had a CC H150, H-530 and a H-150 but like a dope I traded them in.

I don't know that this is my favorite, but it is up there. I posted this years ago. It's a 1999. If you flip the last three digits upside down, it's the mark of the beast. Pete Moreno did the circuitry. There are push-pulls for coil splitting and for blending the middle pickup.

Try to rotate them all but, this one the most. H-575 Custom with Seth's

It's hard to choose favorites. Here are two. The first is a Johnny Smith 18". The second is a H-530 custom made with humbuckers.

What do they say? Love the one your with! Lately I've been playing this beauty, the one Kuz sold me! Marv put his special sauce into this paint job! And I had Dan at Mojo Axe make me cool looking vintage style pickguard so I can plant my pinky while I fingerpick on it! A few weeks ago. I pulled this one of the case and it was buzzing on the 3rd fret G note of the low E string. Well I noticed the strings hadn't been changed since I bought it from Kuz. How do I know that? They were D'Addarios, and I never use them. So I polished the frets, put my favorite Pyramid nickel roundcore strings on it, gave the truss rod a turn, and voila, it snapped right into shape! As I was testing the new setup I was making up licks with that G note and came up with a new song for the band, here's the demo...

Lot's of beautiful guitars in this thread! I have 4 Heritage guitars and it is really tough to choose which one I like the best - My 2018 H137 is a real blues rock monster!

This is my 1999 H150 with ebony fretboard...

These are my favorites, A Heritage Johnny Smith and its Mini-Me The Heritage Millennium SuperLight.

My 1996 H535 has been stellar since I bought it many years ago. It can do anything. Always easy to play, always sounds great. The only Heritage still in my personal cache today. However, my H150 20th Anniversary is the beauty of the family. And it happens to be the best playing, best sounding solid body I've ever owned. Excellent in all respects except one. I couldn't get used to the weight, and this one now resides with son Chris. I've had other Heritages over the years. Sold two of them (H155 Millie and H137) and bought them back shortly thereafter. Had Kuz's H525 for a while but couldn't get comfortable with its physical size and let it go to TalismanRich, who apparently is very happy with it. But the H535 and H150 are the standouts.

I know we are supposed to be nice around here, but I feel this is truley the rant of a troll. This diatribe should have ended after sentence number five, right before where the second paragraph should have started. So in defense of Heritage, who I think has really stepped up their game, and is putting out some great guitars, I have something to say (In my best Utah Morman vernacular off course)... Fudge off Shizz head, get you own guitar company. With your new company, you can learn how to fix croooked archtop bridge posts and tuners. Then you can get back to playing your Heritages you love. Okay moderators. I probably deserve punishment for this post, but it was worth it. Gratuitous Heritage picture...

Me & the 3 amigos.

It seems like forever since I have made an entry in my blog about the story of my playing in a band, maybe all the lockdown had a lot to do with that. After Lockdown, we started trying to gig again but the market for bands had really slowed down and many of the social clubs we were playing were no longer booking bands. Bars and pubs were booking less also, as they were building their trade up after Lockdown. We were playing several gigs, but something was just not sitting right with me. We had lost our drummer to a serious stroke, although we had already decided to replace him as we were fed up of his forcing his political viewpoint on us all, in that there was no discussion and if he didn't like your opinion, he took offense. We got a fabulous new drummer after some long auditions, but that didn't work out personality wise. Eventually we settled on a guy in his late sixties who had a wife a fair bit younger than him, which has some relevance. The point being that wives were always welcome at gigs but any wife interfering in band business was considered very bad form and well out of order. It had caused extreme trouble previously. But back to the main plot. I had for some while feeling that I wasn't really doing what I wanted to be doing by being in the band, I had a vision for it that was successful when that vision was followed, but others were not sharing the vision that I had set the band up with along with my bass playing friend when we decided to give it a go. Because that vision was not being followed, it was getting harder. I'd taken on the role of lead vocals and I know the songs I can sing and can't sing - for example, I can really do well on singing Rolling Stones songs. And, because the vision was harder for me to fulfill, I was losing interest. On top of that, it was down to me to find gigs, no one else made any effort. Put all this together with the effort to rehearse, play gigs, lose weekends with my family because of gigs and all the effort involved, slowly buy surely, and with accelerating speed, I was losing all desire to be in the band, and just over a week ago, the day before a gig, I decided I'd come to the end of the road. I played the gig, wasn't happy in doing so, and then the new drummers wife told the rest of the band and their wives that she'd been told I was seen playing at venue during the week with another band - a total untruth. Shaun, our bass player, is not just a friend, he's my brother from a different mother and we have a deep brotherly love, we know each others extended family and we used to hang around as kids, stopping over at each others homes. The relationship is close. Anyway, Shaun's wife, Debbie, is a lovely woman who understands how things are, and she tactfully told me what had been said, which didn't make me angry, but just made me even more sure that I'd come to the wright decision. I didn't tell anyone that night because I didn't want to cause any upset, or have people try and tell me I was just being silly. And of course, I wanted one more night to sleep on it. When I woke up on Sunday morning, I knew the decision was right for me, and prior to going out to church, I sent an e mail to the guys in the band explaining how I felt and why I had come to my decision. The decision was made because my priorities have shifted. I'm now 62, have six grandchildren who live quite a distance from me and I want my weekends free to spend time with them. I want to spend Saturday nights with my wife Helen, we have busy days and after doing all the Saturday jobs round the house, I want to sit down with her and enjoy our time together. Going out for a day is also something we want to do and not worry about what time we need to be back for. The bottom line of why I've decided to put the band down can be condensed into one word, and that word is "family" Shaun, my partner in the band, has taken it really well, hes been very supportive and I hope they carry on with a new singer and guitar player, they are good musicians and the band has a good name. But for me, it's time to call it a day with bands. The highs have been great and the lows terrible, but that is life in a band for you. For now, I'm gig to sit back and enjoy others playing, and sitting at home enjoying my guitars and maybe, just maybe, I might get that PRS custom I've always wanted. Thanks for reading - Mark.