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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

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 DEFINITELY NOT in the market for a new guitar!!! I had just sold an extraordinary H157 to a good friend of mine a couple months ago, so I knew how awesome these new Custom Core H157s are. Then I go poking around on the Sweetwater’s website, looking at what new Heritage Guitars they’ve got in….and I see it A beautiful SILVERBURST H157!! And is was a demo! Normally a $4400 guitar, marked down to $3200!!! Only 8.5 lbs!!! ”I really can’t afford this”. “I really don’t need it” Throw common sense into the wind….i had to get it. More pics and a full review to follow!!

I finally was able to spend some time with the Heritage tonight. I took off the factory 10s, put on a fresh set of 9s and did a full setup along with fretboard conditioning. This H157 displays all the signs of Heritage’s top tier quality and construction. Fit and finish are great!! Fret work (PLEKED from the factory) is great too!! Electronics are also great quality. Low friction pots. Switchcraft toggle and jack. Heritage pickups. I don’t know the specs on these new Heritage pickups. They call them 225 Classic Hot Pickups. To me, they sound like an Alnico 4 or 5. They sound really good!! The neck is a beefy 50s carve. Feels great. Not a baseball bat. Only 8lbs 6ozs! So light for a 157! Tone and playability are both superb. Warm, rich tone. It’s an amazing guitar!!

Mahogany

I read a ton of stuff about the newer ones having better quality control and from what I've seen I guess that is true. But like others have said on here, I just feel a real heart and soul connection to the guitars that were built pre-2015. There's just something about that group of guys that came out of Gibson building those, and it's just a whole different thing. I'm not saying the new ones are bad. They're incredible actually. I have played several and every one of them is top notch and stellar! But the old ones definitely have more of a "hands-on" feel, versus a "automated, quality controlled" feel in 2025. Again, I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but everything pre-2015 just feels like it was more of a "hands-on" kind of a thing, even if there are some bumps and bruises along the way on some of them. I guess I'm calling that character! LOL. Kind of a different topic, but I am still upset that the "Ascent" line came out and has the full-on Heritage logo on it, just like all of them have for years. I totally get creating a line made overseas to compete with that market, but I wish "Ascent" would have been at the top of the headstock in big letters and maybe just put "By Heritage" on the truss rod cover or something. But it is what it is at this point.....

True that. From the newer H guitars I’ve seen/played in the wild (full disclosure- i have not purchased one manufactured under new management), QC and consistency has improved with modern methods and technology. They are very good guitars. However…. Maybe I’ve just gotten lucky, but of the 10 or so Heritage models I’ve owned over time (i currently have three) and the dozens i have found in store or private hands and tried out of curiosity or thinking to buy, I have never played or owned a bad older one. Yes, even on the extra special ones and the keepers Ive spotted some inconsistencies or minor imperfections due to the nature of the process, or there might be a loose wire, faulty switch, or other fixable issue, but I’ll tolerate that (to a point) for the craftsmanship and overall human quality of the instrument. Maybe it is the appeal of the Heritage lore and history, maybe it is the community I’ve found with you all, but like most of us here at HOC there is something about the story and minor imperfections that come with the human artisan/craft touch that i love. I know it sounds romanticized, but It adds something, a warmth, a life quality, or some other better word descriptor that one might imagine. Besides, the more modern, slimmer necks are not for me. Maybe I’m just an old guy who prefers older styles. I have a Korean made Comins chambered/semi-hollow that is a superb instrument, flawless in many ways in terms of the fit and finish (Bill Comins does the final set up and QC check himself- a very good guy based on my interactions with him), consistency of the neck carve, binding, etc. but that one too has had problems with selector switch, tuners, and pickup wiring. Bottom line is that the H’s get the by far most play in my house and gigs. Plus i love telling the H story when people ask about the guitar - it happens at every gig. All of my Heritages are from decades gone by. None are made in the last 20 or so years. Just one person’s story…

Oh yeah, a bad customer service situation can lead to sore apples, but if I had to be limited to one brand of pickups I would say Throbak are the most consistently in line with what I want to hear. The guy just seems to have that low output PAF thing down. I have heard other brands of pickups that get there, but not as consistently as Throbak, especially the SLE101. With Lollar Imperials I thnk the low winds are the closest to what I like. And I'm also a fan of Wolfetone Legends. Speaking of bad customer service, Tyson Tone Lab pickups, especially his Precious and Grace pickups, are also fantastic, BUT, that guy consistently takes forever to get you your pickups, many people have complaints about him and have cancelled orders.

for the 150/LP devotees

Stock market has been good to me lately, solved the "dilemma" and purchased both! Time for a cold 🍺

^^ Thanks everyone! ^^

hey amazing! great article the truss rod history with his father Rem chamfering the nut was fascinating, I never knew about that! And it's funny: I never knew the development history of Bigby's, but after I got my first one I wondered why they didn't just drill holes in the roller bar. Now I know the answer: they did originally, but strings were breaking and Ren came up with the fix they still use. Thanks for writing/posting that. Here's to The Honorable Ren-aissance man!

It's always a good day when you you have an email from fretfiler42 in your in basket! Great conversation! Thanks for sharing.

That is just a superb guitar Brent! You need to take the oath to never sell that one, 8lbs 6oz is insanely light for an LP custom style guitar, and as we age that becomes more and more important. Enjoy your new beauty!

Y'know, the amp has a little bit to do with the tone of a guitar, too!

Thanks for the kind words! Hopefully you can make it! Doc will have some new stuff there so it should be a fun day!

Why not post the photos in color? 😀Post a report when you receive it please.

Back away from the keyboard.

I'm not sure if this is unusual or business as usual. When Marv wanted to show me how the figuring would look when my guitar was finished, he spit on the flame maple top and rubbed his spit in. Flamed maple top looked Fab, ha.

My record is zero defects out of the five I've owned. Nothing whatsoever. All products of the previous management.

Do be contrarian, I think throbak are consistently one of the best sounding pickups made. They are very similar to OG PAFs in the sense that are microphonic, and if you're going to use a high gain amp, they are going to be touchy. I've had to remove a cover and put a bid a silicone on one coild to tame a bridge pickup. But back in the 70's many people pulled real PAFs out of their guitars for the same reason. But I have never had a Lollar that sounds as good as a Throbak. And I have played way more examples than most people of Imperials and SLE101s. My number one Teye guitar has Imperials in it along with two other Teyes I've owned.

Your parents were happy keeping you kids off the streets steeling hubcaps and worse Rich.

I would love to do that, get one right from the source, and have it setup perfectly to my liking while I was there!!! I play alot of acoustic guitar and resonator with my band, and because of that we have to keep our volumes approriate. I posted this in another thread, but in this song I doubled my Martin HD28 with my National M2 reso. Listen to the drums, you can tell that we aren't that loud. We record in my very small studio so anything really loud would overtake the room.

I believe they were the 101s, whatever they claim to be PAFs. I primarily play through Metropoulos remakes of Marshall 1959 and/or JTM45-100. The Imperials are a far better pickup IMHO. I was getting noise through the throwup 101s and was told by the owner that I had to pay to assess the defective product that is “guaranteed for life.” I’ll never use their crap again. It seems to me that I pulled 101s from a H-150LW and improved it with HRWs

Well, it just arrived . . . I'll unbox it soon and give a report . . . the Gibbie showed up a couple of hours ago and it's a keeper! btw, I have a Wildwood Spec Lester and it's da shizzle!

That's a beauty.

Here is what I know about the famous HRWs. I have discussed them and other inventions attributed to Ren with Ren. Some things he's very open about. The HRWs he's not. He had a hand in the tailpiece with fine tuners on it. I'm not sure if he just liked it or he influenced it. He did explain that using it is a more precise way to tune. Another project of his is the balanced string sets. He took several commercials sets and noticed the pull for the string to be in tune required varying poundage for each spring. He showed me how he tested this by hanging weights on each string until it achieved pitch. He worried that the unbalanced strings would cause neck twists. The string maker in Battle Creek, GHS, created "balanced sets" for Heritage and may have begun this for Gibson since Ren was innovative at Gibson also. Yet another project is the 4 mount pickup bezel. This lifted the mount off the wood by small washers under the corner screws. That purportedly freed the top to vibrate more freely. The HRW remains shrouded in secrecy. It does sound different than the parent Schaller pickup. The best explanation is that a Schaller coil and magnet is emptied from the casing and placed in liquid nitrogen. It then is put back in its case and soldered. If true, the HRW is not the first cryo treated pickup. The toggle switch is drilled with the same bit used for neck side holes, and the same dot is put in place. The dot is sanded down and buffed. That I have watched being made. AFAIK, there is not patenting to cryo treatment. https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/is_it_cool_or_not_cryogenically_frozen_gear_explained-108422 https://www.guitar-list.com/guitar-science/cryogenic-pickups

I agree, they don't sound "hi-fi" in that recording. There's some nice tone going on there! I just recall my pickup rabbit hole experience from 10 to 15 years ago when I picked up a set of Imperials, and compared to the others they just didn't sound right to me. Of course, it could've been the guitar I installed them in, too. No pickup is likely to work well in every guitar, either!

This looks fantastic. Interested to hear the tone report. @brentrocks mahogany or maple top?

Well you've always loved Silverbursts, so there you go. Way to go on the score Brent!

Hi Jaguarguy, thank you for the generous offer! I intend to do my very best to join you and the Z mavens. For the HOC - this represents an opportunity of a lifetime. The Z people that attend this festivity are akin to the HOC members. They are welcoming, knowledgeable and passionate about their amps. Jaguarguy has assembled a collection of amplifiers, mostly Dr.Z but certainly other premium models, that can rival Sweetwater. While a tad overwhelming at first glance, the majority of attendees will help walk you through them; just like the HOC assists newcomers with Heritage models. Over, above and beyond that, Jaguarguy provides a comfortable setting for the event and is the most gracious host I’ve encountered. His muZeum even rivals PSP for fun and friendly interactions. Highly Recommended.

I'm glad you got it. It has been tempting me for a few days, and I have been pretty close to pulling the trigger on it. I even had it in my cart a couple times. You have saved my life. Many thanks, and cony!

Great score Brent! Every one of us knows what you just experienced, we've been there many times ourselves. Enjoy!

I have a 2001 H535, with HRW's. The switch tip has a black dot (and black tips have a white or cream dot). The pickups have the double height adjust screws, as do the regular Schaller humbuckers. (HRW's are made with the same hardware from Schaller). They are also marked on the back of the pickups as HRW in ink.

Unlike most people that have posted above, I have seen the quality issues on my own Heritages, and I've heard about many quality control issues wih pre bandlab Heritages. One of my good friends was a dealer for Heitage. and he told me some stories about how many bad ones came through his store. And of my 3 H150s that I own(ed), two of them had nut and fret issues that had to be addressed before I could get the action down low enough to where I like it. And I had to sand out more than a few file marks. When I see the term "Golden Age" referring to pre bandlab Heritages, I just roll my eyes. For the people that got good pre band lab ones, that's great, but for those us who have had to deal with the issues on the older ones, it was a pain. I originally got into Heritages, because I'm a serial modder with pretty good guitar repair skills, and I figured they were so cheap at the time, if I had to do a little work on one, it was worth it. And I really liked the wood on them, they sourced some nice Honduran mahogany, Eastern flamed maple, and Indian Rosewood. And if you were patient, you could find a good one with a decent low weight. But those low prices are history now, so if I was to buy an older Heritage, I would demand a return window. That said, the H150s I have now are good to go, and with the way I modded them, they are great guitars. And he H535 P90 that Kuz sold me was set up really great, and I knew it would be a good guitar, because it was Kuz, who's a straight shooter, and he would never sell me a guitar that was sub par.

I went with Farber, including the insert bushings. Super happy with the results, especially my 2001 H535 which came with the same Schaller roller bridge and top-load tail piece. I had to wait on getting the inserts for the H535, so I played for a while with just the Farber bridge. Once I pressed the much longer steel Farber bushings into the guitar, I was amazed at how much better it sounded. The go will into the maple center block, where as the original tailpiece bushing from Schaller was very short and just mostly contacted the upper shell. My 1998 H150, came with Gibson style zinc tailpiece and a "Nashville" bridge. The Farber hardware didn't make as much sound difference, but the lighter stop bar helped my goal of reducing weight of the guitar to under 9lbs, along with replacing the Grover tuners. I find the ABR-1 style bridge more comfortable to play.

That's pretty cool. Like you, I love tube amps. I still play through them for the most part. However, I have done a couple of gigs on my Quad Cortex run through a Line 6 Powercab +. I hate to admit it but it is pretty damn good. While playing through tubes mostly, I have a back up system that I carry. I picked up one of those Carvin 100W stereo pedal amps a few years back. It seems similar to yours except this one is nothing but a power amp so I also carry a POD Express, so if amything goes wrong I have a complete amp and FX that fits in my hand. I actually had to use it at a gig once and it was a relief given that my recurring nightmare is one where I am on stage about to start and my amp isin't working. I fully accept that there my be a Freudian sexual interpretation to the dream about my equipment failing but I think it is about my amp.

Thanks! The first knob is a master volume and the second is a cut control. The master is post phase inverter. The amp is still two channels but with a single input per channel and they are side by side on the left side of the amp. No sound samples yet. I am currently recording with my band and I’m using this amp so there will be examples from that. I have a web domain but no web site yet. I will start working on that soon and then I’ll need dedicated samples and some much better pictures.

The one on the right is from a special run of '58 plain tops done for Eddie's Guitars in St. Louis. Several of the ones on Eddie's website have lighter FBs and some are darker. I liked the top on mine and it weighs 8 lbs. 4 oz. which is why I chose it. All things being equal, I probably would have had a slight preference for a darker FB. A non-issue for me.

Pictures, cause people like pictures... Gotoh 510 standard 18:1 Gotoh Luxury Engraved 510 21:1 Schaller M6 Schaller M6 top locking back view Schaller M6 top locking top view...

I've switched between Gotohs 510s and Schaller M6s, for both aesthetic reasons and for different tuning ratio, 21:1 on the Gotoh 510, and cannot hear a difference. I personally love M6 tuners. I have them on a PRS and 3 Zemaitis guitars. You sure you got genuine M6 tuners, I've never heard of sharp buttons.

are they the same weight? heavier tuners will affect sustain & sonics, weight makes a difference remember those weights they used to sell, people would attach to the headstock?

Suggest that if ya really going into the gibby path which they are indeed more vintage accurate but if ya like the less pricey LP heritage will be ya thing ... both are high quality instruments on the wood package but with gibson ya get more hardware goodness still... Forget about murphy labs they are too far fetch on price... getta well used R8 from their 2007 2004 2003 era and if your lucky u could spot a special madagadcar board which they fetch warmer tone

Thanks DetroitBlues. I think I have my wife convinced to go; she enjoyed Kalamazoo the last time we were there.

I promised my wife a trip Marty. Bribery always works with her. Thanks Rich. I will see what I can do about attending PSP. From what I've read it sounds like a good time.

I've changed a few Schaller bridges/tailpieces and I can confirm that both the Schaller and Nashville bridge posts are 5mm thread, so you don't need to change the inserts if you're replacing the Schaller bridge with a Nashville bridge. Same with the tailpiece studs, thought the thread is 5/16" rather than metric. On my H150 VSB I'd replaced the Schaller with a Nashville setup, and decided to replace the Nashville with the Faber ABR-1 conversion. This involved using a 5mm bolt to gently extract the bushings. I needed to make the hole slightly deeper, but aside from that the process was pretty straightforward. Some photos of the procedure...

Suggest using an additional thumb screw to lock it to the top to prevent more rocking that could gubber the threads. Rocking torque will mess up your intonation. Best solution, replace both screws with a Faber steel studs and bridge and lock it down tight.

I believe mine is ash.