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Showing content with the highest reputation since 03/12/11 in Posts

  1. I forgot I made this slide show of some of the Custom Orders I made. Old School Heritage Custom Shop.
    9 points
  2. I attended the Kalamazoo Fretboard Festival on March 2. I wandered into a performance room and was surprised to see and an acoustic Heritage 12 string guitar. I couldn't get a closer picture of it during the performance. I did see the owner as he was leaving the festival and told me it was custom made in 1986.
    7 points
  3. For those who don't know, Scotty Moore was Elvis's main guitarist for a very long time. He also was a studio musician and an extraordinary player. Here is a page from his website about his friend and fellow musician Don Dean. http://scottymoore.net/dondean.html Some years ago a friend of mine, who is a great player, really wanted a Heritage Johnny Smith. Both he and I are Johnny fans but he couldn't afford a Gibson. We searched for a few weeks but found nothing. Late at night I found one in a national Craigslist search that was in Kentucky. I called, probably first thing in the morning, and learned that the guitar belonged to Don Dean. Don had died recently and his widow asked the guy on the phone, a pedal steel guitarist and friend of Don, to sell his many guitars. The HJS was stored under Don's bed with a couple of other guitars and was found a bit later than Don's main collection. I drove to Kentucky that morning and arrived in a modest country house with gorgeous scenery. The seller and his wife were very nice. I had a meal with them as they talked about the old days. The seller was a studio musician and road player with Elvis and others. Scotty and Don were friends to both him and his wife. Don died slowly with dementia. They talked about the lean and the better days. It was great. He brought the case out. It looked like someone had vomited on the top and the clean up was less than thorough. The guitar was mint. Further, it had the extra rose inlay in the pickguard, which was a $500 upcharge. I measured it and it was 18" across the lower bout! To my knowledge there were only two of these made, one finished in rose natural and this one a natural. Both were special ordered by Don, a Heritage dealer at the time. Even more surprising was the body depth was between 3 1/4 and 3 3/8", making this truly unique. I made the long drive back that night. I emailed my friend to say I got him a guitar. The next morning he let me know he found a standard HJS while I was in Kentucky at a pawn shop in Ohio and ordered it. Some time later he tired of his HJS, sold it, bought the 18" HJS from me. He had Kent Armstrong rebuild the Floating #3 pickup to increased output, something quite a few people did with that pickup. Eventually I got the guitar back. It is now my favorite, in part because of the story but also because it plays so well and is stunning. In Don Dean's photos you can see him playing this guitar. On the same page you can also see an 18" Heritage American Eagle, probably the only one made. Here is the HJS in action played by my friend 6 years ago. It is seasonally appropriate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xH_0qJ0Pt0&list=PLZKJqrSIMuspiR9CbV8ztncKUecx6o1Qu&index=2
    7 points
  4. I guess a good time for me to come back, after a reset/reboot. 😄
    7 points
  5. I play George Benson's "Affirmation" with Heritage guitar. If you have time,please listen to it. Thank you.
    6 points
  6. Venerable and Stalwart Heritage Owners, Am straggling in with my contribution: a "C", 1986 Golden Eagle, the 38th they made. Bought it about a year ago from Dan Keller, of Kansas. It's not in mint condition, having a few minor dings and I'm thinking there's a slight twist to the neck that needs a luthier's TLC, but overall in wonderful condition given it's age. X-braced. It has a handwound Kent Armstrong floating humbucker. The neck is a bit thick for my hand, and am struggling with whether to sell, as it's the nicest guitar I'll ever own. I found where this guitar had been posted on Reverb five years ago, but have no other knowledge of it's provenance. Dan said that he owns the first Kalamazoo Award, and that the Golden Eagle was meant to be Heritage's take on that. I'm 70, and have been playing since 10. Got as far as a garage band playing an SG Special through a Marshall stack in the early 70s. But got off drugs, and sold that gear before college and raising a family. For many years just banged on a Seagull acoustic and howled at the moon to folk and the cowboy songs that Dad used to sing us to sleep by. Around 2016 decided to take guitar playing more seriously. Took jazz lessons and purchased a 575. Wanted something with better acoustical sound, and meandered a bit before lucking into this Golden. Have since bought a 1999 Eagle Custom, my fave with a neck that makes my fretting hand smile more than the Golden's. Even with my geezer's hearing, the Golden sounds better, though. You might see this Golden posted for sale here sometime this year, after my luthier works whatever magic it needs. Well, thank you for all your contributions to this site. Your collective wisdom has educated and guided me. I believe this is my first time posting to the HoC, though I joined 6-7 years ago prior to purchasing the 575. Best, Latham
    6 points
  7. My Super Eagle and a stop-tail 150 built for the late Sam Moss, who introduced me to Heritage guitars almost twenty years ago. I think Guy still has that 150...maybe?
    6 points
  8. I got together with a couple of friends again this afternoon to play some tunes. Mostly I've been taking my H140. Once I took my G&L ASAT. A couple of weeks ago, I took my G&L Legacy. I like the way they all play. They sound pretty darn good, although the guys commented that the Legacy sounded "thin". Yeah, it's a SSS, so it doesn't have the beef on the bottom. I haven't taken the 157 or Millenium, and while I took the 525 once as a backup, it never got out of the case. Today, I took my H535, the one with the new machine heads. After playing for almost 3 hours, I have to say that if I had to pick a favorite, that would be it. I don't know what it is about that guitar, but it sounds good, to me, it plays like a dream, it's got great upper fret access, and it's comfortable to hold for 3 hours (well 2 3/4 after taking a short bourbon break). It looks sexy as hell with that nice Faded Cherry finish. There's nothing that guitar can't do. I even did some finger picking on Helplessly Hoping! It's a winner!
    6 points
  9. ...but it is it's solid body step cousin! Figured we could all use an extra pallet cleanse after seeing the bolt-on neck overseas thread.
    6 points
  10. I post this every year. Ren playing a guitar I custom ordered.
    6 points
  11. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been haunted by the thought of owning a Heritage Gary Moore, never seen one over here in the UK, but the next best thing appeared over here on my doorstep a few days ago, no less than a H150 Deluxe from 1989, it needs new strings, a setup and a couple of small jobs and I’m in heaven. I would have sold my spleen and multiple organs to fund this, but luckily , after some serious horse trading, it’s now at home with me, once it’s sorted I will get some pics up .
    6 points
  12. I had a nice Gibby ES-347. Now I have something that sounds better. A 535 with flamed bat-wing and ThroBak ER Custom pickups. If I wanted a 335 I'd have one.
    6 points
  13. Hello everyone, I’ve been reading and unregistered for awhile, but here I am. Love all the knowledge, wisdom, history and everything else this wonderful place has to offer. Here is my only Heritage for now. I was a strat player for a very long time, always changing/selling/experimenting with different guitars but mostly in the Fender or fender style world. For a wedding gift my wife bought me this beauty and it has been my go to guitar for everything. It is the most versatile guitar I have ever owned. One day I want a H575 or eagle classic, a sweet jazz guitar… but until that day comes all I ever record with is the 535. It’s the perfect guitar. I’m very excited to delve into all the threads of music theory and explore all the other awesome topics here. Thank you for creating this forum!
    6 points
  14. Hello all, I’m new here! In real life two of my favorite things are coffee and guitar. I just recently bought a custom core h-150 in dirty lemon burst… I posted some pics in another thread, here’s one of the pics of from my NGD lol
    6 points
  15. How fitting that this is right under Kuz’s pic..
    5 points
  16. My entry for Throwback Thursday (Friday) is my very first Heritage. It was love at first sight and still takes my breath away when I open her case. This 31 year old 1993 Golden Eagle has aged nicely and sounds better each year.
    5 points
  17. G serial number. My first Heritage, bought new in 1990.
    5 points
  18. I got this quite a while ago and sold it to a fellow HOC'r and friend years ago, and now I bought it back. This was built for Vince Lewis. Looks good, sounds good, plays good.
    5 points
  19. My experience is Market. Usually not making a lot on them. Most don't appreciate or know what goes into these.
    5 points
  20. Hi, I play "Milestones" with Heritage Sweet16. If you have time, please listen to it. Thank you.
    5 points
  21. Have yourself a Merry Heritage Christmas!! Merry Christmas to all HOC Members!!
    5 points
  22. Tim Pierce is a Pro's Pro Guitarist. Nothing is ever flashy, but everything is perfect for the application. He has said before is working on trying to play faster and he really is not a shedder at all. I believe many on this forum could play faster than Tim. BUT he can play over any chord progression and have the perfect melodic solo. He doesn't play the same old tired licks, but is imaginative and melodic. I love TP's playing and he seems like a really super guy. He is also an adamant proponent of new guitars overs vintage guitars. He says new guitars (including PRS) play better, have better intonation, and sound just as good as vintage guitars. He believes we are in the golden era of guitar making and I absolutely believe he is correct. It doesn't surprise me that he loves Heritage Guitars along with other new company's builds (Heritage, Collings, PRS, Harmony, Novo, ect.... Great video Tim!
    5 points
  23. I just picked up my first Heritage last week from Sweetwater - an H-150 in Vintage Wineburst. This "sweetwater exclusive" has SD Alnico Pro IIs instead of the usual SD '59s. So far, I love it! Plays wonderfully, sounds great, is resonant as hell/sustain for weeks! I don't ever buy new guitars, but this was a special treat for myself! There are a couple of issues I found though - nothing world ending to me, anyways. There was a ding under the pickguard where the bracket screw hit the top of the guitar (sucky but not a huge deal for me) and the neck pickup ring is cracked. Neither of which are a huge deal, but kind of bummers. You'd think they'd put some felt under the pickguard screw or something...Sweetwater offered to exchange for a different guitar, but the only other one in this color is heavier and uglier They said they'd try to get me a replacement p/up ring. The only other thing with fit & finish that has me going "wait, what?" is the wiring job: That is some SLOPPY solder work - the only thing I can think of is that it originally had the SD 59's then there was a "oh s**t this one is supposed to have the Alnico IIs" and it was a Friday before a long weekend (You can also see the stepped carve from the CNC; I don't know that I've seen a cavity like that before.) Anyways, other than those teeny issues, I absolutely love this guitar and it absolutely blows away several other LPs I've played lately.
    5 points
  24. Hi all, ‘I just got my Heritage H150 Custom core aged (dirty lemon burst). Tried it in the shop and the guitar speaks to me ? Cheers!
    5 points
  25. I have a Gibson LP that has P90's. I replaced the Gibson pickups with Wolfetones. I have to keep reminding myself of that when I see these. I don't need another guitar. But we all know that song.
    5 points
  26. Upgrading the harness will do certain things depending on the parts used. You can get pots with different tapers, which means that how quickly or smoothly the sound changes will be different with a 15% audio taper vs a 30% taper or a linear taper. What these numbers mean is that for a 500K pot, a 15% will measure 75K ohms when turned 50%. A 30% taper will measure 150K ohms at the mid point. Linear taper means it will be 250K when turned half way. Since volume is a logarithmic function (because we hear that way), the use of a log measurement is supposed to make it more like what you hear. Turn it up from 50% to 100% and it sounds twice as loud. The capacitor value will make a huge difference in the brightness. In the typical humbucker setup, a .022uF cap is used. The higher the value, the darker the sound as you roll off the control. You might even want to have different values, like .015 for a neck pickup vs .022 for the bridge. I really don't hear a difference between the Vishay metal film caps that Heritage uses and an oil filled cap. The Vishay caps are good units. If you can solder, then it's not hard to make up a harness. I made a template out of a piece of cardboard, and soldered everything except the pickup and switch on the cardboard. Then I mounted the pots, connected the caps and ground wire and installed it. This is the result. Finally there's vintage wiring scheme vs modern wiring scheme. You can read how these differ lots of places. Seymour Duncan has wiring diagrams for each type. https://www.seymourduncan.com/resources/pickup/wiring-diagrams For Heritage guitars, you want short shafted pots. That's all for now. It's a fairly easy job assuming you can solder.
    5 points
  27. I checked with Grant Green about keeping the pickguard. Here's his reaction...
    5 points
  28. That would please me. When I bought the H535 with P90s that Kuz sold me, he already took care of the bridge mount with the Faber screw in ABR inserts! He and I are both so OCD, I just knew when the guitar got here, that it would set up as good as it could be, and I was right, it was I waited a long time till I got a semi-hollow Heritage, and I'm glad I did. I seriously doubt a custom core would be any better than this one...
    5 points
  29. Hi guys, newly proud 150 owner. I'm from Chile, south america cheers guys.
    5 points
  30. Hello everyone. Just bought my first Heritage tonight. Thought I would introduce myself. Been playing since I was 8 years old. I've been through a lot of guitars over the years. I am down to 5, now 6, I guess. I did a lot of investigating before I bought this guitar but I'm hoping for the best. H150 custom core artisan aged dirty lemon. Couldn't find the top I wanted without the aging, oh well. Just thought I would say hello and introduce myself. This is my virgin run please be gentle! LOL
    5 points
  31. The old days were glorious!
    4 points
  32. @FredZepp... Awesome work of Heritage art!
    4 points
  33. Thank you so much, Dan from MojoAxe and, especially, skydog52 for your advice and tips regarding the pickguard and installation. BTW, besides the pickguard, I made the following mods on my H-530 since I bought it last year: - Amber knobs - Amber switch tip - Amber tuner knobs - Tonepros bridge w/nylon saddles - Bigsby
    4 points
  34. I think I will keep this one.
    4 points
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