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Showing content with the highest reputation since 08/20/24 in all areas
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8 points
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7 points
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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.7 points
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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-music7 points
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For the last several months, I've been having financial issues and had to sell off most of my name brand guitars. I ended up refinancing to ease the pain a bit. Living on less than $100 a month is not fun. And I have equity in the house, so I'm releasing the pressure and living off of it. It's not like I have heirs to pass anything to. The payout will happen this week, so things will be much easier after that. I just found this on Reverb at a price too good to pass up. It's a 2022. I've been getting away from flame maple, etc. While I appreciate the beauty, I'm far more interested in function right now. So I've been looking at black and oxblood and was torn between a Les Paul Standard and an H-150. The H-150 won. I'll bring it to PSP. And I'm not rebuilding the collection to what it was before. I'm fine with what I have. The guitar should arrive within the next week.7 points
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Hi, I play autumn leaves with Heritage's archtop guitar. If you have time, please listen to it. Thank you.7 points
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Hello Heritage! I am new to this forum-I just bought my first Heritage Custom Core H 535 Blonde! It is different than any other guitar I have played. I’m used to Gibsons, Fender, arch tops etc, but this feels/sounds so different. I love the QUALITY of the build. The neck is comfortable, pickups sound great. Very versetile. Playing Jazz, Blues, Bossa Nova and Swing on it right now. I love it! It has lots of flame in the wood-front, back and sides. The tuners work really well. I’m using Thomastic Strings, flatwound 11’s.7 points
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I talk to Marv regularly. He is doing well. Enjoying his daughters and grand and great grandchildren. Always fun to talk to him. He has so much knowledge.7 points
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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.6 points
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Marv's granddaughter posted this on Facebook. Rare Bird Sighting! A few weeks ago, I posted looking for leads on a MarvBird—a special guitar made by luthier Marvin Lamb, who also happens to be my grandfather. My husband became obsessed with the hunt and started digging everywhere. And thanks to one of YOU, we were blessed with the opportunity to bring one home to the family! Thank you for all the love you continue to show for Marvin’s craft and legacy—it means the world to us.6 points
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Thanks! They seem to give the guitar a bit more of a vintage vibe, too. Funny, but I was loving this guitar so much that I drove over to Dave's Guitar Shop earlier this week and pickup up another one......😁 This one got the newer ABR-style bridge and thumbwheels that came directly from Heritage. The pickguard is an old LP/P90 guard that I shaved down to fit this one. It's going to get the same tuners as well. I'm really enjoying these CC models. I only wish that I would've picked one up when they first came out:6 points
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They are brothers but not identical quads. Each has a different quality. The far left is one is a 1991, one of the earliest. It has a 12 pole pickup installed on a second pickguard Heritage made. It's 17" across and 3" deep. It weighs 5# 9 oz. It's in a natural finish. Next to it is a 1992 rose natural with an 18" body and 3" depth. It is 6# 11 oz. It has a Floating #3. The next one is a green burst 17" by 3" weighing 5# 14 oz with a Floating #3. This came from 1996. Lastly, the antique natural is 6# 12 oz and also was made in 1996. It has a stock pickup. Its measurements are 18" by 3.25". I don't know how many HJSs were made. Over the years I had a few others. I'm guessing there were a few hundred made, but I don't know. I doubt Heritage has records. Maybe. There's an irony about this model. Johnny left Gibson because he was concerned about quality and consistency. He knew JP Moats from the Gibson building days and worked toward the design specs on the HJS. Johnny specifically wanted a custom finish they called rose natural to be an option along with the usual natural on his guitars. The first ones came out in 1989. It didn't take long for variants to emerge. This eventually led to Johnny leaving Heritage and eventually joining Guild. By 1996, Heritage built HJS with bodies ranging from 16-18" and various other finishes. The 16" guitars were not labeled HJS, but they were the same sort of build without inlays. I believe the quality remained high, and the Heritage workers confirmed that they treated HJS with special care. But the build specs were what was ordered, not necessarily what Johnny wanted. I have a couple of Heritage ghost-built Gretsch Synchromatics built around the same time period, the early 1990s. It should be no surprise that their weight and dimensions are almost identical to the 18" HJS. The second pic shows how they line up. The main difference besides cosmetics is the nut is 1 3/4" on the HJS. That's all I got for today.6 points
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6 points
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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.5 points
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5 points
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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.5 points
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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-time5 points
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Hello! I picked up an early piece of Heritage history this week. It is a 1985 H-140 finished in May. I’ve never owned one so early. It has suffered a headstock break and repair, but it was done properly and feels like glass running my hand over it. It came with black plastics and cheap generic Chinese humbuckers. I put a set of Gibson Burstbucker 1 and 2 I had laying around in and it sounds so much better. The only downside is that I had to over pay a bit for it. The seller was tough but the fact that it was built so early on plus it plays so well and has a stunningly gorgeous top means I had to get it. Enjoy the pictures!5 points
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5 points
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You know how it is. You're wasting time on the internet and you come across a very nice guitar at a very nice price and not too far away... Big birthday coming up (exactly 10 years younger than Eric Clapton), contacted Rolly's Guitars and Rolly put the Heritage on hold for a few days until I could call in, which I did yesterday. I spent a pleasant hour playing the Heritage and talking guitars, bands and assorted nonsense, then made my way home as new member of the Custom Core Club. It's a 2023 model, well set up, in almost pristine condition and sounds glorious through the Drive King. I made a slight adjustment to the bridge pickup height, but that was it. Pics, I hear you say?5 points
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Congrats on the new CC H-535. I too am a recent purchaser of a Heritage custom core. I bought my CC H-530 from Sweetwater just a month after it left the factory in Kalamazoo. I owned two H-535's back in the mid 90's and they were great guitars. However, this 530 hits me in all the right places. A fully hollow thin line with great P90's is just what I want today as an old man who doesn't turn his amps up too loud anymore. Enjoy your Heritage. I've included a pic of my 530 from the Sweetwater collection of my guitar. I can't take better pics myself so why try?5 points
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seems like a nice product for the money for sure, and yes- SOP now. makes me a little sad, but gotta remember: "Its not personal Sonny, its strictly business." I was in London recently and I always go down to Denmark Street and Soho when there to check out the old historic (and new) guitar shops and studios. Dawsons had both US and Ch. made Heritages. They told me that they are owned by the same company that owns Heritage Kalamazoo, so they are the London distributor for both factories. The Chinese ones were downstairs in the main showroom. The good stuff was upstairs in the “private” room that was roped off. Some very nice new production instruments from both places.5 points
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Stumbled across this video: great playing & a beauty new custom core H535 from Kalamazoo5 points
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There's a big difference between a customer having a build to his specifications vs buying a prebuilt NAMM special build. What I don't understand is the company doing "bespoke" custom builds for "influencers" vs people who have supported them for 10 or 20 years. For an artist, I'll give them more of a pass, as it most companies have artist programs. Frankie Ballard It's great that these people are finally looking at Heritage guitars, but how does someone who has ignored Heritage for years get to spec out a guitar with their color, a P90/PAF and Bigsby for free? Maybe it's because I'm old school, but social media influencers are probably the lowest point on my list of reasons to look at something, much less to buy something. I find about 90% of the online reviews or gear to be utterly useless.5 points
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Just out of curiosity, I searched for reviews on Schaller's humbuckers from back in the day. Specifically I looked for the German made ones. I looked at non-HOC posts. There were several threads in the Seymour Duncan Forum on these. The comments were largely favorable, even glowing. This does not prove anything except some people liked them a lot. Here's an example. https://forum.seymourduncan.com/forum/the-pickup-lounge/114718-schaller-golden-50s-humbuckers My guess is that Heritage had some deal going to use Schaller hardware and pickups, which makes sense from a business perspective in an emerging company. Even back in the earlier years the Heritage founders would defend their choice. Specifically, the four original owners and Ren said Schallers were good pickups. Ren told me that the bridge and tailpiece were very well engineered. Yesterday I spent the afternoon with a pickup engineer and luthier who knows Heritage well. He has been designing pickups for decades. He did not disparage the Schaller pickups Heritage used. It's refreshing to get his perspective. Not that many would be surprised though. To paraphrase, whatever a skilled pickup designer makes, someone will call junk. He likes Seymour Duncan's quality and says Paul Reed Smith is very fussy about his pickups. He also has respect for Fralin and Lollar. Lastly, he commented that he's sad to see such harsh criticisms for new winders on pickup creators forums. A budding designer shows his new ideas and their sounds and will receive harsh criticism from some, not encouragement to keep going. It sounds like the same sort of stuff that happens on various guitar forums also about pickup opinions. For example, I recently looked for reviews on Phat Cats. It seems that hate motivates posting more than praise. I've heard good reviews about the 225 hots on the H-555 from a person I don't think is over critical in nature. The big picture I get about Heritage is that it has morphed from the origins we all know well to a different company which is more refined and that has a R&D process that's pretty sophisticated. I have my older Heritages that I cherish. I've also have handled the new ones and understand the changes. I'm optimistic about the company. There's a reason Gibson moved to Tennessee from Kalamazoo. I don't fully understand why, but it certainly had something to do with cost reduction or profit ratio. Now Heritage can make a guitar consistently as good as Gibson for less money. Some will differ in which is better, but that's soft opinion. Kuz, for example, gave an excellent and detailed review of two LP style guitars made by each. Neither seemed shabby and there was a significant price difference. That's remarkable. I posted recently about a H-535 I got built just a few years ago. It is as good as any I've seen and better than some. It has PRS pickups in it. They sound good. Would I pay twice as much for them and replace the harness? No. But I don't think I would get a better sound out of any other setup. I also got a 2019 ES-345. The pickups were replaced with Phat Cats. Various forums contained hate reviews of these pickups as well as a little praise. People are nuts. They sound like single coils, hotter than stock Fenders. I have the T-types to put back in it but won't do that, at least for now. I'm done rambling. The bottom line for me is that Heritage is in a great place as a quality electric guitar producer and innovator. I have not always felt that way but have always respected the original owners and what they could do. Heritage is not the same without the internal soap operas, which were a source of interesting drama. Here are pics of my 2002 Ultra that just had a bone nut put in and frets leveled.5 points
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YouTube suggested 'Bangles Frank Zappa, Tonight Show - 1986'. Hoping that FZ was actually sitting in the Bangles (of course not to be), I watched it. The Bangles played their hits of that year, Walk Like an Egyptian and the Prince-penned Manic Monday, both of which sounded pretty good live. Nice vocals. On Manic Monday, spotted what I think is an H-170 being played by Vicki Peterson, which may make the Bangles an early (first?) 'famous user' of Heritage guitars.5 points
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4 points
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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!!4 points
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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.....4 points
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Stock market has been good to me lately, solved the "dilemma" and purchased both! Time for a cold 🍺4 points
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4 points
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Marv told me he never made a prototype. They are all Marvbirds to me. According to Marv he made them all. He did all the tooling and templates for them. His best estimation of how many he made was around 75. He told me he wished he would have kept a complete list of them. He said he named the model a 357 was a little dig at Gibson for their Firebird 3, 5 and 7.4 points
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Birthday celebration part 2 (the CC H150 Goldtop was part 1). I've had the 633 Drive King for a few years now, and was intrigued when Cliff Brown at 633 brought out the Firefly, a 7 watt Class-A 1x10 combo. It's basically the Dragonfly with the overdrive circuit from the Drive King added. I ordered one in February and picked it up yesterday. It sounds very good... The controls are Volume, Tone (with a pull switch to toggle between "Tweed" and "Blackface"), Drive, Level, Reverb and Power. The Drive switch and Cab-sim output re located underneath at the back, while Drive can also be activated with a footswitch. The range of tones available is pretty wide by judicious use of the volume, drive and power controls, from a sparkling clean to Santana-like sustain, all at reasonable volume levels. Here's designer Cliff Brown putting the prototype through its paces... Some photos...4 points
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Rich Severson with Pete Farmer. Interview starts around 1:53. It's a good one.4 points
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Remember when ordering a custom from Jay Wolfe, Graham asked my opinion on CNC vs hand carved / cut. All I had was a gut response based on internet chatter. We the end user /consumer of fine guitars know little about building vs manufacturing. We purchase and play. Pete's "wood therapy" displays the vast knowledge gap between the people who visit and work at 225 Parsons. RESPECT4 points
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Staying on the history of Marv at Gibson and Heritage. Marv sent me this picture last night. He made this one off when Gibson was still at Parsons St. He called it his Bo Diddley guitar. There is a lot more story behind it. He told me it has the original strings on it from around 1980. I told him it's time for a string change. We had a chuckle about that.4 points
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I talked to Marv last night. He sounds good and said he is feeling well. He told me he will be turning 86 this year. He is enjoying life and his offspring that is getting extensive. We were talking about H-357s and the one he is holding. That is one of the Korina models he did. Came from California. He brought up Ron Warren and he hadn't heard he passed. He loved the picture Ron did for him.4 points
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4 points
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4 points
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Eh, lots of variables and generalizations in play... but in a nutshell; if the amp wattage is higher than what the power/watt handling of a speaker is, it's going to lead to 1 of 2 likely outcomes - 1) the speaker will easily distort... which in some scenarios could be a desirable effect and compliment the amp distortion (especially when paired with another higher power/sensitivity speaker); in other scenarios, it could just sound muddy, "farty", or bad. 2) The speaker could just fail...blow the cone out or toast the voice coil. In the reverse role; if the speaker watt/power handling is way higher than the amp output... usually this will make very little difference. It depends more on the design and sensitivity of the speaker at this point. For example, I love to pair the 300 watt EVM-12L with all sorts of amps, including little 5 watters; fairly transparent speaker pairing that let's more of the amps own voicing be heard (minimal speaker distortion/coloration). Usually the only negative scenario is where it's a speaker with a very heavy cone and low sensitivity; that could be a speaker that needs a whole lot of power to make it move in order to sound good. There's not many guitar oriented speakers out there that fall into this grouping though. It's more in the extreme cork sniffers high end of car or home audio (or cheap garbage speakers from temu or something). TLDR - Low power amp with high power speaker; okay. High power amp with low power speaker; may cause death of speaker, or could get you that cinnamon girl sound you've been searching for all your life (if one was to ever search for such a sound).4 points
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FWIW, just saying that something is made in China doesn't necessarily mean it's a piece of crap. There are things made in the US that are crap, and stuff that is high quality. The same happens over there. I used to deal with a few Chinese plants and a few were consistent, and more than willing to go the extra mile to make a quality product. Others couldn't make the same thing twice if their lives depended on it. China is a massive country with lots of different companies. Anyone over a certain age will remember when Made In Japan was the sign of cheapness. Now the majority of things out of Japan are world class.4 points
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I have requested builds but have been rebuffed. So much for loyalty. If they only knew!4 points
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Thanks! Well, I've actually been into Heritage guitars since the early '90s, at which time I picked up a '92 H-535. In '96 I bought an Eagle Classic from Jay Wolfe, and I still have both of these guitars (I'll post a photo below). I've since owned and sold two other H-150s, a natural H-535, an H-110, and an H-170.. The H-150s I owned were great guitars, but both of them weighed over 10 pounds. I eventually sold them to purchase three R8s, two of which were chambered. They were also great guitars, but I do tend to like the tone of the solid bodies a bit more. The solid R8 was a Dave's Guitar Shop limited run that I should've kept, but so it goes. Long story short, I've had an eye out for a while now hoping to replace some of those H-150s and R8s, and once I discovered the Heritage CC H-150s a few weeks ago, I sort of went on a spending spree!.....LOL. So, here I am back at the HOC and posting again after a rather lengthy hiatus from the place.......🙂 I haven't seen a "cadillac green" guitar in person, but they look pretty sweet online! I like the Pelham blue, too. I picked up the goldtop primarily because I wanted something different from the cherryburst, but it just so happened to sound and play a little better than the other H-150s that I tried at Dave's, too. Like most H-150s, these CC guitars are nice and lively-sounding, but it's the weight of them makes them much more tolerable to play on stage as well, especially for a guy my age with an aching back. Is that pole piece that you're speaking of bent? Or is it just installed with a tilt to it? The reason I ask is because I noticed that the pole pieces are quite easy to remove, and Heritage does have new replacement pole pieces ( and ABR-style bridges & thumbwheels) that can be ordered directly from Mike. Apparently Heritage is going to start installing this more traditional bridge system on their CC models sometime this year, but I have yet to see one online. This is the reason that they have them available.......that and for Heritage owners wanting to upgrade their guitars from the Pinnacle system. Anyway....hope to see that cadillac green H-150 posted here one of these days.......🙂 And oh, here's that photo. A '92 H-535 and a '96 Eagle Classic. I just noticed that the 535 has a plasic pickguard that I installed to save the flamed maple one from getting too scratched up, but the maple guard is on back on it:4 points
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I wouldn't trust a thing that comes out of that's guys mouth. I can't understand why Heritage would build this guy a guitar for free. Just google up Vertex and rippoff and you will find out about his history... from Joe Bonnamassa... Hey Guys, I'm sorry to be chiming in so late but I must warn all you fellow gear nerds to stay away from Vertex effects and pedalboard services. Mason is not truthful nor is his work good or in most cases his own. He had me on his site without permission as a user and happy customer. I am/was neither happy nor do I use any of his products. My pedalboard sounded awful, took tons of gain away, and added a huge ground hum. It also cost $1400 and that was after I pitched a fit when the $2000 bill came to my tour manager all the while seeing unauthorized You Tube videos of my " new rig" a rig I never tried nor signed off on. Fortunately Dave Friedman at Rack Systems came in and saved the day for $400. All I wanted and asked for was to have some cables cut to size. I didn't want to waste Dave's time so I gave it to Mason. BIG MISTAKE.... I am very disturbed by his actions and have heard recently that he has been called out on some Wah Wah pedal stuff. Bad News Bear that cat is unfortunately. So... In closing... Just trying to keep my fellow guitar nerds from getting ripped off like I was. Caveat Emptor Joe Bonamassa.4 points
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Oops. I can count. There are four. I started the thread and then recalled i had a fourth in storage. I forgot to change the title. My go-to guitar is a H-535 these days, but I was raised on jazz boxes.4 points
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Or, should that be New Amp Doubleday? It's been so long since I posted anything here I've forgotten much of the protocol. The amps are a Henriksen Blu 10 and a Swart Atomic Jr. One sounds really nice for an arch top, say a 575 and the other is a fun little gadget for say a 535. Probably you can imagine which is which.4 points
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4 points
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4 points
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FYI- I purchased a 2016 new old stock H155M in vintage wine burst last year at the plant. It was hanging in the showroom and I couldn’t resist. They made me a very sweet deal. They buffed it, gave it a PLEK job, and a setup before shipping it out to me. Heritage takes care of their HOC constituents.3 points
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3 points