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I forgot I made this slide show of some of the Custom Orders I made. Old School Heritage Custom Shop.

Custom Core 150

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.

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

I guess a good time for me to come back, after a reset/reboot. 😄

Since it’s Friday again,

I play George Benson's "Affirmation" with Heritage guitar. If you have time,please listen to it. Thank you.

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

One I still have.

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?

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!

...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.

I post this every year. Ren playing a guitar I custom ordered.

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.

How fitting that this is right under Kuz’s pic..

Heritage has some great maple!

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.

G serial number. My first Heritage, bought new in 1990.

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.

My experience is Market. Usually not making a lot on them. Most don't appreciate or know what goes into these.

Hi, I play "Milestones" with Heritage Sweet16. If you have time, please listen to it. Thank you.

Have yourself a Merry Heritage Christmas!! Merry Christmas to all HOC Members!!

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!

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.

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!

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.

I checked with Grant Green about keeping the pickguard. Here's his reaction...

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...

Just picked this up from Nick Hall. Looking forward to hearing those P Ralis! And the 'Heritage' of this guitar is impressive too. I'm surprised no one snapped it up before I did. I'm glad I have another Heritage H150 in the fold. It's been years! 😎

I don't know about going back to the old business model. It may have something to do with actually making a profit (silly concept, I know). I'm not privy to the financial status of the old company, but I had heard several times that things were indeed often on a "shoestring budget". There were times that I wondered if the owners even paid themselves. It seemed to be more a labor of love. This isn't Jim and Marv building a few guitars. I'm sure that they make a lot more guitars today than they did 15 years ago. Sweetwater alone has 65 guitars listed. CME has 22 listed. Jay Wolfe has 25. That's just 3 dealers. You didn't really see those numbers years ago. Have you visited the factory? The "big money" helped pay for a new dust collection system that makes the place safer, a humidity and temperature control system, a new spray booth where you don't really have to worry about dust contaminating your fresh lacquer, the Plek machine and more. The old factory, while quaint, was really pretty scary from a EHS standpoint. Lots of dust and wood laying around. The spray booth upstairs was open air, so dirt and dust was floating around. It was also quite dangerous, with nitrocellulose coating the entire booth. That stuff is a lot more flammable than some people realize. The business will need to pay for that upgraded equipment. It wasn't free! To their credit, Heritage is still making archtops (the 575 and Eagle Classic). Try to get a new archtop from Gibson. The last one listed was the Chuck Berry ES 350, but it's discontinued. There are a few dozen people making teles and strats. Fender, G&L, Suhr, LSR, PRS, and ton of low cost import versions.

Happy 'Flametop Friday'!

And here is my all time favorite guitar.... my H170 with a C serial number. It's not my go to guitar, but my favorite. I got this one and the afore H140cm at the same time back when nobody really cared about Heritage guitars except maybe you folks. There were in a mom and pop store. I traded a Greco Les Paul copy (which was actually pretty cool....) and $400 for both of them. Both sound great but there is something about the H170....feel and sound. I did take out the Schallers and put in some Dimarzio PAFs, probably anniversay series or something. Maye the 140 has Seth Lover's....I can't remember nor do I care as they both sound so great.

Just finished setting this Esquire up and recorded this song with this pickup, the Cavalier Nocaster HolyGrail. The Esquire has a 3 way switch and it's set for the cocked wah position. Man this pickup sings. Check it out...

The one I wish I never sold.

Roy Clark Signatures have many variations over the years. There was a limited run of essentially H-535s with his name on them and with exception wood figuring. But the original design is a single cutaway that's deeper than the H-535s for higher fret access. The thinking of the single vs. double cutaway is that there is more bling facing the audience, a larger resonance chamber, and a little more body weight to avoid neck dive. You'll find them with double and single cutaways, maple and mahogany necks, dots, blocks and split block inlays, and some with Bigsbys. Some will have traditional black headstock veneers and some will have matching maple figured woods. Here's a ten year old thread that shows my old natural Roy Clark. I found one a few days ago that I managed to close a deal on. It's among the last ones made AFAIK. I'm a fan of the chestnut burst and the block inlays like on the H-157. I believe it has Seth Lovers, but I'll know eventually. This is basically a hybrid of a H-530 and a H-555. Here's him funking around showing off his skills. Anyway, here's the incoming porn.

I'll jump in. I haven't seen a bad one yet.

@FredZepp... Awesome work of Heritage art!

Well, I said before that if they ever introduced a pelham blue with P90's, my wallet would be powerless to resist... Someone at Heritage must be calling my bluff now -

Here she is with the full Faber tail piece kiit in antiqued nickel and Seymour Duncan Antiquity Humbucker Set. Electronics are on the way and will be installed over the weekend. Quite a different animal now than with those dark Schallers

I've never used the solderless setup, I have been soldering since I raced slot cars in the 60s, so I have no fear of firing up the old iron. Besides, I love the smell of smoking flux in the morning!? I do like the way they have done their solder work. My only concern would be if the holes and pots will line up exactly the same as your H-150. GIbson uses as CNC to drill out the cavity, so they should all be exactly the same, within thousandths of an inch. Heritage can use a template, but it may not measure exactly the same as Gibson. My 157 has the Mojotone Vitamin T caps. They are oil filled polypropylene/metal film caps. The difference is that it's two actual layers, not a metal that has been vapor deposited on one side of a plastic film. In that respect, they are close to a paper/metal film capacitor. The pots are stamped 500KBD which tells me they are 20% audio taper 500K CTS 450G series which are excellent pots. Not sure if they are std or low torque, I have low torque pots in mine. If you worry about hitting the knob and changing the volume, you probably want standard torque. If you want to do swells, then low torque is easier to turn. I've used both Mojotone's Pots and some from The Art Of Tone. The H-157 has Mojo 500 pots. I bought 8 along with a pair of the Vitamin T and Mojo Dijon capacitors years ago from Mojotone when I was at a guitar show in South Carolina. I checked the pots and picked the closest 4 for resisitance. I still have three in a bag downstairs. The Dijon caps went in my H-535 when I rewired it with new Sheptone pickups. It has TAOT pots. My 157 has a black plastic jack plate. The H-140 and Millennium LE both have barrel jacks. I replaced the barrel jack in my H-140 after 30 years. I was on Ebay, and bought 3 of them, so far after about 6 or 7 years, I've only used the first one. I wouldn't switch it out for a standard style jack as it requires drilling and not having the proper tools, I'm sure to screw it up and wreck the job. That's the same reason that the Seth Lovers that i got to put in my 157 are still on the shelf. The route isn't deep enough for the long legged Seths. I'm not taking a drill to the pickup cavity as I don't want the ultimate in "buckle rash" on the back. As for hearing the differences between a PIO, Oil filled Metal film and Poly/metal film, that's something you can decide for yourself. There are some electrical differences in different types of construction, things like ESR, inductance and voltage handling in addition to the capacitance. I confess that I really can't tell the difference in good capacitors. About the only way I could do that would to build a switching rig, start playing and have someone switch different caps in while I play. In the tests that I've heard, I hear more difference in the "performance" than the capacitor as long as the values are well matched. Soldering in a capacitor, then playing, stopping and soldering another cap, playing again, etc is not a reproducible process to me. I would feel better if I could do 10 takes and have them all the same with one cap, then do 10 with another, mix them up and be able to pick them out. Plus, I can touch the tone control on the amp and make 50 times more difference. (hey, I'm a skeptic, or totally deaf... not sure which). But why would people selling capacitors admit that the $5 metal film cap sounds the same as $30 cap with vintage looking stripes? (you can get 2 orange drops for $10 vs 30 for a Luxe bumblebee). I can change from a medium to a thin pick and make a HUGE difference. One good thing with caps like the orange drops is that they are VERY stable, and not microphonic at all. Ceramic cap values can vary with temp, be microphonic and usually have a pretty wide tolerance (like +/-20%!) You really don't need a 600V capacitor for a guitar circuit where you are working with 1 V or less. However, voltage handling is somewhat a function of the dialectric film (polyester vs polypropylene vs styrene vs paper). Have i confused/frustrated/scared you off enough? ? Seriously, it's not a massively huge deal or hard job to do. It wont make you suddenly sound like Jimmy Page or Joe Pass. I just find it fun to learn how all this stuff works. As I said, I'm somewhat skeptical of some of the lore that is put forth on the internet. It's probably part of my Deming/ISO 9000 quality training. Tribal knowledge vs verified observation and all that. I'm sure there are people who can hear this kind of stuff, just like there are drivers who can tell a 1/2 degree difference in a wing, or 1/4 pound difference in tire pressure, but I'm not Max Verstappen or Helio Castroneves.

I just did this! I like it. it's staying~

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

I think I will keep this one.