Leaderboard

2001 Sweet 16 photos courtesy of Wolfe Guitars

Super duper score! The 16 is a great guitar. Beautiful specimen.

A very special instrument arrived yesterday. My pics aren’t as good as Wolfe’s but,….so what. Plays wonderfully easy and sounds full and lush. Floating Heritage #3 pickup is good, maybe a little thin/bright for me on the high E and B strings. Kind of like a Joe Pass tone with amp at lower gain. A little more electric sounding at higher gain/volume, but still has more brightness, pick percussive sound and treble than my guitars with built in pickups. Even with a smaller body, the acoustic tone is still pretty full and bass is plentiful. The 25.5 scale neck adds a lot of snap and articulation to the sound. I thought I might miss some bass at 16 inches, but it delivers tight articulate bass on the low E and A strings. I’m very happy. I did notice a couple of small surface dings (not through the finish, and you really have to look to see them) that the guys at Wolfe may not have caught or worthy of note. But like i said - small and not noticeable unless you are really looking. Grain on the top is super tight, finish is beautiful and the back, sides and neck are all super flamey. The ebony board and bridge are gorgeous. The Heritage floater is fine (my first floating pickup and I love the way you get a completely different tone-feel than with built-in). I like it better than I thought I would, but I know what sound I am after (fatter, more organic), so I am going to put a Kent Armstrong single coil on it to get a closer to a Dearmond Rhythm Chief vibe.

Probably my favorite guitar to play live. Of all my H guitars it has the best neck/nut width combination for me. Just feels right in my hands. Sounds great through just about any amp and super versatile. Straight ahead jazz KB tone, getting jazz-rock/funky, it really can do it all. Rarely feeds back even at volume/loud drummer/horns. Looks good too! Anybody else have a crush on your 550? I love my other Heritage and other guitars too, but for playing in a band that does a lot of different things, this one gets the call most often. Indoors, outdoors, even in the studio I’d put it up against just about anything for tone and feel. Link to a recording: https://on.soundcloud.com/6SVD2MkCr2E14HyaEE

I had a similar problem with the H tailpiece on my 550. I replaced it with a Benedetto style ebony tailpiece, and the problem vanished. Neck on 550 is a little wider and chunkier than most and i love it. I think the ebony tailpiece suits it well. I also added ebony volume and tone knobs. Below is before and after…

I know that guitar!

That's something you might want to talk about with Mike at Heritage. They have a process, and it probably depends on how much of an upcharge it would require. Under the CC portion of the website they mention their "bespoke" program. I don't know where you live, but if there is a dealer anywhere close, you should check out the current line. I didn't feel like the necks on the Standard II guitars were toothpicks! The couple I picked up were comfortable. I've felt much thinner necks. The 530 I bought in '25 is the original Standard line, but the neck isn't really any thicker than my 2005 535. I hear all these comments about thin and thick necks, but for me, shape is FAR FAR more important than how thick it is. My 2014 Vintage '54 Strat has a baseball bat for a neck, but it's comfortable. My 74 Guild S100 is much thinner but I've played that for years! I've tried several PRS necks that were thin and were painful to play. I can pick up a guitar and can tell within 10 or 15 seconds if it's right or wrong for me. And if cost were no object, I would just fly up to Kalamazoo on a private jet and visit the factory.... or else drive my Ferrari up there. Unfortunately, someone else won the $700+ million Powerball, so there's no private jet or Ferrari in my future!

Fab 16

Your song was how these are meant to sound. I know people talk about these archtops and rockabilly but I am a sucker for the classic lush jazz tone. Your reverb was nice. Was it a plugin or a pedal?

Thx all. Arrived yesterday. Will post a NGD topic later..but I’m happy. It is great.

What a beauty!!

I hadn't noticed that on the site. Thanks for the heads up!

I have both and they're equally good. The standard one is in osb finish with factory Seth Lover pickups and it is an absolute killer instrument. I would just play them first.....with my eyes closed 🫣

If I were in your shoes, looking for a specific neck carve, I'd make the request through one of the larger, high volume dealers (i.e. Dave's Guitar Shop, Wolfe Guitars, etc.). They might be able to order a 'special run' of '59 neck profile' H530's, or see if they have one at the factory. Heritage dealers have much more sway than a single customer seeking something unique. Good luck!

That is one beautiful guitar, congratulations and enjoy.

Yeah, I have to say, Throbak has been great to deal with. Expensive, but they are the real deal. I put a used set of DT-102 MXV humbuckers in my Gibson R0. They had been special ordered like 20 years ago, by a well-known guitar tech with an unusual selection of magnets. I contacted Throbak and decided to purchase the normally specified magnets. They weren't cheap, but I can attest to the fact that their magnets are indeed, the real deal. Super happy with how they treated me in the process. I'd definitely do business with them again. I've heard/played their 63 Strat set and without even knowing what they were, I was floored by how good they sounded too.

Beautiful, congrats!

That's a beauty.

I could get seasick looking at all the waves in that maple! Beautiful guitar, congrats!

Beautiful!

@tsp17...Wow, congratulations on that gorgeous 'sweetie'!! Play it in good health, my friend.

For the record I did not pay that reverb asking price in the screenshot photo. Did not mean to display that in the post. Admin - can you delete it? Bought directly from Wolfe with some negotiation to get to a number I could afford and was also fair to them. always good to work with the team at Wolfe. But…it was still a good chunk of change so something now needs to be sold….stay tuned.

I've been drooling over that one for a while. Congratulations!

Dazzling. Congratulations!

Those two did not work. However I have it on good authority that if I could find a Conrad Bison electric I would be as a 12 year old again.

I've never had a problem with Throbak customer service, and I've never heard of Peter Flynn till today!

This was from the 2018 tour. It's the same rope method we was this year.

I like looking at your pretty guitars. The implied lesson here is don't buy some gorilla glue and do it yourself. But finding an excellent repair guy in Kalamazoo is considerably easier than many other cities. You are one lucky guy!

After the repair.