HANGAR18

I started getting confused by seeing guitars listed as Custom Shop, while others were Custom Core, and while others were just regular Heritage guitars without either of those two "Custom" descriptors. I wonder if they are phasing out the Custom Core branding or perhaps maybe separating the Custom Core to mean big beefey neck carves while Custom Shop would refer to more normal medium or 60's style neck carves. I haven't figured it out yet.

It used to be that I couldn't stand weight relieved guitars like these but in recent years my back has persuaded me to reconsider that opinion. I like the 3rd generation of weight relief that Gibson came up with because it kept a desirable tone and distributed the body weight evenly so that the guitar didn't feel fake and lopsided when you picked it up. I wouldn't mind taking one of these on a test drive but my local Heritage dealers all vanished.

I don't want to perform a relic job on my Custom Core, but I would instead REALLY like to know how those guys at the Heritage factory perform that lacquer crackling effect on their CC guitars. I don't want to know how other people do that, I specifically want to know to how those guys at the Heritage factory perform that lacquer crackling effect on their Custom Core guitars. Yes, upon learning this trade secret, I would like to strongly consider doing some DIY like that to my own CC guitar.

I can relate.

That's neat! I had no idea.

They accidentally broke the stamp set and now Marv hand writes the serial number with a marker.

Good luck with that.