TalismanRich

I've seen a few other guitars with the sculpted neck joint. I played a couple and they were very comfortable when going to the upper frets. The transition make it feel smooth, not like you were bumping into the top, where you had to change your grip. I haven't seen any indications of those anywhere else. Where did these pics come from?

Aw, he's a rank amateur! Someday maybe he'll be able to afford a REAL guitar and amp. 😁

I've noticed that Sweetwater has Heritage making some exclusive "custom shop" models. There's one with the CC headstock and SD Antiquity II mini humbuckers. They also have Custom Core with a Bigsby B7. There's another that's Wine Red with a stinger, and the CC headstock and mini humbuckers.

That's one reason I liked the old wooden pickguards. I prefer the Heritage shape, and dislike the clunky plastic. Screw "vintage". I would probably change the pickup rings before the guard if I was worried about the color..

OK, I guess that nails it. Nice catch, Bob!

I would also ask for a closeup of the top of the headstock. That might tell you a bit about any work that was done on it.

Just an update, I checked my H-525 and sure enough, that's where I saw it. The W is above the number in the center. If this is one you're considering buying, I would definitely ask about a headstock repair. I don't think it is a new neck, but possibly it was removed or reset at some point. The logo on the front looks correct, top shape is wrong and the shading is suspicious. The headstocks on the bigger body guitars are wider than the ones on the 150, 535 and Millenniums, so I don't think that's an issue. For sure, if there was a break, that will affect the pricing.

Robbg A Heritage headstock had a peak in the middle. Yours has a dip, so either someone tried to make it an "open book" or maybe replaced the headstock after a break. The black shading could mask a repair. I've seen people add wings to the side and change the top to make is more "Gibson". I've also seen the letter in the middle like that before. I'll have to check my 525 and see if it's that way.

He does some swells with it later in the video. I don't remember him saying if it's a master or just the neck and couldn't tell from his switch flipping. Randy, I never heard of Dickey Betts doing it. I'll have to look that up. I can see where it might protect from inadvertently toggling the pickups and make swells easy. My Starfire 4 has the switch on the lower "ear", and I've hit it a few times. I rotated the switch so it went front to back rather than up and down. That worked just fine.

Did anyone notice that he has swapped the pickup selector and the volume control? I wonder if he has it set as a master volume rather than just handling one pickup.

So.... you like archtop guitars, right? I never would have guessed.

I think in these cases, it's not the instrument that is sounding different, it's a person's variability. Your mood, how much noise you've been exposed to that day, your blood pressure, all these things can affect your system, including your hearing. So if you've lost some "highs" tonight, your Tele sounds good. In the morning, that humbucker sounds nice but the Tele sounds like an ice pick. People can be very good at hearing slight differences, but when it comes to better or worse, we are affected by our biases. Since in audio there is no absolute "target" it's purely a judgement call. I've seen cases where a race driver will comment about how a change has really improved the car, but then the stopwatch numbers say he's 5 tenths slower. Is that an improvement? Maybe, if it means you don't crash, maybe not if that 5 tenths puts you in row 11 instead of row 1. At least you have a real measurable target.

Yeah, but they don't make your beer get hot during the set! What's worse, Cold pizza or warm beer?

I especially like how someone will yank out the HRWs because they are so bad, then sell them on Reverb for $3-400 a set.

Prince wrote it for Apollonia. On the Bangles record, he used a pseudonym, so nobody realized it was Prince.

It does come in at about 14dB lower, which is quite a bit. The question will be if the tonal balance is similar to something like the Vintage 30 or G12-75. It's not just the volume, but the "sound"! But from what I see, it's an interesting idea.

They are all hand sprayed, so every one is different, depending on the way the painter feels on that day. There's no "template". It's free hand.

I can see someone taking off with a van full of guitars. I can't imagine having 200 guitars.. I have trouble keeping up with a dozen.

That's CRAZY! Losing 60 guitars seems impossible.

At $4800, I don't think there needs to be a lot of cost saving. Certainly not the lack of bound f-holes. They could have done a single binding there. That said, I wouldn't leave it sitting in the case just for having them unbound. Something that I've always wondered is if a 3 or 5 piece neck is more stable than one piece mahogany, in terms of twisting or even needing less adjustment.

Originally, the 555s had 3 piece maple necks, but I think that changed in later years. The 2005 catalog still says 3 piece maple neck with ebony fingerboard.\

I like all that swirly stuff on the tops. Plantain tops are only good on TV Yellow guitars. However, if you leave them out for a few days, they start to do some self aging.

I'll pay a Million extra if you duct tape a banana to that canvas!

It doesn't matter if they offered it. They would get changed anyway. I have realized that it doesn't matter what the factory uses. If they use SD, they get swapped for Dimarzios. If they use Dimarzio, they get swapped for Lollars, IF an amp company uses JJs, they get swapped for TungSols. If it came with TungSols, then it really needs TADs. If it has a Jensen speaker, it really should have a Celestion. If it has a Celestion, it gets swapped for an Eminence or Warehouse. Heck if it has GHS strings, it really should have D'Addarios or Ernie Balls. Mojotone makes the P90 that Josh had them put in the HOC 137. They sounded pretty darn good. It's a pain in the butt to change pickups in a semi or hollow body, but it can be done with a bit of patience.