TalismanRich
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Posts posted by TalismanRich
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1 hour ago, Steiner said:
I don't hear a lowering of volume as much as a cleaning up with the volume pot. The pot values make a huge difference in the circuit between the pickups and amplifier. A good harness should allow you two or three useful tones without adjusting the amp. RS recognized that and created a better mousetrap.
That's true if you're running with a lot of gain. If you're plugged into a Princeton Reverb or a Heritage Patriot with a clean signal, it just lowers the volume. That's more a function of the amp. But lowering the volume on most guitars will also tend to get darker, which is why some people put in a treble bleed circuit. It adds a bit of treble back into the signal.
There's a pretty cool worksheet called GuitarFreak that will show how the changes in capacitors and pots will change the frequency response of a guitar pickup.
http://www.jocidapark.com.au/circuits/GuitarFreak_6_41_161016.ods
You can run it in the Free LIbre Office spreadsheet. There's also an Excel version.
http://www.jocidapark.com.au/circuits/GuitarFreak_6_40_210816.xlsm
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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.
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14 hours ago, aGuitarSolo said:
I have a 1999 Heritage H150CH. I just started to refinish it. I was going to remove all of the electronics until I took a closer look at it. I've never seen such a mess in my life. One of the flanges from the input jack is literally soldered to the top of one of the tone pots. As a result, the knob of that one pot has always been at a slightly different angle than the other 3 controls.
I'm afraid to even try to unsolder it.
Something about that setup looks fishy. I've never seen that much corrosion, crud and dust in any of my factory setups and I have guitars from 87, 00, 03 and 04. Did you buy that one new in '99? If not, I would suspect that someone else had a hand in there.
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23 hours ago, HANGAR18 said:
I couldn't even get half way through the demo. Yuck... Different strokes for different folks as the saying goes.
Agreed!
It sounds like any other guitar, shoved through a Fuzz Face with full distortion. If I didn't know what P90s sound like, that demo sure wouldn't give me a clue. I want to HEAR THE GUITAR!
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I'm surprised that Sweetwater didn't see the cracked pickup ring. An indentation under the pickguard is a different matter. You would have to remove the guard to see that. That's one weak point with the elevated pickguard. If you press hard enough, it can bend enough to allow the screw to hit the surface of the guitar. Putting felt on the guitar under the screw might not be the best thing. You need to make sure an adhesive doesn't react with the finish.
That said, I've replaced 4 pickup rings that have cracked. When the Schaller ring on my 157 cracked, I took a new ring ($4), and drilled four extra holes so that I could keep the 4 adjustment screws on the Schaller pickups.
I hate soldering to the back of the pots. I've thought about just doing the joint where the tab gets grounded to the case and then solder to that lab. It would all be the same point electrically and wouldn't risk overheating the case. It would be nice if CTS would just make a little tab on the back to use as a soldering point.
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Everything is looking pretty tidy.
I try to do that once in a while. It lasts a few weeks.... ?
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4 hours ago, High Flying Bird said:
I had HRWs in my 535 but thought them to lack flavor. I replaced them with SD Phat Cats and love it's tone now.
...which is crazy because people take out the HRWs and then sell them for big money. It's true that one man's trash is another man's treasure.
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I swapped out the original Schaller pickups from my 535 for a pair of Sheptone Tributes. I can't say it was an earth shattering difference, but they were a different flavor.
SD 59 are a pretty typical Alnico V PAF from what I've heard. What type of "character" are you looking for? Maybe looking at an Alnico II Pro or Seth Lover would work better.
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I wonder sometimes why my H140 doesn't say "Clown Burst" on the control cover..... ?
My H-535 says Faded Cherry, which is apparently different from Transparent Cherry. Some of the newer 535s seemed to me more opaque than transparent.
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Welcome, Daniel
Be sure to post some pictures when you get it. We always like to see good looking guitars!
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I'm thinking maybe an employee build, although the guys certainly could have done a one=off special for a friend. The dot neck would be either from an H140 or maybe an H150P. They should use the same neck. Is the body mahogany or poplar? I thought the 150Ps were pretty light.
The Made in Germany tailpiece suggests Schaller gear. The pickups are definitely Schaller. Everything on it looks typical of Heritage builds from the early days.
Maybe it was an early prototype build for the H-150 style guitar that was later sold off. Hopefully Ren or maybe Jim will remember the story.
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I generally don't care for the Gibson pickguards. They just look so big and overdone. They don't follow the lines of the guitar the way that Heritage had done with their 535 and 150 style guards. If it was 25% smaller, it would be fine and still perform the function. I also prefer the wooden guards. A touch of wood grain showing through is classy and they don't generate static like many plastic ones do.
For me, its one of the things that Heritage REALLY got right.
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Groovedoggie,
Isn't it great when you pick up a guitar and it sings to you? Nice choice on the 530.
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The bigger headstock isn't that much of a selling point. It's a touch more weight, but I don't think it would create neck dive or change the sound. You really can't go for much lighter wood, it's already full of open space. The pickup change? Heck people are yanking out the 225s and replacing them in the CC150s. They did the same with HRWs, then they sell the HRWs as if they are gold. You can buy a hundred different pickups today!
The 555 had an inlay in the headstock, and the "sans The" isn't a selling point, it will have ZERO effect on anything. I like the headstock inlays on my 157 just fine.
Block or enhanced fretboard inlays are a plus over dots to me. Binding on the headstock, I like. Multilayer binding looks nice but not a necessity. Gold hardware, it's not mandatory. With some colors it looks great, with others, silver works better. 5 piece necks looks sharp, and I always wondered if they would be more stable since you can have the grains crossed to minimize the tendency for a piece of wood to move in a single direction.
None of this has much to do with trying to reinvent a "vintage spec" guitar, which is more what the Custom Core seems to be aiming at. I'm not one who worships at the altar of the '59 LP. I don't necessarily agree that the only guitars that have "magic" were built in 1959. '58s and '60s were essentially the same spec. The fact that it stopped from '61 to '68 meant that the pool of those original guitars was small. Therein lies the resulting supply vs demand issue. Yeah, it's cool that it's old, but other than the fact that certain people played certain guitars on certain albums they were just standard production guitars. You don't see the same thing with 22 fret Washburn Hawks. Bob Marleys Hawk sold for $1.2 million, yet you can buy a late 70s Hawk today on Reverb for under $1000.
That's not so much an issue with the 335/345/355. It's been in constant production since 1958, with gradual changes over the years.
So what would a Custom Core 535/555 bring to the table, other than some upgraded parts?
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On 4/23/2023 at 11:02 AM, bolero said:
What on earth would they change on the 535?
I get the enthusiast demand for a 1959 LP, but a 535 too? It's already a better guitar
Yeah, the LP obsessives go nuts if the binding isn't the right color, or marker dots aren't perfect. Is the neck fat enough? Is the wiring vintage? Is the tenon deep enough?
535/335 players just pick 'em up, plug 'em in and PLAY!
When I would walk into Dee Wells Music School at the tender age of 11, I didn't even look at the Les Paul, or the hollow bodies or acoustics. My eyes went straight to the 335. That's what I wanted! It took me a long time to get my red semi, but I've got it now and I play it. It's great!
They would need to do something super special for a CC to be a lot better than the standard 535. I would rather they just bring back the 555, for those of us who like some bling.
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Welcome aboard, DrFred.
Lets see some pics of that Johnny Smith. There aren't that many of them out there.
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Guitgamer, Download Irfanview, and you can put the picture in there, resize it to something reasonable (like 1280 horz res), and save as a jpeg file which will easily fit in the 1.5MB limit. With cameras and phones having 10 and 12M pixel cameras, the file size is just too large to fit the space.
You really don't need a 4300x2400 pic for posting on a forum.
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The switches control the Var-i-phase VIP system. You have both a phase adjustment and coil tap.
They work like this:
The 2 Lower Knobs (Looking down at Controls from playing position) Left:Master Volume Right: Master Tone
Upper Knob is the Vari-Phase Control - On 10: In Phase, On Zero: Out of Phase.
Note: Vari-Phase only works when Mini-Toggles 2 and 3 are DownAgain Looking Down from Playing Position
Mini-Toggles are #1 #2 and #3#1 Toggle Up: Is Neck Pick-up Coil Tap Down: Tap Off
# 2 and #3 Toggles Down is Vari-pHASE for Bridge PU
#2 and #3 Toggles Opposite each other 1-up 1-down is "Stand by Dead" or Both Coils
#2 and #3 Toggles Both Up is Coil Tap Bridge Pick-up!If you pull the wiring harness, you'll want to carefully map out the switches. It's not anywhere close to the standard 4 knob / Vol-Vol Tone-Tone with 3way selector setup.
The nut should be standard Gibson style. The Heritage guys were all ex-Gibson people, and as such, that's how they designed their guitars.
A V serial number indicates a 2005 build. The Serial number scheme is explained here: Date Your Heritage
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Welcome aboard, UnkyHarv. Glad to hear you're enjoying your H-530. What type of stuff do you and your mates play? I'm guessing if you're into the Johnny Smith sound, some jazz must be involved.
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Delirium, she's a looker. I think you chose well.
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I don't think anyone has ever actually seen a counterfeit Heritage. That's the one in Philly, right? From the pics, it looks totally legit. The tailpiece is spot on, and the back of the headstock looks exactly right. Heritage isn't a great candidate for faking. Its much easier (and probably more profitable) to make Gibby and Fender fakes. The market is probably 100x as big.
If it's local, I would ride over and check it out.
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SaintPatrick, welcome to the HOC.
Looking at the picture, it appears to have standard Schaller humbuckers. The giveaway is the dual adjustment screws on either side. HRW pickups are Ren's modified Schallers, but whenever they installed them, they put a special switch tip with a dot on top, just to make it apparent. Your selector switch is plain.
Schallers are good Alnico5 PAF based pickups, I find them to be more scooped in the mids, like a blackface Fender, rather than midrange focused like a tweed.
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Nice pickin' Exp!
There is a nice looking 2016 Lemon Burst that SlappaDon has posted at a nice price. Its up the coast near Jacksonville. I think a road trip is in order.
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George, You've got one of the largest Heritage dealers around about 20 miles south of you in Jupiter Fla. When all this has passed, you should plan a short road trip down there.
New Heritage Owner!
in Heritage Guitars
Posted · Edited by TalismanRich
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.