barrymclark Posted August 13, 2011 Share Posted August 13, 2011 By now, I am sure a few of you guys know my father-in-law owns an A-serial Heritage H140. Last Thursday (August 4th) night, I got my first crack at it. For those of you at PSPIV, this guitar is VERY similar to the proto H140 that was hanging above the sign up sheet. The main difference being the controls and pickups. The proto had the typical H170 control arrangement and the proto also had some sort of Gibby PAF type pickup that didn't appear to be Schaller although they still might have been. The pickups just didn't have the normal adjustment-screw indicator. All other hardware appeared to be identical. For those not at PSPIV and interested: In person, the burst finish has more of a honey brown color and still has plenty of gloss. The Heritage logo on the headstock is inlaid with MOP. The pickups are Schaller. VERY lightweight even for an H140. Gotoh tuners. The body appears to be thinner than the normal H140 and is solid mahogany. The tone report: As suspected, VERY SG SOUNDING. I loved it. It was by far the best sounding H140 I have ever laid hands on or heard. I used a Roland MicroCube (my father-in-law owns one like mine so I was familiar with the amp). My first crack at it, I was just too in awe at the sound and presence of the guitar to really pay attention to much. I just noodled. I played it again on the 10th after I returned to Rochester from travelling around MI. This time, I really got to tear into it sound wise. I adjusted the MicroCube so that it approximated the guitar's unplugged sound (both pickups on) on the Jazz Chorus setting. I did the obligatory roll-off of the the tone and volume knobs and it had a WONDERFUL solid-body jazz tone to my ears. I then went to the Deluxe Reverb setting and played a bit of Rockabilly a'la Brian Setzer and Stray Cats. Sounded great here, too. It, of course, didn't have the thump a hollow has... but then that was expected. The tone was still there and GOOD. I went to the Vox setting and broke out some Brian May and this is where the 140 REALLY started to blossom tone wise. Next, the Marshall JMP setting. Never been a HUGE fan of this amp so I didn't spend much time on it. Didn't sound bad, just not my tastes. Played some Journey tunes and moved on. For fun, I put on on the Rectifier setting and dimed the gain. haha. Metal chunk for days. For this setting, I turned up all of the guitar's controls to max and had the bridge pickup only. After that quick tour of tone, I returned to the Deluxe Reverb with the rolled off guitar controls and played a good bit of late 40's to late 50's tunes. Finest H140 I have ever laid my hands on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big bob Posted August 13, 2011 Share Posted August 13, 2011 Video clips or it never happened Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hfan Posted August 13, 2011 Share Posted August 13, 2011 Sounds like tonal nirvana. Not to mention the history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barrymclark Posted August 13, 2011 Author Share Posted August 13, 2011 Video clips or it never happened No video clips. I have some brief audio clips but they were recorded with my phone. That presents two problems: getting it converted and then getting it sent. Well, getting it sent isn't an issue but the conversion seems to be speeding the recording up. Not sure how I fix that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brentrocks Posted August 13, 2011 Share Posted August 13, 2011 PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barrymclark Posted August 13, 2011 Author Share Posted August 13, 2011 PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS PICS....PICS The only pic I have is the one in my gallery that I think anyone interested has already seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barrymclark Posted August 13, 2011 Author Share Posted August 13, 2011 Here is the pic from my gallery. The 84 is on the right. The only thing different than this photo is that, here, the 2-ply TRC is flipped so the white backing is showing, I flipped it so it shows as it should with the black face with white outline. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted August 13, 2011 Share Posted August 13, 2011 It does look remarkably like the one hanging on the factory wall. I over heard Marv discussing those A series. He mentioned he started making them when he technically still worked for Gibson. At the time, he couldn't do a maple top because it wasn't available yet. Cool stuff to know about the history of Heritage guitars... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolero Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 hey that's cool, thx for the thread/info/pics!! Ren freaked me out at the factory....I asked if it was ok to pull the proto off the wall & have a closer look, he snapped " DON'T TOUCH THAT GUITAR!! " as I was reaching for it of course he was joking....but he got me good, I jumped! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 hey that's cool, thx for the thread/info/pics!! Ren freaked me out at the factory....I asked if it was ok to pull the proto off the wall & have a closer look, he snapped " DON'T TOUCH THAT GUITAR!! " as I was reaching for it of course he was joking....but he got me good, I jumped! I thought about asking to take it down and put mine up for a photo op. Never dared to ask, but I bet they would of let me. I doubt my guitar as been in that factory for over 25 years.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolero Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 ah, that would be cool....you could have put the proto alongside yours!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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