New Heritage Owner!

[aGuitarSolo]

On 10/14/2023 at 2:36 PM, TalismanRich said:

Don't you wish you still had the Jag?

For sure. The Jaguar was a really nice guitar.

But at the time, I had my mind set on getting a Les Paul and I knew I didn't have the money to own both (still a teenager) so I sold the Jaguar when the time came and invested that into a really cool Gibson SG Custom. It had 3 pickups and, if I recall correctly, the hardware on it was gold plated. I wish I had kept the SG also but I got it at a great price so it was the last stepping stone before I finally got my Les Paul Custom in 1972-73, thereabouts.

I really loved that Les Paul and didn't even mind that all of the gold-plated hardware tarnished and pitted within a very short time. Unfortunately, darker days were ahead when I found myself between jobs and needing to pay rent. That would have been more than 20 years later, in 1996, when I sold that Les Paul for a low price of $600 which was right about what I was paying per month for rent. After that, I swore that I would never again become so attached to a material object and I have kept that promise to myself.

However, in a short 4 years, I had really turned things around financially. That was when I stopped by a local music store wanting to buy a Les Paul only to find out the store didn't have any Gibson guitars, However, according to the store owner, he did have a guitar that was just like a Les Paul, only better. So that day in January of 2000, I walked out of that store with my Heritage H150 Deluxe. (The one that arrived at the Heritage factory just today as the prerequisite for them to send me a brand new H-150 standard.)

As much as I grew to detest that Tiesco guitar, I remember looking at the prices for one of those a few years back and I couldn't believe how people were actually willing to pay a whole lot of money to own an old one.

[Rockaman]

On 10/5/2023 at 10:05 PM, TalismanRich said:

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.

 

100% Agreed. I almost always redo the harness unless it's something vintage. 

 

I just did copper shielding in the p/up cavities and control cavity and linked the grounds, put in a clean set of CTS' (one push/pull for phase switch). This baby is silent! Also threw in the Slash 2.0 pickups. God I love this guitar ?

[TalismanRich]

Rockaman,

I did a full cavity shielding of my G&L Legacy.   It really quieted things down.   I got a nice roll of copper sheeting at Hobby Lobby for a few bucks.   I've got enough to do a couple of guitars, but I haven't had to do any of my humbucker guitars.

 

[aGuitarSolo]

On 10/14/2023 at 2:36 PM, TalismanRich said:

Don't you wish you still had the Jag?

I just remembered that I have some photos of the Jaguar.

I was really young when I owned that.

Edited November 5, 2023 by aGuitarSolo

[daikanjazz]

Hi all, 

‘I just got my Heritage H150 Custom core aged (dirty lemon burst). Tried it in the shop and the guitar speaks to me ? Cheers!

Edited November 19, 2023 by daikanjazz