Greg Koch w/new H535, vid

[bolero]

 

Stumbled across this video: great playing & a beauty new custom core H535 from Kalamazoo

 

 

[rockabilly69]

The guy is a monster player, and if this video doesn't sell some Heritage guitars, I don't know what will! At first he had too bright of a tone, but you can see/hear that he dialed it in pretty quick. Those Fishman pickups definitely have something going on. And at 15:05 he started to burn. The guy is truly a freak of nature guitarist. 

[bolero]

Haha, yes, agree pretty jaw dropping technique!!

He got a wide variety of tones & great clarity too, even with FX which I find can be challenging with hollowbodies. I often run them direct into a dimed amp, which they excel at & I love. But throwing things like univibe into the mix can get muddy.

 Fishman is highly regarded for their acoustic pickups I didn't even know they made electric.

[TalismanRich]

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.  

 

[fxdx99]

20 hours ago, TalismanRich said:

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.  

 

The Dickey Betts mod (as I think of it as that's where I first saw it).  Good question on if it's a master or remains neck on Koch's.

 

[bolero]

Yes I think early on in the vid he talks about it. He says Phil Keaggy did the same thing too

[DetroitBlues]

Knowing Greg, the selector change is probably a lot to do with volume swells.  I’ve known about him for many years, even met him in person a few time since he has an artist model(s) with Reverend guitars.

By no small coincidence, Heritage and Reverend do have some deep connections, so it doesn’t surprise me Greg has a custom model H535.

[TalismanRich]

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.

[bobmeyrick]

On 3/3/2025 at 1:29 AM, TalismanRich said:

I don't remember him saying if it's a master or just the neck and couldn't tell from his switch flipping.

Just after 12'45" you can see him try to do a swell with the bridge pickup selected. It doesn't work, so he selects the neck pickup  and swells away!

[TalismanRich]

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

[bolero]

That's a swell catch Bob!

[Kuz]

If I was going to the trouble of switching the pup selector switch and the volume knob, I would have made that volume knob the bridge volume knob (or make it a Master volume). 

[TamiGuitar]

Yes! Greg is such a unique player, and person! He has combined several guitar styles into his own signature sound. He is a very funny guy! I am new to this forum. Looking fwd to discussing all things guitar!

[bolero]

On 3/7/2025 at 5:03 PM, Kuz said:

If I was going to the trouble of switching the pup selector switch and the volume knob, I would have made that volume knob the bridge volume knob (or make it a Master volume). 

I bet the dumbass who wired the gtr up made a mistake