Old Heritage H150 - perfect Les Paul.

[les paulverizer]

A while ago, I started a band devoted to paying homage to the British Blues phenomenon, a movement that, quite simply, gave the world Rock(!) as we know it.

It started with Eric Clapton essentially inventing "the Rock" sound in APril 1966 by plugging a Les Paul into a cranked Marshall and proceeding to let loose playing long, articulate, screaming and and soulful lead guitar, something that had never been done before, not to that extent and which spawned a myriad of bands that we all know and love in the process.

For the record, this band's not a "tribute" as it's generally intended, I have absolutely zero desire to mimic someone else and/or reproduce someone else's solos note-for-note, no matter how famous, great, cool and historically important the player is; in truth ("Truth", great album!!!) I have been offered the position in 3 or 4 of such outfit and even though the players in question were among my main influences, I love 'em dearly, I graciously declined, it just goes against what I believe, which is to pay respetful homage to such cats by capturing the spirit, not the notes. By doing that you take your chances, of course, but that's excatly what those guys did in the first place, right?.

Anyway, the band has played a handful of gigs in the Lndon area and next month we'll have the official launch in a specialised, highly respected top London club and this, my Heritage H150 will be the guitar I'll be using. A wonderful Custom Shop Les Paul Custom, which I love, will be there too but only as a spare in case I break a string or something, which very rarely happens!

Yesterday we had a reharsal, just to finalise the set while next week a dress rehearsal is in the cards, but let me tell you that this guitar plugged straight into a valve 1/2 stack with just a Tube Screamer in between (an Ibanez TS808 DX, to be precise) didn't even sound close to perfection...it was actually perfect!!!

The sound, the feel, oh my God, I hadn't played this guitar for few months and I was actually contemplating getting a XXX McCarty 594, an amazing guitar for sure, but once you have an Heritage H150 set up to perfection, and on this one I also replaced the original pups with a set of OX4 "Beano" pups (yeah, Beano, I know....!) frankly if you want a righteous Les Paul tone you don't need anything else. And my wife agrees....

For the record, according to the serial number this guitar was made on Nov. 13th 2000. I was also born in November, good month indeed...

 

 

[rwinking]

Cool! So what does your set list look like?

[les paulverizer]

The set list mainly mid/late 60s-early 70s stuff, with few tracks from the Jeff Beck Group's Truth & Beck Ola albums and John Mayall's feat. Eric Clapton's "Beano" album, plus B sides and tracks from obscure but killer bands of the same period. I already play guitar in a Jeff Beck tribute/homage show so for me it's just an extension of the same thing!

Once you start playing that stuff you realise where a lot of bands that later became world famous, not mentioning names but 4 or 5 came to mind straight away, got the idea and inspiration from! Even bands that later branched into different slightly styles and sounds, but the musical DNA...."remains the same"!

I remember Lemmy of Motorhead saying that a lot of Heavy Metal bands actually left him cold as he somehow needed to "feel some Blues in there", which according to him those bands totally lacked, and I can see what he meant...

Goin back to the gear I use, apart from all out Rock/Hard Rock I've used my Heritage in a lot of different situations like Funk, C&W, Soul, Jazz, Pop session and even Irish Folk(!) but I think that this guitar, and probably Heritage guitars in general, really comes to life and kinda makes sense especially when playing a certain kind of stuff; set the amp up for a kind of "AC/DC plus a bit" kind of tone, step on a quality OD pedal so it'll push the sound a bit more over the edge, crank up and let your soul hang out!!!!

I LUV it!

 

 

 

[nuke]

You could just learn all the licks in "Steppin Out" on the Beano album and make a career out of just that. 

 

 

[bolero]

On 9/19/2026 at 3:52 PM, les paulverizer said:

 

 

Beautiful!

some of my fave music too

keep us posted on the shows

what amp/gear are you using live?

Edited yesterday at 02:32 AM by bolero

[les paulverizer]

On 10/3/2026 at 3:32 AM, bolero said:

Beautiful!

some of my fave music too

keep us posted on the shows

what amp/gear are you using live?

Thank you.

Amp wise live I use either a 40W Marshall DSL or a 50W Fender Champion II. I've always been a "purist" hence for me it was "tube amps or die", however(!) few months ago I went into a shop with a couple of friends that needed to buy some gear, we went with our ladies so we would all go for a drink or snack afterwards, and while a was there my lady pointed to a Fender amp that she thought looked practical, kinda small and portable....? I have to admit that I've never been partial to Fender amps, Marshall being my lifelong #1 favourite, plus this thing was a modelling amp (yuk!!!!) but as I had time to kiil while my friends were trying stuff out I gave it a try and I was really surprised!

In the past I tried many modelling amps/units and always found them lacking a bit in sound and response to your playing; the audience won't be able to tell of course but it's how it feels to the player that matter as that's what we react to. Anyway, as I said I tried a lot of modelling gear, including some top of the line/very expensive stuff, but this humble, cheapo Fender (£220 only!) beat them all!!!!

I set it on the "60s/70s Marshall" mode and let me tell you it sounds as good but it feels 100 times better than stuff costing 10 times more! I keep getting complimented on the sound and bear in mind that with this show we play specialised clubs and venues and their audiences are very discerning, but they only see that I'm plugged into a Fender amp and that's enough for them! It doesn't sound like a Marshall, it sounds different same as a Vox or an Orange would sound different, but it sounds & feels great!

So yes, it's either the Fender or the Marshall, depending by my mood, while on the floor I have just an early 70s Cry Baby into an Overdrive pedal, either a Fulltone Fulldrive II Mosfet or an Ibanez TS808 DX. 

Then, let it rip, but not quite as Leslie Nielsen intended!