H150 Resurrection! New build of an old guitar

J

joncavendish

New member
I work part time in the warehouse of a well known luthier and repair shop. For the past year I have been eyeing this guitar, and this past week I managed to talk the owner out of it. Turns out it was used as a guinea pig for some machining prototypes, and then cast aside and left to sit in the attic of the shop for an undetermined amount of time. By my best sleuthing, it is a 1993 H150. Pretty basic trim level, nothing fancy here, but look at the checking in the finish from all those years in the heat!!! It has a small crack in the neck heel that the head luthier and I are going to address, but it is straight and solid other than that.

SO! I'm reaching out to the community here for advice on tracking down EVERYTHING for this guitar. I'd like to make it as OE as possible, but I don't wanna be ridiculous. I'm a professional touring guitarist, and it's gotta be a solid gig machine at the end of the day. 

I've tried tracking down pics of what it would have looked like in factory trim, and have only found one or two that are like it. Any leads you all have on style/period correctness would be greatly appreciated!

Looking for (fill in the blank on anything I miss):

tuners, pickguard, pickup rings, switch/rhythm-treble badge, bridge, tailpiece, strap buttons, control cavity covers, knobs

CASE!!!! I'd love to find a Heritage-branded case for it.

I have a line on at-cost pickups from Seymour-Duncan, so I'll be able to find whatever flavor I like to put in it. Been considering a set of pearly gates, open to suggestions there (and they can always be swapped out!).

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Very cool artifact!  And equally cool that you want to Lazarus the piece!  When "Brentrocks" chimes in (and there are a few others), take heed.  He was tight with the principals, hung out at Parsons Street a ton before the sale, and has owned and modded more Heritage 150's than you can shake a tail feather at!  Have fun!  Finish checking and funky binding look terrific!   

 
I agree with @yoslate.  This will be a great project to watch as it develops. 

The fretboard has dots, so the model is likely a 150P (Poplar body wood).  That's all I can contribute, but there are many others on this forum who can give you guidance.

 
Gitfiddler said:
I agree with @yoslate.  This will be a great project to watch as it develops. 

The fretboard has dots, so the model is likely a 150P (Poplar body wood).  That's all I can contribute, but there are many others on this forum who can give you guidance.
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The other 150 which had dots on the fingerboard was the Special. I have one and its body is a bit thinner (1 5/8") and the fingerboard is bound.

 
That's nice!!

I wouldn't bother with original Schaller hardware myself: I've swapped in Gotoh, Pigtail & other hardware with better results.

For SD pups, I like Seth Lovers but if you're touring professionally you might prefer potted pups? Pearly Gates bridge, or set of 59's

 
The H150 pickguard is a curved design, compared to the big ol' triangle that the LP normally has.    I prefer the Heritage style, as it mimics the lines of the guitar.   By contrast, the standard LP guard looks too .... blah!     Also, Heritage didn't put poker chips on their toggle switches,  which is fine with me.    It's one of those pointless pieces of plastic.    If you're playing the dang thing, you understand that one side is for the neck and one side for the bridge pickup.

I agree about using something other than the stock Schaller bridge and tailpiece.   As for the tuners,  you have plenty of options.   Mine all have Grovers Rotomatics, some with the original style screw, some with the offset screw.   You can tell when you look at the back of the neck.  

Standard LP style wiring harnesses,  you want 500K pots, and standard .022uF caps are the stock values.   Heritage used Vishay MKT polyester/metal film caps in my guitars which go from '87 to 2005 production.   I've changed a few, and really, I can't say that I hear any difference. between oil filled and standard poly/metal film.   If there was any difference, it would probably be production variation in value.

Control cavity covers will probably need to be cut from stock.   Heritage has templates that they have used for cutting them as they are different from the standard Gibson covers.   We can provide you with drawings and dimensions for both if you need them.

 
If you're looking for "OEM" specifications, here's a start:

Schaller Humbuckers

Schaller 4 Screw adjust pickup rings

Schaller Roller Bridge

Schaller Quick Change Tailpiece

Grover Tuners.

Others can chime in on wiring pots/capacitors.

No control covers with that old gal?

(BTW, absolutely love all that checking!)

 
UPDATE:

Home for more than a couple days in a row, so I actually found time to get this thing rolling! As stated, there was a significant crack in the tenon/neck heel area that needed to be addressed before any real plans could be made (or $$$ spent). The lateral crack was pretty deep, and had caused the existing joinery to come loose as well. I ended up diluting some Titebond by about a 6th and then working it into the crack. First by masking off and pulling vacuum, then just forcing it in and articulating the crack. Clamped it, applied some "weights" to pull the perpendicular joints closed, and gave it 24 hours. It is SOLID now. Gave it quite the testing once the clamps came off and it didn't budge in the slightest.

Thanks for all the feedback about this model, and for following along on the journey. Neat to know that it is a poplar guitar, I thought that it felt veeeeeeery light for a piece of Maho that size! I suspect it will be pretty bright, and that also will help to inform my choice of pickups. 

As far as hardware, it's great to know what it would've looked like from the factory. I've been able to narrow my search for images, and I think I have a really good idea of the vibe of the guitar. That said, I am going to deviate a good bit from stock spec...

The Schaller stuff, while great, is a little overly complicated for my taste. It's also pretty hard to find. Ultimately, I'll go with a stopbar and and ABR or Nashville bridge. For now I'm going to get some derelict placeholder parts from the shop just to make sure that all of the geometry is still solid. The overall plan is black plastics (pup rings, truss cover, control covers, maaaaaybe knobs) and then all gold hardware (thinking keystone Klusons with green buttons?) aged to match the existing patina/checking. I'm not usually a big fan of artificial aging, but this thing already has so much character. It's a cool opportunity to make it look like it's been played all those years, all while having ZERO fret wear.

More to come soon!!!

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On the subject of period correct OEM hardware, my humble opinion for your consideration is this....

It doesn't matter. The guys building Heritage guitars were in the manufacturing business. As a manufacturer, all you care about is where can I source parts that meet my minimum acceptable quality standards as inexpensively as possible? But YOU are the guy who who is actually going to use the guitar to play gigs. Your mindset is completely different. As a guitar player, money is no object! You want the best hardware that is going to get the job done for YOUR needs. As a manufacturer, Heritage isn't going to pay extra money to have 18:1 Gotoh locking tuners installed on a factory build, but you would. Heritage isn't going to pay for a brand new set of Bare Knuckles pickups to go into a factory build, but you would. Heritage isn't going to use all Switchcraft jacks and switches, but you would. Do what you need to do which will make this guitar truly awesome! Forget about the whole OEM bit. It means nothing.

 
HANGAR18 wise words. As time marches on, plans change. That's already happening, as I have pivoted away from the original Schaller quickchange tailpiece and roller bridge in favor of an ABR and a stopbar. Going to keep it gold, but I wanna get green keystone tuners, even if I have to drill for a second set of screw holes. Thanks for chiming in!

 
Thanks brentrocks, I am so glad the neck glue came off right, and that everything is still lined up and happy. Got parts starting to flow in, going to mount the tuners next and start putting strings on it!!

 
Last night we hit a milestone... STRINGS! I borrowed a bridge and tailpiece from a friend, and my gold Grover Rotomatics showed up, so it was time for the rubber to meet the road. It's a guitar! Geometry held up perfectly thru the glue up and repairs. Neck is straight and true and feels like a million bucks. Now time to start actually ordering parts! Once it's all together and mostly set up I will take all the shiny hardware into the shop and age it to match the checking on the body. 

Been thinking of leaning the Pearly Gates direction for pickups. PAF-ish, but a little hotter. Ideas from the group? (I've got a line on at-cost stuff from Seymour-Duncan, so going to use something from their arsenal.) It's a poplar guitar, I'd imagine it's going to be pretty bright. EXCITED.

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I think a pair of Pearly Gates would be the way to go for a raunchy rock and roll machine.    I remember when a lot of folks used the JB/59 combination.   Maybe use a 250K pot on the JB to cut some of the highs.    I've heard that's a very typical mod.

 
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