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The guitar was ordered as a custom from Mandolin Brothers. It has two pickguards. One has the Floating #3 and the other has a Kent Armstrong. This is the fourth Heritage JS I own now. All are very different. One is rose natural 18" x 3", one is natural 18" x 3.25", and one is green 17" x 3". The bracing is the same. One has a KA rebuilt pickup, one has a 12 pole KA, two have the Floating #3.

Maybe these? Pickup frames (triple holes) | 1702 (schaller.info)

I don't have much to say about this. A friend of mine bought another Heritage Johnny Smith, one that was Jay Wolfe's personal one I got years ago but traded to BigMike. As many may know, BigMike sold his 70 guitars to a music store in Chicago. Two Heritage JSs were part of the collection. My friend drove there and bought one but told me the other one sounded and played equally well but didn't have a rose on the pickguard. I called the store in Chicago and asked about the remaining HJS. I was able to make a purchase. Most of BigMike's instruments are not yet posted on Reverb. If you can buy an instrument now, you can save all the Reverb fees and negotiate a price. The trick is to know what they have that they haven't listed. I don't know what they are except a bunch of Gibsons. Here's the HJS hanging on the wall. It has a Heritage pickguard with Schatten volume and tone controls and a Kent Armstrong pickup. As best I can tell, that's how Heritage made it. We'll see.

The neck ring of my 157 cracked which left a section that finally broke off. I bought a standard 1 hole ring, and drilled the two extra holes. It worked perfectly. It really doesn't need to be reinforced, there's no pressure since the spring and screw are pressing against each other.

Arrived in good shape. All is well. A 1991 at 5# 8 oz. The Kent Armstrong pickup seems hotter and fuller than the more acoustic sounding Floating #3. Nothing to not like.