Leaderboard

I remember Johnny Rivers. I didn't understand what he meant by secret Asian man! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBHcWvqXUQI Here's the classic ES-345 video. The trouble is that this was supposed to occur in 1955, which is four years before Gibson introduced the guitar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_WSXXPQYeY Michael J. Fox is, or was, a guitarist. You can tell by how he does this video. The center block is a combination of spruce and maple. Heritage may do the same but with a slightly thinner depth.

That guitar takes me back to my guitar lessons in the mid 60s at Dee Wells music studio. They had one in the display case for sale (WAY more than we could afford), but seeing that, as well as guys like Johnny Rivers on the cover of his album Live at the Whiskey a Go Go just fired up my first case of guitar lust. You can have your Les Pauls and Strats. That's what a guitar should look like!

You're on a tonequest! This may be incurable. SD 59s are decent pickups. Schallers are as well. If I could only have one pickup, it would be Fralin P-92s. That is not to say they are the best. I just like the single coil-like sound. The same is true with the Z-coils from G&L. There are innumerable variables in the signal chain and output. Strings, picks, technique, harness, control settings, cable (maybe), amp and its settings, speakers, position of speakers to the ears, and room or hall environment. Then there are pedals. The electric guitar has been around close to a century. It is funny that one of the great choices in pickups with jazz players is the very old Dearmonds. https://dearmondpickups.com/ If pickups were cheap, I'd like the idea of popping in a different set with string changes. There could be mini-toggle switches to change the circuits internally. Heritage semi-hollows are not so easy to change harnesses on. And pickups are not cheap. And your ears and brain are different than mine. So this could be a terminal journey, worth every step. Enjoy it.

Good morning I ended up going with Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates humbuckers! I just got them, now I have to put them in my guitar! 👍🏻

I did get a replacement for my 1960s Gibson ES-345 with a 2022 version. I've now played it enough to have an opinion. First, the Varitone and the stereo features I didn't ever need. Gibson stopped putting them into the ES-345. The new version has a fuller neck than the '60s and is built to be at least as good as the earlier builds. The finish and woods look the same. Thumbs up. The guitar has Phat Cats in it, which really sound fine. I have the original pickups as well, which I haven't tried. The reports on them are generally very positive. I have a fairly recent H-535. The build quality between the two are comparable. Most "the guitar that got away" stories don't have a happy ending. This one does.

My 1965 ES-335. It played and sounded amazing in wonderful condition. I made a lot of money off the sale but it is one guitar I would love to have it back... at the original cost I paid for it (paid $1900) (sold it 8yrs later for $10,000). But once the money from the sale is gone, you can never really get the guitar back.