Leaderboard

Marv's granddaughter posted this on Facebook. Rare Bird Sighting! A few weeks ago, I posted looking for leads on a MarvBird—a special guitar made by luthier Marvin Lamb, who also happens to be my grandfather. My husband became obsessed with the hunt and started digging everywhere. And thanks to one of YOU, we were blessed with the opportunity to bring one home to the family! Thank you for all the love you continue to show for Marvin’s craft and legacy—it means the world to us.

Remember when ordering a custom from Jay Wolfe, Graham asked my opinion on CNC vs hand carved / cut. All I had was a gut response based on internet chatter. We the end user /consumer of fine guitars know little about building vs manufacturing. We purchase and play. Pete's "wood therapy" displays the vast knowledge gap between the people who visit and work at 225 Parsons. RESPECT

Staying on the history of Marv at Gibson and Heritage. Marv sent me this picture last night. He made this one off when Gibson was still at Parsons St. He called it his Bo Diddley guitar. There is a lot more story behind it. He told me it has the original strings on it from around 1980. I told him it's time for a string change. We had a chuckle about that.

I talked to Marv last night. He sounds good and said he is feeling well. He told me he will be turning 86 this year. He is enjoying life and his offspring that is getting extensive. We were talking about H-357s and the one he is holding. That is one of the Korina models he did. Came from California. He brought up Ron Warren and he hadn't heard he passed. He loved the picture Ron did for him.

This is a photo taken for a story by a local paper in 2013. It just so happens that Marv was working on a couple of 357s. The one on the bench is mine and the one Marv is holding is Bolero's. I know mine is the one on the bench as it was running a few weeks behind waiting on my custom fret board, "From them boys down in Tennessee". Marv sent me several in process shots of the build, but it's nice to have an action shot of the build. https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2013/02/love_where_you_live_photos_by.html

Actually, the post was made by Taylor Lawrence, who is Marv's grandaughter.

Well it looks great. I know that building guitars can stir up the dust, but when I looked at pictures of the old shop before the new guard came in, it just looked gloomy and a safety nightmare. And it seems to me that the quality of the new guitars coming out of Heritage has improved. I have played quite a few of the new Heritages, and I've been impressed with all but one of them (a H530 that just wouldn't intonate and the aging was way over the top).The rest of the new ones that I've played had properly cut nuts and nice fretwork, whereas all of my "golden years" needed work in those areas. And I liked that the few H150s that I played were reasonable weight, surely not boat anchors. I'm sure Heritage lost a lot of their archtop building expertise, with the retirement of Marv and Ren, but hopefully, Pete can train some of the new guys and they can rebuild their archtop line.

Same here. I really was kind of afraid of the learning curve. But after my first experience, which was a Digitech GSP1101 and conquering my fear, I was able to start to undererstand it. Then I got the Helix and other Line 6 stuff. All of these things are capable of doing a shit ton more than I would ever know what to do with. I just wanted a simple pedalboard and it gives me that. Plus little by little, I have been able to do more and more. They are all pretty similar in the same way that most DAWs are similar, meaning if you understand one, the rest are fairly simple

The paint booth is a huge improvement over the old setup on the third floor. The air is filtered in so that there's no dust to settle on a wet finish. Guitars are hung to dry, and the safety is a big factor as the solvent vapors are kept to a minimum in the room. There is a lot less wood dust in the shop itself. They invested a good deal of money in the dust collector system. Wood dust can be a dangerous fire and explosion hazard.

Man, that Eagle that Rich plays the song on at the end of the video sounded unreal. Makes me want to learn a song in that style. It has just the right balance of string to wood in the tone WOW!

That’s Bill.

agree! and Bob & Bill, those are amazing H137's. You lucky SOB's!

What I know about Jazz guitar playing could fit on the head of a needle, but I love watching those Rich Severson videos. He does great demos, and gets some great tones out of those jazz boxes!

Yes he made a pair.

I've seen in a couple of places that Heritage has reduced the price on Standard line models. Might be time to jump on something!

I have never used that GX-10 but having a zillion Boss FX for that price is great. I use Line 6 and Quad Cortex for FX and they are all great. I have messed with Headrush and Ampero and liked them too. Boss has to be great or they would be pushed out, given all of the great competition. Why anyone would spend $400 on a couple of Boss pedals when you can get the same pedals plus a shit ton more for the same price is beyond me. BTW, I like the music you are learning. It will be fun trying to cop those sounds. But you have the gear to pull it off!

I have gotten to spend a weekend with the H-150 Deluxe. For various reasons a friend of mine had it after purchase because of the weight. It was about 9.5lbs. Did know at the the time that is the norm though there are always variations. Ren from Heritage gave me the following info and the cavity cover confirmed it. The pickups are Seth Lover Zebras that deviate from the spec as well as the tuning pegs are not Grovers. Product Details __________________ Top: Curly Maple upgraded Back: Mahogany Neck: Mahogany Fingerboard: Rosewood Scale: About 628mm- (24-3/4") Pickup: Humbucker×2 Pegs: Grover Weight: About 4,28kg Accessories: Heritage Hard-case. More info on label under back control cover. Be careful not to chip finish. Thanks for the input.

Additional pictures. The pic on the cart of my unfinished H170 seems to have a Marvbird in the background.

Throbaks in an H170, of course. From 2014.

A couple years ago, I bought a used Collings 290 wraptail from Willcutt Guitars and got a KILLER deal on it. Before I bought it, I asked the store manager (Eric, who is also a good pal of mine) what P-90s are in the guitar. He said that he thought they were Lollar P90s but wasn't exactly sure because it was a used guitar, but he said that what ever P90s are in it I won't want to change them because they sound incredible. The guitar was mint and it was such a good price that I didn't push the issue. I got it home and played it, and they did sound incredible! Well, I changed the stings and looked under the covers.... the guitar came with Throbak '52/'54 P90s!!! My killer deal got EVAN BETTER!!! So yes, I have Throbaks in my Collings 290 wraptail.