Leaderboard

A very special instrument arrived yesterday. My pics aren’t as good as Wolfe’s but,….so what. Plays wonderfully easy and sounds full and lush. Floating Heritage #3 pickup is good, maybe a little thin/bright for me on the high E and B strings. Kind of like a Joe Pass tone with amp at lower gain. A little more electric sounding at higher gain/volume, but still has more brightness, pick percussive sound and treble than my guitars with built in pickups. Even with a smaller body, the acoustic tone is still pretty full and bass is plentiful. The 25.5 scale neck adds a lot of snap and articulation to the sound. I thought I might miss some bass at 16 inches, but it delivers tight articulate bass on the low E and A strings. I’m very happy. I did notice a couple of small surface dings (not through the finish, and you really have to look to see them) that the guys at Wolfe may not have caught or worthy of note. But like i said - small and not noticeable unless you are really looking. Grain on the top is super tight, finish is beautiful and the back, sides and neck are all super flamey. The ebony board and bridge are gorgeous. The Heritage floater is fine (my first floating pickup and I love the way you get a completely different tone-feel than with built-in). I like it better than I thought I would, but I know what sound I am after (fatter, more organic), so I am going to put a Kent Armstrong single coil on it to get a closer to a Dearmond Rhythm Chief vibe.

I am truly enjoying this guitar. Proportions make it very comfortable and playable. I’ve discovered what I’ve been missing all these years in a floating pickup. About ten years ago i played and fell for a vintage Guild Artist award with a Dearmond Rhythm Chief but it was pristine, blond and very expensive. Spending a few days now with my Sweet 16 i can tell that the immediacy and organic feel of the floating pickup that was part of why i loved the Guild so much. There was more to it, how the neck fit my hand, how the body sat just right in my lap and put the fretboard in the perfect spot for me…. This Sweet 16 is pretty close at less than half the price of the Guild (10 years ago). I’m ordering the Armstrong single coil today. We’ll see what that brings with it in terms of tone and feel. More to come…

Yeah, I'm seeing that a lot as well, as soon as I try to access the site, long before clicking on anything.

One of their best sounding platforms. Congratulations on that Beauty!

I had a similar problem with the H tailpiece on my 550. I replaced it with a Benedetto style ebony tailpiece, and the problem vanished. Neck on 550 is a little wider and chunkier than most and i love it. I think the ebony tailpiece suits it well. I also added ebony volume and tone knobs. Below is before and after…

Super duper score! The 16 is a great guitar. Beautiful specimen.

Probably my favorite guitar to play live. Of all my H guitars it has the best neck/nut width combination for me. Just feels right in my hands. Sounds great through just about any amp and super versatile. Straight ahead jazz KB tone, getting jazz-rock/funky, it really can do it all. Rarely feeds back even at volume/loud drummer/horns. Looks good too! Anybody else have a crush on your 550? I love my other Heritage and other guitars too, but for playing in a band that does a lot of different things, this one gets the call most often. Indoors, outdoors, even in the studio I’d put it up against just about anything for tone and feel. Link to a recording: https://on.soundcloud.com/6SVD2MkCr2E14HyaEE

I have had my Behringer Klon for about three weeks now and am blown away by it. I am not really a pedal guy as I use mostly digital FX but I could not pass up this one because of the price. Here is another interesting Klon shootout. Got to 37:22 for a real Klon vs. the Behringer.

Congratulations on your new 'Sweetie'! Play that beauty in good health. 👍

Some of the best Heritage archtops I've experienced have been the Sweet 16. The 575 is nice too, but the Sweet 16 with it's longer scale works really well. The Armstrong single is a super pickup. They have 7k and 11k options on tap. I've set them up with a small slider switch under the guard to make it selectable. Both settings sound and work good. The woods on your 16 are very nice. Enjoy.

Beautiful, enjoy.

Sweet! Congrats. That is a good looking guitar.

That's a sweet, sweet 16! Congrats on your NGD!

Very nice, congrats!

Your song was how these are meant to sound. I know people talk about these archtops and rockabilly but I am a sucker for the classic lush jazz tone. Your reverb was nice. Was it a plugin or a pedal?

Thx all. Arrived yesterday. Will post a NGD topic later..but I’m happy. It is great.

What a beauty!!

I liked mine except for a couple minor things. The neck was on the thin side and the strings between the bridge and tailpiece would vibrate sympathetically and kind of bug me.

I know that guitar!

I have both and they're equally good. The standard one is in osb finish with factory Seth Lover pickups and it is an absolute killer instrument. I would just play them first.....with my eyes closed 🫣

Hey it's almost September.... JNEELY I'm glad you are concerned about Heritage, but you're about 20 years out of date? I'm pretty sure the new owners have the financial means & the business sense to keep it going. All their eggs aren't in one small basket

Regarding the bridge, I have a little experience in replacing a similar bridge on an Eagle Classic that I purchased in 1996. In my case, I found that the original bridge posts were simply placed in some drilled holes on the base of the bridge and were not anchored down in any way. I suspect that what we're seeing in the above image is likely the same scenario, for the posts will tend to wobble around a bit in the holes. Whether or not that's the fault of Heritage I won't venture to speculate, but I did replace the original rosewood bridge with a similar ebony model where I was able to screw the posts directly into the bridge base, which resulted in a solid anchoring of the posts. I haven't had a problem with it since. If by chance you're looking to repair your bridge, I would suggest replacing it.