Leaderboard

Yeah leveling beam to level fretboards and frets. The radius is better at establishing the fretboard radius. I find they work well to radius the top of nuts too. I have a 2001 535 that I love. I got it used in pristine condition a couple of years ago. It left the factory with a very not level fretboard. It was like a roller coaster. It was also only 9.5 radius too. Some heroic effort had been applied in its prior life to level the fret tops. It played but had buzzes here and there. it just didn’t feel right either. Some frets were as tall as new wire, some were under .030 tall. Tried everything I could think of. Then just decided to pull the frets out and do it right. After leveling the board nicely and sanding it to a 10 inch radius refretting was a snap. Having a level substrate to set the frets in meant not much leveling work was necessary. Saved a lot of meat on the frets. Moral of the story, have a good look at the fretboard. If it ain’t level, the frets won’t be either.

Paul at Green Oak is an HOC member and A1+. I bought an amazing custom order that he designed back in the day and I wish I still had it. I have also bought more than one H from Wolfe. Good people.

Picked this up yesterday This is a custom ordered, one off 2011 H137!!! I bought it from the original owner that custom ordered it from Marv and Jim and Vince. It’s a one piece Honduran Mahogany body and neck. The neck is a big 50s carve! Rosewood fretboard with pearl dots. Belly cut. Wrap tail bridge. Single humbucker. Grover tuners. And an old school Heritage case. This H137 was built by the original Heritage Crew. Marv, Bill, Jim, Ren and Vince. It’s in near mint condition. He didn’t play it very much. No fret wear. The neck sealed the deal for me. It is so rare to see a heritage from this era with a big 50s neck!!!! It feels great!! It weighs in at a skinny 7 lbs 6 ozs!! Plays and sounds great!! It has a killer rock tone!!!

Here’s your fret tapping tool!

You are going in the right direction. Tap them first. If still not resolved, spot level the high frets. I wouldn't pleck it. That machine removes too much material and if you don't have the right tech doing the job, the machine will gouge your fretboard and binding. I know some people swear by it, but what that machine did to my Les Paul Special was nothing short of a massacre.

Have you tried tapping down those few frets? I've heard of instances where a fret lifted a bit, but when tapped, was reseated and fine.

With that Zebra pickup, I think that guitar would look cool with a 5 ply pickguard like this... https://www.ebay.com/itm/295617504808

It's just your basic rock 'n roll machine. So simple that even I could figure it out!!!

Grand Rapids Symphony; Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Arrived Thursday. Gorgeous and plays beautifully. Played it for a couple of days now. Took it to my luthier to install a Benedetto B-6 (built in version of Benedetto’s S-6 floating pickup). I love this pickup and i think it will suit this guitar beautifully to bring out a little more acoustic voice. Especially since this model has only a neck pickup so it retains a little more of that woody/acoustic vibe. Deserves to be heard that way. Feedback is definitely a bigger issue with the single pickup and all solid woods, but part of the allure of this one was that it came with custom Doug’s Plugs for the F holes. A little less acoustic feeling with those in, but feedback is not an issue. Very excited to get it back from the shop this week.

Nice guitar. I still love those old style wooden pickguards!!! I wouldn't swap out anything until you played it. Schaller pickups are like any others... they have a sound that may or may not be what you prefer. If you go back and read comments you'll hear that they are hard, soft, bright, full, like an SD59, Alnico Pro II, a Dimarzio PAF or a Gibson PAF. That pretty much covers the range from left to right. They are a potted, Alnico 5 based pickup, with 4 wire connections for coil splitting if you want to go that route. Schaller quit selling pickups which is what prompted Heritage to switch to Duncan (59s and Seth Lovers). They have 3 mounting holes on the baseplate, so you can adjust the tilt if you need it. I've got Schallers in my H-157, Sheptone Tributes in my H-535, Seth Lovers in my Millennium, and Alnico Pro IIs in my H-140. I can make more of a change in the sound by changing my amp than I can between any of the guitars. Playing clean through the Princeton sounds nothing like the Patriot or the DSL401. In the end, what's most important to me how the guitar feels in my hands. Then I can tweak the tone to what I want.

Pete said that the Plek machine is fully booked, just with their production. I think he might have said they run on weekends sometimes. There's no time for outside work.

you can make a levelling beam from scratch...

You have me that tube, my friend!!!

Only way to learn is to do it. Go get'um Brent. Good project. Let us know how it turns out. I'd like to learn to do more of my own guitar tech work too, so you'll be my role model!

Wolfe Guitars in Florida and Guitar Riot in Cleveland. Both excellent reputable dealers.

That's a nice one Brent and it sounds good too! From the good old days when you could ask them to do special orders, I miss those times!

Rock on, Brent!! 👍

I love the kill switch addition.

Nice find,

yep- that's what i think too. good match for this guitar. i've used the B6 is a couple of 16" inch archtops and liked them a lot. looking forward to seeing what it does for this one. I had one fail once, but ever since tthen I've been really happy with it. will let you know how this one plays out (pun intended).

Thanks Mark. X-Braced. Great to know that the tops are same as GEs. I suspected as much. It is my understanding that the two models share DNA, but the Classic is a simpler statement, mostly aesthetically. Suits me better anyway. I do like the standard plain fretboard without markers visually, nice and clean look, but yes- having the dots is a good and clear visual cue to where you are and where you are going. Benedetto B6 pickup is on back order so I wont get it back from the shop for another 10 days or so. Will report back.

That looks like an H575 Mimi Fox signature model.

That's an interesting question. As a kid I played a Gibson 225 for a year or so and gave it to my sister. Much later I had a 525 soon after they came out. The instrument was comfortable for me and was loud enough that it didn't need to be plugged in for bedroom practice. You should prepare how you want to manage the P-90 hum. The pickups are reverse wound, so when both are at about equal volume during amplification, hum is not an issue usually. That's what I did. There are pedals also that take out the 60 Hz hum. The second issue some of us have had is the feedback tendency, common to all hollow bodies. That can be managed as well. The upsides are how light the guitar is and that P-90 hollow body tone. It also has a cool retro image. It's a niche instrument that I like. How much it is worth and what you'll need to pay for it is unclear. They are collectible.

I have a couple of more comments on the Eagle Classic. I do like the fret markers. My Classic did not have any. Usually they are not necessary I suppose, but they can prevent a noticeable gaffe. Unless you use a bridge pickup, this guitar has it all. It's a true beauty. The finish is a masterpiece. Around the time this guitar was built I was at Heritage with a couple of guitars, an Eagle and an Eagle Classic, with some questions. In the conversation with two of the owners, I asked whether the choice of spruce top billets (blanks) differed between the Classic and Golden Eagle. Bill and Marv said in general no. That almond burst finish looks perfect. That is not easy to do well. I don't know if this guitar is parallel or X-braced. The latter is a little trickier with a mounted pickup. Either way is good.

Sweet!!

Having grown up in Kalamazoo, I've experienced a lot of claims about what makes the difference in a good sound and have known several people who designed and built pickups on a larger scale. Many of you have heard many opinions also. Decades later these observations keep pouring in. A couple of days ago a long standing friend suggested a set of strings that made a big difference. I can only conclude that for many of us this tonequest has no end. I have been humbled several times when I was unhappy with the sound of a set up or pickup only to hand the guitar to someone very good and was amazed at the tone. My impression of Schallers is that they are decent. The tilt engineering is clever. Here's a relevant video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mURVofPTnY&t=222s I'll venture briefly into another realm- the Strat. I have one with the original pickups and a David Gilmour EMG set. There is a huge difference that to me is worth the investment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ozl28iKM0E

Let us know how much of a difference the Benedetto pickup makes vs the Schaller. It should be a pretty big change given the difference in the winding.

Very, very nice!

Looks awesome and sounds great!

Thanks man!

beauty, those schaller's are the same a sd 59s, real good pickups.. they love the a2 magnet swap if you want that fingerpad articulation,,..

Wow. Thats amazing

That's going to buff out real fine! Dave is the best.

Hopefully will be picking it up Saturday !!!!

Excellent!!!! Well done Brent. 525’s are terrific.

@tsp17...Congratulations on your latest archtop score. GE's are wonderful, world class instruments. Play it in good health.

Nice!

What an improvement! You were right about Dave Teski, Awesome work!

Wow, that's awesome!

Dave Teski (lead paint artist for Heritage) is doing a refinish on just the top of my H525!!! He sent me this pics yesterday. He’s going to be buffing it out Saturday!!

I had to laugh when I saw this youtube video title: I'm sure most here are aware Heritage makes killer guitars, and have done for years 😝 They compare a 2025 custom core model to a recent R8 plaintop. It makes sense he bought both, as he needs specimens to R&D pickups I haven't watched this whole thing yet, it's over an hour long. The gtr part starts around 15min in: hopefully the video link works

"Hey honey, I was thinking to get junior this guitar for Christmas." (shows picture of Ascent)

CVS, This is mine. I picked this up one night at Brents house. LK155 had it at PSP one year and I really liked the guitar. When it became available, I jumped.