rockabilly69

I saw one from this era with a stock a Nashville bridge and regular tailpiece, and I've seen many Grover tuners from that era in Chrome (they came in Chrome and Nickel). But why they would mount single screw style pickups in dual hole Shaller rings is betond me. The pickguard and poker chip could be factory, the pickguard has the factory shape. I think it would hard to get more the 2K for this guitar.

That pickguard design is great and really works with that guitar!

I've never owned one of those but I've always liked them! That's a great looking one!

I've had few really good guitars that I sent down the road for one reason or another, but I kept all the guitars that I love! I traded a 1962 Brown Fender Super amp that I wished I had back though. It needed some work at the time and I really didn't know anybody that could work on it! Since then I've friended some great amp guys!

that's a beauty

This one surely floats my boat, and I would like it more with an H tailpiece, some black with silver reflector knobs, and all nickel hardware. I can wish

I learned to fix my own guitars when I realized it was a waste of money bringing them to a tech all of the time. When I went full time as a musician, I started realizing in closer detail what I wanted my guitars to do, so I learned how to dial them in. I learned out to do the things that others didn't want to, truss-rod adjustments, fret dressing, special electronic wiring, etc. Not luthier stuff, just basic guitar setup and repair. When I found I had a knack for it, I turned it into a side hustle to supplement my gig money. I worked on guitars for people one day a week, and then that turned into two days a week, until I had enough gigs where I didn't need to do it anymore. In the process, I really learned what I liked, and I also found out that many of the things touted on the internet as guitar setup gospel, weren't

I approve of this post 1000000%!!! It's our guitars, we've got to play them, we should make them the way we want them! Speaking of parts I've been getting parts in the US mail/UPS for rewiring my new Zemaitis guitars, and I can't wait to start the work on them. I'm just a few parts shy! Come on UPS! I've been researching for the last few weeks on the electronic parts and the wiring schemes used in the original Tony Zemaitis guitars, and funny enough, most the original wiring cavities are pretty sloppy so it's been a slow go trying to figure out what to use to get me there. But I'm just getting ideas from the research. Most likely I will develop my own wiring scheme. One thing that particularly intrigues me is the wiring for the Reverend Kyle Shutt guitar, which is 4 knob with Vol,Vol,Tone, and Bass contour. I'm not a fan of his playing, to be fair not my kind of genre, but I like the thinking behind his wiring choices!

One of my first guitars was a single pickup version of that style Melody Maker, and the owner before me stuck a real Gibson PAF in it, and put a Leo Quann badaas bridge on it too. It was killer diller!

Didn’t sound rushed to me

Sounds pretty good DB

I definitely don't agree with keeping things stock (although I have a few guitars that are perfectly fine stock) but your statement here, I couldn't agree with more. It's your guitar, you've got to play it, and if it works for you, that's good enough.

I'll take a proper ABR made in China over any inferior bridge made in Germany. That said, Faber bridges are German! SO are ABM another fine maker of ABRs

I've said this more than once, I worked on peoples guitars as part of my income when I first quit my day job about 25 years ago. I worked on more guitars than I can count and I tried a ton of replacement parts. So to answer the OPs questions. 1. If there's no problem, why bother? Because IMNSHO many replacement bridges sound better, and to me look better. 2. I prefer the old hardware over replacements. I don't:) 3. I don't want to alter the instrument for the sake of its integrety. What Integrity? Heritage didn't pick all the parts because they were the best for instrument, they picked from suppliers that gave them a good deal. So why keep the integrity? You could always keep the old parts in the case! 4. Cost too much or too much hassle even though there are better options available. Faber offers 20% off sale on reasonable prices, on very good bridges and tails, and when changing strings it shouldn't take more than a half hour of your time to replace the bridge and that includes intonating it. As for Schaller roller bridges, I would take an intonated Bigsby bridge or TruArc bridge every time over a Schaller. In all my experience, and in Schaller's defense, I've never seen a ANY roller bridge that to me was worth using, they always robbed tone. And more than once they've cause vibrations and buzzing! As for stock Schaller hardware, if it sounds good, or more importantly if you like the sound, then why change it. Personally, I'm a vintage tone kind of player, and I think a proper ABR that is screwed directly into the body is the way to go with Heritage H150s for my TONE. And for that type of guitar H150/LesPaul, for me, it's the only way I go. For certain types of heavy music I think a bridge with more mass and weight might work better for sustain (at the cost of resonance), so I could see using the stock Schaller (but not a NAsville as they are hollow). In my case though, I don't care what comes on an H150, Schaller, Nashville, I immediately pull them off and put on a proper ABR, and NEVER once did the stock bridge sound as good as the bridge I replaced it with, which most of the time is FABER with screw-in inserts, and Tone loc bridge, with nickel plated brass saddles. Personally I think Heritage used Schallers and Nashvilles because it takes more time to correctly install a proper ABR. I remember the first time I swapped a Faber bridge and the deeper german steel inserts into my H150. It was awesome that guitar came alive!!! I that particular bridge into 1 Les Paul, 3 H150s, 2 Firebirds, 1 SG Classic, 1 Les Paul Special, and the only time the guitar didn't sound better was with the SG Classic. But a few weeks later, out of the clear blue I got a package from Larry at Faber and in it was a new bridge because he said they had a bad run of bridges, and that's what I put on that classic. Soon as I put the new one on, it sounded great! I hold NO stock part sacred! A lot of people like to keep things they way their guitar came from the factory, but me, if I think something is lacking, I immediately get to work on it. I don't suffer anything on a guitar that I can make sound or work better for me. I just bought my Holy Grail guitar, which originally sold for $10,000 when new, and most people would think it a travesty to work on an expensive guitar like that, but I already bought the pickups I want to hear it with and different value pots and caps. I LOVE the guitar's construction, the bridge and tailpiece on these lock down and are hand made to perfection, the look knocks me out, and frankly I've never played a guitar with a better neck shape, smoother feeling fretboard, or better fretwork, but I think the pickups that they chose to use in it aren't as good as other's I've used. So out comes the soldering iron. I make a living with my guitars, either playing live, or recording for people. Personally there are very few guitars that I've picked up and thought to myself I can't make this better FOR ME. I've swapped out some parts in my day that didn't work out, but I just kept on going till I found what I liked. Playing and recording is my living, modding guitars is more of a hobby/passion that works along with what I do for a living:)

I own one wah pedal and haven't used it in over 10 years. So obviously not a problem I share, but I'm sure a little DeOxit in the pot and then some fader lube and you should be good to go!

now lets hear a demo!

Yep your ears are to be trusted!

Right on Dave, that was the main idea of my post!

love it!

Against the most common gear forum opinion, which states PAF style humbuckers work best with 500K pots, I recently I rewired two humbucker equipped guitars with 250K pots. One of them I used 500K volume pots and the other guitar which was brighter, I used 250K pots all the way around. And guess what, in both cases I preferred the 250Ks over the 500Ks that were in there previously. I just got tired of never using my tone pots wide open. To me, they were always too bright, and now I can use the pot through it's whole travel. Both of these guitars were bright to begin with, and when I put the humbuckers in, Tyson Precious and Grace, and Wolfetone Legends, I just shotgunned both guitars with my go to, .015 neck caps, .022 bridge caps, and 500K pots all the way around. And even though I loved the pickups with the tones rolled back, they never felt quite right. The pickups just always seemed brighter than they should be. Well both of these guitars sound much better now. So if you're dealing with a bright guitar maybe you should consider this.

Great color on that one!

Well if sounds better than the STR in the bass even better yet!!! I bet it records great. The guy makes some good sounding amps. Lately, since I've been playing with my rock and roll band, I've been playing bigger 50 watt amps and actually having the time of my life

Congrats on your new toys! Both great amps! A few years back my close friend Troy brought his Swart STR over to my studio with his custom shop Gibson ES-330 (an absolute monster of a guitar) and I was knocked out by the tone he got out of that combo!

Thanks, and yeah I dodged a bullet there