TalismanRich

Being in his upper 80s, I don't see him coming in to build a few guitars. Has anyone heard how Marv is doing. I remember someone saying something about health issues the last time we were in K'zoo.

You never know... Someone did pay $6.2 million for a banana duct taped to a wall. I have 3 bananas on the kitchen counter, a roll to tape in the garage, and several walls available. For $6M, I'll tape each to a wall, and throw in the house that has the walls attached for free!

It's not unprecedented to use the company name on the headstock. Unless you know what to look for, most people wouldn't notice the difference.

I see some nice pics, so I guess that means it DID happen! 😁

That's a looker, f'sure! It sounds like it's checking all the boxes tonally.

It's a store in Malaysia. They probably just picked a price to cover their Reverb fees and stuff. If you buy from their website, its $723 USD or $1037 CND. https://mahoganymusic.com.my/products/heritage-ascent-collection-h-150-electric-guitar-lake-blue-burst

Why would anyone pay $1000+ shipping for a guitar that you can buy from Manny's for $699? I certainly wouldn't buy a guitar from Malaysia when you have a US company doing the imports, with free shipping and a 30 day return guarantee. https://deals.bandlab.com/mannys https://deals.bandlab.com/mannys/products/heritage-guitars/8367752773785

The wattage on a speaker is an indication of how much power you can put through the voice coil without it heating up to the point that burns out. The suspension, cone material, available voice coil travel will determine if it breaks up, and sensitivity will tell you how loud the speaker will be at a reasonable power level. The speaker will distort if you exceed the rating, especially if you try to exceed the cone travel. If you play highly distorted, then you should have a higher power speaker capacity since those distorted squared off waves are actually higher in power than a sine wave of equivalent amplitude. Something like the Celestion Peacekeeper handles 50W but only puts out 86dB for 1 watt of power. A Vintage 30 will handle 60W and puts out 100dB for that same single watt. Also, it depends on where you set the amp. A Twin can put out a lot of power, but if you only turn up to 2, you might only be putting out 3 or 5 watts.

Their H-535s are excellent guitars. I've had mine for years, and it's still one of the 3 guitars that will be "first call" if I'm leaving the house to play.

FWIW, just saying that something is made in China doesn't necessarily mean it's a piece of crap. There are things made in the US that are crap, and stuff that is high quality. The same happens over there. I used to deal with a few Chinese plants and a few were consistent, and more than willing to go the extra mile to make a quality product. Others couldn't make the same thing twice if their lives depended on it. China is a massive country with lots of different companies. Anyone over a certain age will remember when Made In Japan was the sign of cheapness. Now the majority of things out of Japan are world class.

The 535 has a set neck. The new Ascent+ series have set nets and sculpted neck joints. They also have a belly cut. Here are the 137 and 150 Ascent+ neck joints.

Gotoh will put your label on a tuner if you are willing to pay for it. My Melanon built T has tuners with his name on it, very similar to Heritage. Gerard was a much smaller builder than Heritage and used top grade parts for his builds. I would be really surprised if Ed Wilson would have cheap'd out on tuners when he went through all the trouble to set up the custom core instruments. Save $20 on a $4000 instrument, that you've pleked, and designed the pickups for? Doesn't make sense.

Does anyone really know who makes the Heritage tuners? I would find it funny if they were made by Gotoh or Graphtech.

There's a big difference between a customer having a build to his specifications vs buying a prebuilt NAMM special build. What I don't understand is the company doing "bespoke" custom builds for "influencers" vs people who have supported them for 10 or 20 years. For an artist, I'll give them more of a pass, as it most companies have artist programs. Frankie Ballard It's great that these people are finally looking at Heritage guitars, but how does someone who has ignored Heritage for years get to spec out a guitar with their color, a P90/PAF and Bigsby for free? Maybe it's because I'm old school, but social media influencers are probably the lowest point on my list of reasons to look at something, much less to buy something. I find about 90% of the online reviews or gear to be utterly useless.

The guys seemed to be playing around with a lot of ideas the first few years before settling down into their core of archtops, semi-hollow and solid bodies. They tried quite a few stripped down models, without pick guards, basic pickups, and simple one color paint jobs. The Mark Slaughter, HB 1 and 4 bases, Parsons St III and Stat come to mind. I don't think they sold a lot of them. Unfortunately, while they might be rare, they don't seem to be commanding a premium in the used market.

I've seen a few other guitars with the sculpted neck joint. I played a couple and they were very comfortable when going to the upper frets. The transition make it feel smooth, not like you were bumping into the top, where you had to change your grip. I haven't seen any indications of those anywhere else. Where did these pics come from?

Aw, he's a rank amateur! Someday maybe he'll be able to afford a REAL guitar and amp. 😁

I've noticed that Sweetwater has Heritage making some exclusive "custom shop" models. There's one with the CC headstock and SD Antiquity II mini humbuckers. They also have Custom Core with a Bigsby B7. There's another that's Wine Red with a stinger, and the CC headstock and mini humbuckers.

That's one reason I liked the old wooden pickguards. I prefer the Heritage shape, and dislike the clunky plastic. Screw "vintage". I would probably change the pickup rings before the guard if I was worried about the color..

OK, I guess that nails it. Nice catch, Bob!

I would also ask for a closeup of the top of the headstock. That might tell you a bit about any work that was done on it.

Just an update, I checked my H-525 and sure enough, that's where I saw it. The W is above the number in the center. If this is one you're considering buying, I would definitely ask about a headstock repair. I don't think it is a new neck, but possibly it was removed or reset at some point. The logo on the front looks correct, top shape is wrong and the shading is suspicious. The headstocks on the bigger body guitars are wider than the ones on the 150, 535 and Millenniums, so I don't think that's an issue. For sure, if there was a break, that will affect the pricing.

Robbg A Heritage headstock had a peak in the middle. Yours has a dip, so either someone tried to make it an "open book" or maybe replaced the headstock after a break. The black shading could mask a repair. I've seen people add wings to the side and change the top to make is more "Gibson". I've also seen the letter in the middle like that before. I'll have to check my 525 and see if it's that way.

He does some swells with it later in the video. I don't remember him saying if it's a master or just the neck and couldn't tell from his switch flipping. Randy, I never heard of Dickey Betts doing it. I'll have to look that up. I can see where it might protect from inadvertently toggling the pickups and make swells easy. My Starfire 4 has the switch on the lower "ear", and I've hit it a few times. I rotated the switch so it went front to back rather than up and down. That worked just fine.

Did anyone notice that he has swapped the pickup selector and the volume control? I wonder if he has it set as a master volume rather than just handling one pickup.