TalismanRich

I brought my Heritage Patriot to one PSP. At 65lbs, that was enough. I barely got it back into the basement. I needed something lighter. My Amp Shop '65 Princeton build fits THAT bill fabulously. In a pinch, I could always pull out my Classic 30. They are actually a great workhorse of an amp.

That's not a beer belly, it's a pony keg!

When I was looking for a Fender style amp, I checked out an Accomplice used at a local shop. It was a good sounding amp, but seemed that it went into breakup too early for me. I ended up with a 65 Princeton clone that I've brought to PSP for years. It does clean Fender REALLY well.

I wondered the same thing. It looked normal to me.

Actually, I have a couple of PDF copies of old catalogs, 1989 and 2005. A simple screen shot capture did the trick.

Was the Metroplex the amp you were playing at PSP this summer? I remember it had some nice creamy tones when you were soloing on Wooden Ships. There is a fellow locally who repairs and modifies amps. He had a Mesa that drove him crazy. Couldn't get parts and info from Mesa, and really struggled with trying to deal with the layout.

The Roy Clark is a Semi Hollow design, but the body is a bit longer than the 535/555 which are 17 7/8" body length. Same thickness and width as the 535.

Here's a bit of Roy playing his signature guitar.

Welcome Alain, OK, by microphones, I'm assuming you're talking about the pickups. They should be fine, The ones installed are standard Schaller pickups from Germany. I would keep them unless you have a preference for a particular type. Many people use Seymour Duncan Seth Lovers. Bare Knuckles, Throbak, and DiMarzio. You'll want the gold covers to match the rest of the hardware, of course. It is very possible that the potentiometers have become dirty, but can often be cleaned with some contact cleaner. You might try cleaning them and the testing while they are still out of the guitar. Or, you can replace the pots. Most people like CTS pots, and those are most likely 500K audio taper. You can check them with a VOM. Heritage used Vishay polyester capacitors, which are good. The Roy Clark is a very nice guitar. Your H serial number means a 1991 model. It looks to be well care for. Enjoy it!

Well, as I understand it, they are woven from old growth Egyptian cotton, with vintage NOS thread and sewed on manual sewing machines with foot treadles. If you wait, I understand that they are going to launch an artisan aged version for $120. The logo is meticulously scratched off and the cloth is hand ripped for that truly worn out look. A better deal is to attend a PSP and you get a nice limited edition shirt for about $20 with a nicely designed logo. I've got a dozen or so. Honestly, I don't know why the are asking $40. Seems high, but an Adidas or Hilfiger shirt runs about $35. Sports team logo T-shirts tend to run $35 to $40. The days of $10 shirts seem to be long gone.

Actually, the HRWs were hailed as great, then yanked out because they were too "HiFi", or too shrill, too bright, too muddy, or too dull (take your choice... I've seen all those comments) only to be replaced by some SD or Throbak or Mojo, etc. Then those muddy, shrill, dull, HiFi pickups get put on Reverb for $500 a set because they're so great. Same with the Schaller pickups. People would often yank them and put in SD 59s or Seth Lovers. Once Heritage started to put in 59s and Seth Lovers, those crappy pickups were yanked out for somebody else's pickup. The same thing is happening with the 224 Parsons pickups. People yank them out because it's easy to do, then sell them for big $$$$, extolling the virtues of these great pickups. And if some random person winds a pickup and puts a Pat Pending sticker on it, it becomes a PAF and is hailed as a wonderful, detailed, vintage sounding pickup with amazing harmonic bloom and sustain for days! It's amazing what a little sticker does for the sound. .... or at least for a while. I'm not saying we're all gullible, but yeah, we can be!

They were winding some gold foil pickups when we were there in August. He was also playing with P90s. There were lots of different magnets that they could use to test different configurations. The problem is that there are a lot of variations in "gold foil" pickups. Single coil, double coils, with or without screw pole pieces and different magnets. Under that little piece of gold plastic covering, there's not a typical style like there is with a PAF or Strat or Tele pickup. GFS, Mojotone and Lollar all make different styles. With the 4 screws on the base plate, I'm thinking these might be a dual coil/humbucker style rather than a single coil. To know for sure, you would probably need to disassemble one, or visit the factory and look at the parts.

I will say that for the past 6 years, they have been running the plek machine on all their guitars. That should make a difference in setup. It might also sway your choice if you have any apprehension about the setup. That said, I haven't had any issues with setup on any of mine. They are all from the original group. Schaller pickups were the norm until they stopped producing pickups. Then Heritage moved to SD. SD is the still the pickup in the standard line, but Custom Core instruments have pickups wound internally. We got to see the pickup winding room during last year's tour. Of course, in the old days, they would put in whatever pickup you wanted. It was much more a custom shop than a factory like Gibson or Fender's production lines.

I don't know if it was the "wrong" neck, but it wasn't a normal 555 neck. Might have been a special request, might have been an "oops!! That's not right!" We'll never know. Actually, on the 555, I think the bigger headstock looks better. Not that the normal one looks bad, but I like the binding and slightly wider style. It looks CLASSY!

MIne is .88 at 1st and 1.03 at 12th. Bolero, the trick is to have a small piece of wood or plastic that is thicker than the strings, and fits between the and stringsfrets. Measure that, and subtract from the total. I have a small piece of wood that is 2.1mm. So I measure 24.40mm and get 22.30 which is 0.878 inches for the neck. For me, shape is as important, or more, than the total thickness.

I haven't pulled out the pedalboard to restructure things yet. I need to redo it all. And it's not like I'm busy since there's still snow everywhere, and more coming tomorrow. I'm just feeling lazy. I put the H-140 in the case, pulled out the ASAT and the 535. No pedals involved. Sometimes not even an amp involved. Just me and my guitars.

Many years ago, custom options were almost the norm. The guys would work with people to build guitars that are much different from the standard line. Pressure has several custom made guitars. He likes spruce, so he has a unique Millennium with a spruce top. Heritage had a system called the VIP (Var-I-Phase) and D-VIP. The switches could implement a coil tap, and phase reversal. The 3 knob, 3 switch is a D-VIP. You have master volume and master tone, and the third knob would vary the blending of the phase of the pickups depending on the switches. I would probably go with the 22, as I like Seth Lovers, unless it was a color I didn't like. My favorite is obviously the red, followed by natural, then sunburst. They now use Heritage branded tuners, with kidney beans. I don't know who is making the tuners, but I'm guessing that Edwin Wilson probably chose a manufacturer and had the branding set up. It's not an unusual thing to do. Just call Gotoh, Grover, Guyker, Wilkinson, etc and tell them you want 1000 sets, and they'll happily give you a price. Many people change the tuners. It's not difficult, as long as you check the dimensions.

I think there is a distinct difference between the headstock on the archtops like my 525 and the Eagles vs the 150/535/137. I remember the black 555 that was given away at PSP in 2016 had a bigger headstock than the standard 535. Sorry for the blurry photo, but it's the only one I have.

Bolero's looks very much like mine, which is a 2005. This has the Sheptone Tribute pickups, otherwise it's stock.

I think "50s" neck is meaningless. It varied at Gibson from 52 to 59. Every one was hand rolled and there were more than one person doing the work. Generally 50s means thicker. 60s SGs had thinner necks than 59 LPs. I certainly haven't played enough old Gibsons to say they are all the same, but the ones I've played varied. As for quality issues, I have 5 Heritage guitars from an 87 to 08. The only thing I have really done as a "repair" was changing the pickups in my H140 (it was used and one of the pickups was really screwed up). I put Sheptones in my 535, but just to try them. They sound different from the stock Schallers. I also changed the pots and caps in my 157 to see if there was any improvement. I can't say it was better. The Vishay Poly caps are good, so I don't think the oil filled caps improved anything. One advantage of the later models is the use of SD59s in place of the Schaller pickups. People used to pull the Schallers and put in new pickups, often SD59s or Seth Lovers. Now they pull the SDs and put in something else. On a Semi, that's a harder task than on a solid body with an access panel for the controls. Some people don't like the Schaller bridge and tailpiece. They change them to ABR or Nashville types, which are usually lighter. My 535 already came that way, so not all have the Schaller hardware. A couple of the Grovers on my 535 were getting tight, so last year, I changed to locking Grovers, and used keystone buttons instead of kidney beans. Strictly a choice. Normal factory is Grovers with kidney beans. They can be replaced in about an hour for under $100 if you want. You can see how they look in this thread.

All earlier 535s don't necessarily have thin necks. First, since they were all hand carved, there was some variation in the necks. They had templates to check as they were working the neck, but they would vary. My 535 neck (2005) is rounder and beefier than my 03 H157 or 87 H-140. There's a slight difference in shape as well. Second, different people did the carving. Marv could be different from Arnie. The guitars from the past few years have tended to be on the thicker side, but you'll still see a bit of variation between individual instruments. If you have the opportunity to play the guitar first, I would highly advise that. Some people are very picky about the feel, others can play varying thicknesses, but shape makes a difference. My Strat has a VERY thick neck, my 140 is relatively thin. Both are comfortable. I've played several PRS guitars and I hated the shape. They hit my thumb in a manner that was actually painful in a short time. I have a dislike of wide/flat necks. Hardware can be changed if you want, but the neck and body are pretty much set in stone.... er... wood.

I was hoping it wasn't a self portrait!

Since Wilson was so deeply involved with the Gibson Custom Shop, and then setting up the Custom Core line, you would expect them to be quite similar. The man apparently was VERY good at what he did. I"m hoping that Kuz doesn't run into any of the issues with the nitro peeling that some folks with Murphy Lab guitars have experienced. I know he takes extraordinary care of his guitars, so it there's a problem, it won't be from his lack of care.

It's time to change things up for the new year and the pedal board is the target. For years I've been using a OneSpot to power the pedals, but it means I need to run an extension cord. At last years PSP, Bill Durkin had a supply that ran off of battery, so I was looking around and found this for $40 on sale. 4400mAh and enough spots to cover all of my pedals. Charge it up and fire up the pedal board without that extra wiring. I'm curious as to how much time I'll get from a charge. In a pinch I can always plug it in and keep going. I have never had a compressor on my board, and thought it was time I try one. When I'm jamming with my buddies, I sometime have a problem with keeping levels right since we're going direct in and I'm using the Iridium. Maybe this will even things out. I liked JHS's Notaklon, so I'm hoping this will work out.

I would hate to load the wiring harness into that thing. A plain jane 535 is hard enough.