TalismanRich

MM, I didn't know you had the Tulk's PSP white whale. Maybe you could answer a question. Looking at the guitar in the pic, do I see a pair of mini switches, ala VIP switching? The original pics in the gallery are gone from that PSP, and all I have is from the video. Being that there were 14 years between Iron Mike's '96 and the 2010 PSP, I'm guessing they were not made at the same time.

I'm with you Daniel. I think the Gibson guard looks clunky. I don't understand changing it as an "upgrade", or putting on the poker chip for that matter. It might have made sense in 1952, but after 70+ years, you would think players would know what the switch does.

It was discussed here. It hasn't been officially announced. At this point it's just a teaser.

The PSP guitar was a 555, just custom ordered with chrome hardware, which apparently is a common request and block inlays. I happen to like gold hardware, which I have on my H157 and 2000 Millennium. I seem to remember the guys talking about how white guitars were very hard to spray correctly. Any imperfection was easily seen. There aren't a lot of white ones out there.

My bad.... I know... I know. Block inlays, headstock inlay, although it has chrome hardware. I posted the darn pic. Maybe I should have looked at it!!! 🤪

Our friend Tulk won the white 535 in 2010. No Bigsby was seen.

That's one of the complaints all the haters have on that other forum.

You're a good Grandpa, MG. Passing along a love of music and fine instruments to make it is a fine legacy.

I did a bit of gamma correction to give a better view of the headstock itself. Now, is this going to be a commercial product, or is someone just making a personal guitar, or something to show at an upcoming NAMM show? Heritage has always done a bit of customizing for the shows to show their abilities. I wonder if NoSnowBlower has any insight. He seemed to have an inside track on things.

In the picture posted on Facebook, you can see that the headstock does say Heritage. Interestingly, the headstock appears to have an outward flare.

That's the big brother of my H-140. The more I see them, the more I like a classic cherry burst finish! I don't know why they get so much hate.

Hey, some of just buy some guitars and then.... KEEP THEM! I've been looking at several guitars, and then I decide instead to just go pick up one of the guitars I already have, and the need to buy something fades away. Buy some new strings and make it sound fresh and new! I have seen a few on Reverb, and actually saw one on the local Craigslist. They're out there.

The cure for that is to pick up a guitar every day. It's a "use it or lose it" thing. Now you just need to let your hair grow out about a foot so that fan can blow it back... rock star style!

It looks like you're having a good time!

I have one from every PSP starting with #2. I don't know if there was one for the 1st PSP. One year wasn't a tee shirt, it was blue with buttons, if I recall. I would need to go up and root through the closet to see. A few years we even had hats.

I wish I had pics of our band in that era. That was the 7 man band, "Objection Overruled" with the brass section, guitar, organ, bass, and drums. Those were the days when you didn't waste film on stuff like the car, unless your girlfriend was in the shot! Taking pictures was expensive back then. A couple of bucks for the film, another 3 for developing and prints. You got 12 to 24 pics from your 110 Instamatic camera with the 1/2" negative. When you were getting $10-15 for a 3 hour gig, you didn't waste money on pictures! Something that many people don't realize is how little the dollar buys with many things today, and how some things have become incredibly cheap. I often look at how many hours do we need to work to buy something. (I'm pulling out my old man rant now!) When I started working in the late 60s, I was making $1.40/hour. I don't know what my dad was making in '66 but to buy my Kent guitar would have taken 2 full weeks of pay. That $400 Gibson ES335 I wanted would have taken more than 2 months wages! That obviously wouldn't happen when you have a family with 3 kids, a house, food, car, etc. Considering that you can work at McD's for $12/hr, an Ascent H-137 would be 3 days work, even after taxes. When I see people not blink as they shell out $300 to $1000 for an I-phone, it makes buying a guitar almost an impulse buy! If the Ascents are anywhere close to my Tribute ASAT in playability, then that's a really easy way to get into playing guitar, or even grabbing a "beater" guitar to take along without having to worry about it getting stolen or busted. Things are probably a lot different if you're in Vietnam or the Philippines making about $2 an hour, it's like the US in the 1960-70s. There, buying an Ascent is a lot more realistic than buying a Custom Core H-150.

G, I'm sure that's made of the finest tone wood available... old growth masonite. Am I right?

Ah yes. Those were the days of the custom car builders. George Barris built the Batman car, KITT, and the Munster Mobiles. Dean Jeffries did the Monkeemobile and the Black Hornet. Ed Roth was another builder, who did the some really weird cars. Those things would always show up at the custom car shows back in the 60s and 70s. When I first started to drive, Dad still had the Olds wagon, and I used to haul band equipment in there. It held a bunch of stuff! The Kustom PA cabs, my amp, guitars, drums. It would all fit in there like a Tetris puzzle.

Obviously building acoustic guitars wasn't a priority with the original company. I remember lots of discussions about someone like Godin making the bodies, and adding Heritage necks. SweeLee has a number of Harmony acoustics on their website, at prices similar to the Ascent guitars. That suggests to me that they are Asian builds. https://www.sweelee.com.sg/search?query=harmony&vendor=Harmony&product_type=Acoustic Guitars

I thought it was Corvair..... Nova..... Camaro.... Impala.... Monte Carlo..... Corvette! Dad drove the Oldmobile! It was a fine ride! Just look at those rockets.

For the US, it's pretty much a moot point. The only place that it appears you can buy an Ascent is from Manny's mail order which Bandlab owns. They aren't available from places like Sweetwater, CME, Daves or Musicians Friend. It's much more likely you'll find them in Asia. Swee Lee is selling a beginners pack, similar to the Fender Squire packs. A 137, Fender Frontman 10 amp, gigbag, cable, strap, picks, and a tuner for $449 Singapore dollars, which is $335 US. The H150 bundle is $589. A Squire Affinity Tele bundle is $519. That's the market the Ascent line aims for. I was thinking that if I bought a few, tied them to the bumper of my car and drove through a gravel parking lot a few times, I could relic them and sell 'em for 3 times what I paid. Might be a nice way to supplement my Social Security checks. 🤔

How did you know that it was a Kent? 😁 It looked just like this one.

I've been reading the thread on TGP about the Ascent guitars. It's almost hilarious reading the condemnation of the wood, the bolt neck, etc. At least a dozen of the posts were the of the "well, I'm not interested!" type. DUH! Anyone who thinks the Ascent line is aimed at Gear Page snobs is crazy. These are people who will spend $100 on a pair of bumblebee caps or $200 on vintage aged pickguards and poker chips. They aren't going to buy a $180 guitar. It's not aimed at ImABigStar on TGP who has 30 guitars, a dozen Marshall stacks, two Klons and plays for his dog at night. It's a guitar for little Timmy who's in 5th grade and wants to learn guitar. Daddy will spend $180 for Christmas. If little Timmy ends up learning to play, then maybe in 4 or 5 years he can get a real H150. When I was 10, you bought a crappy Sears Silvertone for $20 in the classifieds. Then you might get a crappy Japanese made guitar at a pawn shop for $100. Then, after several years you would move up to a used Fender for $200. You didn't start out buying a $400 Gibson just to try to learn to play G C E... 1 2 3 G B F... 1 2 3.

So, I wonder what the difference between the Blonde Dot pickup is from a standard Seth Lover, since they are both supposed to be a PAF pickup (besides the use of an A4 in the bridge position). Were the Blonde Dot's pickups some freak coincidence of winding that give them a sound that is distinctly different from the "normal" PAF? I know that for a time PAFs were supposedly wound without using a counter, but I don't know if that was true in 1960. Besides the signatures from Duncan and Bonamassa and the fancy box, what commands a $100 premium over a SL?