TalismanRich

Its good to hear about someone else who has discovered the 1/2 round or groundwound strings. I agree with you. You get most of the roundwound sound, with a smooth feel.

This is what the locking Grovers look like on my 535. I like the keystones more than the kidney beans. They are the same weight as the originals, 9.6 oz for the set.

For me, the one guitar that I think this might be useful on would be my H-157. That guitar is 9 1/2 lbs, so on the heavy side. But any change would need to be gold/locking/keystone button replacements. I really like the way the Grover Keystone tuners look on my H535. I don't know if 3oz would make that much difference, I would probably get more reduction swapping out the Schaller bridge and tailpiece for lighter parts.

I've never run across a Premier amp. From the bit of checking I've done, they appear to be old style point to point or terminal strip construction, much like Valco did in the 40s to 60s. I did run across this video about Premier guitars and amps from Mike and Mike's Guitar Bar.

The neck ring of my 157 cracked which left a section that finally broke off. I bought a standard 1 hole ring, and drilled the two extra holes. It worked perfectly. It really doesn't need to be reinforced, there's no pressure since the spring and screw are pressing against each other.

Archive.ORG has the old websites. https://web.archive.org/web/20130507174337/http://www.heritageguitar.com/dvip.html

This was posted on their website abut a dozen years ago: INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE D-VIP (DOUBLE VAR-I-PHASE CONTROLS) Please Note : The D-VIP controls work best with our new HRW pickups. Each HRW pickup, has four lead out wires, plus ground, plus complete full length wire shielding for all 5 wires. ( Right handed player ) Sitting in the playing position. Lower left = master volume control, for both pickups Lower right = master tone control , both pickups. Upper left VIP control knob. 10 = in phase, for fingerboard pickup. 0 = out of phase, for fingerboard pickup. ( mini switch down) Please note that when on "O", there is little volume, because the bass and mid-range have been phased out. Upper right VIP control knob. 10 = in phase, for bridge pickup. 0 = out of phase, for bridge pickup. ( mini switch down) Please note that when on "O", there is little volume, because the bass and mid-range have been phased out. Two Mini Switches: ( 3-way ) The one on the left = Fingerboard Pickup, The one on the right = Bridge pickup. Position: 1 ( Down) = VIP ( VAR-I-Phase) The only time the VIP works, is when the mini-switch is down, for that pickup. Position : 2 - ( Middle) = FULL, (Both Coils), ( normal ) Position : 3 - ( UP ) = COIL TAP, ( single coil) Note: Main toggle switch, works like normal. UP: Front pickup. Middle: Both pickups. Down: Bridge pickup.

BTW, did anybody else see that Rudy's Music in Soho, NY may have lost quite a few guitars when the roof of the building caught fire? No fire damage in Rudy's but the water was cascading down the walls. The Soho shop has been closed for several days. The initial report was "hundreds of thousands of dollars" of damage, but I haven't heard how much was actually damaged. I remember that a lot of guitars were repaired after the Nashville flood in 2010. The amount of damage will probably depend on how long the guitars were wet.

The PRS SE line hasn't diminished the brand, nor has G&L's Tribute line (they are actually pretty good). Ibanez has the G10 line, Jackson had the Dinky line, Fender has Squire. These aren't guitars that an intermediate or pro level player will be buying. However, for someone starting out, it could be a great starter guitar. I'll bet it beats the crap out of the Silvertone I started with, or the Kent/Guyatone Videocaster that replaced it.

My situation seems to be different. Right now I have 5 guitars that I can grab an play. My 140, Strat, Melancon Tele, Taylor and Dean Acoustic are either in an open case, or on a stand. I've played 4 of the 5 in the past two days. Last week, I played my 535 for 2 1/2 hours when I was jamming with my friends, and pulled out the 157 for about an hour of just playing around in the basement (it did start to get a bit heavy after an hour). I like playing all my guitars. When I have to clean things up and put all the guitars away, I miss just grabbing another.

I just looked at Wildwood's selection of LP Customs and they are all 9.75 to 10+ lbs. Choice of black or Pelham blue. Gibson also shows white, but no burst colors.

That's a good sign that Heritage realizes that some people LIKE the Custom styling over the standard line.

I took the question to be "what model would be your favorite, not which guitar that you currently own, or have owned, is your favorite. It's a bit of a different direction. There are a lot of models from years past that, to me, would be the perfect instrument. Just because I don't have one doesn't mean it can't be my favorite! I've kicked myself a few time for not latching on to a guitar, just because I didn't really need it. Then again, there have been a few times when I just said "screw it" and pulled out the plastic.

I would have to say my favorite would be an H-555. I think their semis are great, and I like the extra appointments for the 555 (bound f-holes and headstock, nice inlays, multilayer binding on the body, gold hardware, ebony fretboard). A nice 5 piece neck would be a plus, although a mahogany neck is fine. Early ones had maple necks. I've never compared a maple vs mahogany neck, so I can't really say which I would prefer. Alas, I have to suffer with a measly H-535.... life is cruel sometimes! BTW, I have a 525, and it's REALLY nice. I liked the sound better than the 575, which always sounded "boxy" to me. The 575 is probably much better for jazz, but for what I play, the 525 sounded better. I'm not a jazzer. LK got this one from Kuz, and when I played it, I told him that if he was ever going to sell it, let me know.

I was just reading this and was going to post. I think it says a lot about Meng's love of the music business. Heritage, Harmony, Bandlab/Cakewalk, Teisco, NME, Guitar.com, ReverbNation, now Manny's. Everything is music related. There are still brick and mortar stores out there that are doing well. Manny's was an icon in the business, but the building isn't part of this. It was demolished some years back and a hotel was built there. I'm guessing he's looking at building a retail "brand". He already has Dawsons in the UK and Swee Lee in Asia. This gives him a "name brand" in the US.

What the heck am I supposed to do with those? Beat them with a stick? My old drummer friend left his kit in my basement some years back. I tried to learn a bit of drumming. It was hopeless! As someone who has ZERO coordination and even less sense of timing, about the only thing I could do with them would be to throw a blanket over them so they don't get dusty!

SO what was wrong with the 170 that made you send it back?

Tad, that wasn't smoke.... that was leftover mojo from being played in a bar! 😜

FWIW, VMP Naphtha and lighter fluid are very close in composition, with lighter fluid evaporating a bit faster. That makes it easier for the spark to ignite. I think most standard lighter fluid is about 50-75% naphtha to start with. The guys at my plant used to fill their Zippos with VM&P and it worked fine.

Don't dilute the naphtha with anything. Nitrocellulose resins are totally insoluble in VM&P naphtha. The grades that are used by Heritage are dissolved in acetone and I think they might use a touch of alcohol. You don't want to soak the finish, but a dampened rag should be sufficient. It will evaporate quickly. Make sure you use it in a well ventilated area. Stay away from water heaters and furnaces.

The problem is that the smoke gets embedded in the bare wood inside with a semi or hollow body. It becomes a case of "dilution is the solution". Constant airflow gradually draws out the smoke. Unfortunately, it takes time for that to happen. For an H-150 style, wiping it down with naphtha would do the trick since only the lacquer and fretboard get exposed. It should remove the majority of the chemicals from the smoke.

When I first got my 535 it had a pretty significant smoke smell. I used Febreeze on the case a few times along with a fan blowing on it. For the guitar itself, I had air blowing in one side for days on end, which lowered it quite a bit. I also tried spritzing some Febreeze inside the hole... I don't know that it did a lot but it masked a bit of the smell. Eventually, the smell diminished and now it's fine. You can get a small USB powered fan that you could use to blow air into one F-hole. Just let it run for as long as you want. I had an old computer CPU fan that ran from a 12v power supply. Some people say that an ionizer or ozone generator works, but you don't want an ozone buildup in your house. If you could put it in a garage or something, it might be ok.

I've got an Alesis SR18. I like the drum sounds, but I never had the patience to do any programming of it. It does have some usable patterns. I used it with my Yamaha AW1600 years ago to do a version of Inner City Blues with only factory patterns. You can also feed it midi tracks from a computer and feed that to your 8 track. I've since moved to MT Power Drumkit in my DAW, although you could send the audio output from your computer to your recorder.

I remember when I bought Lyle's 525 years ago. He drove to PawPaw from Canada to drop it off and pick up the blue H150 that Brent had. I drove up one evening when I was in Warsaw IN, about a 150 mile trip in the middle of winter, to pick up my guitar because I just don't feel comfortable with shipping guitars anymore. If I was buying a guitar withing about 250 miles, I would just make a day of it and drive to pick it up. The shipping cost would just about pay for the gas, and I know that it wasn't going to be crushed.

Weird... I can't see the pic with any of my browsers.