TalismanRich

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. 😁

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!

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.

Yeah, but they don't make your beer get hot during the set! What's worse, Cold pizza or warm beer?

I especially like how someone will yank out the HRWs because they are so bad, then sell them on Reverb for $3-400 a set.

They are all hand sprayed, so every one is different, depending on the way the painter feels on that day. There's no "template". It's free hand.

THe only way I can see going direct to PA/FOH is if you have in ear monitors, which I don't. If you've got high dollar, big time PA, IEM, etc. then it probably can work. You can have your roadie take care of all the particulars to make sure everything is up to snuff for the show. U2 does it. When I get together at my drummer friend's house, we use headphones, no amps. I tried using my old PodXT but it had some real noise issues. I grabbed a Strymon Iridium from a local fellow, and it does fine. It's not the same as having an amp, but it's just for a few guys jamming. For actually playing on a small stage in front of people, having an amp is still preferred for me.

I remember some years back when the 59/JB was supposed to be the hot combo. The JB is a hot pickup so it can give some punch, the 59 is more of your conventional PAF. Those things change every year. It's like the latest viral cat video.

Short of buying a Custom Core model, the only place you can get the 225s is via the second hand market. There just happens to be a set here on the HOC. I'm not big into changing pickups, although I've changed them in my H140 and 535. I have a pair of gold Seth Lovers on the shelf that I was going to put in my H157, but the legs are too long for the rout, and I'm not going to butcher the wood to install them. The Schallers are short leg, and the Seths are long leg. I've got Seth Loves in my Millennium LE, so I can always play that one.

Mark, good to hear from you again. Glad to hear you're enjoying your time. I missed reading your tales (sometimes good, sometimes tales of woe). Should there come a day that you get the bug, you'll surely find some like-minded mates to scratch the itch. Don't stay away so long next time.

Lordy Mark, Do you have a black cloud floating somewhere over your head? I remember what it was like when my leg was in a cast for 6 weeks. UGH! Hope you heal up quickly!

Wow, you were looking to replace a guitar player, and you end up with a rotation of drummers! That stinks that your man had to bow out because of arthritis. This aging stuff just sneaks up and bites us when we're just having fun. Hopefully the days of drama and drunken spouses are far behind you. Perhaps you can grace us with some videos of the new band.

I can't think of a more eloquent way of putting the HOC and PSP in perspective. Yes, this is a hobby for most of us, but the friendships are what make it all worthwhile. Well said!

You mention the neck/body junction, but I don't see a photo of that joint. Perhaps I am not understanding the nature of the problem. Is the problem only with the binding, or is there a more structural issue with the neck joint? While I personally would not have an issue with the offcenter dots, it clearly is a fault. Your best recourse is to deal with the seller. If he is an authorized dealer, he should act as the bridge between you and the factory. Having modified the guitar with the Bigsby may present a problem. Changing the binding on the neck would be one way to remedy the situation, and I fear that it could result in more visible flaws. The dots are knocked in by hand, so the dot could be drilled out by hand, filled and redrilled for the new dot.