dharv53 Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 Hi All, I won an auction for the H157 Custom Shop Black Beauty Lefty that was on eBay last week. My bid was $965.99 + $49.95 for shipping. http://cgi.ebay.com/2003-HERITAGE-CUSTOM-SHOP-ELECTRIC-CUSTOM-MADE-BEAUTY-/130495711817?pt=Guitar&hash=item1e62268a49 I received it on Friday, opened it up and the guitar looked good. It had very little playwear, but did look like it had been sitting for quite some time. The listing said, "Sounds Suberb". So, I plugged it in and turned on the amp. There was no sound. I could hear a click when a string would make contact with a fret wire, but that was it. I called the vendor, Vintage City Guitars in Lansing, Michigan, and talked to Tony who said, "I played it before it shipped out and it was fine. Just send it back if you are not satisfied. I took it home, removed the pot cover and the image you see shows what I found. Today, I brought it to a very well-respected guitar repairman and he's going over it now. He said the guitar shows little wear and the neck looks good. He will assess the wiring and let me know what it will cost to repair it. Given that I paid less than a grand + shipping for this baby, my question is: How much would you put into it to get it in shape? Thanks for your input. Dave
Patrick Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 Hi All, I won an auction for the H157 Custom Shop Black Beauty Lefty that was on eBay last week. My bid was $965.99 + $49.95 for shipping. http://cgi.ebay.com/2003-HERITAGE-CUSTOM-SHOP-ELECTRIC-CUSTOM-MADE-BEAUTY-/130495711817?pt=Guitar&hash=item1e62268a49 I received it on Friday, opened it up and the guitar looked good. It had very little playwear, but did look like it had been sitting for quite some time. The listing said, "Sounds Suberb". So, I plugged it in and turned on the amp. There was no sound. I could hear a click when a string would make contact with a fret wire, but that was it. I called the vendor, Vintage City Guitars in Lansing, Michigan, and talked to Tony who said, "I played it before it shipped out and it was fine. Just send it back if you are not satisfied. I took it home, removed the pot cover and the image you see shows what I found. Today, I brought it to a very well-respected guitar repairman and he's going over it now. He said the guitar shows little wear and the neck looks good. He will assess the wiring and let me know what it will cost to repair it. Given that I paid less than a grand + shipping for this baby, my question is: How much would you put into it to get it in shape? Thanks for your input. Dave If you love the guitar . . . just have him do the repairs. When he gives you the bill . . just pay it and thank him. Don't sweat the details. You're not talking about hundreds of dollars here anyway Also consider this would be a good time and a great excuse to just go ahead and order an upgrade kit from RS Guitar Works and have your guitar tec drop in in. That will cost you about $150 complete and it makes a huge difference in sound and tone. Then, call the shop you bought it from and negotiate a $50 reduction/credit to your charge account.
kbp810 Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 Wow, you stole that 157!!!! What a great deal! It shouldn't cost too much to fix that wiring, shouldn't take all that long either - let us know what the tech comes back to you with. As far as investing in the guitar... considering the price you paid, so long as you've otherwise bonded with the guitar I'd say the sky is just about the limit - make it your own!!! (Congrats!)
Heritage525 Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 The guy that sold it to you should pay for the repairs.
Blunote Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 Don't 157s normally ship with gold hardware? It looks like this one had everything but the bridge posts and some wood screws changed out. Perhaps whoever put the new pups in, got some cold joints. Your wiring looks a bit different than mine. Where I have metal braiding on pup wires, it's used as a ground and soldered to a pot. But, there are many ways to wire pups. At any rate, you got a real bargain on a great guitar. I'd get it working and send a copy of the bill and explanation for what was wrong to the seller. He should work with you to make it good. And if he doesn't, leave negative feedback. Dealers hate that.
FredZepp Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 It shouldn't take much to make that 157 right. And yes, you got a great deal.. so fix it up and play it... (and give us more pics when you can)
Spectrum13 Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 You got a great deal on a beautiful guitar. All the upgrades IMO are tasty indeed! Get the pots and caps changed and a pro set up and enjoy.
brentrocks Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 The guy that sold it to you should pay for the repairs. +1
pegleg32 Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 While I agree with the comments above about keeping the guitar, I still think you need to contact the seller and tell them about what you found. It is not your fault the guitar went so cheap although you are the beneficiary. It is the sellers fault that they misrepresented the guitar. Fortunatly you bought it cheap enough that you can recover, but the dealer should be appraised of what you found and should make it right. Most likely he will offer a full refund which you will have to refuse, but he will know that he was caught out.
lilkuku Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 Great buy, I would at least let the seller know what you found when you opened it up in case it turns out to be more than just the pups. Can't imagine what that would be, but it irks me when someone says it sounds great and it's obvious they haven't played it. How hard is it to plug it in before shipping it out? Or before listing it for that matter. If that guitar was played before shipping, it had a terrible time in transit and is definitely in need of some love.
drfie Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 Why not send it back to the seller to do the repairs? He sounds like he's being honest by saying just return it. seems like he should do that and pay shipping both ways." Or do you just not trust a guy who says "it sounded fine before it left" when in fact there is not way that could be true? dan
DetroitBlues Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 Don't 157s normally ship with gold hardware? It looks like this one had everything but the bridge posts and some wood screws changed out. Perhaps whoever put the new pups in, got some cold joints. Your wiring looks a bit different than mine. Where I have metal braiding on pup wires, it's used as a ground and soldered to a pot. But, there are many ways to wire pups. At any rate, you got a real bargain on a great guitar. I'd get it working and send a copy of the bill and explanation for what was wrong to the seller. He should work with you to make it good. And if he doesn't, leave negative feedback. Dealers hate that. My guess either the previous owner didn't like gold or the seller put in cheap parts to get rid of it and kept the more expensive parts to make money. I agree that there may have been gold hardware and perhaps better electronics orginally. I believe this is possible because of gold tailpiece screws and the electronics appear to have been tossed in and never soldiered together. However at $1,000 for a H-157, spending a ocuple hundred to take it back to original specs is not a bad idea. Like to see the pup's to see if they are SD's or a cheap pair of epiphones...
FredZepp Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 I would talk to them about this wiring.. but the ad does make it clear that some things are non-original. CHECK OUT THIS GREAT HERITAGE! THIS AWESOME CUSTOM SHOP ELECTRIC HERITAGE LES PAUL LIKE MODEL IS IN PRISTINE CONDITION! ATTENTION LEFTIES, THIS GUITAR HAS ALMOST NO PLAYWEAR AT ALL! SOUNDS SUPERB! CHROME HARDWARE! LES PAUL BRIDGE AND TAILPIECE! ZACK WYLDE EMG PICKUPS! TRIPLE COMPLETE BINDING!
Millennium Maestro Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 FACTS: You stole that puppy. Seller is a turd. This is a case where the positives outway the negatives. Wiring is easy to repair.
Millennium Maestro Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 -The grover Tuners are keystones, heritage uses Kidneys. -Tailpiece is a TP6. -you can definitely tell they are not 81/85 EMGs from the listing. My money says this was a factory Black Beauty with Gold hardware, everything has been changed out... The listing had soo many red flags to the edjuacated buyer. Overall you did good, make the guitar your own!
Millennium Maestro Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 Thank you for sharing by the way... I am concidering converting a Black and Gold 157 to a Black with chrome and now I know what to expect visually.
dharv53 Posted March 20, 2011 Author Posted March 20, 2011 Thanks to all of you on the HOC. I really appreciate everyone's advice and encouragement! The luthier I took the guitar to is Tim Jagmin. He worked on it today (Sunday) and for way less than $100 everything is now in good working order. He soldered all the loose wires. (The selector switch was the only thing wired.) He then gave it a good going-over, replaced all the mismatched screws, reset the pups, checked the neck and made suggestions on a few improvements to make. Also, as MM pointed out, he told me the pickups were NOT Zakk Wylde EMGs. So, I'll be keeping it but, I will be contacting the seller, Vintage City Guitars in Lansing, Michigan, to discuss the misleading listing and the conversation he and I had on Friday where he told me he played it before he packaged it to ship. Hopefully, he will make things right. I will certainly let you know what happens. One last question, there is a definite tobacco-smoke odor emanating from the guitar. Any suggestions as to eliminating it? Other than selling the guitar, that is. Thanks again, Dave
FredZepp Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 Excellent... you'll be pleased. BTW,we discussed a smoke odor in this thread earlier, maybe there is something helpful there. ... SMOKE ODOR thread>>>>>>>
dharv53 Posted March 20, 2011 Author Posted March 20, 2011 Excellent... you'll be pleased. BTW,we discussed a smoke odor in this thread earlier, maybe there is something helpful there. ... SMOKE ODOR thread>>>>>>> Thanks FredZepp, I'll check it out. Dave
dbetts41 Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 Dave, I am glad you were able to work out the problems. However, I don't think some of the advise given was very good. The seller lied about the condition of the guitar & should be held accountable in some way. It is obvious that he did not "play it" just before shipping it to you. I think you should have called & negotiated a credit back to your credit card in advance of having to pay for repairs. I also think it is a misnomer to say that this guitar was a "steal"... it was worth what you agreed to pay for it based on the description that the seller gave you. It was a good deal if it arrived as advertised. just my two cents...
DetroitBlues Posted March 21, 2011 Posted March 21, 2011 I also think we should start a thread on Buyer Beware of specific sellers via Ebay or other brick and morter establishments. But we should have more than one supportor of each B.B.W establishment so its not just a one time ticked off customer... Sounds like this store/Ebay seller should be added!
dharv53 Posted April 10, 2011 Author Posted April 10, 2011 Update on my H157: The seller has credited my PayPal account for the repairs. After I sent photos of the wiring, Carla at Vintage City took care of the situation promptly, with no hassle. I will post photos soon. Dave
FredZepp Posted April 10, 2011 Posted April 10, 2011 Update on my H157: The seller has credited my PayPal account for the repairs. After I sent photos of the wiring, Carla at Vintage City took care of the situation promptly, with no hassle. I will post photos soon. Dave That sounds like a good solution. I hope that you're enjoying that 157, and pics would be great....
Gitfiddler Posted April 10, 2011 Posted April 10, 2011 Congrats on a very good deal on a great guitar. Glad things are working out for you. Here is a blurry photo of your 157 from the Ebay auction:
guitarnut1 Posted April 10, 2011 Posted April 10, 2011 Those wiring issues are usually sorted out quite easily...just need a multimeter and wiring diagram. I'd been playing my Hamer for a few months, when it suddenly died on the neck pickup. A quick measurement of the wiring revealed a bad solder. I guess if you bring it in to a tech, this kind of thing will inevitably cost you at least 50 bucks... Similar thing happened to my strat, there I had to replace the SD pearly gates in the bridge. The cable was broken somewhere. Otherwise a perfectly working pickup. Still have it lying around here, but can't use it. Anyone know, if one can change the complete cable of such a pickup? I tryed but the pickup looked waxed, so I kind of had to really disassemble it, and gave up. Complete rewiring might be more complex though.. Sorry for the small off topic.
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