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Heritage Owners Club

KAHUNA!


tbonesullivan

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Posted

Hmm.. maybe I will have to get blue strings... but the choices are kinda limited. I'm not exactly a fan of DR strings, though being in NJ I can get them pretty cheap.

 

I love DRs. I reluctantly bought a set of the black ones a few years ago. They felt kinda' like the Maxima Gold strings but not quite as smooth. They sure didn't play like a set of DR Pure Blues. I hated them. That said you might like the colored DRs. :icon_thumright:

 

How come youse gets the DRs so cheap in Jersey? The employees selling out the back door?

Posted

Steve Rowan at pigtail ( RIP ) came up with that tailpiece design & started making them, I think stewmac still sells them

Posted

looks like a Pigtail Music Wrap-Around Intonatable Tailpiece. precisely machined, a thing of beauty. love it on my 137

Steve Rowan at pigtail ( RIP ) came up with that tailpiece design & started making them, I think stewmac still sells them

 

What those guys said. I just bought one to put on a guitar, and think they are pretty nice (well, the wrap-around, this is my first Pigtail my old Hamer had a non-intoneable wraparound that was still nice).

 

Enjoy! By the way, how different does it sound than your H-150?

Posted

I love DRs. I reluctantly bought a set of the black ones a few years ago. They felt kinda' like the Maxima Gold strings but not quite as smooth. They sure didn't play like a set of DR Pure Blues. I hated them. That said you might like the colored DRs. :icon_thumright:

 

How come youse gets the DRs so cheap in Jersey? The employees selling out the back door?

 

Maybe the next set should be these:

 

http://www.drstrings.com/catalog/dr-neon-hidef-orange-superstrings

Posted

I love DRs. I reluctantly bought a set of the black ones a few years ago. They felt kinda' like the Maxima Gold strings but not quite as smooth. They sure didn't play like a set of DR Pure Blues. I hated them. That said you might like the colored DRs. :icon_thumright:

 

How come youse gets the DRs so cheap in Jersey? The employees selling out the back door?

they apparently sell them to NJ stores at reduced rates, from what I've heard. Also I go to a lot of smaller shows and if DR is a sponsor they practically throw free sets at you. I guess I should get a set or two to give them a try, as they do seem to match the blue on the guitar quite well.
Posted

well, people asked, so here it is! direct size comparison of an H150CM and the Kahuna:

 

kahuna6.jpg

 

and here's another group shot for good measure:

 

group5.jpg

Posted

I went to Chris Bovard's site; he looks like an interesting character, and no wonder he connects with this guy, someone I like to listen to from time to time; can't handle it all the time. Popa Chubby is pretty eclectic, but the New York vocals get on my nerves sometimes. I'll take the guitar sounds any day, though. Everything from Blues to this type of thing. See also "How'd a White Boy get the Blues."

 

I have maybe ten or twelve albums by Popa Chubby. The best ones, IMO, are the "Presents New York City Blues" disks. One of those has Matt Smith on it, who is (was?) the Hamer/Ovation guitarist who did all their clinics. He (Matt) is a fantastic freaking guitarist and a very (very!) nice guy. I tried to get him hooked up with CMU public radio's "Juke Joint" show (Brent might know that one), but it never panned out. Anyway, I know what you mean about the vocals; they do start to grate after a while. And his playing, while far above average, gets repetitive (again just my opinion).

 

Back to the Topic at Hand: That's a cool looking Kahuna. The cutaway on those always reminded me of a breaking wave. Perhaps that was intentional?

Posted

Tbone~ Thanks for the comparison shot. I too thought the Kahuna was considerably larger bodied than the 150's. Yours is the first photo I've seen with the two side by side.

 

That is a very unique design. Heritage should make more of them.

  • 2 months later...
Posted

Kahuna is back! finish repair is done. getting color match was not working well after the 2nd try, so he tried making it a bit darker to look like a mineral spot. Not entirely sure I like it, but it's done and the wood is protected from sweat and stuff, so it's no biggy. Just wish I had drop filled it with clear and maybe some finish scraped from under the pickups. cheaper and woulda looked better. But, live and learn. It looks freakin incredible anyway.

 

pulled off the strings. Bridge is LIGHT. Aluminum pigtail bridge = WIN. Also checked the pickups, and they do indeed have a gold sticker on the bottom, so they are HRWs. The white spot on the pickup selector must have worn off, or one of the previous idio.. i mean owners took it off. Put some schaller locking strap buttons on it. I'll try to get some new pictures.

Posted

I love DRs. I reluctantly bought a set of the black ones a few years ago. They felt kinda' like the Maxima Gold strings but not quite as smooth. They sure didn't play like a set of DR Pure Blues. I hated them. That said you might like the colored DRs. :icon_thumright:

 

How come youse gets the DRs so cheap in Jersey? The employees selling out the back door?

 

DR Pure Blues are on my shopping list for today. If I break that high E string, I'm changing tailpieces.

Posted

+1. Well done.

It also is NOT STAINED, which is good. Too many guitar makers stain their ebony to make it ALL black. When I had the lemon oil on it to clean it I could see some orange, which is what you get with ebony.

 

It has black binding, and looking around the edge of the body, I now under stand what Vince told me about them not using black binding anymore. There is checking/cracking along the top of the binding where it meets the top. It still does look quite awesome though. Now I just need to set it up and put it through its paces properly.

Posted

Ok, snapped some post repair pics. The "spot" is colored kinda greenish, so it looks almost like a mineral streak.

 

kahuna7.jpg

 

 

kahuna8.jpg

 

 

kahuna9.jpg

 

can't wait to bring her "home" next year.

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