Setup advice for newbie heritage owner, please!

[tyleresco]

Hi,

 

I've bought a 150, changed strings to 10-46 and adjusted action but i feel the guitar very uncomfortable to play even i let 5.34 on bottom and 4.64 on top. I can't bend easily, nor play and do soloing. The guitar is hard to play like it had 12 gauge strings.

Is there any heritage secret around?

And by the way, what's the factory pickup height for a 150, bridge and neck? Mine is bridge at 6.64 because it's the screw limit, is that right?

Thank you very much and very pleased to meet you!

Best,

Tyler

[tyleresco]

Now i'm worried, i set up this guitar yesterday, brand new strings and now, just after i wrote this help needed in the forum the first string is broken because of a 1 tone bending! I know this guitars are the best, the sound and weight are great but i'm having a bad experience. Please help!

[FredZepp]

Are you familiar with checking and setting up neck relief ? Any pics to show the issues that you're having and the instrument itself ?

Is this guitar from a dealer?

 

I assume that you are used to playing 10 - 46 string sets.

[Genericmusic]

I would reccommend bring it to a good luthier for the first set-up.

[Gitfiddler]

150's usually come from the factory with 10's. Sounds like it needs a pro set-up.

[tyleresco]

Thanks for replies. Yes, i'm used to 10-46 gauge, and i like heavy bottoms of 52 in my strat but i thought that would be too much for this body so i put regular 46.

Strings are no problem, there's something strange on this guitar because i ckecked it on a gs and tech told me that neck was fine. It's just very hard to play then i thought it was the action.

I've set up several guitars before: teles, strats, prs, ibanez, parker, musicman and fernandes with success, but this is my first heritage and comes with a different bridge so i had a little probs to get the action right, you know that you can't adjust every string separately as on a fender, for example.

Anyway i hope someone can help me before i had to take it to my luthier.

Thanks.

[Millennium Maestro]

tyler what kind of guitar are you coming from? You are welcome to give me a call. Guy 702-480-2828

[DetroitBlues]

You must have the older Schaller stuff. I had a set that would break the high E string in the Tailpeice. Most of us on here replace the hardware as soon as we can. Tone Pros is our usual set of choice

[Fernando]

It almost seems like you tuned the guitar an octave higher, from what you wrote. All joking aside, maybe you should try tuning it half a step down first, just to see what changes in terms of playability. I'm not an expert, but I think I'd try that first.

[FredZepp]

Was this guitar set up before you bought it? I guess that you bought it used without being able to try it first.. or did it play ok before the string change?

 

The first thing I do when setting a guitar up is check the relief and go from there... but if it's really off and you're not familiar with doing this, I'd look to having a tech look at it.

[tyleresco]

I bought it from a member so maybe i should ask him about this because i received the guitar as it is and i thought it was the strings or the neck but as i told you before none of them seems to be the problem.

I'll write and let you know.

Thanks again.

[Hfan]

If you have the roller bridge I don't think that would make it harder to bend, maybe even easier. It isn't that you are used to a Fender scale guitar? I beleve a shorter scale can feel harder to bend. You did mention that you have set up other makes though. I have never heard of a Heritage that was hard to bend. Quite a mystery.

[golferwave]

 

He bought the guitar from me and it was set up shortly before shipping. .007 neck relief and .045 string height at the 12th fret on the high E, and .055 string height on the low E. It's a 2007 model and has a lightweight tailpiece, stock nashville style bridge, a bone nut, and tonepros kluson deluxe tuners. It played fine for me but I'm used to these guitars. Sounds like Tyler is more used to Fender and PRS scale lengths with different string tension. I suggested he top wrap the strings for a bit less tension. Any other suggestions for him would be appreciated.

[Hfan]

Very nice 150 and golferwave is a great seller. Maybe you can try .009s to replicate the feel of .010s on a long scale guitar?

[FredZepp]

 

He bought the guitar from me and it was set up shortly before shipping. .007 neck relief and .045 string height at the 12th fret on the high E, and .055 string height on the low E. It's a 2007 model and has a lightweight tailpiece, stock nashville style bridge, a bone nut, and tonepros kluson deluxe tuners. It played fine for me but I'm used to these guitars. Sounds like Tyler is more used to Fender and PRS scale lengths with different string tension. I suggested he top wrap the strings for a bit less tension. Any other suggestions for him would be appreciated.

 

That sounds like a really detailed setup. It's hard to imagine that it's changed much, even after shipping . And it had a nice flat relief already set up.

 

A minute or two in the hands of a tech who's familiar with LP style guitars should optimize the setup to personal tastes. And yeah, maybe 9's.. that's what I use on most of mine.

 

 

Beautiful 150, BTW.

[HANGAR18]

Sounds like Tyler is more used to Fender and PRS scale lengths with different string tension.

 

That's just what I was thinking. An H150 is a completely different animal than those other guitars mentioned.

[Hfan]

and the inverse is true, I've heard of guys who use 010s on shortscale guits and 011s on long scale guits.

[tyleresco]

Many thanks to golferwave, i didn't have a camera to take pics and he did publish them for me. I wrote to him and he told me about it, i think that now it's more evident that i'm a heritage newbie because it's the first guitar that causes me trouble on setting up.

And yes, i'm a big fan of fender guitars, teles and strats are my favourites but i decided to give a try to a heritage and now i face the consecuences. Funny!

My first impression was terrific, the body makes a resonance and complexity difficult to reach by other brands, i think it is like my richie kotzen strat but in a heritage level; i liked that but i still can't make it mine, you know what i mean.

I think i'll take it to my luthier, he is a gibson specialist and i'm sure he will give me what i want from this beauty.

Thanks to all.

[gpuma]

You know Tyler, I think that you should also give it some time. If you like the sound (and it seems you do) the feel is something that will eventually come, in most cases.

[H]

and the inverse is true, I've heard of guys who use 010s on shortscale guits and 011s on long scale guits.

I use .010s on my 25.5 scale guitars and .0105s (D'Addario EXL110+) on my 24.75 scale guitars. This gives the same approximate feel on both types. Longer scale = greater string tension.

 

The OP should be finding bends *easier* on the 150 than his Fenders and PRSs if he's using the same string gauge on both.

[High Flying Bird]

I suggested he top wrap the strings for a bit less tension. Any other suggestions for him would be appreciated.

 

Raise the tail piece up. That will help.

[Steiner]

 

He bought the guitar from me and it was set up shortly before shipping.

That's an awesome guitar! Give it time, there's a reason that it doesn't sound like a strat.

 

 

Raise the tail piece up. That will help.

If you're gonna lob the easy ones, I'm gonna start swinging!

[High Flying Bird]

If you're gonna lob the easy ones, I'm gonna start swinging!

 

I didn't know you swung that way.....

[Steiner]

 

I didn't know you swung that way.....

Men, men, men, men

Men, men, men, men

[TalismanRich]

Tyler,

 

The shorter scale should definitely bend more easily with the same string gauge and tuning. You have less tension on the string to reach pitch. As HFB said, raise the tailpiece or top wrap. It could be binding at the bridge which will make it feel stiffer.

 

It looks like the tailpiece is pretty low, which can give a sharp break angle off the bridge. That can cause the string to break more easily. I do full pitch plus bends on my H157 all the time without problems using D'addario 110s, or Pure Blues. Did the string break at the bridge, the tailpiece or somewhere in the middle?

 

BTW, if you are a geek and like to do math.

 

From:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibrating_string

 

 

where T is the tension, μ is the linear density, and L is the length of the vibrating part of the string. Therefore:

the shorter the string, the higher the frequency of the fundamental

the higher the tension, the higher the frequency of the fundamental

the lighter the string, the higher the frequency of the fundamental

 

 

The linear density is effectively determined by the string gauge.