MartyGrass Posted January 18, 2014 Posted January 18, 2014 This is one that came with the premium wood package, was tap tuned by Aaron Cowles, and has the optional tone knob. It arrived safe and sound. The strings are likely old and almost certainly D'Addario Chrome Flatwound 12s. The neck is amazing in that it is just like the other two Heritage Johnny Smiths I had. It's a medium D. The nut slots are good. The action is low. There is flaking of the nitro at the neck joint on part of one side. That is clearly due to loss of humidity. There are a few tiny dings in the clear coat only and one small scratch, also superficial. It's surprising this 20 year old guitar is in such wonderful condition. The top is antique natural while the rest is natural. The maple would appear very flamed if it had stain on it. The flame is visible anyway and appears and disappears as you change your viewing angle. The flame extends across the entire back all the way to the rim binding. The spruce has some bear claw and other markings. These markings are not stains in the photos. The grain is tight, so this is slow growing spruce. It sounds as good as I could have hoped for. I'm stunned. And happy! It needs a little care. I'm getting the humidity up for starts. I will put pads under the pickguard pots to protect the top. The block under the pickguard that supports the pickup needs to be shaved down about a 1/16" to give clearance over the spruce top (it's now lightly touching). Once hydrated, the small line of nitro flaking should be lightly sanded and have a little nitro added. These are tiny details. Here are pix. http://s796.photobucket.com/user/mgoetting/library/Heritage%20Johnny%20Smith%201994?sort=6&page=1
PunkKitty Posted January 18, 2014 Posted January 18, 2014 That explains why you are selling your 555 and 157. Very, very nice.
MartyGrass Posted January 18, 2014 Author Posted January 18, 2014 The block under the pickguard did not have to be trimmed down. The screw attaching the PG to the top just needed to be loosened slightly. Now the block clears the top. The bridge base was fitted perfectly. No gap at all. That doesn't happen that often. The Heritage guys had pretty tight tolerances on this one. The unwound strings are rusty. That's a sign they may need changing. But that's about all this sweet thing needs.
Kuz Posted January 18, 2014 Posted January 18, 2014 Looks perfect to me. And they got the pickguard dead straight parallel to the neck!!
Keith7940236 Posted January 18, 2014 Posted January 18, 2014 Very nice Mark, another congratulations!
Ned Posted January 18, 2014 Posted January 18, 2014 A beauty. Looking forward to more photo shoots in the future
2bornot2bop Posted January 18, 2014 Posted January 18, 2014 That nitro, and scuff spots can be made to appear as new for less than $400. My luthier Lem charges $400 to do an entire archtop, and his work is fabulously well known. Think archtop.com I was surprised you sold your former JS. I hope this one remains.
MartyGrass Posted January 18, 2014 Author Posted January 18, 2014 I took it to Pete Moreno today to fix the nitro flaking. He was very surprised the guitar is 20 years old. He said it looks almost new. It's the premium wood package with tap tuning. Some Johnny Smiths got it and some didn't. Heritage charged more for those that did. The nitro is an easy clean up. He said he sees that all the time. There is a small scratch that is superficial. He said he'll make that go away. I pointed out the tailpiece finger screw up. He rolled his eyes. There is a drawer of black fingers at Heritage that no one will ever use. He will try to get one. Whoever put the tailpiece together at Heritage wasn't paying attention or they ran out of that particular length of fingers. There aren't any scuff marks. Those splotches near the rim are in the spruce. People pay good money for those "character marks"!
skydog52 Posted January 19, 2014 Posted January 19, 2014 You are my new Guitar Hero Mark! Nice acquisitions.
MartyGrass Posted January 20, 2014 Author Posted January 20, 2014 ' 2014 - 2004 = 10 not 20. Dammit! I meant 1994. They didn't build them in 2004.
iim7v7im7 Posted January 20, 2014 Posted January 20, 2014 I was thinking that, but your post title threw me....enjoy your JS. :-) ' Dammit! I meant 1994. They didn't build them in 2004.
Frank67 Posted January 20, 2014 Posted January 20, 2014 Beautiful, stunning! Let's hear a clip of it. Enjoy that wonderful guitar for a long time to come!
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