MartyGrass Posted August 4, 2014 Posted August 4, 2014 Heritage makes a lot of custom guitars. This one is unique. It was in a shop near my daughter's house, too. This guitar was built for Toty Viola, a renowned jazz player and a Heritage endorsing artist. It has a 25.5" scale, ebony board, 21 frets, a mahogany neck, laminated top and back, 3" depth, and Lollartron pups. It has lots of binding work and a mahogany pickguard. It is loosely based on the H530. Toty got it late 2012 and gigged with it until recently. He has switched to a smaller body guitar, specifically a Ritenour L5, for comfort. Toty is a highly respected and busy jazz player. So when I saw the guitar I had several questions, all variants of WTF? Why those pups? Why the mahogany neck? Why that tailpiece? What I've learned is that he really likes the sound of the pups with flat wounds. The tailpiece is lighter than the other option, which is the finger TP. I don't know why the mahogany neck, but why not? http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=LGP&Product_Code=272&Category_Code=humbucker-pickups Here's him performing with the guitar. You can get a rough idea. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEgaUJRma1Y The guitar was set up by the magician Mike Koontz. I'm told it is perfect. Toty is a good friend of George Benson. He has a picture of George with the guitar that I hope to get a copy of. Here are the pix.
skydog52 Posted August 4, 2014 Posted August 4, 2014 Very nice. I like the options he picked. Dibs if you don't bond with it! I'm interested in a tone report on those pickups.
Gitfiddler Posted August 4, 2014 Posted August 4, 2014 Yes, different...but I like it...a LOT! Nice score.
holyroller Posted August 4, 2014 Posted August 4, 2014 That was just on ebay. Looks like a 535/555 with a tail peice. I luved it. You bought it?. Dang ,, congrats!
MartyGrass Posted August 4, 2014 Author Posted August 4, 2014 It was on eBay but I've known about it for a while now. It was taken in on trade a few months ago by a Michigan store. Sometimes after having something up for sale a while, the seller gets a more realistic sense of the market. There was some discussion about it a while ago. It was called a 3" H530. But of course there are a lot of things not H530 about it. The body is basically a 530 with a 3" depth and routing for humbuckers, multilayered binding, and bound f holes. The headstock is larger.
bsck1 Posted August 5, 2014 Posted August 5, 2014 That's quite a pedigree. Looking forward to your impressions. Congratulations.
Vanschoyck Posted August 5, 2014 Posted August 5, 2014 It reminds me of a guitar that was made late 60's - early 70's, the ES 150. (Not the older ones.) https://reverb.com/item/108157-gibson-es-150d-1971-walnut?gclid=Cj0KEQjw3vyeBRDt673h5ZTYrdQBEiQAzhkf8jeChI18aIIOZF_YElm3cD-2nhPusfF36QTLuzuzZfcaAnqN8P8HAQ
Gitfiddler Posted August 5, 2014 Posted August 5, 2014 Marty~ I listened to the YouTube clips of Toty Viola. He is a wonderful player, similar to Benson. Toty even scats like GB! And his (I assume) brother, Michele is also no slouch on guitar. Another amazing Heritage artist/endorsee.
rockabilly69 Posted August 5, 2014 Posted August 5, 2014 I like that it has Filters and a Mahogany neck. That is something I could get on with! And Filtertrons sound great with Flatwounds, I used to use Thomastick flats on my DuoJet and Country Gent and loved them.
barrymclark Posted August 5, 2014 Posted August 5, 2014 That is very cool. I dig it. Wasn't there, if memory serves, a picture from the Heritage booth at a NAMM a couple of years back that showed what appeared to be a black, deep bodied 555 with a floating tailpiece?
RhoadsScholar Posted August 6, 2014 Posted August 6, 2014 beautiful Mark. I like the specs on that one. The finish/color makes it all blend nicely.
2bornot2bop Posted August 6, 2014 Posted August 6, 2014 I'd just looked at that guitar on Reverb earlier and while reading the spec'd 3" depth I thought it must have been a typo, but there was no side profile shot to verify. I dug the bound headstock, shading and fretboard.....this should be fun! Congrats....nice to see you're still buying guitars after the GBJS
SofaPlayer Posted August 6, 2014 Posted August 6, 2014 Very special and very beautiful! I like everything about it. Congrats!
Beagle216 Posted August 7, 2014 Posted August 7, 2014 This thing is really cool. I like filtertrons in demos, never had the opportunity to try a set.
Gianluca Posted August 8, 2014 Posted August 8, 2014 what a fine guitar, congrats, please post some video recs if you happen to make some
yuominae Posted August 8, 2014 Posted August 8, 2014 Looks absolutely stunning! And if that clip is anything to go by it sounds as good as it looks Nice score!
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