SlappyTappy Posted September 16, 2014 Posted September 16, 2014 Hi guys, long time member but frequent lurker here. I wanted to share with you some mods I made to my H150. I've always fancied it to be the closest I'll get to owning a vintage Gibson because I just can't justify spending the money on a real one or a Gibson Historic Reissue. So finally I decided to make some changes to make it a bit more vintage spec. Firstly, my Heritage is a 2003. Apparently, for some period of time Heritage was only getting 250k Alpha pots for their guitars. I noticed this a couple years ago and replaced the pots with 500k CTS pots and the difference in liveliness was immediately apparent. I've also purchased a Gotoh lightweight aluminum tailpiece and Faber ABR bridge with brass saddles that is compatible with Nashville studs. This replaces the stock Schaller hardware which, while sturdy and tonally sound, didn't really capture that classic Les Paul aesthetic. Finer touches included a poker chip, knob pointers, and an amber switch tip. BUT, the finishing touch was that pickguard. I've never been fond of the Heritage pickguard and rarely kept it on the guitar. Enter Tony the PIckguardian - I sent him my Heritage guard and he made me up a LP style guard to line up with the screw holes and pickup surrounds of my handmade one-of-a-kind Heritage. Now, this guitar is much more in keeping with the Les Paul aesthetic and tonally, I must say the new tailpiece and bridge do add a bit of brightness and attack to the tone. Not a massive difference, but I believe it's there. The bigger mod was the 500k pots, truthfully. Pictures of the beautiful top as I was changing the bridge out and adding the pointers - And the finished product-
skydog52 Posted September 16, 2014 Posted September 16, 2014 Great mods. You have a real nice one there! I know there a lot of Faber fans here.
chico Posted September 16, 2014 Posted September 16, 2014 Slappy it's great to hear from you! Nice job with the mods! Don't be such a lurker. With your handle we need more output from you!
SlappyTappy Posted September 16, 2014 Author Posted September 16, 2014 Thanks a lot for the compliments, y'all. I forgot to mention two things- One, that with the change in pots also came 50s style tone cap wiring Two, that I spoke at length with Lindy Fralin on the phone about his Pure PAF pickups and decided to buy a set. PAF pickups come in all flavors, as you all may know, but these are by far the brightest Alnico II pickups with vintage output that I've played. I probably don't love them any more or less than the 59s that came stock, but its a different and sweet flavor. By comparison, the Seth Lover and Alnico II Pro Duncans I've tried were very sweet but much darker than my Alnico V 59s. Unfortunately, I've never had the chance to try the Pearly Gates or Antiquities.
slider313 Posted September 16, 2014 Posted September 16, 2014 That's a real nice looker you have there! It looks very similar to my '01 R8. Funny, Fralin was using A4 magnets in the Pure PAF's. I checked his website, which now lists A2's. I
Millennium Maestro Posted September 16, 2014 Posted September 16, 2014 Another profile - Looks like you are at the end of the saddle travel, if you have any intonation issues reverse the saddles of the bridge or change to bridge to have screws facing the tail piece. She is a beauty.
SlappyTappy Posted September 16, 2014 Author Posted September 16, 2014 He uses A4s in his other humbuckers. Only the Pure PAF uses the A2. He told me he prefers these magnets because they're in the middle of the output ranges as exposed to the extremes (3 being lowest output and 5 being highest).
SlappyTappy Posted September 16, 2014 Author Posted September 16, 2014 Looks like you are at the end of the saddle travel, if you have any intonation issues reverse the saddles of the bridge or change to bridge to have screws facing the tail piece. She is a beauty. I've toyed with this both ways. It seems that reversing the saddles does change the way the string reacts, but this was a necessary evil for most of the old Les Pauls (judging by the Beauty of the Burst book).
mtpatty Posted September 17, 2014 Posted September 17, 2014 spectacular job- it looks fantastic- enjoy!
DetroitBlues Posted September 17, 2014 Posted September 17, 2014 I've toyed with this both ways. It seems that reversing the saddles does change the way the string reacts, but this was a necessary evil for most of the old Les Pauls (judging by the Beauty of the Burst book). Looks great! I've noticed sometimes that saddles were reversed, but I never understood why.
kidsmoke Posted September 19, 2014 Posted September 19, 2014 Well done! I've got Fralin's in my VSB 150 and love 'em. Someday, I predict Les Paul owners will be getting Heritage pickguards made for there guitars.
bluesguitar1972 Posted September 19, 2014 Posted September 19, 2014 Nice - great looking vintage vibe. You're right on the PAF's coming in a lot of different flavours. Makes sense, I suppose, since the originals were never really wound to specs properly. They wound them until they looked right and that was it. I tried some Fralin pure PAFs and they're great pickups. A little hotter than my taste though, but certainly not what I'd call a "hot" pickup. Good luck!
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