Problems with my custom H555

[barrymclark]

Ooops. There was a post I missed. Nevermind.

 

Glad it was handled. Mistakes get made... character is developed in how those mistakes are handled and they all seemed to handle them in good form. Good to hear.

[C9Y]

The hand cut guitar nuts that Heritage install are not their strong point. I wish they would install pre-made Graph Tech Tusq nuts on their guitars right at the factory. But that wouldn't be very traditional and Heritage is heavy into "traditional".

 

Heritage guitars and Gibson guitars can both benefit a lot from a PLEK job at the factory. However, of the two, only Gibson is pleking their guitars at the factory. So, while Heritage does produce a playable guitar from the factory without a plek job, there is certainly room for improvement.

 

I would not make the previous statement if I didn't have some proof to back me up. Rockabilly69 was right when he talked about fretboard and nut issues with Heritage guitars (which to some aren't really issues at all). Also, I spent an unimaginable amount of money on guitars during the calender year of 2014 (cashed out my 401k and racked up some debt) and I bought a lot of brand new guitars. For the purpose this thread, I'll just stick to the Heritage and Gibson brands. Two Heritage and one Gibson. All three fretboards were playable but not perfect. The Gibson fretboard was almost perfect because it received a basic plek at the factory. If it weren't for that one detail, the Heritage and Gibson fretboards would have been identical. The scans on the plek machines don't lie. One can see the differences very clearly on the graphical scan results that the human eye cannot see. All three benefited from a PLEK PRO service, even the Gibson which had already received a basic plek job at the factory.

 

Maybe some of you aren't as picky as me. That's fine. Maybe you are happy with the factory setups. Great!

Me? I can't live with any fret buzz on any fret regardless of how unnoticeable it may be anyone else. I'm picky. That's just me.

Buying a brand new Heritage guitar and taking it straight to someone who knows how to use a plek machine is a perfectly reasonable expectation and you are still getting a guitar as good or better than a Gibson for a better price.

To me it's all part of buying a hand crafted guitar. No big deal. YMMV

 

My 150 has the stock nut, and well, as you mention, the cut job isn't the greatest, even after i had Ren tweak it, with a final dressing from Pete Moreno.

 

For my 137, my luthier friend recommended that I send them a TusqXL nut, and that turned out beautifully. I bought a spare nut, thinking some day I'd have Pete swap the 150 out. Hasn't happened yet, but might some day.

 

The guy that runs the two PLEKs at the Gibson Custom Shop, Jerry or Jeff, something like that, takes his job very, very seriously, and is quite proud of what he turns out. He'll talk your ear off about the PLEK and setups, he's super into his job, rather like Arnie in his enthusiasm. I've only got one of theirs, in Corian, and it's excellent.

 

So I'd advise anyone of thinking of a custom Heritage order to consider providing their preferred nut for a factory install; Arnie thinks he did mine, and the neck. It is really hard to beat the self-lubricating quality of the TusqXL.

[Ghostbound]

I will be picking up the H555 from my tech today, with new nut and bridge installed. I will post my findings. I am excited to have this guitar in the condition it should have been in when it first left the factory. It will be like receiving the guitar anew all over again!

 

-Alec

[Ghostbound]

The guitar is back in my possession, and she is perfect in every way. Incredibly easy to play and a joy to hold. Perhaps, once I get my home studio back up and running, I will post a few clips.

 

-Alec