Value of my guitar?

[rwinking]

17 hours ago, VickyFl said:

? Thanks for the heads up. I was about to ask if you wanted to be my sponsor, you know, to save me.... But then I got to the part about you having 10 guitars. Obviously you're too far gone to save ME! LOL

I can sponsor you. The ten guitars are in my past. I admit am powerless over the next Heritage and my life is unmanageable.

[houndhome]

10 guitars,youre not even trying,we have 63 in the house at the moment (I think !).Mind you 3 are my partners,

2 Martins and a Harmony H75.This doesnt take into account the banjos,mandolins,dulcimers,concertinas,violins

and a harp !

[VickyFl]

Rwinking - at least you know your weaknesses! Ha. Sometimes that's half the battle I suppose. 

Houndhome - 63?! holy sh.... ? *slowly backing away* I shall avoid, what appears to be, the poster child for this guitar addiction issue. My God, get ahold of yourself, man!! ?

[yoslate]

Used to play in a band with a guy (of questionable sanity, and not just regarding guitars...) who, at one time, had ninety-eight Historic Les Pauls.  Really!  His frenzy to hide them all over town, as the divorce became inevitable, was a comedy worth of the Keystone Cops!

 

[Yooper]

Vicky, you've made quite a splash here with that gem.

Getting back to the value of the guitar...

This is the place where the real value is appreciated. I'd say the family connection alone makes it priceless, well beyond insurance value. 

[rwinking]

Houndhome, When I said ten guitars, that is just my ten Heritage guitars. I have plenty of others as well as other instruments. It truly is a disease....

A few years back I was lying in ICU at the hospital unsure if I would make it through the night. I realized that I could not take my guitars with me if things went south. However, I realized how nice it was to have had them here on earth.

A good friend of mine who was the artists relations guy at the Gibbons plant here told a story of having an aneurysm and the last thing he saw and thought about was his guitars. As he was telling this story, his wife chimed in "Honey, you told me that I was the last thing you thought about...."

[VickyFl]

Yoslate - Wow! I can imagine that was quite a fiasco watching that situation go down. ?

This guitar is priceless to hubby and I both. But as I said before, my main concern was finding out if it was so valuable that it wouldn't be something I'd be comfortable handling daily. Now that I know so much more about it, thanks to everyone here, I honestly feel privileged to be able to begin my journey with a great guitar that also has its own wonderful history. I truly do.

[TalismanRich]

VickyFI,   I saw your post about being concerned that someone might have swapped out parts on the guitar.   One of the original H140s used to hang on the wall of the old plant just as you walked down the steps from the street.   It has the same type of bridge and tailpiece as yours, without the inlays.  I believe it was also all mahogany, based on the finish.   If I can find a better close up pic of the guitar,  I'll post it.    

I'm guessing that your friend just had a setup done, to get the playing action nice and low.    I wouldn't fret that they had changed parts.   For an "A" model, its entirely possible they were just using up parts that they had on hand (which would probably be old Gibby parts).

[VickyFl]

TalismanRich - Well now I'm so confused! I was sure it had been swapped out because when I found out, from someone here, that mine was a 140 and not the 150 like I'd been told, I started Googling to learn more about it. I came across this picture and saw it looked different. It was during a discussion with hubby asking how that was even possible that I then learned his friend had strings lowered and we (neither of which know guitars) came to the swap-out conclusion. I wonder if there is any way to know for sure now. 

[rockabilly69]

On 8/18/2020 at 7:45 AM, DetroitBlues said:

I think Schaller has the right idea.  With the angled neck pocket, the four adjustments screws allows for a more parallel alignment of the strings to the pickups.

I don't think that was unique to Schaller pickups, I think DeArmond did it before them like on this 1970 Guild Starfire...

 

[TalismanRich]

I have a 1987 H140 ("D" serial), and it has the Schaller bridge and tailpiece like in the ad above, but its also a maple top.   This is mine

My H535 has the same style bridge as yours, and its original.

Here's a really good picture of the H140 that hung on that wall for many years.    Rendall Wall is holding it.   Between him and Jim Deurloo, they could probably give you a good idea about the very early guitars.   If the guitar is still onsite,  they could probably tell you the serial number.  I'm just saying that I wouldn't so quick to say that your bridge had been changed.   I doubt that someone borrowing a guitar for a "few shows" would go through the expense to change the whole bridge and tailpiece.  Besides, many people that change out parts will throw the originals in the case.   Next time you restring the guitar, you might pull then off to see what, if any, branding is underneath.  

[rockabilly69]

6 hours ago, yoslate said:

Used to play in a band with a guy (of questionable sanity, and not just regarding guitars...) who, at one time, had ninety-eight Historic Les Pauls.  Really!  His frenzy to hide them all over town, as the divorce became inevitable, was a comedy worth of the Keystone Cops!

 

Hey professor, there is more than one thing in this post worth a good laugh!

[TalismanRich]

Just now, rockabilly69 said:

I don't think that was unique to Schaller pickups, I think DeArmond did it before them like on this 1970 Guild Starfire...

 

Those aren't DeArmonds,  Those are Guild HB1 humbuckers.   I have a set on my 74 S100.   And yes, they have 3 adjustment screws.  

[rockabilly69]

18 minutes ago, TalismanRich said:

Those aren't DeArmonds,  Those are Guild HB1 humbuckers.   I have a set on my 74 S100.   And yes, they have 3 adjustment screws.  

Made by DeArmond for Guild!

[TalismanRich]

Vicky,  I found that listing you posted, and that guitar is a 1987, like mine.    Serial number is D23402.  It was in the last picture on the page. 

[houndhome]

7 hours ago, VickyFl said:

Rwinking - at least you know your weaknesses! Ha. Sometimes that's half the battle I suppose. 

Houndhome - 63?! holy sh.... ? *slowly backing away* I shall avoid, what appears to be, the poster child for this guitar addiction issue. My God, get ahold of yourself, man!! ?

63 doesnt seem too bad,I have a friend who at one point had 400.My collection is a bit split up,since I am mainly an acoustic guitarist who started off life at 13 playing

electric.Some of the instruments are what I couldnt afford as a kid,such as about 10 Burns,a Futurama 3,a Vox Phantom etc,.threre are around 10 Fenders a PRS (not really

my thing),3 electric Gibbonss,plus the quality (!)Heritage H575,H555,H150 ULTRA,Golden Eagle and Super Eagle.

With the serious acoustic guitars which do get used out,around 8 Martins,3 Gibbonss,a Levin (Goya in the US),plus British small maker guitars which I tend to prefer

2 by Brook (1 made for me}.2 Dave King (the UKs only official guitar repairer) and 2 byRuss Wootton (a friend and great guitar maker who does most of my repairs)

I'm trying not to add more since storage space is getting to be a problem.!!!!

[VickyFl]

TalismanRich - oh! The pic of the one that hung on the wall renews my hope the bridge and tailpiece could be original. I need to go back and see which person here seemed sure it had been swapped and ask them why they thought that. It's all pretty confusing really. It doesn't help that when I try to do my own (uneducated) digging about things, that I find out the advertised 1984 I found, that I was comparing mine to, was really a 1987. Lol

Also, looking for brand name when it's restrung is a great idea, thank you! 

 

 

[TalismanRich]

My H535 bridge  says "Made In Germany" on the bottom.  That would be a Schaller bridge, but not the normal roller bridge that was use more often.

[VickyFl]

Houndhome - I'm just gonna go out on a limb and say you probably said that same thing about "trying not to add more since storage space...." at around guitar 35 or 40. ? 

[DetroitBlues]

3 hours ago, TalismanRich said:

I have a 1987 H140 ("D" serial), and it has the Schaller bridge and tailpiece like in the ad above, but its also a maple top.   This is mine

My H535 has the same style bridge as yours, and its original.

Here's a really good picture of the H140 that hung on that wall for many years.    Rendall Wall is holding it.   Between him and Jim Deurloo, they could probably give you a good idea about the very early guitars.   If the guitar is still onsite,  they could probably tell you the serial number.  I'm just saying that I wouldn't so quick to say that your bridge had been changed.   I doubt that someone borrowing a guitar for a "few shows" would go through the expense to change the whole bridge and tailpiece.  Besides, many people that change out parts will throw the originals in the case.   Next time you restring the guitar, you might pull then off to see what, if any, branding is underneath.  

Notice the early 140’s had mahogany tops.

[FredZepp]

5 hours ago, TalismanRich said:

Here's a really good picture of the H140 that hung on that wall for many years.    Rendall Wall is holding it.   Between him and Jim Deurloo, they could probably give you a good idea about the very early guitars.   If the guitar is still onsite,  they could probably tell you the serial number.  

 

I think this is the serial number on the one Ren was holding at the plant....

[VickyFl]

FredZepp - Well if that was the prototype, and mine was the 6th one to follow that, I'm now feeling like the bridge & tailpiece on mine is original after all. Mine looks the same to me, (bridge & tailpiece I mean) but it's very possible I'm missing something. 

DetroitBlues - Were you also one that told me you thought those pieces had been swapped out? If so, I'm wondering why a couple of you thought that. 

I just realized I'd been thinking the neck and headstock on guitars were always one piece. When some would say "mahogany top" my brain was thinking more "top half" as in both the neck & headstock. So now I'm thinking that's incorrect because obviously the headstock on that one isn't the same color as the neck. My eyes finely caught the blatantly obvious. Lol duh. (tho in my defense, some pics make it way more obvious than others) The fact that the neck on mine is also dark and matches the top, does that mean both the headstock and neck on mine is likely mahogany?  Sorry if this seems basic, but I don't know about all the parts yet, let alone the build. Trying to learn about my guitar sometimes becomes more confusing when trying to compare it to others that it should/could look like. I wish someone had pics of the 6th and 8th ones so I'd know exactly where I'm at. With my luck there would probably be differences for me to be confused about. Ha

[High Flying Bird]

On 8/18/2020 at 12:33 AM, VickyFl said:

FredZepp - H-140 or H-150 do you think? If it's a 140 it seems the Heritage guy that answered my email was having an off day. Ha

I bought my first Heritage in 1987.  It was a 150.  It had a sharp cut away on it too.  I wish you would take a couple of photos of this guitar from the sides.  That way we can how thick it is.  Is it heavy?  My '87 felt like a bank safe.  I wasn't a photographer back then so I don't have any decent photos of that guitar.  The one photo I do have is from when a buddy of mine found an old suit jacket in the road in front of my apartment. 

 

[TalismanRich]

7 hours ago, FredZepp said:

I think this is the serial number on the one Ren was holding at the plant....

Gee,  a "P" serial number would be from ... '99, right?        You don't think that one is a fake one from China, do you?       Maybe its the last one made in 1999?   No, I've seen that guitar.  It had a little bit of "fancy" stuff!

 

I should have known that someone here would have the goods on that guitar.   We've walked past it so many times over the years at PSP.   Thanks!

[DetroitBlues]

12 hours ago, rockabilly69 said:

I don't think that was unique to Schaller pickups, I think DeArmond did it before them like on this 1970 Guild Starfire...

 

I didn't mean to imply Schaller came up with the idea, but using the idea I think is a great idea.