yoslate Posted June 19, 2021 Posted June 19, 2021 Sorry to have taken too long to get to this, but life intervened, as it will, and not always as we would have it. I’ve thought a lot about what to write, and how to write about the subject of this thread. And now I have to follow those complimentary and insightful posts on my initial Custom Core thread. Thanks for those! I’ll likely do two or three posts about the guitar, as I think there’ll be so much to say, not only because it’s an intriguing instrument but because it coalesces my relationship to Heritage guitars, and it arrives at the tail end of my checkered, minor league career as a player, as I'm actually culling the herd. I hope you’ll indulge me. You always have. UPS delivered the cardboard box without it looking like the loser in a beat down. Nice! And there weren’t 40,000 styrofoam peanuts or plastic bubble wrap to deal with. It was, of course, a Heritage box, and it seemed to cocoon the case perfectly, minimally. And what a case! Heritage are clearly riffing on the vintage G i b s o n (sexist, I know, but it is in the lexicon) California girls case. This one is a marbled brown tolex, but the brown is darker, mocha, with a little cream, not well stirred. The plush lining is beautiful, a textured peach skin or velvet nap, in a rich emerald green. The construction of the case is substantial, fourteen pounds, compared with the standard Heritage TKL case at ten. Interior padding is not identical to a TKL. Close, but the Custom Core case, rather than having just the elevated padding, like a pillow, at the back, under the guitar’s shoulder, has some sort of solid padded support there. There’s some extra lumber in there, clearly. And the hardware seems more substantial, as the latches are squared rather than the usual oblong shape. So just the case precluded any questions of, “So…I threw down large for this guitar…and it came in this?! It looks like the chip-board, faux alligator case I saw a ’58 Junior in once.” I remember taking delivery on my custom-build Super Eagle, in 2007. I was so overwhelmed and…intimidated…by what I might find, I left the unopened case on the coffee table in the living room for nearly five hours after unboxing it, while doing housework, sort of. I’d walk into the room every fifteen minutes or so and just stare at it. Not so, this time. Took a deep breath and unlatched the case. I’d seen good pictures on the Lark Guitars website. “Tobacco burst,” it said. Having researched the Custom Cores, I knew there was uniqueness (a very good thing, I think) in what was dark cherry burst here, and tobacco burst there, particularly on the Custom Cores. But Clint, at Lark (and he was just great to deal with!) said the website pics were pretty accurate. And they were, until you turned the guitar and the light caught it in a way other than that in which it was photographed. I opened the case to mid-afternoon indirect sunlight, and the figure was there, as was the nice tobacco brown, moving to a beautiful figured gold as it followed the top carve. What I didn’t expect were the undertones of a rich red beneath the brown at certain angles, particularly on the upper bouts. I’d noticed in many pictures since the “overhaul” at Parsons Street (likely in part attributable to the new spray booth) that the colors and the fading of bursts on many of the new guitars were really excellent, just beautiful! This Custom Core is no exception. The color is subtly complex and simply will not allow your eye to wander away from it! More than enough for now. My next post will take the guitar out of the case for the initial “in hand” impression.
davesultra Posted June 20, 2021 Posted June 20, 2021 Case porn?! C’mon stop playing with our emotions!
Gitfiddler Posted June 20, 2021 Posted June 20, 2021 Nice write-up professor. However, based on the photographic evidence provided, it is clear you don't actually have the guitar any longer. Probably traded it for a new pipe or rocking chair, and kept the fancy-shmancy case for your next R4 or Harmony reissue. Case porn?!! Really?!!
Spectrum13 Posted June 20, 2021 Posted June 20, 2021 latches are squared rather than the usual oblong shape. Can we have a close up of the latches and what do they sound like when they open? Do they "snap" or do they sound like a silver cloud being opened to reveal a movie star about to walk the red carpet...
High Flying Bird Posted June 20, 2021 Posted June 20, 2021 3 hours ago, Gitfiddler said: Probably traded it for a new pipe or rocking chair, and kept the fancy-shmancy case for your next R4 or Harmony reissue. Case porn?!! Really?!! When a man reaches a certain age he thinks about how he wants his coffin designed. I appreciate the case review.
Kuz Posted June 20, 2021 Posted June 20, 2021 Well I guess the mystery on how the guitar arrived is “case closed”. Nice description, Rob!
JeffB Posted June 20, 2021 Posted June 20, 2021 Thats not what I was expecting. After I finished reading, I laughed and thought, "I should've expected that". Nice write up! So far. Looking forward to future installments. Nice case btw.
MartyGrass Posted June 20, 2021 Posted June 20, 2021 9 hours ago, High Flying Bird said: When a man reaches a certain age he thinks about how he wants his coffin designed. I appreciate the case review. That's funny. My mother's cousin was Bob Hope. When he was dying in a hospital bed his wife asked him where he wanted to be buried. He famously responded, "Surprise me."
rockabilly69 Posted June 20, 2021 Posted June 20, 2021 You suck Rob what were reading, the art of the tease?
JeffB Posted June 20, 2021 Posted June 20, 2021 4 minutes ago, rockabilly69 said: You suck Rob what were reading, the art of the tease? 20hrs ago he wrote the op and he's been chortling to himself ever since.
MartyGrass Posted June 20, 2021 Posted June 20, 2021 Maybe I'm the only one, but I buy the guitar just for the sensualness of the case. Thanks for sparing us the customary trivia about the guitar. Now let's hear about that velour compartment! Does it feel as good as it looks? I'm waiting for the relic'd cases to come out.
bolero Posted June 20, 2021 Posted June 20, 2021 Funny, Rob! How's that expression go? "A guitar in the hand is worth 2 chords of firewood in the bush"
skydog52 Posted June 20, 2021 Posted June 20, 2021 We must be patient. The Professor is a wordsmith! Wax on Wax off
rockabilly69 Posted June 21, 2021 Posted June 21, 2021 2 hours ago, skydog52 said: We must be patient. The Professor is a wordsmith! Wax on Wax off It better be Citizen Kane level for this wait.
rockabilly69 Posted June 21, 2021 Posted June 21, 2021 5 hours ago, JeffB said: 20hrs ago he wrote the op and he's been chortling to himself ever since. Oh I know it
High Flying Bird Posted June 21, 2021 Posted June 21, 2021 4 hours ago, rockabilly69 said: It better be Citizen Kane level for this wait. Hahaha... That is great. I was thinking, "Life and Fate."
rockabilly69 Posted June 21, 2021 Posted June 21, 2021 4 minutes ago, High Flying Bird said: Hahaha... That is great. I was thinking, "Life and Fate." Good one HFB are they going to have to burn the presses after he writes it
DetroitBlues Posted June 21, 2021 Posted June 21, 2021 A guitarist's method to playing, "just the tip". Well played.
Yooper Posted June 21, 2021 Posted June 21, 2021 OK. This thread presents an interesting case. It is indeed far from open and shut. In fact, it's wide open for interpretation, and questions. I'm afraid there seems to be no silver lining here. Could this be little more than an empty promise? Or does nature abhor a vacuum? Watch this space, just in case.
High Flying Bird Posted June 23, 2021 Posted June 23, 2021 On 6/21/2021 at 12:05 AM, rockabilly69 said: Good one HFB are they going to have to burn the presses after he writes it After this post he can expect a party chairman and a few thugs knocking at the door late at night.
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