NGD 2017 Heritage H-155 NAMM Limited

[HANGAR18]

New Guitar Day 2017 Heritage H-155 NAMM Limited Dark Wash Custom Red

For some reason, I have always overlooked the H-155's aka Millennium Edition or Millie's. Maybe I thought they were too small, maybe I really didn't like the looks of that rounded cutaway with f-holes, or maybe I just simply liked different Heritage models and that was that. Well, apparently my tastes have changed. I've already mentioned previously that after that one back injury I had, I am no longer looking for the heaviest singlecut LP style guitar I can find, instead favoring lighter & thinner guitar bodies.

This guitar crosses my path. Thinner rim size that an H150/H157, the maximum possible chambering you can get on an otherwise solid body guitar, a Florentine cutaway (my favorite style), body and HEADSTOCK binding which is a thing I have been insisting on lately, highly figured non-flame dirty quilt (irregular pattern) and the ever elusive RED color which has always gone to great lengths to avoid me.

With the combination of active, EMG improved upon Mini-Humbucker pickups and massive hollow chamber in this guitar, I think I have an idea of what sort of tone they were aiming for. But, I wouldn't know for sure just yet because I just moved recently, the inside of the new house looks like a bomb went off and I can't find ANY of my guitar tuners. They were RIGHT HERE but now they're gone and I don't know where the hell they are right now. So I'll have to get back to you on "How does it sound?". I'm imagining that a slide on this guitar will sound really cool.

When I opened the box and began examining the guitar, I heard something loud rattling around inside the body. The 12v battery had slipped out of the batter holder. So I wrapped the battery with the first tape I could find in order to provide some friction so that wouldn't happen again.

Dark Washed Red,
Gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish,
Premium Quilt Maple top,
Semi-solid Mahogany body with a solid center block,
Black binding,
Slim shaped Mahogany neck with a bound 12” radius
Ebony fingerboard and medium jumbo frets,
24.75″ scale length, 1 11/16th” nut width,
EMG mini humbucking M-50 bridge and M-60 neck pickups,
3-way toggle switching with the master volume and tone controls,
TonePros wraparound tailpiece with the adjustable saddles,
Grover tuners,
Neck thickness is .80″ at the first and .93″ at the 12th frets,
7.6 pounds

[HANGAR18]

[HANGAR18]

[HANGAR18]

[skydog52]

Nice one Hanger! I've been lusting after that one for awhile.

Love all the custom features on it. Look forward to a tone report.

Hard Rock On!

[brentrocks]

Wow!!!   That’s bad ass!!

[Gitfiddler]

2 hours ago, brentrocks said:

Wow!!!   That’s bad ass!!

Agree!

 

Congrats, Hanger.

[PunkKitty]

Really, really nice. Glad that you bought it. If it stayed there long enough, I might have. And I really don't need one.

[Steiner]

Nice snatch!  The Florentine horn is beautiful as is that naked ebony fretboard.  She looks like she'll rock your socks off.  Plug her in and enjoy the ride!

PS - Don't let @Conneazoosee that black binding!!!

[HANGAR18]

3 hours ago, Steiner said:

Nice snatch!  The Florentine horn is beautiful as is that naked ebony fretboard.  She looks like she'll rock your socks off.  Plug her in and enjoy the ride!

PS - Don't let @Conneazoosee that black binding!!!

And that black binding has already done its job. When I was photographing the head stock up close from a high angle looking down, I noticed that the top/center pointy part of the Heritage headstock had suffered an impact and that it was smooshed in a little bit. VERY difficult to notice so I don't even think that Dave's Guitars was aware of it. I think other guitar buyers would raise a fuss about it but It doesn't bother me.

[Steiner]

15 minutes ago, HANGAR18 said:

And that black binding has already done its job. When I was photographing the head stock up close from a high angle looking down, I noticed that the top/center pointy part of the Heritage headstock had suffered an impact and that it was smooshed in a little bit. VERY difficult to notice so I don't even think that Dave's Guitars was aware of it. I think other guitar buyers would raise a fuss about it but It doesn't bother me.

That's the spirit!  Play it like you own it.

I never understood those who not only anticipate but expect every last detail to be perfect.  Woodworking is mostly shifting to plan "B".  If it plays like a guitar, it IS a guitar.  well, unless it's roadworn from the factory.  But, hey, what a great place to put the plan "B"s that don't work out!

[myoldfriend]

F I R E !  ?️

[rockabilly69]

Minis and a wrap-around, what's not to like! Congrats on your new guitar!

[TalismanRich]

I remember seeing that guitar before.... then I remembered.   2018 PSP tour.   It was over by the Plek machine.    Here's Pete Farmer holding it.

 

[HANGAR18]

5 hours ago, TalismanRich said:

I remember seeing that guitar before.... then I remembered.   2018 PSP tour.   It was over by the Plek machine.    Here's Pete Farmer holding it.

 

 

Do you, or anyone else recall what he had to say while he was holding this guitar?

As far as I can tell for sure, there were at least two of these guitars made in 2017, each with sequential serial numbers, and then displayed at the NAMM show in 2017 and 2018. The serial number that I have here is the one which preceded the one that is on display right now on the Heritage Guitars web site. Serial number AH02302 is now my guitar and AH20303 is the photo on the Heritage web site. Probably difficult to tell which one was in this photo.

https://heritageguitars.com/products/custom-shop-winter-namm-2018-h-155m-electric-guitar-dark-washed-red-ah02303

[skydog52]

 

[skydog52]

 

[TalismanRich]

From looking at the headstock veneer, its probably the same guitar. Its a very distinctive pattern.

Or maybe not.... the bottom by the truss rod cover looks a bit different.

 

 

[bolero]

Nice score!!

I remember seeing that gtr, very nice. And a perfect match for you HANGAR18!

Congratulations

[HANGAR18]

3 hours ago, TalismanRich said:

From looking at the headstock veneer, its probably the same guitar. Its a very distinctive pattern.

Or maybe not.... the bottom by the truss rod cover looks a bit different.

 

 

VEry distinctive indeed, and identical. Too identical for nature to produce two patterns like that. But, the problem is that the guitar in both of Paul's videos are the same guitar, and that is not the guitar that I now own. Studying the distinctive wood grain figuring patterns of the Maple tops on both guitar bodies, it becomes a lot easier to tell them apart. At the moment, I am under the impression that the guitar I have is the one that Pete said EMG was showing around and later returned to the factory and not the one you see in either of Paul's videos above.

So how can this be? Two identical headstocks? Upon realizing that both guitars had the same pattern on each headstock, the idea occurred to me that maybe they just printed out a dark pattern on the headstocks and used the same stamp or whatever for each and then used actual figured wood on the bodies. (I've seen other guitar builders do that.) But nope, I examined the headstock I have here and it is actual figured Maple which reacts correctly as the light source moves across the headstock at different angles. So the only remaining theory I have is that both headstocks came from the exact same piece of figured Maple, two sequential layers of the same exact piece of wood. In other words, take a piece of figured Maple, shave off a paper thin layer of that wood to make a veneer, then immediately shave off another paper thin layer and make another veneer. I think that's how they did it. Same pattern on both guitars but very different patterns on the bodies.

[HANGAR18]

FINALLY found two of three guitar tuners. Got the guitar tuned, plugged in to my Mesa Duo-Rectoverb 25 combo and took it for a test drive.

Yes, very woody tone from this one as expected. Sounds great on clean, crunchy and full on high gain distortion! Discovered that the black pickup selector switch knob was missing so I guess I'll be ordering another one. I also really liked the feel of the bridge where I like to rest my hand for palm muting. That top wrap style of bridge was very comfortable and not jabby against my hand. Nice. Not a featherlight guitar but very comfortable weight. The red side marker dots are VERY difficult (for me) to see but I managed just fine.

I like this tone that is produced by the ingredients that went into it. I have another semi-solid guitar which has a similar tone as this one (which was made by someone else and has a single f-hole in the body). So, overall, nice guitar. I think I'll keep it.

[rockabilly69]

2 hours ago, HANGAR18 said:

FINALLY found two of three guitar tuners. Got the guitar tuned, plugged in to my Mesa Duo-Rectoverb 25 combo and took it for a test drive.

Yes, very woody tone from this one as expected. Sounds great on clean, crunchy and full on high gain distortion! Discovered that the black pickup selector switch knob was missing so I guess I'll be ordering another one. I also really liked the feel of the bridge where I like to rest my hand for palm muting. That top wrap style of bridge was very comfortable and not jabby against my hand. Nice. Not a featherlight guitar but very comfortable weight. The red side marker dots are VERY difficult (for me) to see but I managed just fine.

I like this tone that is produced by the ingredients that went into it. I have another semi-solid guitar which has a similar tone as this one (which was made by someone else and has a single f-hole in the body). So, overall, nice guitar. I think I'll keep it.

I love the feel of a wraptail and I wasn't joking when I said I liked mini humbuckers too. My first GREAT guitar was a Les Paul Deluxe so that's why I like them, I'm used to the bite!

[chico]

nice one, badass as stated. I'm a big H155 fan. When I picked my '00 "Q" Millie up it was for sale at a Royal Oak guitar store on ebay. I saw it, (RED), it seduced me! Plus it had silver/nickel (whichever) hardware, my preference. A Millie DC that I had purchased prior had gold hardware, the normal. Both had (have) HRW pickups, standard issue at that time.

When I got mine home, I immediately knew my H150 was a guitar that I didn't need anymore. The weight difference was unreal. And the thing flat out screams, plenty of overtone and sustain thru my Marshall or Fender amps. 

The pics are from the day I picked her up, I was driving back west on I-94 towards Kalamazoo when I decided to take a few shots of her posed outside the old Michigan Central railroad shop complex in Jackson. I've since replaced the tailpiece with a Nashville bridge and the input jack was getting iffy so a quick stop at the brentster's guitar emportium and sewing room changes were made.  I love this guitar. 

Ya, the Millie is a great stud in the rack to own.

Congrats.

 

[HANGAR18]

2 hours ago, chico said:

nice one, badass as stated. I'm a big H155 fan. When I picked my '00 "Q" Millie up it was for sale at a Royal Oak guitar store on ebay. I saw it, (RED), it seduced me! Plus it had silver/nickel (whichever) hardware, my preference. A Millie DC that I had purchased prior had gold hardware, the normal. Both had (have) HRW pickups, standard issue at that time.

When I got mine home, I immediately knew my H150 was a guitar that I didn't need anymore. The weight difference was unreal. And the thing flat out screams, plenty of overtone and sustain thru my Marshall or Fender amps. 

The pics are from the day I picked her up, I was driving back west on I-94 towards Kalamazoo when I decided to take a few shots of her posed outside the old Michigan Central railroad shop complex in Jackson. I've since replaced the tailpiece with a Nashville bridge and the input jack was getting iffy so a quick stop at the brentster's guitar emportium and sewing room changes were made.  I love this guitar. 

Ya, the Millie is a great stud in the rack to own.

Congrats.

 

Cool story, great color, I dig the pics!

[Gitfiddler]

Chico~Congrats on your new H-155.

That's a hot rod looking axe! 

Excellent photos.