MartyGrass Posted September 17, 2021 Posted September 17, 2021 This 1999 creation popped up for sale about a decade ago. Some on the HOC may remember it. I wish I knew more about whoever had it custom built. It's a quilt top translucent black three pickup guitar. The knobs, TRC, tuner buttons, and both back plates are made of ebony. The fretboard inlays are abalone. The pickups originally were Bill Lawrences. I had Pete Moreno do a lot of work on this. He put two humbuckers and a Phat Cat in. For the wiring, he consulted Mike Koontz in the Detroit area in building the harness. The goal was to have two knobs for volume on the humbuckers that were push-pull for coil splitting, a third volume knob for the Phat Cat that's also push-pull that is an off-on function for that pickup, and a single tone knob. They succeeded magnificently. After some time I sold it to get something to a guy on the Les Paul Forum. A decade or so later we reconnected and I got it back. This is not everyone's cup of tea. But if you want to burn up a few hours dialing in different tone, this works. It's a very good looker, too. Here is the original pics.
MartyGrass Posted September 17, 2021 Author Posted September 17, 2021 Thornton cousins. No Gibson here. I've told the story of the triple pickup H-157. I'll probably put in a TOM bridge (one is on the way). The translucent black is stock from Heritage and require nothing but a truss rod and bridge adjustment. The Throbaks sound very good. The H-157 staple/P90 I got new from Green Oak Guitars (Paul from HOC) and needed nothing changed. I recently got the H-150 Ultra from a forum member. Although it is older it arrived in nearly new condition. I replaced the bridge and tailpiece. It needed some fret work done and the nut slots filed. Aaron Cowles's son took care of that. It plays beautifully. The H-150 with the mini-toggles was made for a friend of Ren Wall a couple of decades ago. It has an ebony fretboard and now has P-Rails. The VSB H-157 is set up the same way. It came with abalone inlays. The final H-157 is as it arrived from Heritage. It is probably an Ed Roman special. It has SD Black Back pickups. http://www.edroman.com/parts/blackback.htm It required no additional setup or changes. Thorntons are always perfect. You can take that to the bank. Guitars are tools and art.
ElChoad Posted September 17, 2021 Posted September 17, 2021 I am not a fan of gold hardware. Just my taste. But that is sweet! Beautiful top.
Gitfiddler Posted September 17, 2021 Posted September 17, 2021 Simply amazing group of fine guitars, Mark. I think I see my fingerprints on that antique natural quilt top 157.
kzoolou Posted September 17, 2021 Posted September 17, 2021 Quote Dang! Those are some nice looking guitars!
golferwave Posted September 17, 2021 Posted September 17, 2021 Not much more to say about that group of guitars except ... Wow! Enjoy those beauties!
skydog52 Posted September 17, 2021 Posted September 17, 2021 MartyGrass is a sommelier of guitars! Just a few of his beautiful collection.
pressure Posted September 17, 2021 Posted September 17, 2021 Sommelier, isn't that French word? Why not just say he's a connoisseur of guitars. Wait, that's French too. Can't we explain anything without using a foreign language? Sacrebleu !!!
skydog52 Posted September 17, 2021 Posted September 17, 2021 1 minute ago, pressure said: Sommelier, isn't that French word? Why not just say he's a connoisseur of guitars. Wait, that's French too. Can't we explain anything without using a foreign language? Sacrebleu !!! Haaaaaaaa. Did you notice I used beautiful instead of nice? It's been used to death. ?
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