What happened to all the used Heritages here?

[rwinking]

When I first joined this forum I remember a lot of guitars for sale. Pretty much every Heritage I ever coveted would come up on this site. Even obscure ones like my Leon Rhodes.H 576, or the Stats or H-162s seemed to show up here. Lately I have not seen much except some of the newer H-150s, 535s or 575s. Are people hanging on to the older 150s and such? is it my imagination?

I do remember little Leroy selling a Marv bird a few months back but that is somewhat of an anomaly.

[bolero]

Brent bought them all

[hopkinwfg]

Many of the older pieces seems to get more value i guess? Not too sure but many have said the newer pieces are better build vs the older.... as far as we know there are a handful of peeps here whom still swear by the older pieces despite of the shorter neck tenon but its the handbuild spirit whom the guys sought after for.... 

I currently own two new era H150s and am looking to trade my oxblood H150 for a H157 in natural in pristine condition .... do hit me up too here haha... 

Edited December 18 by hopkinwfg

[High Flying Bird]

10 hours ago, hopkinwfg said:

...as far as we know there are a handful of peeps here whom still swear by the older pieces despite of the shorter neck tenon but its the handbuild spirit whom the guys sought after. 

I love the old story about these common men giving Gibson the finger and doing their thing with the old fashioned methods.  That ended in 2016.  I lived through it and, like all things, it has come to an end.  I have my guitars and friends so I am perfectly happy. 

[DetroitBlues]

16 hours ago, bolero said:

Brent bought them all

then sold them all already.

[bolero]

[big bob]

On 12/18/2024 at 9:11 AM, DetroitBlues said:

then sold them all already.

And then bought them back!

[DetroitBlues]

3 hours ago, big bob said:

And then bought them back!

It’s a vicious circle…

[TalismanRich]

Hey,  some of just buy some guitars and then.... KEEP THEM!    I've been looking at several guitars, and then I decide instead to just go pick up one of the guitars I already have, and the need to buy something fades away.     Buy some new strings and make it sound fresh and new! 

I have seen a few on Reverb, and actually saw one on the local Craigslist.     They're out there. 

[ElNumero]

I’ll be selling a bunch on here soon.  The flood disaster taught me to downsize. 

[ElChoad]

21 hours ago, ElNumero said:

I’ll be selling a bunch on here soon.  The flood disaster taught me to downsize. 

I was hoping you wouldn't need the one I got from you back. I almost offered.

[nuke]

In truth, The Heritage built some wonderful guitars and they built some goofs. 
 

Many years ago, I got a 1998 H150, that was just a few years old. It was from a special dealer order, with regular tune-o-matic tail and Nashville bridge and SD59, jumbo frets without nibs. It was on the lighter weight range too. As soon as I strummed it, knew it was right. Have owned that one over twenty years now. 
 

Last year I came upon a gorgeous H535 from 2001, in virtually unplayed condition, with HRW pickups and beautiful figured maple, natural blonde. It had, “the sound” that a great semi-hollow is supposed to have. If you’ve gone through a bunch of 335 style guitars, you know can be all over the place tone-wise. 

But I discovered why it had been played so little, because the factory fretwork and fingerboard was utter poo. After careful measurements I could tell it had a  heroic attempt or two at leveling the frets. But ultimately the fretboard needed to be leveled to correct it. Still had the nibs, so it left the factory this way. A notched straightedge revealed the fingerboard was a total roller coaster of high and low spots. 

Tried everything I could think of first, but ended up pulling the frets and properly leveled the fingerboard, then fretted it with Dunlop 6100. Plays fantastic now. Total keeper. 
 

So the old-era Heritage wasn’t immune to screwing up, just like the prior occupants of 225 Parsons. They also made some great gems as well. 
 

 

[zguitar71]

On 12/24/2024 at 3:08 PM, nuke said:

In truth, The Heritage built some wonderful guitars and they built some goofs. 
 

Many years ago, I got a 1998 H150, that was just a few years old. It was from a special dealer order, with regular tune-o-matic tail and Nashville bridge and SD59, jumbo frets without nibs. It was on the lighter weight range too. As soon as I strummed it, knew it was right. Have owned that one over twenty years now. 
 

Last year I came upon a gorgeous H535 from 2001, in virtually unplayed condition, with HRW pickups and beautiful figured maple, natural blonde. It had, “the sound” that a great semi-hollow is supposed to have. If you’ve gone through a bunch of 335 style guitars, you know can be all over the place tone-wise. 

But I discovered why it had been played so little, because the factory fretwork and fingerboard was utter poo. After careful measurements I could tell it had a  heroic attempt or two at leveling the frets. But ultimately the fretboard needed to be leveled to correct it. Still had the nibs, so it left the factory this way. A notched straightedge revealed the fingerboard was a total roller coaster of high and low spots. 

Tried everything I could think of first, but ended up pulling the frets and properly leveled the fingerboard, then fretted it with Dunlop 6100. Plays fantastic now. Total keeper. 
 

So the old-era Heritage wasn’t immune to screwing up, just like the prior occupants of 225 Parsons. They also made some great gems as well. 
 

 

My 150 Goldtop was like this. It’s a 2011, I got it in 2012 from the HOC classifieds, it was in nearly mint condition. It arrived and I opened the case plucked the low E string on the 3rd fret and knew it was a keeper, it had the bell like ring I love about a good LP. It played ok but needed a little work on the frets to be right. I started to look closely at them and the ends were atrocious, gouged, scratched, uneven and just plain ugly. There was also a bit of a hump where the body and neck join. I played the guitar for about 6 months as it was, the tone kept getting better but the frets bugged me. I decided to file them. I leveled them and crowned them and smoothed the ends as much as I could. It was a big improvement. Now I’ve done the process two more times but it’s to the point that the hump getting in the way, the frets in the 14-17 area are just too low. I’ve played this guitar a ton, it’s my main gigging guitar so I go through frets pretty fast. My previous main guitar (G ES347) had multiple filings and refrets over a 20 year period. Now it’s time for a refret and remove the hump at the body joint on the 150.  I bought tall frets Incase I don’t get the hump all the way flat, I’ll have some room to compensate with the frets. It should not have left the factory like that but it is also the best sounding LP I’ve owned over the 43 years I’ve played. Sometimes you just have to take the good with the bad. I paid $1,100 for the guitar and that makes it palatable, imagine paying $7,500 for a M Lab guitar and the finish starts falling off. Perfection is hard to achieve. 

[bolero]

I hear you on big frets: I have a G&L with skinny vintage frets & they wear down pretty fast. It needs a dressing already. I have an older one refretted with jumbos years ago & it's still going strong.

[nuke]

My 1998 H150 was fretted with Dunlop 6100 (measured with a micrometer), or some equivalent since Jescar and some others make the same size fret wire. It has always played very, very well and it had that resonance acoustically when I first picked it up at the Marin County guitar show 20+ years ago. I bought it on the spot from Buffalo Brothers, who at the time were a big Heritage shop. They said it was a special order run they had made with standard tail piece and SD59, the jumbo frets and no nibs. The original owner had traded it in for something else. I've not really done much other than play it most of that time. It was always a little dark, but when I had to change the output jack, I found they had also used the late-70's era Gibson pot values of 300k volume and 100k tone. I just re-did it all since I was doing the jack. (those enclosed barrel jacks tend to fail).  

I recently put it on a diet, put on Gotoh SG301 locking tuners in place of the Rotomatics (perfect drop-in fit) and half the weight, which took almost a 1/4-pound off the weight of the guitar! Those Grovers are heavy. Also put on locking Faber aluminum tail and bridge with the inserts.  It's now down from a little over 9lbs to about 8-3/4 lbs, which is a lot more pleasant and balanced.  Locking tuners and hardware make string changing so easy. 

I figured the 6100 fret wire would be good on the H535, they feel great and leveling the fretboard was the key. I didn't have to do much to level the frets after installation. I was stunned at how much better it sounded when I installed the longer Faber bushings for the tail and the bridge. They just really made an enormous sound difference in the 535. I think it just coupled the vibrations well into the maple center block, where the original Schaller bushings were much shorter, making little contact with the core.  The bushings had little effect on the H150, as the ones that were there were pretty good actually, longer and securely pressed in.

I'd recommend the 6100 wire. It's the biggest and smoothest that doesn't feel weird. I have another guitar with the even bigger super-jumbo Dunlop 6000 wire and it feels "train-tracky" to me.