Plek

[Paul P]

It seems to me that people have just described their personal experiences with

their guitars and have not made blanket statements.  As I said above there are

obviously some members who have had problems and some who haven't.  I don't

believe it's a matter of one's sensitivity to quality issues and I definitely don't

think we should start fighting over who's right.  We're all right, how could it be

otherwise ?

 

                         

 

 

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[GuitArtMan]

Jacques, Man I am with you. I have heard you play, and man you can flat out play. I have heard Rob, Randy, Kenny, Mike, ect... all very good players and I don't hear them complaining about significant issues with brand (whatever) guitar. I have seen, felt, and played  a little on some very accomplished players guitars, and I can tell you the action & buzzing is usually much worse than my guitars. It is my experience that truely gifted players don't blame their equipment. I just read an article about Marc Ford where he is amazed at the techno nerds writing down every pedal & amp setting he uses, and Marc said that he doesn't even know his settings.

 

It is my opinion on pickups that they will only change the sound of the guitar by 10-15%. The rest is up to you and your fingers.

 

Sooner or latter you have to adopt Yoslates' saying "Just play the f***ing thing!"

Yeah I suppose a truly gifted player could have overlooked the dead 15th fret on my 535.  Forget about bending the D at the 15th fret of the B string up to an E, it was buzzing horribly by the time you made Eb, and completely dead by the time you got to E.  But then who would want to do that anyway?  A real player would tune down to Eb and play in F just because he can!

 

And then I suppose a real player would have ripped the 10s right off of my 137 and put 13s on there - real men use 13s.  If he had done that, and totally slackened the truss rod, it might have pulled enough relief into the neck that it wouldn't have sounded like a sitar off of the nut on the A and B strings.  But then a truly gifted player would have worked the sitar sound into his style.

 

And I suppose a real player would have raised the action on my other 535 to 6/64" to get rid of the random buzzing up and down the neck.  Truly gifted players like high action don't they?  I mean it was already high at the nut, why not raise the bridge to match?  Would have made for a great slide set up.

 

Like I've said a thousand times - I love my Heritages.  I do, I do.  But I always budget for a good fret dressing (level/crown/polish) when I buy one.

[Kuz]

Guitartman,

I am not trying to start a big fight or feud with you. I read your last to 2 post and in them you have said that "every" Gibson & Heritage you have ever own need level/crown/polish and that you needed to refret your Dan Grosh guitars (great craftsmanship guitars BTW) by Mike Tuttle to get them to your level of performance.

I believe you have posted before how these refreted guitars now play at 3/64ths.

 

As you know, PRS sets their guitars up to performance around 4/64ths and Heritage is set up to perform between 5-4/64ths according to REN(all measurements off the low E, with the high E a little lower). He has said before that is what the endorsers for Heritage want their guitars set to.

 

Larry Carlton has his action set to 4/64th.

 

I will concede that if you want action below 4/64th you will need to get the frets personalized and worked on.

 

For me, all my Heritages play buzz free at 4/64th. If that is good enough for Larry Carlton that is good enough for me.

 

Maybe how you play, what you play, you will need to go lower than 5-4/64ths. No Problem. But not all of us do. I set up all my own guitars from any manufacture so they play the same, for me 4/64s (and no factory set up is ever straight out of the box good for me, but all my Heritages require is minor raise/lower the action and truss rod adjustment). I am not going to comment anymore on the topic because I concede that some people will need fret work for their individual tastes, but I don't want to have people new to Heritage think that ever Heritage guitar needs a fret job. I love this site too much to come across as an ass. I am just stating my experiences with Heritage guitars, like you are and we all should be able to do that here. I am glad that after your Heritage guitars are worked on and set up to your needs that you enjoy them. Some new to Heritage my feel the need to have their guitars set up like yours with fret work, others will get by fine set up to factory specs fret work.

 

I value your input like everyone here at HOC.

[fxdx99]

Slightly to the left here (this is the HOC after all)...

 

For those of you that play slide, what setting do you use?  Haven't measured, but after putting 11s on I raise the bridge until the slide (thick wall glass) will sound full without interference from the frets.  Guessing that I'm above a 4/64th setting - maybe 5 or 6/64.  Kinda prefer a little wrestle w/the strings anyway when playing 'normal', too.