Anybody know The Heritage Slaughter and/ or the VIP II?

[jacques]

A shop over here in the Netherlands has these two older models on sale for relatively low prices. Did anybody ever play or hear one of these?

[Dick Seacup]

I haven't heard of either of those models, but then again I hadn't heard of the "Terminator" before two weeks ago, either.  Do you have pictures?

[GuitArtMan]

I think the VIP II was an electronics option that was offered (phase switching, coil tapping, etc.) that was replaced by the D VIP, but I'm not sure. 

Perhaps Mark Slaughter had a signature model at one time?

[golferwave]

  Yes, the Mark Slaughter model was made in the early 1990's.  Mine is a 1991 and they have the Mark Slaughter signature on the headstock.

[Dick Seacup]

:uwp:

[jacques]

Why useless....? I asked if anybody played or heard one of the guitars. The VIP II in this case is not some extra device, but a stratocaster type guitar. I don't have a picture, but there is one in the old catalogue. The shop does display the Slaughter, so I'll put the picture here. I'd like Golferwave to tell me something about his Slaughter guitar, because, sorry, it is not enough to tell me you have one!

HERSLAUGHTER.jpg

HERSLAUGHTER.jpg_thumb

[Dick Seacup]

I was kidding about it being 'useless'...pics just make it that much better.  

 

That is a wild looking guitar!  I have no idea who Mark Slaughter is, but I'm going to go look him up.  I like the looks of that guitar, though...very cool.

[golferwave]

Pretty wild indeed.  My Mark Slaughter model is an H-150CM in the cherry translucent finish. It came with nicel hardware, schaller golden 50's pickups, schaller roller bridge and grover tuners. It now has Wagner WCR "crossroads" pickups installed and it plays and sounds great. I'll see if I can post a picture in the next couple of days.

[jacques]

My Mark Slaughter model is an H-150CM

 

hence it doesn't say anything about the model I showed... ???

[golferwave]

  I've never seen the model he shows in the picture.  Maybe another member has information.  It kind of looks to me like the Washburn Paul Stanley model.  A few more details on my Mark Slaughter H-150 style signature model.  It has a rosewood fingerboard but has mother of pearl block inlays instead of the trapezoid inlays on other H-150 models and it's not an  H-157 style as it has no binding on the back of the body.

[DrFrankStein]

Wow. Just . . . .  just wow.      :-

[Dick Seacup]

I really wish I could provide the details the OP is looking for, but I'm a relative Heritage neophyte.  That being said, if the price were reasonable, I'd jump all over that just for the uniqueness factor.  In fact, the "Terminator" I stumbled across keeps calling out to me like a siren and I cannot stand Explorer body shapes.  :-

 

How does your Slaughter H150 sound and play, golferwave?  I would expect that the one Jacques has shown would play much like any other Heritage and sound like a mahogany bodied, two-pickup guitar.  But, maybe the unique cutaways and profile give it a different vibe.  It's very cool, though.

[golferwave]

Hey Dick,  The Slaughter plays nice and sounds awesome. It has a very good setup with low action and string tension so it's easy to bend the strings. It has the Schaller roller bridge which I like because I've never broken a string with one of these. Jay Wolfe tells me he doesn't like them because they reduce sustain as opposed to the tune-a-matic Nashville bridge. I have both types on my Heritages and I would say he's right, but the difference to me is slight on a solid body guitar. I'm going to post pictures of it as soon as we get some sun. I don't have the highest quality of digital camera so I want to take the pictures outdoors and it was cloudy and rainy all day today. Maybe tomorrow will bring better conditions.  I agree that jacques should latch on to that Heritage as it's got to be a low production model and should be collectible in future years.

[jacques]

Okay, thanks dudes, I'll see if I can visit Amsterdam one of these holidays and I'll let you know!

[jacques]

Yesterday I visited Amsterdam to have a look at the old Heritage guitars on offer.

Turned out the shop made a mess out of the so called Vip II. It had an E serial number, so that guitar's been hanging there for about twenty years (1988). (Don't ask me about the strings) The handle from the Kahler tremolo was missing and to my surprise there was no VIP- system and it had two single coils and a humbucker with coilsplitter. This, of course, was NOT a VIP II and later I noticed an old label with the name H 162 on it. Nice maple neck with maple fingerboard, though and judging by the light weight a mahogany body with polyester finish. Locking mechanisms behind the nut and fine tuners on the tremolo. All good hardware like the Grover tuners, but there were no brands on the pickups. Very un-Heritage, this stratocaster-like model, but it had some character.

 

Next was the Mark Slaughter monster. It took them half an hour to unearth it. The serial number started with an I (1992), so this one had been there for 15 years. A weird model, also with two single coils and one humbucker. This one did have the VIP system, but I hardly heard much of a difference. It had the Schaller bridge and tailpiece. The whole thing was mahogany with a rosewood fretboard. No spectacular sounds however, but it did feel like a good old Heritage to me. I noticed with both guitars that the high E-string did not run over the screw of the (bridge)humbucker - something that's done so well on my other Heritage guitars. Moving the string upwards would cause it to have an even bigger mismatch with the other pickups.

 

Both were dead cheap: $ 675,  but I did not feel like paying that money for two guitars that were not entirely to my liking (I have three more electrics apart from my Heritages). So I offered the guy $ 950 for the both of 'em - knowing he must have wanted to get rid of these 'shop daughters' as we Dutch call things that never get sold. He refused after trying to convince me of the great bargain I would have since there was even a matching case for the VIP aka H162 somewhere in the cellar. Knowing a Heritage always comes with a nice matching case I kindly thanked the people and left the shop.

 

So, if this was an inspiring story for any of you and you think you're gladly willing to pay the $ 675 plus shipping and taxes that your local government might add to it, I'm ready willing and able to go get it for you. Or both of 'em.

You can also wait until the dollar goes up again (ten, twenty years is nothing for this shop) and get them even cheaper!

[Dick Seacup]

Thanks for the report, Jacques.  My desire to own bizarre and/or rare model Heritage guitars has the wheels turning, as they say.  So, they want $675US for it?  I wonder what shipping would run from the Netherlands to here.  If it's NOS and in decent shape, I think that's a steal, but I like offbeat (and slabtop) guitars. 

 

The H162 is listed in Heritage's No Longer Made section.  It looks like a run of the mill SuperStrat circa late 80s, early 90s to me.  The specs don't look like anything spectacular, anyway.  It would be an interesting conversation piece, but not something that I think would have a lot of demand.

[jacques]

UPDATE!

 

GAS got a hold of me after I read a few things about the Kahler tremolo. They were pretty special in the Eighties and the factory is up and running after a decade of no tremolo business for inventor Gary Kahler. I very much like a tremolo for soloing and these Kahlers are famous machines (Steve Vai). So back to Amsterdam to go and pick up the H 162 which is indeed a kind of super strat of around 1988. Like that Fender it doesn't have a scratch plate to cover the pick ups. Unfortunately the H 162 doesn't play after I changed the strings, so I will have to visit my guitar tech next week to set it up. Pretty complicated device, this Kahler 'Spyder', but soon I hope to put a little sample and some pictures on the web for those who are interested.

[golferwave]

  GAS gets us all on a regular basis jacques.  I'm glad that you got the Heritage and I'm sure it will be a great player after you get the setup done.