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For those who missed it, Heritage is building me an H575 with a 25.5" scale length for the C# tuning I've been using recently. Here are some progress photos that just arrived this morning. This is now getting close enough to be incredibly exciting.
Last edited by Jim Soloway; 01-15-2014 at 07:49 PM.
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01-09-2014 02:24 PM
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Looks already really sweet - and quick progress - congrats
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Congrats Jim.
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I'd say you're probably about 3 to 4 weeks away. Could be sooner, because from what I've heard, things are a little slow from the international side of Heritage's business . . which is a big chunk of their business.
They'll need to scrape the binding . . . shoot it with a few coates of clear NCL . . . then let that dry. Marv doesn't like to do anything until about 2 weeks after the clear coats are applied. Then, it's off to the buffing department. If there are no "issues" discovered or created during the buff out . . such as any finish flaws or overly aggress buff throughs .. then it'll be into the electric component assembly. Then, it goes in to Rendal for final set up.
The timing of the clear coat application has worked out to your favor. A few weeks ago, Heritage lost their power and their heat, during some really cold weather. From what I've been told . . there were some adverse affects on some of the guitars up in the spray room. . . that had been recently clear coated. Things are starting to warm up . . so you'll not be having to worry about that.
The wait is the hard part. But, the reward at the end will make it all worth while. I can definitely sense your excitement.
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Looks great, Jim. I love my H575, but if I could change anything about it, I'd take the longer scale you've requested. There's something about the longer scale that sounds snappier to me. I dig it.
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Nice to see that Heritage is not wasting any (of our) money on fancy wall decorations, or even walls.
A.
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Jim, that arch top already looks like it has your name allllll over it! Can't wait to see her finished…she's gonna be a beauty!
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Not sure what you're talking about, or how you figure that it's "(our money)". But, that's actually very fine wall insulation. No way they'd want to cover that up with anything clean and pretty. Also, I think you might have missed noticing the mid 20th century 9" asbestos tiles on the floor or you'd have probably commented on that too. No . . . . this is a very up to date, state of the art facility. If you did a plant tour, Jim Deurloo, the president of the company would take great pride in showing you the floor in what was Gibson's binding department . . where the epoxy floor coating was spread over the entire floor . . and you can see the outline of some of the scrap binding that was just casually epoxyed over. That place currently has 60 year old saw dust still coating old (very old) machinery and raw material. Here's a photo of Marv Lamb, the other President of Heritage, doing a final carve on the neck of my new build right before we went over the the belt sander so he could roll the neck to my desired profile while I watched and periodically checked the profile. Notice the tidyness and neat organization of that state of the art work bench . . .
Originally Posted by maggles55
Last edited by Patrick2; 01-09-2014 at 08:22 PM.
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Wow, they're really moving along. Beautiful figuring on the wood. Color is fantastic too.
Are you going make it to spring without going crazy?
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I'm enjoying your journey Jim.
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That's going to be fantastic. Congrats.
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Yes. I'm starting work on a new album next week, so I'll be staying busy and as long as it gets here soon enough to use on a few of the tunes, I'll be fine. Right now I'm playing abut fie hours a day plus dealing with the failing health of both my elderly cat and my even more elderly parents so there's lots on my plate to keep my mind occupied. Originally Posted by Engine Swap
BTW, I've always consider the Heritage Old Style Burst to be the direct descendent of the finish that Lloyd Loar used on the back of his mandolins. We aspired to this on a bunch of the guitars we built but we never nailed it as well as heritage does.
Last edited by Jim Soloway; 01-10-2014 at 01:01 AM.
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Hmmm..just a thought
How cool it would be for Heritage to license some Soloway designs or collaborate..
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I actually tried to put together something like that with another fairly large builder. It looked promising for a while but ended up getting turned down. After that I pretty much stopped looking and just decided to let things run their course. Now that we're close to completing the last two guitars on the books, I have absolutely no idea what (if anything) is next. It would be nice to make some sort of deal with someone but if not, it's ok too. I had a pretty good run for over ten years. Originally Posted by rictroll
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Your designs would be a wonderful bookend to the traditional products Heritage offers. FWIW I kick myself for not ordering a Soloway earlier. You created more of a marque than you may realize.
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No, man . . . this would have been a crash and burn collaboration . . . unless Jim had the financial where-with-all to pay out the owners at Heritage and send them off into the sun set. But then, it would no longer be Heritage Guitars.
The owners at Heritage are all about the past, the history and "The Heritage" of guitar building at the old Gibson plant. Modernization and innovation are not at all part of their driving principals or philosophical approach to guitar building. Further, Jim would need to give up life in the beautiful region of Vancouver, BC . . . and relocate to . . . Kalamazoo, MI. For some reason . . I'm not sure I could see that happening.
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Anyone whose been to Vancouver knows that would never happen. Speaking of the Northwest: Originally Posted by Patrick2
GO HAWKS!!!
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Thanks for the kind words. Originally Posted by rictroll
When I was in the middle of the madness of getting guitars built and out the door every week, I really had no time to look around to see what kind of impact we'd had but now that I've had a bit of a chance to step back and get a view from some distance, I am getting at least some sense of the what got accomplished, mostly by seeing several of my design ideas (some of which were considered very odd at the time) showing up in guitars by other builders. I'd love to do a deal with someone to keep some part of this alive but I'm afraid that Patrick is right about Heritage not being the answer for all the reasons that he stated. I think it's possible that the one really good opportunity to have this happen came and went in my failed attempt a couple years ago. It's a lot easier to make a deal with a company that's functional and active than it is with one that is essentially dormant. We have two more guitars to complete. They'll be done in the next 8 weeks or so. Beyond that, I have nothing else underway. It's always possible that things will change again and I'd certainly be open to discussions with interested parties but I've been turning down orders for almost a year and I have no future plans right now other than making music and teaching.
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Getting really close now
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And that hasn't even had its final dry buff out yet! Jim . . I can tell by all of the photos you're getting that you're definitely getting the royal treatment. That is going to be one awesome H575.
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If you look carefully in the last two photos, you'll see the extra large paint brush they used to apply the shading and the finish. You'll also see the lemon they carefull squeeze in a very methodical pattern over the maple top to enhance the figure in the grain.
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they use a brush instead of spraying?
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C'mon man . . . you've got to know I was just joking.?.? Originally Posted by fritz jones
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tbh, that looks more like Heritage ' s "antique sunburst," but sheeeit, I wouldn't change a thing about that "old style" Jim...looks fantastic. Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
Yes. I'm starting work on a new album next week, so I'll be staying busy and as long as it gets here soon enough to use on a few of the tunes, I'll be fine. Right now I'm playing abut fie hours a day plus dealing with the failing health of both my elderly cat and my even more elderly parents so there's lots on my plate to keep my mind occupied.
BTW, I've always consider the Heritage Old Style Burst to be the direct descendent of the finish that Lloyd Loar used on the back of his mandolins. We aspired to this on a bunch of the guitars we built but we never nailed it as well as heritage does.
granted I'm biased as a happy Heritage owner, but I'm just not sure there's another company who's got shading down quite as well.
And on the topic of old style, I got some in the fridge. Allllllll-riiiight.
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Er, Vancouver is the in the Southwest. Originally Posted by 2bornot2bop
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