Heritage Sweet 16 - 2019 - Antique Natural - 3000 pounds

[Groyniad]

This felt for a long time like the best guitar I'd ever played. It combines comfort and performance (tone - resistance to feedback) like no other instrument I've played.
This is one of the very last Sweet 16's that Heritage made - I bought it new in 2020, just after production stopped. It has the ebony pick guard rather than the flamed maple pick guard - which works much better aesthetically it seems to me.

This guitar has had a headstock repair. This has been done to the highest standards in a mahogany which matches the stripes on the neck. It has made the headstock much stronger than it was before repair was completed. The back of the neck had to be refinished - and this was done in a natural nitro which is slightly lighter in colour than the antique natural of the rest of the body.

I have taken 1000 off the price because of the repair.

I quickly changed the stock pickup to the legendary 12 pole piece Armstrong handmade floating pickup - this vastly improved the guitar. It sounds like a 17 x 3 despite being 16 x 2.75'. It also has the best possible tuning machines. It combines the virtues of a small bodied acoustic arch top with those of a large bodied electric arch top - and is one of the most original designs in the world of mainstream jazz guitar.

The most obvious reason to get a sweet 16 is that you want a smaller bodied arch top with a floater that sounds thick and fat like full sized instrument. Perhaps its most original feature is the combination of a 25.5'' scale length with a smaller body.

This one has upgraded flame-maple rims and back - and a strikingly 50's style neck (fatter than the Classic for example).

Glorious guitar - at a snip because of repair work which has no impact at all on performance and hardly any on appearance either.

[2bornot2bop]

Very nice guitar! GLWTS!

[Groyniad]

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[mdschwa]

Wondering if you have any audio clips of this instrument, ideally before/after the pickup replacement? I have a similar S16 build and am considering upgrading to the KA as others seem to do often. Unfortunately can't help you with the sale but the instrument looks great!

[Groyniad]

Wondering if you have any audio clips of this instrument, ideally before/after the pickup replacement? I have a similar S16 build and am considering upgrading to the KA as others seem to do often. Unfortunately can't help you with the sale but the instrument looks great!

Hey there - no I don't have sound clips before / after pickup change. I hate to say it but however authentic the original pickup was - a Heritage pickup I believe - it was genuinely bad! one of the only really brittle and nastily trebly pickups I've ever had on a guitar (sorry Heritage).

so it went from being seriously disadvantaged by its pickup to being seriously advantaged - the Armstrong handmade PAF thing is a benchmark arch top pickup without any doubt whatsoever. I find it hard not to put an Armstrong pickup into every guitar that doesn't have one - even when the original pickup is really good....

to give you an idea - the sweet 16 with the Armstrong does not sound obviously smaller or less fat than the Classic with a mounted Seth Lover

all best

[mdschwa]

Hey there - no I don't have sound clips before / after pickup change. I hate to say it but however authentic the original pickup was - a Heritage pickup I believe - it was genuinely bad! one of the only really brittle and nastily trebly pickups I've ever had on a guitar (sorry Heritage).

so it went from being seriously disadvantaged by its pickup to being seriously advantaged - the Armstrong handmade PAF thing is a benchmark arch top pickup without any doubt whatsoever. I find it hard not to put an Armstrong pickup into every guitar that doesn't have one - even when the original pickup is really good....

to give you an idea - the sweet 16 with the Armstrong does not sound obviously smaller or less fat than the Classic with a mounted Seth Lover

all best

G- your description is actually quite helpful. I also have a 575 with Seth Lovers in it, very warm and big sound. Moving closer to that would be fantastic. Thx much and GLWTS

[Groyniad]

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[Groyniad]

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