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This one was built in 2011. Some of you may remember Patrick, the New York Heritage rep from that time. This was his once.
Patrick made fairly frequent trips to Heritage for business reasons and to have some custom builds for himself. I usually had dinner with him and played instruments during those visits. Sometimes Heritage had guitars they'd sell him at a discount. This was one of them.
A customer ordered an antique natural GE with a 1 3/4" nut and a single mounted pickup. He wanted cross bracing and a solid fretboard extension like the D'Angelicos and Johnny Smiths. Lastly he wanted split block inlays. Heritage built two of them, as was often the case in custom orders like this in case something happened during the build. This one was the leftover. The neck is a nice C shape. It is 3" deep, 17" across, and has a 25.5" scale.
Patrick had the finger tailpiece replaced with one of the last Heritage fancy ebony block ones.
He sold it to me on his return trip to Heritage. I sold it or traded it about a year later. That is one I regretted losing.
There was a striking picture Patrick had of it face down on his bed that showed dramatic flame. I don't have that anymore, but it is rare to see such a thing.
Today I got the guitar back from a HOC member. He can post if he wants to be known. The guitar is in the same shape as when I had it. Shipping was done as well as I've ever seen. The box took a little bit of a pounding, but the guitar was packed like a pro.
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12-30-2022 02:32 PM
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. . . and that says a lot!
Originally Posted by Marty Grass
Mission accomplished, Mark.
Enjoy it for the rest of the year!
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Mark you win the Heritage guitar award for possibly the best all around GE. It is a built in so a plus for almost everyone, 1 3/4 but, and a blond to behold! Play it and enjoy your Heritage finds have improved the guitar players world. Mine included!
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Nice score, indeed ! Please describe the (amplified) tones this one makes with those black tape strings - I'm pretty sure your other GE models are strung with "normal" flatwounds ? Thanks !
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Magnificent
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Patrick lives again. Congratulations!
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Today is the first time I played this guitar in quite a few years. Here are my comments.
First, the black tape strings feel very good with no possibility of squeaks. There is a notable drop in brightness going from the unwrapped to wrapped. It would take time to sort out how to compensate for that. Also, the nut slots would have to be filed to make these work. I'm glad I tried these strings but I'll move to all metal. The seller was thoughtful enough to send a set of TIs.
Second, I hadn't played with an unpotted pickup for quite a while. I'm not changing it. I'll once again learn to not touch the cover and screws with my pick.
The 1 3/4" nut makes no significant difference to me, but I'm used to transitioning between 1 11/16" and 1 12/16 nuts frequently. The neck carve is a full rounded C shape. That is more obvious difference. It very much reminds me of the feel of an older Gibson archtop (not the V shaped ones).
That's my report.
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MG,
That is a beautiful guitar. I am so glad you got it. It is right where it belongs now.
It is incredible to think what has happened in the Archtop World since Patrick passed away. Heritage changed hands and I am not sure if they make archtops anymore. Gibson has basically turned the high end market over to boutique builders. It’s a different archtop world now.
I have developed a bit of a love affair with the Wineburst (thanks to you and Mikey). Every Heritage guitar I’ve owned are very different than their Gibson counterparts. And there is a sound that Heritage guitars make acoustically, that I’ve yet to hear in any other guitars I’ve owned. Particularly when you slide down the frets.
Heritage archtops are legendary for sure. And we can be thankful to you and Patrick for keeping them so relevant, and deservedly so.
Joe D
Ps, I love how you pointed out the difference between 11/16 and 3/4”. Makes it sound even more insignificant than it has been made out to be.
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Here's an odd update. About 6-7 years ago I got a Florentine GE with a single pickup. About a year later I sold it to 2bornot2Bop. Later he traded or sold it to Crm114. I got it back last year. Here's 2b's NGD thread about this. Heritage Golden Eagle
Today I was doing measurements on the recent 1 3/4" GE described in this thread. I wanted to know how much string spread there was going down the neck and also the fretboard length going down the neck. I used the Florentine GE to contrast since that was a standard nut width, or so I had thought. It turns out that is 1 3/4" also. I then spent an hour measuring guitars. The two Heritage JS had 1 3/4" nuts and equal splay at the 12th fret as the GE I started this thread on. The Florentine was pretty much the same. I checked Gibson and Heritage archtops that purported to have 1 11/16" nuts, and they all did.
I didn't notice the difference. My theory is that this happened for two reasons. The first is I had no idea about the nut width and I play with both size nuts anyway. The second is that the two GE with the wider nuts also have C neck carves, which fill the hand more than medium carves.
Here's a pic of the surprise wide nutter!
I guess I need to get a bridge with a wider string spacing.
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that’s right good guitars
Good conversation
Three hots and a cot
big
Originally Posted by Marty Grass
Here's an odd update. About 6-7 years ago I got a Florentine GE with a single pickup. About a year later I sold it to 2bornot2Bop. Later he traded or sold it to Crm114. I got it back last year. Here's 2b's NGD thread about this. Heritage Golden Eagle
Today I was doing measurements on the recent 1 3/4" GE described in this thread. I wanted to know how much string spread there was going down the neck and also the fretboard length going down the neck. I used the Florentine GE to contrast since that was a standard nut width, or so I had thought. It turns out that is 1 3/4" also. I then spent an hour measuring guitars. The two Heritage JS had 1 3/4" nuts and equal splay at the 12th fret as the GE I started this thread on. The Florentine was pretty much the same. I checked Gibson and Heritage archtops that purported to have 1 11/16" nuts, and they all did.
I didn't notice the difference. My theory is that this happened for two reasons. The first is I had no idea about the nut width and I play with both size nuts anyway. The second is that the two GE with the wider nuts also have C neck carves, which fill the hand more than medium carves.
Here's a pic of the surprise wide nutter!
I guess I need to get a bridge with a wider string spacing.
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I prefer my nuts to be the same size.
In all seriousness, however, that is a wonderfully beautiful guitar and I am so happy that it is back with you to enjoy. Thank you for sharing it!
And gradeschool humor aside, most of my guitars have a variety of widths of nuts and, other than the first couple of moments, I don't even notice it when I'm playing. Except maybe the classical guitars, that's more noticeable for a longer period of time.
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Outstanding archtop! Beautiful finishing! Congratulations!
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i’m fairly certain that all the guitars pictured in this thread wereccustom ordered by Jay Wolfe. I belong to a heritage appreciation group on Facebook that he runs, and when I posted pictures of the Wineburst and the sharp cutaway that I got from to be, he spoke right up and said those were things he custom ordered.
I’ve had many pleasant conversations with Jay
bigMike
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