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I finally had a chance to really take a good look at the mangled Heritage 575 that James Orr sent me from the swap meet, and I'm trying to plan how to proceed. The picture shows the back plate and the top plate with sides still attached. Everything else is pretty much shot.





The neck attachment for this guitar is a pretty clunky, long tenon kind of thing (see picture). I'd rather do something along the lines of the Benedetto plans, but the cutout in the top is sized to fit this tenon. I could enlarge the cutout a little and go with a deep, full width fingerboard extension, though. Here is what the tenon looks like:



The fingerboard extension seen there lies on top of the top plate.

I don't like bursts on anything (aside from my Strat), so I was planning on going au natural. This means I'll have to replace the side in the area of the cutaway - as it has a nasty split that is discolored from previous refinishing exercises (I'd guess) and I judge to be unrepairable. I'm thinking koa bindings, headplate and pickup rings. I'll probably have to cut my own extra high binding strips as this has the typical Gibson wide binding in the cutout (as opposed to the constant height binding).

The necks looks to have the same angle as on the Benedetto plans (about 5.5 degrees), so I think I can follow those plans with some adjustment for the shorter scale (This is 24.625", as opposed to the 25.something on the Benedetto.) I plan to have the headplate be koa, and I will cover the back as well. I'm trying to decide between a solid mahogany neck (I have an appropriate blank) or perhaps a laminated neck to go better with the maple - perhaps maple/mahogany/maple with black accent lines?

I plan to have some fun with this, as long as I can get past the neck tenon/neck block design OK. I have an excuse now to get my Woolson neck jig built, too.

Jim

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

It's cool to see something coming of this. The discoloration is actually
from the original finish. That stuff even gave Jasco a run for the money.

I had planned on doing a bolt-on neck with a tendon more akin to what's
being used on acoustics now, then filling that gap in the top in with a
plug that fit the tendon.   

This is going to end up being gorgeous.

How did you plan to get inside to tighten the bolts? Long ratchet extension through the hole in the tail block? Plugging the hole for the tenon is a good idea.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

I hadn't made it that far, haha, but probably through a humbucker cavity.

Looks as though you might have your work cut out for you. Please keep us posted on this project.

Oh yeah, lotsa pics. Gotta have pics.

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Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
Check my oil too, if you don`t mind,,,

Same here, I can't wait to see how this progresses...hats off to you for making an effort at bringing this gem back to life.   

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

I am one more who is really excited to see how this project will turn out.

What sorta electronics are you going to put in it?

Pictures are always appreciated.

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-Rob Eckert
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Rob - The business end of the electronics are a pair of S-M Golden Age humbuckers that have been gathering dust (I mean aging gracefully) in a modified Kramer Focus (heh, how can you hate a plywood guitar that actually works?).



I'm real partial to stereo guitars with piezo pickups, and I may use a Fishman Powerchip together with a Pick-Up-the-World pickup as part of the setup. I'm still figuring out how to fit this into the right number of knobs on the existing guitar.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

In connection with the previous post - if you were going to use a piezo pickup of the type that is mounted under one of the bridge feet on an archtop, and you wanted a simple mono setup, would you

a) mount the single pickup underthe treble side foot
b) mount it under the bass side foot
c) mount a stereo unit with two sensors and rewire it mono?


JIM

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

I'd go with a stereo pair than sum them together at the volume before
going to tone or output. That way you'll have a ballanced output.

Here's another question. Do you plan on using the tone controls
independently much? This is one of the guitars I used for Jazz band in
college, so I played with the tones turned down a hair or two at times, but
they were always uniformly turned down. If you can live with a single
master tone, that will free up a pot to use as a piezo volume. I don't
know for sure, but I believe the wire to the tone controls comes off the
wiper of the volume pot (the center terminal). You would just route the
wiper of each volume pot to a single tone control.    

James - Yes, I think I can live with one tone pot for the humbuckers, which frees up a position for a pre-amp.

My present time spent playing bass has biased me towards master volume/blend pot arrangements rather than two separate volume controls, too.

Also, in the past I have used two different pre-amps which both have drawbacks. The Fishman PowerChip has the nice feature of recognizing whether there is a mono or stereo cable in the jack, and blending or not accordingly. However, it's knob is a volume control for the piezo side, so you lose any ability to go through a master volume, plus you need a switch to choose magnetic/both/piezo.

The Baggs Ctrl-X has a knob which serves as a blend pot between the magnetic and piezo sides, so your master volume capability is maintained. However, the Baggs can't tell if your cabling is mono or stereo - you have to tell it, so there is still an extra switch (actually a button reached through a tiny hole). The unit would be my perfect choice if it could tell the flavor of the cable.

Other candidates out there?

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Jim,

That looks a fabulous project to undertake and I'll be watching progress with great interest.

I know nothing about electrics and electronics but would suggest you e-mail Dieter at K&K (dieter@kksound.com) - their mini systems are a fabulous acoustic pickup, and I know they do systems for archtop type bridges, plus they do one-off stuff. He's very friendly and helpful. The other person to contact would be Rick Turner who has posted here in the past.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010