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Heritage 80's

Heritage 80

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Jan 10, 2002
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Big Al...

I think it was a thread or post from you that prompted me to do some internet surfing for more info on the Tim Shaw designed pickups. You had pretty much covered it all in your original post. Thanks for the great info (as usual!).

How's your H80 refinish coming along. Can you tell me/us what you're having done? What color was it originally? I'm looking forward to seeing some pics of her! :)spin
 
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rays44

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Jul 24, 2001
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http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=586692&uid=463742&members=1

I've had mine since the late 80's and it continues to be one of the best lesters I've ever played. I think Gibson did a good job in the early 80's with a number of guitars; korina V, explorer, modern, 30th anniv. goldtop, etc. My heritage has the Shaw neck and a Harmonic Design bridge p/u with a Tone pros bridge/tailpiece. I'll die with mine.:dude
 

Big Al

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Apr 24, 2002
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Re: Big Al...

Heritage 80 said:
I think it was a thread or post from you that prompted me to do some internet surfing for more info on the Tim Shaw designed pickups. You had pretty much covered it all in your original post. Thanks for the great info (as usual!).

How's your H80 refinish coming along. Can you tell me/us what you're having done? What color was it originally? I'm looking forward to seeing some pics of her! :)spin

Heritage 80,
when I say mine looks like yours I mean MINE LOOKS LIKE YOURS!!!!!
Same exact Honeyburst. That dark shade of Honey was rare. Most were a very light faded looking Honeyburst. The figure pattern of my top is a twin image to yours except it has a slight chevron. I would bet money they are from the same tree, maybe the same plank!

I played mine HARD!!! I loved it so much, and did not want to put excessive wear on Bad Betty, that I logged about 2000 gigs with that axe!!! From 81 to 00 it was my main stage axe. I also used it in practice and jams as well as some Studio work.

There is alot of finish worn away on the back of the neck and the frets are only flat bands of metal on the fingerboard!!! It has little dings and worms on the back. You know a well used much loved axe!!!

I'm not refinishing it, I'm trying to rebuild it. I'm dulling the gloss with Micromesh, replacing all electronics and some parts(not the Nashville Bridge I love it), and refretting it with 6105's. I'm also gonna try some other aging techniques with it. It may get a Bigsby, too.

It is # 1823, serial# 80411507.
 

fast ricky love

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Mar 27, 2002
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big al, that sounds awesome...

... i just refretted both my 80's with 6105's. aw man, are they honey's to play now. they were nice before but i like 11's so i found the shallow frets were too much of a fight. i gotta get me a dark honeyburst 80!!
 

Heritage 80

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Jan 10, 2002
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Re: big al, that sounds awesome...

fast ricky love said:
... i just refretted both my 80's with 6105's. aw man, are they honey's to play now. they were nice before but i like 11's so i found the shallow frets were too much of a fight. i gotta get me a dark honeyburst 80!!

I dunno. I might have to get rid of mine 'cause now BJ has me feeling its incomplete.;)
 

Heritage 80

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Jan 10, 2002
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Re: heritage 80...

fast ricky love said:
:lol1 i got first dibs

Thanks for the interest FRL, but you'll have to get my son to agree to that.:)spin;)
 
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Big Al

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Apr 24, 2002
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14,537
Bluejazz said:
They seem to be mentioned every now and then here. So there are some threads around on them if you do a search. I,personally, have no interest in them since they look incomplete.

:moon :moon :sean :sean :scard :sean :sean :moon :moon :wtf
 

fast ricky love

In the Zone/Backstage Pass
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Mar 27, 2002
Messages
3,458
Re: Re: heritage 80...

Heritage 80 said:


Thanks for the interest FRL, but you'll have to get my son to agree to that.:)spin;)


hmmm, your son, ok, don't want to interfere with that. if it was your cat well then sir, i'd suggest perhaps the old arm wrestle to settle the matter. :lolspin
 

58Super

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Jul 22, 2001
Messages
190
I bought mine in Toronto at Ring Music in early 81. It was an 1980. The thing that struck me about it besides the great playability and sound was that the folks that built it appeared to have taken great pride in their work judging by the initials and dates that appear in several places in the guitar. I'd seen that in F*nd*rs before but never Gibsons. The story was the that owner had gone to the Canadian distributor and picked out the best tops for the store. I've still got it and no its not for sale.;)
 

natchezian2

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Mar 28, 2002
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611
Tim Shaw from the Gibson Web Site

Here is the quote from the Gibson web site concerning Tim Shaw and his PAF pickup design:

"Whether it was rivalry between plants or increased market awareness, the Nashville plant jumped into the reissue action in 1980. By this time, one of the most glaring deficiencies of new Les Pauls (compared to the originals) was the humbucking pickup. In preparation for its first attempt at a reissue, Gibson assigned engineer Tim Shaw the job of designing a reissue of the original Patent-Applied-For humbucking pickup-within certain restrictions. "This was 1980 and Norlin was already feeling the pinch," Shaw said, referring to Gibson's long decline through the 1970s and early '80s. "We weren't allowed to do much retooling. We redid the bobbin because it was worn out. We got some old bobbins and put the square hole back in. We did it without the T-hole, which stood for Treble."

To replicate the magnets, Shaw gathered up magnets from original PAFs and sent them to a lab to be analyzed. "Most were Alnico 2's," he said, "but some were 5's. In the process of making an Alnico 5, they stick a magnet in a huge coil for orientation, but an unoriented 5 sounds a lot like a 2. They started with Alnico 2 and then switched to Alnico 5."

Shaw discovered that the original magnets were a little thicker than 1980 production magnets. "Magnetic strength is largely a function of the area of the polarized face; increasing the face size gives you more power," he explained. So he specified the thicker magnet for the new PAF.

Wiring on the originals was #42 gauge, which Gibson still used. However, the original wire had an enamel coating and the current wire had a polyurethane coat, which also was of a different thickness or "buildup" than that of the original, which affected capacitance. Norlin refused to go the extra mile-or extra buck, as it were. Enamel-coated wire cost a dollar more per pound than poly-coated. Shaw could change the spec on the buildup without additional expense, so the thickness of the coating was the same as on the original wire, but he was forced to use the poly coat. The difference is easy to see: purple wire on the originals, orange on the reissues.

Shaw later found a spec for the number of turns on a spec sheet for a 1957 ES-175. "It specified 5,000 turns because a P-90 had 10,000 turns and they cut it in half," Shaw said. In reality, however, originals had anywhere from 5,000 to 6,000 turns, depending on how tight the coil was wound. Shaw later met Seth Lover, who designed and patented Gibson's humbucker, at a NAMM show. Lover laughed when asked about a spec for windings, and he told Shaw, "We wound them until they were full."

The spec for resistance was even less exact, Shaw said. The old ohmeter was graduated in increments of .5 (500 ohms). Anywhere between 3.5 and 4 on the meter (3,500 to 4,000 ohms) met the spec. Consequently, Shaw pointed out, there is no such thing as an exact reissue or replica of the 1959 PAF pickup. There can only be a replica of one original PAF, or an average PAF. As Gibson would find out in the early 1990s, the same could be said about the entire guitar.

Shaw's PAF reissue debuted on Gibson's new Nashville-made Les Paul Heritage 80 in 1980. Compared to anything Gibson had previously made (which is to say, compared to nothing), it was an excellent reissue of a sunburst Les Paul Standard. It had a nice top, thin binding in the cutaway, nickel-plated parts, more accurate sunburst finish and smaller headstock, but the body shape, body size and three-piece neck, among other details, were just regular production. It appears that Gibson still didn't understand the demand for an accurate reissue, because Gibson accompanied the Heritage 80 with fancier versions: the Heritage 80 Elite, with an ebony fingerboard that had no relevance to the reissue market (although it did have a one-piece neck) and the Heritage 80 Award, with gold plated hardware that also had no relevance to the reissue market.

The Heritage 80 was still not good enough for those who wanted a Standard like the original Standard, and the push for a more accurate reissue came once again from dealers and from the Kalamazoo plant. In 1982, Jimmy Wallace opened his own store in the Dallas area and continued ordering what were becoming known as "Jimmy Wallace Reissues." At the same time, Leo's Music in Oakland, California, and Guitar Trader in Redbank, New Jersey, began ordering reissues. These dealers requested more accurate specs for body size, body carving and neck shape, although they usually didn't get them. Also in 1982, the Kalamazoo plant added fuel to the fire with the Les Paul Standard '82, which was distinguished from the Heritage 80 primarily by its one-piece neck and the fact that it was made in Kalamazoo."
 
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