HeavnerGuitarWorks

Nope! It's not a wavy flag. Just a straight stiped flag that is actually pretty ugly. The Nashville plant released the actual limited version. I don't know why, but the Memphis and Nashville plants were in major competition with each other and Nashville always won... of course. When Nashville had an idea we would try our hardest to out do it... never happened. The Nashville plant hated the Memphis plant cause we took a ton of production from them which meant less work (less money) for them. We had to do some of our training there for the more specialized positions and it was like being in a prison yard.... the Nashville clique over here... the Memphis clique over there... just waiting for someone to cross the line so they could shank them with a rusted nut file. Pretty tense times.

Gibson does not sell seconds and haven't for many years. I worked at the Memphis plant for several years and nearly cried my second day on the job when my boss showed me what to do with the seconds (after I dropped a Gothic SG on head first on the concrete floor but that's another story)... cut em' up like a jigsaw puzzle on the bandsaw. That's why you see the occassional Les Paul on Ebay that has been put back together... employees go dumpster diving after hours, which you would be fired and prosecuted if caught. I'll never forget right before 9/11. We were working on a US flag Les Paul as a limited edition. They had hired 9-10 new employees and were showing them around. Right as they got to the final assembly area, my boss smashed one of the flag guitars on the floor Pete Townsend style. You should've seen the looks on their faces. That's priceless! They ended up trying to cash in on 9/11 with the flag Les Paul before they realized that was a tacky idea and cut them all up but 3 that I know of. I won one of them at the employee party for the opening of the Gibson Lounge and the other 2 were given to some friends of the CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz. As for quality control... it totally sucked at the Memphis plant. We shipped out broken guitars every other day just to meet our daily quota. It's stated on the shipping box that any problems upon receipt are to be handled with the carrier. So we'd ship a broken guitar, the store would get their money back from the carrier (insurance), we'd get the broken guitar back... fix it and resell it. Sounds like fraud to me! When they hired me, they made it known that they don't like hiring guitarists because guitarists are more picky and slow production down. The majority of the Memphis plant was 50+ year old black ladies that couldn't tell you to this day what all the different parts of the guitar are... just the ones they install. It was a dream job that turned into a nightmare and made me hate the site of guitars. I actually quit playing for 2 years after working there. I will never buy another Gibson unless it's a '59 Les Paul owned by Jimmy Page and only costs $100.00. Back to the question... I think it was somewhere in the mid to late 70s that they stopped selling seconds and the Montana plant opened in 1974 so it could be a factory second... I'll have to check my info when I get home from work to get the correct year they stopped selling seconds. I'll let you know. What year is the guitar?

solvent evaporation? Now will my Cook box work to harden my Paint? If not what Will be the Best way for Me to do this? How Can I get My Paint Rock Hard? HELP !!METAL MATT!! ← I take it that you are planning on cooking the Rustoleum Hammerite Paint on your Brutalizer??? If so, cooking it will do nothing but make the paint wrinkle and peel. Hammerite paint as well as most rattle can paints are not designed to withstand high temps. Heat will do nothing for the hardness of any spray paint unless the paint was designed to be cured with heat which will be clearly stated on the can. You might want to read this discussion about baking paints at diystompboxes.com. It's pretty interesting stuff and completley true. All you have to do is email Rustoleum. Hammerite is pretty hard stuff as it is, but then again, being more of a pedal and amp builder I've never used it on wood

How about this for those people that can't seem to search first?

I never buy pedals... I build em'. I have 74 at last count... not going to name them individually, but if it's analog and sounds good I probably have one built and on my pedal board. I am actually going into business building them in the next month or so. I've been selling them by word of mouth for the past year, but my website is almost done now. I have designed 4 pedals of my own which sound amazing. I've spent the past year stocking my shop, creating decal artwork, and spreading the word. As of right now, George McConnell of Widespread Panic, the members of Vulpine, the members of Day Of Fire, Daniel Karlish, and a few other people I'm not sharing the names of yet will be using them. Whether you use pedals or not, keep your eyes open for Big Block Effects. I'm combining my love of guitars and muscle cars. All of the pedals will be named after and resemble engine parts. I am focusing on the era when rock was truly rock (late 60s/early 70s). When the bands had talent, not Pro Tools... back in the days of Hendrix, Zepplin, Trower, the Stones, etc. If you play a PRS through a Mesa and wanna' sound like every other band on MTV, then my pedals are not for you. There will be quite a few stores selling them, but the majority will be sold on the website. I like the idea of DIY all the way... from concept to manufacturing to marketing to sales... No middle man sticking his hands in and no uneducated salespeople trying to explain why it does what it does. :~) To answer the original question... yes, I get excited when I see a pedal I don't have... but only because I want the schematic.... I guess you could say I'm a schematic junkie! :~)

The width of the neck at the nut is 1 11/16 inches wide.

Very cool man! I love the flames. I've always wanted a 1966 Dodge Charger, black with flames similar to that. A man can dream. You definitly have a knack for the real flame finish though.

I just found these on ebay. Pretty cool if you ask me. I've played a few Dillion guitars and for the money they seem nice. I didn't know they made acrylic guitars though. I have a weakness for acrylic. Acrylic SG Acrylic RRV I've always thought an acrylic SG would be cool, but I hate bolt on SGs.

Ditto!

That design rocks! Really retro looking. If it was me... I'd paint it surf green or a baby blue, put a nice forearm contour like a strat, and put a white pearl pickguard on it shaped somewhat like a telecaster deluxe... kinda like this one: That would totally rock! And, I would have to buy it from you. Surf on!

I just posted the Supro, that I had another thread about, for sale on ebay along with some other stuff. I started it cheap and am letting it go for whatever it brings. I'll be adding some new stuff in the next few days... guitar parts, an Alder body blank, electronic components... etc. Have a look!!! Thanks, Jason

It was a Jackson tele. He used it in the Sweet Child O' Mine video.

Man.... sometimes I get sick of the bashing! Give the guy a break already. His playing isn't really that bad, and I haven't heard anything of yours. On those Jemsite threads, there were only 3 or 4 people that put their music up. Why is that? Most likely cause the rest of the people suck nuts and just try to please the rest of the insert guitar god name wannabes. I don't really see that much of an ego problem either. I see a guy that has big enough nuts to put his stuff out there and have the s#%t kicked out of him for it. The Leviathan guitars you make are your pride and joy, and I'm sure you knock other companies products to sell more of yours. It's called business. He has a video lesson thing-a-ma-jiggy that he's pushing. He can't go in and say "I suck, let me teach you". It isn't ego, it's business. If I said your Leviathons are nothing more than glorified Ibanez's, you'd try to prove me wrong. Why? Because you created it and it's your baby. His playing is his baby. Let him have it. If you don't like his playing... don't listen to it. If you don't like his "ego".... don't go to his website or read his threads. It's a pretty simple concept. I was once offered a job teaching guitar at a local store. I told the owner I wasn't good enough to teach guitar. He said to me "If you're better than a beginner, you can teach a beginner." Wise words. He's better than a lot of guitarists that post clips on this site, and they all call themselves guitarists and talk the talk and people leave them alone. You can't honestly say you have never been a cocky guitarist. I've never met a guitarist that wasn't cocky. I grew up in a small town and as funny as it is, I was THE guitarist. I played in almost everyones bands and was the local session player. I had an ego the size of Texas. I had only been playing 4 years. Kind of ironic. Well... I don't count the 2 years I played before I got my first electic. Kinda like he doesn't count the 3 years he played before giving it up. Anyway, I've been playing 16 years now, and I listen to that old stuff and hide my head in shame. I sucked. Sometimes it just takes a while to realize. But now I kick ass and shred with the best of em'! Keep this in mind.... "In music, the ones that break the rules are the ones that have staying power." Keep it up Joey, and just keep practicing. Jesus loves you man!

Nice guitars. Google (Images) for "Fender HMT". They had a line of "Heavy Metal" Strats and Teles back in the late 80s or early 90s that had Floyds on em'. I've owned a couple of the Teles and loved them all. Single F hole, humbuckers, and a Floyd... can't beat it!

I use medium sized metal washers that have a hole big enough to fit the strap button without falling off. I never take my straps off though. I also use these on a few of my guitars. I'm friends with the owner of that store and the owner of Straplocks. I like their design because they never break, they're cheap, and they add a few inches to the strap. I'm a tall guy and use only vintage leather straps (straight from the 60s and 70s hand tooled stuff) and they usually aren't quite long enough. Those extra inches help. Of course.... I don't buy their straplocks though... I just make em' myself. Nothing but a little leather and some fancy washers. Nothing to it.... and you can still remove the strap from the guitar. I wouldn't recommend the ones in you link. I couldn't trust plastic to hold my guitar safely.

Just in case you're wondering... it looks like this amp.... but with a white grill cloth! This is NOT the amp I am selling.... just one that looks like it.

I've decided to sell my most beloved amp. Gotta thin out the herd and this one is only used at home and in the studio.... so... it goes first. I don't really know that much about the amp, other than it is a 1 x 10" combo dating somewhere around the late 50s to the mid 60s. The only marking on it is "T25395" which I assume is the serial number. It is covered in the gray textured tolex with the white racing stripe and is pretty darn clean for an amp this old. The original owner wrote their name on the racing stipe on top in some type of marker, but it has faded and been cleaned to where it is almost unnoticable. It has the original rola speaker (has 3 tiny repairs on the cone but doesn't effect it at all) and is actually all original, except for the output transformer, grill cloth, and filter caps. I just had those replaced last weekend. The amp finally died on me after 15 years of me abusing it. But now it is all fixed and is without a doubt the loudest 1 10" combo I've ever heard. The grill cloth was the old black type that Supro used for awhile. It amounted to basically a window screen type material sprayed with that black fuzzy jewelry box lining and the Supro logo was either painted on or a metal nameplate was used. There was no sign of the nameplate ever being used so, I'm assuming this one had the painted logo. Either way, the grill cloth was missing when I bought the amp and someone had replaced it with a loosely woven coarse white cloth. It looks way better than the original black grill, but is not original. I have searched high and low trying to fing an original Supro grill cloth, but never have. I don't think it would be hard to make your own though. It has 3 inputs, 2 guitar and 1 microphone, Volume, Tone, status light, power switch, and fuse on the top mounted chasis. The chasis itself is in rough shape but serves its purpose all the same. It is gold plated and most of the plating is pitted. This amp has the hard plastic handle on top.... not the leather handle. It has 1 6V6, 1 5Y3GT, and 1 12AX7.... all NOS RCA and Sylvania from my deceased grandfathers TV repair shop. These tubes had never been used til this weekend. It also comes with a spare set of NOS tubes of the same brands. This amp has major mojo! Turn it up to about 3 and it will run you out of the house. Set it to 5 and prepare to be in heaven. It is the bluesiest sound ever heard from a speaker. I have a JFET based booster built into my guitar, set about 3/4 of the way up, and it pushes this amp into total Vaughan territory. It is also very easy to get dead on Zepplin tones as Jimmy Page used a Supro for the entire 1st album and various other songs from other albums. Imagine playing "Stairway to Heaven" or "What is and What Should Never Be" and having his tone. I truly hate to part with this amp, but I use the Marshall way more. I will try to get some pics up by this weekend, but it might be next tuesday. I'm going outta town this weekend. If I don't get some interest here, It will go on ebay. Asking $650 shipped with insurance anywhere in the Continental U.S.! I accept paypal and postal money orders only! Thanks, Jason Heavner

Actually.... you are wrong. I used to work for the Gibson factory who very rarely uses Floyds, but when they were used they were almost always crooked. The reason for this is to compensate for the F spacing of the bridge verses the more narrow pole spacing on Gibson pickups. Instead of Gibson shelling out tons of cash for F spaced pickups they SLIGHTLY angled the Floyd to align the strings over the polepieces. That is a fact!!! and I have plenty of pics if needed. Not all Gibsons were mounted crooked, but most. Some of em' actually got lucky and wound up straight, but the strings never lined up with the poles. Of course, they rarely do anyway... but that's a whole different can of worms. As for pics... here's one I grabbed off ebay while at work.

You've been PM'd.

Here is the best link for drum supplies. The company is owned by one of my friends and he has everthing. If he doesn't have it, he can get it, and if he can't get it he can probably have it made. He has an ad in the back of Modern Drummer every month and deals with a lot of decent bands. If you can drill the holes yourself and the finish, you'll save some money. He got his start back when Stewart McDonald tried selling drum parts. It didn't go over too well, so they decided to sell out their inventory. Andy found out about it and made an offer.... they agreed.... and the rest is history. He started the shop in his bedroom and now has huge shops in Jackson TN and Nashville TN. Super great guy to deal with and knows everything about every drum made.

I have 5 cats, a dog, an 18 month old baby, and a wife. That qoute does seem quite psychotic, doesn't it? I was actually pissed at the guitar itself. Piece of crap. It didn't have a scratch on it when I got it... I couldn't have that. So... I bought a new neck for it and it went downhill from there. The neck didn't fit the pocket quite right no matter what I did to it. It was supposed to have been an actual lefty Fender neck... turns out it was a Saga with a Fender decal. Damn ebay thieves! I bought all new hardware and electronics for it, but never put them on it. I was playing it one day and the neck just pop off. I picked it up, took it outside, and smacked it as hard as I could on the sidewalk. Then the body skipping fun started!!! This was after I set it on fire though. That was at an outdoor show my band played. That's why I had to buy new electronics and a neck for it. I learned very quickly not to use gasoline during a Hendrix tribute moment. It's extremely hard to put a gas fire out with nothing more than water. I burnt a little more than I would have liked. If you look at the pic, you'll notice the neck pocket is black.... that's cause it was burnt to a crisp. I'll have my strat well done. Thank you!

Looks like an old Cort. I see em' in pawn shops all the time for about $100-$150. Nothing special about em'. Usually made of plywood, effects sound like ass but good enough for a beginner.

You have to heat the body up and then cool it down very fast. I stuck a strat body in the oven at about 150-200 degrees for about an hour, then put it straight in the freezer til it was cool. Completely cracked the finish. Thats the way the Gibson Custom Shop does it on their aged Pauls as well.... except on a bigger scale of course. Just keep an eye on it while its in the oven. If it is a plywood body, I wouldn't suggest this method. I would also keep an eye on the glue line if it is a multi piece body. You can always set it at a lower temp for a longer time if you're worried.

This is mostly actual wear from years of abuse. And I skipped it across the gravel driveway a few times when I was pissed. And I set it on fire... ala Jimi Hendrix. The back is very crispy, but I can't find the pic of it right now. I poured gas on it and lit it. Never could get rid of the gas smell, so I sold it on ebay.

HERE!