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Show some love for The Heritage Series Standard 80's

jimmi

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 8, 2012
Messages
2,077
I want to contribute. I love my early 80s re-issues.

Heritage award #031. (mike, which number is yours?). This was my first Les Paul bought in 1985. I saved up money for a year and my grandfather helped me pay the difference.

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Coloring on this always reminds me of this '60 burst picture:
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jimmi

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 8, 2012
Messages
2,077
My Leo's Special (with my two conversions included in a couple pictures):
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Texas Blues

Active member
Joined
Apr 13, 2008
Messages
4,641
My Standard 80. Purchased new in 81

imagejpg1_zps01c0fb0b.jpg

Nice guitar.

I see you have the B7 and looks like the V7 mount, which I recently added to my '78.

Seems the bodies of that era were somewhat shorter than the original standards.

My guitar beautician put a nice chunk of rosewood in for a shim for the space between

the end of the B7 and the guitars body and screwed in a longer SS strap button screw.

Yours looks even more well off the end of the body than mine.

Is the B7 flap plate just screwed in at a big angle or do you also have some sort of shim?

I'm curious as I just love Bigsby's on Gibson guitars.
 

vibroluxe

New member
Joined
Jan 6, 2015
Messages
26
Texas Blues - (fellow blues player here) - I took this Bigsby off of a 2011 '60's Tribute. It fit perfectly on that guitar but the guitar and I just didn't gel. I went to install it on this guitar and found that it hung off the edge way too much. Was thinking about a wood shim when I stumbled across Towner Screwless Vibrato systems (townerusa.com). He makes a system that competes with the Vibramate but is different in concept. His system uses a B3 Bigsby (no forward roller) and a seperate roller that attaches to the tailpiece studs. The idea is that by being able to adjust the down angle over the bridge you can tweak the setup to your own playing style. Also, the lessened angle improves the performance of the Bigsby and reduces tuning issues.

There is a 1/2" aluminum shim called a V Block that is provided with the Towner system (to further reduce the string angle between the B3 and roller?). It's nicely machined and is curved to match the body. He sold that to me seperately. I had to take it down about 1/16" on the flat side to get a real nice fit. It works great on this piece.

imagejpg1_zps98bdaeb3.jpg
 
Last edited:

townerusa

New member
Joined
Apr 2, 2015
Messages
1
Thanks for the post, I forgot to reach out and see how the install went, been gettin busy around here. :dude:



Texas Blues - (fellow blues player here) - I took this Bigsby off of a 2011 '60's Tribute. It fit perfectly on that guitar but the guitar and I just didn't gel. I went to install it on this guitar and found that it hung off the edge way too much. Was thinking about a wood shim when I stumbled across Towner Screwless Vibrato systems (townerusa.com). He makes a system that competes with the Vibramate but is different in concept. His system uses a B3 Bigsby (no forward roller) and a seperate roller that attaches to the tailpiece studs. The idea is that by being able to adjust the down angle over the bridge you can tweak the setup to your own playing style. Also, the lessened angle improves the performance of the Bigsby and reduces tuning issues.

There is a 1/2" aluminum shim called a V Block that is provided with the Towner system (to further reduce the string angle between the B3 and roller?). It's nicely machined and is curved to match the body. He sold that to me seperately. I had to take it down about 1/16" on the flat side to get a real nice fit. It works great on this piece.

imagejpg1_zps98bdaeb3.jpg

Nice guitar.

I see you have the B7 and looks like the V7 mount, which I recently added to my '78.

Seems the bodies of that era were somewhat shorter than the original standards.

My guitar beautician put a nice chunk of rosewood in for a shim for the space between

the end of the B7 and the guitars body and screwed in a longer SS strap button screw.

Yours looks even more well off the end of the body than mine.

Is the B7 flap plate just screwed in at a big angle or do you also have some sort of shim?

I'm curious as I just love Bigsby's on Gibson guitars.

My Standard 80. Purchased new in 81

imagejpg1_zps01c0fb0b.jpg
 

Big Al

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 24, 2002
Messages
14,537
Freudian slip? :rofl

Had to point it out hehe.

$#%@** spell check always does that. Nick just loves that guitar.:hank:hank
Nick wanted a B7 on it. I told him B5 would work better, (both with Vibramate for the assist), but he had to have the B7. We used a wooden plug and all is well.

Still, the B5 is the best way to put a Bigsby on a Heritage 80.
 
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vibroluxe

New member
Joined
Jan 6, 2015
Messages
26
Yeah, I hear ya, but the B7 was all I had at the time. Tricky getting it to work but I do like the look...
 

dixiethedog

Member
Joined
May 24, 2016
Messages
31
I bought a new LP Heritage Standard 80 back in the early 80s from a music shop in Newcastle upon Tyne called Windows.
I am certain that the 4-digit number was 2150. Back in the 80s, you had to buy a roll of film for a camera and then have it developed which was expensive when you were broke, so I don't have many pics to share. The house was going thru some renovation work at the time.heritage80.jpg
 

Strings Jr.

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 17, 2016
Messages
670
I bought a new LP Heritage Standard 80 back in the early 80s from a music shop in Newcastle upon Tyne called Windows.
I am certain that the 4-digit number was 2150. Back in the 80s, you had to buy a roll of film for a camera and then have it developed which was expensive when you were broke, so I don't have many pics to share. The house was going thru some renovation work at the time.
Nice! I built your guitar on May 4th,1981.

 

dixiethedog

Member
Joined
May 24, 2016
Messages
31
Nice! I built your guitar on May 4th,1981.

WOW!!! One day off my birthday, which is the 5th of May. I will try to find more pics. It actually had a nice flame top which does not show in the photo that I provided. That is an amazing piece of information, thank you for sharing it!
 
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