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Well I finally figured out how to post the picture - My new H535

And here's the guitar. I like it with the guard off.

Hard to answer. I've ordered solid blocks on floating block guitars and floating blocks on solid block guitars in the past. The good old days. Glad I was involved in the Golden Years with Custom Shop Service.

So I wasn’t really happy with the poorly modded Schaller bridge. It wouldn’t intonate very good. So I decided to put a set of locking Tonepros on it. And I took the covers off the pickups (which did help with the squealing, a little). The bridge Lollar still squeals when I step on the RAT…but with the OCD it is fine. The neck Seth is great now. The intonation is perfect now.

I got PTSD doing harness work on Heritage semis. You'd think there would be no significant difference between a Gibson and a 535. There is more swearing involved!

May have posted this in the past, But since we're focusing on fuzz here.... Never a fan of it, but given this is a Lucinda Williams tune, and I'm a big fan of the fearless Stuart Mathis, I thought...why not get way out of my little box. This is from the Be Good To Yourself project, and since we were tracking nearly thirty songs, I figured I'd better come up with a variety of tones and approaches. I'm pretty much down with what Randy (fdx99) observes in his notes, above. As I recall this track was my Tele for electric rhythm, a Nashville tuned Red Label Yamaha FG-110, and the fuzz was my Nash Strat, bridge pickup, into my Low Power Tweed Twin clone. The fuzz was an MXR Hendrix Octavio, which has a pretty great fuzz! Fuzz is there in a couple of early chords, but doesn't really appear until the guitar outro, last 1:30-ish of the tune. I'm a little proud of this one. The vocalist is eighteen-year-old phenom Māya Beth Atkins.

Here's an old video of them building a semihollow. It appears that the main block is maple. You would want a strong wood, since you need to put your neck joint in there, just like a solid body. Its definitely not mahogany, it's way too light colored. You can see the color difference of the mahogany kerfing below. From what I have read, an ES335 will have a maple block and the filler piece is spruce which is kerfed to bend more easily. If you listen closely, I think that he says they use a basswood insert for the filler section that goes between the top and the block. It's about 3:30 into the video. He also explains about doing floating blocks (top is fixed, back is not).

1987 HERITAGE H170… 1st generation H170 double cut. Honduran mahogany body and neck Bound and Carved flame maple top Bound Indian rosewood fretboard Bound and inlaid headstock This one has seen some action in its life. It suffered a headstock break/repair some years ago. It currently has a Lollar Imperial pickup in the bridge and a SD Seth Lover in the neck. Volume/Volume/Tone with a 3 way toggle. It’s a great playing and great sounding Heritage from their Golden Age!!!

That's rock and roll being made right there!

I have one of these but mine does not have the bound headstock. Other than that it is pretty much a clone of yours. Mine is a D serial number also. It was my first Heritage. I bought an H-140 of the same vintage along with the H-170 and fell in love. The music store didn't know anything about Heritage and I traded a japanese LP and maybe $400 for both. The H-170 is my favorite guitar. Period. I have a few Heritage's as well as the usual suspects (Gibsons, Fenders, etc) but the 170 just feels and sounds right to me in every way possible. The Schallers were not awful but I put a set of Dimarzio Anniversary PAFs and it just opened it up. Same with the H-140. Everyone who has played it instantly falls in love with it and wants to buy it. Enjoy it Brent!

I'm pretty sure Brent sold it to him. I almost bought it from Brent. DOH! Just started the video, it was Brent's.

I love old amps, I own some really nice vintage amps, and I have access to many great old ones. But I don't think they sound any better than a well built modern amp. I have a TopHat Club Deluxe that pretty much can hang with any amp that I've ever played. I'm in the middle of an extended recording project with my band, and we've recorded about 20 songs and not once did I turn on a vintage amp. It's mostly my TopHat, because to me, the TopHat sounds as a good as an amp can sound. The combination of my Telecaster (a partscaster that I built) and that TopHat is the sound that I've always chased, but could never get... till now that is. And my handbuilt (handwired) Marshall style amp that my buddy Ryan built beats the pants of off of any vintage Marshall I've played. It's the only other amp I've used besides my TopHat on the project. I've owned a few vintage Marshalls, but I got rid of them all. I will never sell the one I have now. Most everytime I plug into it I come up with something musical. Also my buddy owns two perfectly maintained tweed 5E3 Deluxes and another pre 5E3 Deluxe and they all sound great and a bit different, yet my Clark Beauford amp to me sounds as good as any of these tweeds, I think we are in a amp renaissance with many builders building some of the best amps ever made. I think there are amp builders out there now that have cracked the code of the originals, but you'll pay through the nose for some of the best ones:) Now I'm not saying there aren't any great vintage amps out there, because I've heard and played through a bunch of great ones. Recently I heard an early 60'd VOX AC10 that was just magic and had a sound I've never heard in a modern amp, but I don't know many of the modern Vox style builders.

Just as Curly Howard says at the end of an episode. "come on in boys"

I no longer have any vintage guitars but I do have 4 vintage amps (Brown Face Deluxe, Brown Face Vibrolux, Black Face Vibrolux Reverb, and a Black Face Deluxe Reverb). I can't acknowledge that a vintage guitar sounds better through a vintage amp. But I can confirm, that ANY guitar I own sounds better through my vintage amps verse new amps. There is a more 3D quality to the vintage amps. They sound like the sound is coming from 180 degree and don't sound boxy like a lot of newer amps I have played/owned over the years.

I have very good aim, that was from 105 yards or was it decibels, I can’t remember. Here is the latest, I’ve been working on it diligently day in and out. This morning I got the hammer and chisel out and made a lot of noise!

Well congrats!! I always liked that gtr. If I remember correct some guy at a PSP shredded the hell outta that thing, back in the barn days? did it justice for sure. A good repair shop should be able to repair the neck & truss rod.

Beautiful guitar DBlues. IIRC, you sold it because of the neck. The top also has mineral streaks and, at that time, some here considered the streaks to be a bad sign; it is not a bad sign. With a little research you’ll find mineral streaks are indicative of maple grown in wet areas where the ground has plentiful minerals. The maple that grows best in wet areas is the red maple AKA swamp maple. A fair number of ‘59 Pauls also have mineral streaks. I’m not at all opposed to mineral streaks and even covet them; so much so that I’ve planted red maples in the wettest terrain at the ranch for the next generation. That’s my, long winded, way of saying Happy New/Old/Refurbished Guitar Day. She’s a Looker!

Thanks so much. The pick guard pictured is new, not sure why. The original is in the case. Again, not sure why. I didn't compare the guards. All the wear on it is from 23 years of real play by my friend in the picture. It plays like a dream. I did replace the pots and harness. I'm not sure which parts were original if any of it. While I was at it I purchased the little pointers to make it look more like a '58/'59.

If you have please let me know This was the very first heritage guitar I ever bought, back around 1997?? Id like to get it back

It’s somewhere…..

Well, PSP got a little spendy for me . . . bought the pictured 535 standard (with same OSB finish as TRich's new 530). Point 1: I'm trying to recreate the tone as heard on a couple of Doobie Brothers songs, South City Midnight Lady and Another Park, Another Sunday. My best guess is that the guitar played on those songs is a G 335. Can anyone confirm this? Point 2: If the guitar is a 335, how can I get my new 535 to sound like this? SD 59s are in the new axe and I haven't been able to get the tone I seek. I see mixed reviews of the 59s here on HOC and I wonder if Seth Lovers would get me closer? Or, just change the magnets in the 59s to alnico 2 or 3? Or . . . ? Comments and insights most appreciated! Thanks, eljay

Saw him play in ‘78. Until that point I had no idea there were only 3 dudes making all that sound! Good times…

Yeah, I'm a big fan. I have a USA Geddy Lee signature model. I really love it too! And a Rick 4003. Black, of course. (couldn't live with the old Rick bridge - neither did Geddy, as he put a BaddAss bridge on it.

I have no idea about the answer to your two questions, but I always love the questions you ask and the insights you provide. And that’s a beautiful Guitar by the way.

A very young bass player once bought a Rickenbacker bass, in the footsteps of his hero, Chris Squire. He was most disappointed to find that he didn't sound at all like Chris Squire. The young bass player eventually became quite famous on his own and associated closely with the Rickenbacker bass. Thing is changing parts will make little tweaks in the sound, but you might be chasing a ghost. We don't really know what instrument might have been played in a studio, even when a musician is strongly associated with a particular instrument. Sometimes, maybe there was just something random in the place and he picked it up and played it. Then there's the amp, and the micing and the room, and the engineer's technique to take the track, that particular session or maybe many sessions and so on and so forth. Find the guitar that works for you and your hands, and play the song(s) you want as well as possible. Then, record it. Compare overlayed on the track you want to sound like. See what you can do with various studio/DAW plugins, especially ones that represent the things that might have been in use at the time it was originally recorded. Then do some deducing what is and isn't close to your ghost. In many cases you can get "there" with some EQ, compression and creative dialing in of those.

you got the blues for greeny

Nostalgia at its finest.

Beautiful guitar.

quite famously I think: Ampeg even used this photo in an ad?

Both the Stones and the Faces in their prime played through Ampeg SVTs on their arena tours. And in the studio Ampeg VT22 and VT40 amps. Ron Wood used to slave a little Fender Princeton in to an Ampeg SVT. What a tone!!!

Growing up in Jersey all we had were Ampeg and Silvertons only our cars had fenders.Can't beat the OG bass amp.

Happy fish!

Yeah Brent was the one who originally discovered this one again, after it left Mark Slaughter's hands. He's mentioned a lot in the video, and there's a great clip of him and Mark talking about the guitar too. Great story!

I tried get in touch with Scott some years back. He had been a DJ in West Virginia. Turns out he passed away in 2020. https://www.leavittfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Dowe-Scott-Fauley-II?obId=14987495

I'm with you about the block inlays. I think they rock!

That was the best sounding Heritage guitar that Josh owned up to that time (and he went through quite a few). It had a headstock repair and he had it refinished. He jammed through it at a PSP and it sounded HUGE and AMAZING. But back then, Josh was on a BUY and THEN PURGE phase. I thought for sure he would keep that one because it exceptional. I am not bashing him, we have all done this. I am just here to witness what a great guitar it is. It has (or least had at the time) higher output pickups but they sounded huge and open. My questions are; Why did Heritage have it for so many years? Did you own it while Heritage had it? How did you get it back and why didn't Heritage fix/set it up for you? Does it still have those great sounding higher output pickups in it? But mostly I was here to say congrats on getting her back!

Sweet! Mine is a somewhat later 140, with a lighter shade of natural maple top. Absolutely wonderful guitar!

Another 2.45 inches and it will be just like Willie's Trigger!

So, our group had a tee time at a golf course on the other side of the river, which meant that I paid the toll to get to Indiana. While I was over there, I decided to run by a local shop, Maxwell's House of Music. This is a sister store to Mom's Music which happens to have been started by the drummer of the first band I went to see as an 8th grade graduate. (Ok, enough back story...) My thought was to see if they had a Blues Driver in stock. I would rather support a local store than Guitar Center. Two local shops I check didn't have any in stock. Maxwells had the standard pedal, and the guy was more than happy to plug it up to try. "What do you have for an amp?" He pulls out a Princeton Reverb for me. "What do you play?" That's a bit trickier. I explained that I've got several Heritages with humbuckers but recently got my H-530 with P90s. We walked over to the wall and I pulled this one down from the wall. It was a choice between this ES-330 and a 335 next to it. It was a very nice guitar, but was it nicer than my 530? Nah! It does have some nice grain. Other than the block inlays, there's wasn't any real advantage. They played very much alike. I still don't like the plug on the front rather than the rim. At $3500, it was priced between the Custom Core and the standard. A fellow about my age was picking up a white Tele and he and I jammed a bit on some blues. He said he's still got his father's original '64 ES-345. In the end, I left with a Blues Driver. I'll be pulling out the pedal board later today and cranking it up.

Glad to see you're still out there playing gigs. I agree completely. You can cover most all bases with the 535. I've heard you play that 535 enough at PSP to know that it's a killer. It's good that it's still in your arsenal, even if it is "on loan". Your band must have been playing REALLY LOUD if you coudn't play without feeding back. On the other hand, it's perfect to get the acoustic feedback going when you want to sustain a note infinitely! Turn away and it should go back to normal.

Authentic relicing from my grubby hands and sweaty forearm. This picture is a couple of years old, the bare spot is now a bit bigger and as beautiful as ever. Pre-relicing. But all my guitars that I gig with eventually end up with the same worn area.

thanks, it was great guitar!

I've never personally relic'd a guitar (or re-licked one). But some of the best Telecaster tones I've ever heard came from a Nachocaster which is a heavy duty relic'd guitar. This one... I think the one I played cost $6000. And up to that point, I would've never ever considered spending that much on any guitar, modern or vintage. The most I've ever spent is $4500. But that guitar had me rethinking about what a guitar is worth. It was that good. As a matter of fact one of my best friends bought a used one just like it for a $1000 more, and he thought it was the deal of the century, HE LOVES IT!!! And the fact that you could nick it, dent it, whatever, and wouldn't lose a cent of value is kind of appealing. These guitars now sell for over $8000 new, and there's a waiting list. He sells them that fast. So people pay even more than that for used ones if they want one immediately. Frankly, I don't think I'd like if the man himself, Nacho, made me one that would look new. It just felt so good, and better than any vintage Tele that I've ever played (I've played a few). A few weeks before I played this one I had a 50's whiteguard Tele at my house and this Nacho smoked it! Here's the only song that I recorded with it, a song which came out of me with less than 20 minutes of play time on it. The pickups just sang and the vibration in the wood rattled my ribs...

Feels like an old friend!

Welcome to our community CVS! I was a drummer (still am) before getting hooked on Heritage guitars in 2000. I currently own 14 ( many have slid in and out of my hands in 25 years). You have a sweet little stable going, guaranteed it’s only going to grow larger! I see a Heritage H-150 or H-535 (perhaps both) in your future! As far as this community, we are a closely knit group that shares information and helps each other out so don’t be shy about posting anything Heritage related, or if not Heritage related, in the Family Tree. Cheers!

CVS, I just got my H-530, but I see no reason I can't play any of my normal music on it. Heck I've played Allman Bros on a 525 and Billy Holliday on my Millennium. CSN on an H-157 and Stray Cat Strut on a 535. I've even played Led Zeppelin on my acoustic! It's all good.

There's a cool little blue pedal that you can plug into and get a really nice "woman tone". Pete Farmer loaned me his pedal for PSP.

I think he was using Heritage Custom Shop 225s......