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

This bad boy joined the herd over the weekend . . . I'm not normally one for factory aging but the one in this thread

I found this on Reefeeverb. The Heritage H525 is a full hollow thin line guitar with a Florentine cutaway. Maple Laminate top and back with a solid maple rim. Mahogany neck with a rosewood fretboard. 2 Lollar dog ear P90s. The H525 is loosely based off of the vintage Gibson ES125. These H525s RARELY come up for sale. But this one was dramatically different. The body was finished in a matte black. Originally is was a VSB (vintage sunburst) kind of a light tangerine burst. The H525s had a cult following among Heritage enthusiasts. But not many were ever made. When I first saw it, I wasn’t a fan of the refin. But after stalking the ad for a couple of days, I decided to pull the trigger. I figured, worst case scenario, I could always get the top refinished at some point if I don’t like it. But it’s actually pretty cool. The seller also upgraded the bridge to a Faber ABR1. I believe everything else is stock. He currently has it setup for 11s. I will be putting 9s on it, so there will be some extensive setup work to be done. I had one of these 525s many years ago and they are such a joy to play. Lightweight and full of warm creamy goodness!!! This is a pic from the seller. I will have pics and a full report after setup.

Congrats. I still have the one you sold me. Love it!

CVS, This is mine. I picked this up one night at Brents house. LK155 had it at PSP one year and I really liked the guitar. When it became available, I jumped.

referencing this thread: https://www.heritageownersclub.com/forums/topic/38369-used-530-incoming-inspired-by-trich/ finally got the wolftone dr. vintage humbuckers disguised as P-90s installed in the subject guitar . . . i chose the cream color pickup surrounds and glad that i did . . . tone is a little less "focused" than a 535 but certainly soft and round . . . scratched the itch! thanks for looking!

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.

How many of the folks in the video have we met? Ren, Pete, Curly, Marv, Arnie, Bill. There are several that I've seen through the years but didn't get names. The rack from the prototype room should have been donated to the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. Here's an article I ran across a while back. I never saw the "passing of the torch" headstock before. https://the-guitar.com/a-heritage-of-guitar-making/

I think I'd have this in his hands right away. The rattle can black really wrecks the vibe for me. A nice gloss black would be attractive, but I've always been a fan of finishes that highlight the wood. I'd be hoping the black is laying on top of the original finish so it didn't seep into the pores of the wood.

There's nothing inside except air!

According to Pete: 99% of centerblocks are maple, but there are mahogany & even some spruce centerblocks out there

Yeah, no. I resisted. The only black Friday shopping I did was the weed dispensary. Serious deals going on there, too. 🤣

I like it better with the guard on too, but I personally prefer the shape on the Heritage H150 guards. They just go with the flow of the body shape. And I think whatever guard is on it would need to be aged to match the body. It's not a '59, it's a Heritage.

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 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!

cue Ian Anderson

they are indeed! I took the liberty of posting the images here in the thread

It's the same reason that G&L and now Fender are still showing pictures of Leo Fender, and Gibson is still touting their latest "59 Les Paul". It's about lineage, history, a familial connection. Guitar people are enamored with the past, whether it is reality or not. Otherwise nobody would be trying to recreate the past!

Those are real nice looking guitars!

51.50 and a pack of smokes!

The Silverburst is a good solution. Would you have the body and neck prepped and shot gloss black first? For me, the matte aspect of the paint is the most off putting.

I'm pretty sure he says "patch wood" there, explaining the filler section, not "bass wood" He says it again a bit later too

I remember talking to Bill Paige about them, it must have been when they first came out: I was telling him about my Gibson ES-135 & saying they should make a thinner H-575 style, as it is more manageable to play & doesn't feed back so easily Bill said " have you heard about our H-525? " and pointed to one on a rack Well there ya go!! Congrats Brent, that looks really nice!

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

Congrats on your guitar! I purchased an std H535 about a month ago. Same finish as yours. Just love the guitar. Have used it clean, dirty, with chorus etc on a varirty of different types of music. Very easy to play for me given it has a 12" fretboard radius, which would not be my 1st choice. I have also given up chasing tones a few years back. I just dail in something that insires me to play & I am off and running. I hope you find what you are looking for. PS - I like the rug.

Awesome score, Brent! H525's are my all time favorite Heritage model.

If you are shopping for deals on Heritage guitars for black Friday, check out Sweetwater. Huge discounts going on. I wasn't in the market for an ebony H-150 Standard, but for $1600, I may be now.

Good point! In my defense I was only 8 years old and there was no internet at the time.

I like the sound of smaller amps that are jacked up a little. One of the very best club shows I ever saw was Magic Slim and the Teardrops in Kalamazoo in ‘94. Both guitar players were using Deluxe Reverbs (22 watts) and the stage volume was plenty loud. The tone was glorious.

Beautiful H-150 VSB from the good old days! Enjoy that fantastic axe!

That is a sweet H150! nice top

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.

Yeah, a English old fashion rump roast

Does this mean Guy has it or has found it? Congrats!

What are the Vegas odds on me finding this guitar?

you got the blues for greeny

It’s green! 🤯

So I saw this Custom core 535 on the gear page…. The guy had gotten it in a trade and was told that it was “artisan aged” but the guy lied to him, someone had tried to age it themselves by taking 120 or 80 grit sandpaper to the finish!!! (I’m not joking) So the guy I bought it from was very upset and really felt defeated. And basically just wanted to get out from underneath it. So we made a deal. It’s a 2023 CC 535 in Dark Cherry Sunburst After opening the case, and evaluating the damage done to the finish and how deep the scratches were, and the fact that the gloss was gone, I decided to take the bull by the horns and try to make lemonade with the lemons I was handed. If Pete Moreno were still alive, I would have taken it to him I sure do miss Pete I thought about taking it to a professional luthier and seeing if could be buffed out, but that would have cost a lot of money and I’m sure there would have been no guarantee that he would have not burned through the finish. So the first thing I did was completely disassemble the guitar. Took all the hardware off. Pickups out. Dropped all the electronics inside the body. Then I wet sanded the back of the body, front of the body and the front and back of the headstock with 2000 wet/dry sanding paper. I sanded and sanded and sanded and sanded The scratches were just too deep. I was afraid I was going to go through the clear. After sanding, I put some liquid scratch remover on it, that I bought at the auto parts store and used my cordless drill with a small buffing wheel. I buffed and buffed and buffed… the gloss started to come back but 75% of the scratches remained. Then, to bring back some more of the gloss, I took some turtle wax and my drill and buffed on it with the car wax some more. I was really happy with the amount of gloss I was able to get back!! It just looks like an old, scratched up Heritage now!!! Then I pulled all the electronics back up, installed a different set of pickups (I’m not a big fan of the 225 classic pups), put the tuners and hardware back on, oiled the fretboard. Then put new strings on it and did a complete setup!!!! I’ll let you be the judge. But I think it looks A LOT BETTER. Yes, it still has a lot of scratches in it, but at least it’s not all dull looking now. It’s always gonna be a player because of what some dumbass did to the finish. But in reality, it just looks like a guitar that has been played A LOT 🤣 Anyway…the most important part is that this CC 535 PLAYS AND SOUNDS ABSOLUTELY STELLAR!!! It’s a friggin TONE MACHINE!!! BEFORE…. AFTER…..

Beautiful!!

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

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

Nice one Brent! Gotta love the bound headstock and stinger! Enjoy!

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