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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.

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!

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

It's my '59.

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.

That guy knows his **** I was talking to him at a PSP

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!

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.

Did I do that? 😁 For sure, that's a one-of-a-kind! So now he's got to buy ANOTHER guitar!

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.

a black gtr on black friday. Do it, it was meant to be!! 😆

So it’s a 2002? I had a 2005 looked so close in finish. I sold it to #DavesNotHere

That is a sweet H150! nice top

Amazing put me in the guard off camp

Nice!

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.

I like it with the guard on. If it had a different horn, from the photos it could be an original 58 or 59. Stunning

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

Yeah, a English old fashion rump roast

I’ve got a 2001 535 with the HRW’s in it. Like it very much. I put a Faber bridge and tailpiece on it, mostly for feel since I’m used to a tune-o-matic under my muting hand. I later put in the Faber bushings and was amazed at how much the tailpiece bushing inserts changed the tone. Made really good even better. They go much deeper and firmer into the maple center block, seem to acoustically couple to the wood much better than the much shorter and looser Schaller hardware. The HRW pickups are very amenable to tone shaping with the amp or pedals and EQ. Can dial in a variety of tones from them very easily. Some say they are “hi fi” but I’d say smooth frequency response curve. Which is ideal for dialing the amp/effects to get a sound. I’d say exhaust all the external tone shaping options before you change parts. A 7 or 10-band EQ can be very helpful to figure out what to do to get where you want to go.

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

What are the Vegas odds on me finding this guitar?

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

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.

It’s green! 🤯

Heritage's answer to the SG History Nice one Sir B

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!

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