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Late to the thread here, but I drove over to Dave's the other day and brought this one home. I ended up playing six CC H-535s and two Gibson CS Historic ES-335s, and this one was clearly the winner in terms of tone and playability. I honestly believe that the new 2025 bridge systems on both the H-535 and H-150 guitars are a huge improvement over the previous Pinnacle bridges:

This is a Heritage that I’m VERY excited about. (I don’t get too excited about much anymore. Lol) It’s a 2006 H157? I think? I say that because it does have binding on the back of the body….but…doesn’t have multi ply binding on the top. It does have an Ebony board (with abalone blocks) and it does have a bound and inlayed headstock. I haven’t seen the control cavity sticker yet. Lol This guitar was sold by the original owners brother…his brother was a gigging musician in Georgia. Unfortunately he had passed away recently. He told me that his wife custom ordered this guitar for her husband in 2006. I really don’t know much about it. Don’t know how the frets are, don’t know the neck size, don’t know what pickups are in it, don’t know how much it weighs….. Look at that top though….nice bubble quilt, definitely a custom order!!! The fella I got it from seemed very honest and trustworthy, so I decided to take a chance on it. These were the only 5 pics I had to go by… Its on the UPS truck for delivery today!! STAY TUNED!!!!

2006 Heritage H157 Custom order one off. *AAAAA Quilt top *Single ply binding on both sides of the body (it’s usually 5 ply) *Abalone blocks (usually pearl) *Ebony fretboard *One piece mahogany body *One piece mahogany neck *Bound and Inlayed peghead *Gold locking Sperzel tuners *Gold hardware *8lbs 14ozs *Really nice 59-ish neck carve Just got this today from a gentleman in Georgia. He was selling it because it belonged to his late brother, who was a gigging musician. He said his wife custom ordered it in 2006 The original pickups, SD Seth lovers, were poorly wired into a rats nest harness…the tone pots didn’t even work. So I rewired it, new pots, Russian PIO caps and different pups. I wanted something with more bit…so I went with a SD JB/Lollar Imperial combo…and it sounds great!!!!! The original nut is pretty worn. The D and the G buzz just a bit. I’ll probably take it in for a new bone nut soon. The frets are original. With minor wear. You can tell it was played. There’s a bit of buckle rash on the back. A few dings n dents. Nothing more than a Murphy lab relic. Lol. 😆 The neck on this guitar is perfect, IMO. To me it feels like a custom core neck that went on a little diet. Lol. 😂 It’s not a boat anchor ⚓️. Basically 9 lbs. for a 157….thats not terrible. It plays and sounds so dammm good. Wow!! 🤯

Took it outside yesterday…beautiful day in SW Michigan

which by the way, I just snagged . The owner was very reasonable, and it will make a great compliment to the 535 and 575

Can't remember where I heard that before.

Well, Brent, we know you'll keep it for while. Beautiful piece of maple for that top!

Say what you will…. I think this might be a keeper

I installed my 70s DiMarzios in it today!!! Wow!!! I love these pickups!!!

Wow! If this was a clear winner over several CC 535s as well as Gibsons, I can only imagine it plays and sounds as good as it looks. And it looks fantastic!!!

Beauty, Brent. Can't make out what the label has below 'Custom Made'. Any idea what it says?

Well, if you want to go down the deep side of the rabbit hole, I just picked up a used set of ThroBak pickups and installed them in my Gibson custom shop R0 in place of the Custom Bucker 3 p'ups they come with. It is shocking how different they sound than the Custom Buckers and how different they sound than the SD '59 pickups that came stock in my 1998 H150. I measured the inductance, capacitance, field strength and so on, and I have notes on all the pickups I own, including the HRW's in my 2001 H535. Despite being in the range of low-output PAF on every parameter, the ThroBaks are just shocking how bright, clear, harmonic and punchy they are. That goes for the Seth Lovers as well, which are a touch brighter and clearer than the 59's, but man. The only humbuckers in my collection that come close to the ThroBak are the HRW's, but they are a different style of pickup being hotter wound and the bridge especially so. I do know that ThroBak acquired a vintage winding machine from Heritage, that was left over from the Gibson days. ThroBak uses a variety of the same exact winder machines that Gibson used, even some of the actual winders from Gibson. If you know ThroBak at all, it all sounds like absolute hype, but the product performs. I've witnessed hands-on several examples, including my own now. I have no temptation to replace the HRW.

And, dovetailing here, I think I've mentioned somewhere that my '61 PAF's have been in my Custom Core 150 (after residing in my 20th Anniversary 150) for a while. Veddy, veddy nice! Hoping some Gibson purist somewhere is horrified.

Yeah, the thing with Dumble amps is no two are identical. He built each and every one of them for the particular artist. It's not "a" Dumble, in the sense of one Fender Twin Reverb being a member of a large population of such amps produced. It's "your" Dumble if he made it for you. If you buy someone else's Dumble, it's still that artist's Dumble. I've seen the insides of an ODS and a couple of Fenders that Dumble modified. He had some general approaches that evolved over time, but each and every amp he built was a work of art, intended for a particular person to play and tailored to suit that player. He also rebuilt amps when they got sold to a different artist, in fact he recommended that as a way to get the amp quicker, rather than a scratch-build. The Dumble estate and name are being curated by the Dumble preservation association and they're trying to make new ones with the name. I have some doubts, since the man himself isn't around anymore. I hope they can protect his name and reputation though. There are some "clones" of Dumble amps who's schematics have leaked out. ODS #182 is probably the most "cloned".

Dibs.

That beauty would be hard to let go.

sounds like connection to me

Even better your choice was made with hands and ears! To paraphrase the words of the great Groucho Marx "who do you believe the guitar or your own eyes"!

The dark Cherry is sweet

Thanks! In all fairness, though, there was no slouch in any of those Heritage guitars. I was visually drawn to the sunburst one....big-time! In the end, I think I would've been happy with any one of them, but the one I took home just had a special and familiar sound and feel to it. It was also the only 2025 model of the entire H-535 lot (the rest were 2024 models), so perhaps that's part of it? Not sure, but as I was putting the guitars back on the rack one by one, this one just stuck around with me......🙂

That is one great looking guitar. Congrats on your new guitar day. And how cool is it that you brought home the best of the lot, the one that you felt a connection with! Rock on!

That's one beautiful 535.

I like it. After the traditional red, the natural finish is next on my list. That's some excellent figuring on the top.

Stunner!

Just a superb axe there Brent! Beautiful quilt top and finish. Enjoy!

FIXED MY NUT 🥜 😂 FIXING THE NUT…on the 2006 Heritage H157 Custom Quilt!!! The D, G and B slots were VERY LOW!! Now, I could have paid someone $100 for a new nut job??? I could have done the ol superglue and baking soda fix??? I could have made a new nut myself (although it probably wouldn’t have been too pretty). NOPE. I decided to use multiple layers of copper shielding tape to “jack up” the factory nut. There were two main reasons why this set up with this nut did not work for the Guitar… 1…Those three slots were too low and they were giving a little bit of buzz on the first Fret. 2….The trust rod needed to be tightened a little bit to straighten the neck out a little more and of course, if you do that that lowers the strings closer to the first Fret, so that certainly was not going to work with the way the nut was setting. So, shimming the nut up just a few thousands of an inch, was the least aggressive solution to the problem! And it worked perfectly, as I knew it would! The guitar actually played pretty good as it was but now it is even better! AND I DID ALL THAT BEFORE 8am 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

That's a gorgeous top! I always liked the headstock on the 157 vs the 150. The binding and the diamond inlay just look RIGHT! I'm also partial to the block inlays. It needs the bound wooden pickguard, tho. The tan plastic just looks so.... generic! A 157 is about class. 😜

@brentrocks...Wow, beautiful H157 Custom! Congratulations on yet another amazing score. 👍

Cool looking guitar Brent. I love ebony fingerboards, and cool Sperzel tuners, much better than the Grovers. What the he*l did that guy do to his thumbnail though in that picture of the back of the guitar Looks like he was a player. He turned the neck pickup around. A lot of people do that to get a slightly brighter sound and clean up the neck tone, especially when you drop the pickup into the ring and bring up the pole piecers a bit. Check out my Guild. It made a significant difference tonewise.

s'nice

Looks like big fun !

The H-137 I had was equipped with Lollars. They sounded like a P90 should.

I just don't get this mystique, but maybe I play the wrong kind of music to appreciate these pickups. A close friend of mine used to be a Heritage dealer so I've played a few sets of HRWs, but I always preferred the sound of Duncans in the Heritages I've heard, with my favorite being the Antiquities or Seth Lovers. One thing I do like though is the double adjustment screw for the angle as Iike the pickups to be parallel with the strings. I wonder why more people don't do that and just supply the pickups with new rings.

Installed a set of vintage Gibson pickups in my 2017 Heritage H535 Custom this morning. In the bridge…a 1981 Gibson Shaw PAF 7.30. In the neck…an early 70s Gibson T-top PAF 7.15. I gotta say, I like the tone of these pickups in this guitar A LOT better than the last guitar I had them in. (IYV hollow body). I have tried a few different styles of pickups in this H535. It originally came with Duncan Seth’s, which sounded great. Then I had a set of 70s DiMarzios in it and those were great too…but definitely a different flavor. And now the ol’ Gibsons. So far, I’d have to say, the gibsons are more balanced and versatile of the 3 sets!

In my experience if you can a great clean sound out of guitar, it's nothing to get a great dirty sound, and I heard all that I needed to hear in the clean section of your demo. Those pickups really sound good. I love how clear the neck pickup sounded, and there was some great harmonic content in the chords that you were playing on the bridge pickup. I would leave those pickups in that guitar, it's a great match.

Not horrified, just wishing you record that current setup so we can hear the tone of that beast.

I was in a couple of country bands. The amp I used was the same one I used in the "blues" bands and the same amp I used to play rock from Rolling Stones to Foo Fighters, Metallica or whatever bs Ive played over the years...even dance orientated pop and disco. A fender Concert II with what ever OD pedals worked best. Ive had it for 41yrs. It blew a fuse once, in 1999. Tube amps, so unreliable.

Brilliant synopsis, but you left out one last nugget... HRW's sound a lot like Schallers, only lowered a tiny bit into the pickup ring. 😗

Get a t-shirt made with this picture on it, and wear it to the next practice. Tell 'em "See, you can do country with a 535!"

the Millie i bought from Brent showed up last night. Haven’t had a lot of time with it yet, but man oh man this is a great guitar! Brent comes through again! Minty fresh, like it has been played very little. Tuners still feel new. Sounds more like a semi-hollow because of the chambered body, which is exactly what i was looking for. No feedback issues but still a big and round enough sound for jazz, soulful blues, R/B, and fusion. My band has been getting loud and my archtops often feedback. I guess I’ll be one of those players that switches guitars depending on the song. Yes, overkill for the kinds of gigs we get, but it will give me more flexibility to get funky or louder jamming and use some drive/breakup when the moment calls for it. Just plain FUN. I’ve been playing straight ahead for so long I’m ready to get down and dirty before i get too old. I’ll post some pictures over the weekend, but they probably wont be as good as Brent’s. It really is as gorgeous in person as it is in the photos in his for sale post. Thank you @brentrocks for the great transaction and fast shipping, well packed as always. I also got it a friend: a UA Enigmatic ‘82 pedal. They make a great pair.

yeah Rich's post already mentioned that along with the wider headstock, push/pull tone pots, and the weight relief. Personally I am not a fan of any weight relief. I like my standard H150s, especially because I modded them with all the electronic and hardware choices that I like, and the one that I bought used was cheap, I got it for right around a grand! Even with the pickups and hardware changes it came in under $1600. My new one I paid around $2300 for and still had to upgrade. Which is still cheaper than a Custom Core these days:) I also had to recuit the nut and dress frets on the H150s. And both of them are considerably heavier than the lighter Custom Cores. I also like the aesthetic touches of the Custom Cores better, especially the bigger headstock, the slightly different lower horn, and the body carve, which I love the look of. That said, I don't like the custom core tuner choices, or the hardware. And most likely I would replace the pickups as I'm not a fan of potted pickups. That's why I don't own one. If I didn't have to upgrade, I would buy a used one.

thanks! similar to mine with my Millie, but slightly different. I'm not 100% satisfied with mine, so I'll try yours!

This guitar is a monster player. Playing it with three different amps, with and without a drive pedal. Sounds huge and beautiful no matter what it is paired with. I had to stop because my ears were ringing.

I can only speak about the one I bought. It might be an outlier. This is the Sweetwater pic before I bought it. My biggest complaint are the frets. they are wide and too short. I had it refretted with Jumbo SS.

ALL DONE!!! Playing and sounding great!!!