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Most pre-Plaza Corp/Band-Lab Heritage have a thinner neck profile, more of 60's carve. Special orders (like the famous Marv-Carve) had big necks, but those are very, very rare. Heritage for short time before revamping their model lineup actually partnered with Throbak who works out of Grand Rapids ( an hour drive north of Kalamazoo). In fact, Heritage used to own some of the original pickup winding machines and sold them to Throbak. However, after witnessing Throbak's customer service, I'd never recommend them. Peter Flynn is more respected PAF pickup winder, he has worked on nearly every famous guitarist we all know in recent years..

Not at all. All carved the same.

If money were no object, I would get the CC but probably with something closer to the standard carve neck. My fingers aren't that long, and fat necks aren't necessarily the best thing. I'm sure I could talk Pete into carving one that fit me... for the right price. And it's not just the size, it's the shape. V necks aren't good for me. Wide and flat isn't good. I like the edges to have some roll to them. A sharp edge on the fingerboard turns me right off.

if money was no object, I would go for the Custom Core for the 50's neck carve alone. That's just personal preference. I am sure the standards are very nice in their own right.

Aaron from Warmoth did a nice video comparing SS and Nickel. I really couldn't hear a big enough difference and as I've been wanting to try them out, I went for SS frets on a tele style neck I just ordered from Guitar Mill. I won't get it until the end of the year but if I hear a huge tonal difference because of the frets I will report back.

I prefer a thicker neck carve so it's a bit of a bummer for me that they seem to only come on the higher priced offerings. Gibson does the same thing though. I played a custom core H-530 recently and man that neck felt great! I'll probably end up going for a standard though as it's hard to justify the additional funds.

When the CC 150 came out, the top carve was said to be different. That was done along with 4.5 degree angle to lower the bridge and tailpiece and give low action. That was under Edwin Wilson's direction. He also mentioned that they employed a larger truss rod to make a more stable neck. I don't know if any of the specs for the Core line have migrated the standard line. It's a question that I don't think anyone has asked. That would be a good thing to ask Pete Farmer at PSP next year. I suspect that a 1 degree difference in the neck angle would be pretty hard to detect simply by feel. I don't see a difference in the horn itself. If you take the two photos from the web page and overlay them, the shape is identical. They use the shorter horn based on their agreement with Gibson from years ago. Andertons did a comparison of various LP Jr style guitars including an H137. You could distinctly see the different horn vs the Gibson, Epiphone, PJD guitars.

Out of the pedals I tried the Friedman had the low end "thunk" and tightness that was part of what I was looking for. It lacks some of the fluid gain characteristics as well as some of the mid frequencies that I liked in other pedals I tried. Running it into an amp that was already breaking up either through amp preamp gain or a pedal seemed to add the fluid nature and mids I was looking for as well as retaining the tight low end thunk. A pedal I thought was pretty great with my gear was the Marshall JCM800 pedal. I will probably keep it as well. I wasnt expecting much from it tbh, but when it arrived and I plugged it in it ticked off so much of what I was looking for. I also heard things I liked I didnt know I was looking for. Also, I discovered that the Boss MS3 has a Guv'nor in its OD/distortion settings. With the use of EQ, compression and noise gate settings in the MS3 I could dial in some really great sounds that also felt right under the fingers. I bought the MS-3 after I stopped playing thinking it might be a cool thing to spark some creativity. I never explored it beyond turning it on and playing with delays etc. Its still like a new unexplored toy to me after 8yrs of owning it.

I'm not a distortion kind of guy, so take the following "cum grano salis", https://1981inventions.com/ it seems you didn't mention it Bondi Effects "Sick As" is a Klon clone kind of OD, the High Headroom version is a distortion unit: https://bondieffects.com/products/high-shredroom-sick-as-neon-pink Crowther Audio Prunes and Custard https://www.asapeurope.com/collections/crowther-audio/products/crowther-audio-prunes-custard-special-deal Hot Cake: https://www.asapeurope.com/collections/crowther-audio/products/crowther-audio-hotcake I'm sure I'm missing much more

Best bet is to play a few examples. I can't say for sure, but I think the neck is a little different carve on the CC H535. I have a 2001 H535, the neck is a bit thinner, perhaps a little thinner than I might prefer, but not razor thin. It has the HRW's, the wooden pickguard and lovely figured blonde wood. The weight sorting is a real thing, as lighter woods are in demand, people ask for it a lot these days. Probably 'cause all us old people are the only ones still playing electric guitar. Fender and Gibson do it on custom shop products, so there's demand and money for lighter woods. Yesterday, I played a Collings I35LC-vintage with the factory, Collings spec Throbak pickups. Man, that's a nice guitar. Neck on it was just perfect. I just didn't have that much money burning a hole in my pocket.

The shape still looks different (body carve and lower horn on the CC. And they still say the neck angles are different.

Good choice on the Friedman. I use mine to drive the front-end on the low gain input of a Rivera Knuckle Head II. I had problems getting the Rivera to sound as I anticipated and the Friedman handles that entire function beautifully. I dialed back the gain internal to the BE-OD using the trim pot inside of the pedal enclosure, so the 1:1 comparison for the gain control position used would be different than that you may use. Also, I use an 18V power supply for headroom. The Rivera is actually driving the stock 12" Celestion in the 6101LM at the moment. Works well this way.

I tried a quite few distortion pedals. At the end of it all - I think it was just an idea that turned into an obsession. Now the obsession ran its course I have a bunch of spare distortion pedals to sell. I settled on the Friedman BE-OD. I run it with gain set on the lower side into the MXR Timmy with low gain. The MXR DoT also goes into the switched on Timmy. The Boss MS-3 is modulation and delay. I use its like its 4 different pedals rather than as presets. I found a dual delay in series setting in the MS3. Means I can lose 2 delay pedals. Not the order and not on a board yet. Just what's going on so far. Five(six) drive pedals would've seemed like overkill at any other stage of my life. Seems about right at this stage of my life. Not one tubescreamer among them!

As far as pickups go, I was very surprised that Heritage makes 18 different pickups now. I have no idea what the differences are, but they are very precise now in the manufacturing...

Originally yes, but I suspect its easier to make them all the same. Up until the standard II came about, the Standard Line matched the CC line with the thicker neck and wider headstock....

It wouldn't matter if guitars came with vintage 59 PAFs, SOMEBODY would pull them and put a different set in, and then sell the original pickups. There was a time when the HRW pickups were special, and were considered an upgrade. Then people pulled them out of the guitars and they started showing up for sale at $3-400 a set. It's important that you can't just order a set the way you do a pair of Seth Lovers, or 36 Anniv PAFs. It's like they're made of unobtanium! 😁

And don't the Custom Cores have the 4.5 degee neck angle as opposed to the standards 5.5 degree? Better chance to have the ABR lower with the smaller angle of the CC!

Sorry, I would still take a 2000 era 157 or Millennium. Gimme some mojo and bling

I noticed a set of those pickups for sale on this site.

It's the size of a 535 but with a deep single cutaway. The inlays are block. If it didn't cost more than the 555 it may have been more popular. Endorsing artists received money for each instrument that has it's name on it. Long ago I recall that Johnny Smith was to receive $500 per instrument.

They both use in house pickups, but the CC's are alnico III with a vintage tone, and the hardware and tuners are better. Also different neck shape and better looking headstock and inlays on the CC. And probably a nice, more select, piece of mahogany for the neck. If it were me, I would play both and see if the differences are worth it.

I'd rather have the better wood, I don't like weight relief! I also prefer the custom core headstock and the inlay! The top carve and the lower horn looks better on the Custom Core. And the pickups on the Custom Core are supposed to be Alnico III which I love. And don't the Custom Cores have better tuners and hardware?

Filter out some of your finer points Rich.... Heritage just sorts through the lighter pieces they get and earmark for CC. There was a specified range at first, now its just under a specific weight. Profiles on the previous Standard line was the same as the CC. (My '23 H150 has a fatter neck than my 535, just a hair thinner than my 137). The finish on the CC is just one less stage of polishing... It actually costs more to polish a standard line... I thought that was rather curious to hear. Keep the "relic'd" look for those who want to pay for the upcharge, keep it as a Custom Shop/Special Run only along with the Bigsby wiggle-stick. CC's do have better inlays, but that's why you pay for the CC, but pay for the whole package, not just bits and pieces. Get the extra binding, fancier inlays, etc in the 157 and 555. Cases are a different story, however I don't use my cases. I use one of those Mono bags for gigs. My cases are actual decorations now. (They will get used if necessary) Stainless steel frets is a great idea. Came across a fancy Epiphone Les Paul at American Musical Supply that has some 60's/70's racing vibes and they use stainless steel frets on a sub $900 guitar. Rumor is there may be a tonal difference, but I couldn't say.

I just came across these guys, (that’s sick!). I don’t know anything about them but they seem to have what you seek. https://emcustom.eu/eshop/en/midi-switchers/56-UNI6.html?SubmitCurrency=1&id_currency=3

I Like the way you guys are thinking!