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Look, this is a very subjective and controversial subject on what impacts the tone of a guitar the most. I will default to Terry Mcinturff (master luthier and has made guitars for all major artists). Check him out on YouTube. His main concept is that pickups are only microphones that amplify the acoustic sound of an electric guitar's chassis. He states how Barbara Streisand's voice will definitely will change (mostly tonally) when she sings through different vintage microphones, but her basic vocal characteristics (her vibrato, her vocal range, her loudness and punch, ect) are still the same. His point; the wood dictates the essentials of an electric guitar's tone & sustain. Different pickups will change the overall tone/timbre, but it won't enhance the sustain, or the openness, or fix muddy or thin guitars. Pickups can only magnify what the acoustic tone coming from the body's chassis is producing. I have owned two McInturff's (still own one Carolina Custom) and it is truly the best single cut/LP style guitar, I have ever played. Bottom line, when shopping for an electric guitar spend most of your time playing it acoustically listening for the overall tone, sustain, and check for dead spots (sustain and dead spots can't be fixed by different pickups).

Congrats on the new guitar. Here's my H170 (I believe it's a 1990

About 10 years ago I bought this guitar from someone in Ohio. He wasn't a player, but a friend of his recommended he invest in a couple of new guitars at a guitar show in Cincinatti, if I recall right. This is a Heritage Johnny Smith with an 18" body. I'd like to tell you a good reason I sold it the next year. I think it was a matter of money. I'm not sure. I sold it to a great guy and a forum member. Later he bought a couple of other Heritages from me. Fortunately for me, he agreed to sell the HJS back. There were two 18" HJS made AFAIK. Both were in Cincinatti. Don Dean, of Scotty Moore and Elvis fame, ended up with one. That one is a natural and is 3 1/4" deep. The incoming is the traditional 3" deep. The natural finish one was owned by a friend of mine who had the Floating #3 pickup rebuilt by Kent Armstrong, making it a little hotter. You can hear a difference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsM3VeXzpVw This is the incoming sister of the natural. It's a rose natural and has the standard Floating #3, which to me sounds warmer. I'm excited!

The guitar and case survived intact. It came with a lot of documentation from 9 years ago that the guy I sold it to obtained. The guy I got it from obtained it from Don Dean, the king of 18" archtops (sorta). Heritage noted that they did only make two of these guitars. Both were made exactly the way they built them at Gibson except the size. I forgot how low the action will go without buzzing. It's very impressive. I put TI 12s Jazz. The guitar is pretty loud and sounds great. There is a signed label by Johnny Smith, and there is a second label handwritten saying it is an 18" Johnny Smith and is signed by the four original Heritage Company orders. I included some quick photos to show the impressive woods. The grain is tighter in the middle and widens at the side. So I had to research as to whether the opinion that tight grain is more responsive. The Heritage old timers and Aaron Cowles said it's a myth. A review of the Internet opinions by good luthiers say no tonal differences, probably because thickness and carving dwarfs any grain tightness factor. Anyway, I'm happy.

I don't know about going back to the old business model. It may have something to do with actually making a profit (silly concept, I know). I'm not privy to the financial status of the old company, but I had heard several times that things were indeed often on a "shoestring budget". There were times that I wondered if the owners even paid themselves. It seemed to be more a labor of love. This isn't Jim and Marv building a few guitars. I'm sure that they make a lot more guitars today than they did 15 years ago. Sweetwater alone has 65 guitars listed. CME has 22 listed. Jay Wolfe has 25. That's just 3 dealers. You didn't really see those numbers years ago. Have you visited the factory? The "big money" helped pay for a new dust collection system that makes the place safer, a humidity and temperature control system, a new spray booth where you don't really have to worry about dust contaminating your fresh lacquer, the Plek machine and more. The old factory, while quaint, was really pretty scary from a EHS standpoint. Lots of dust and wood laying around. The spray booth upstairs was open air, so dirt and dust was floating around. It was also quite dangerous, with nitrocellulose coating the entire booth. That stuff is a lot more flammable than some people realize. The business will need to pay for that upgraded equipment. It wasn't free! To their credit, Heritage is still making archtops (the 575 and Eagle Classic). Try to get a new archtop from Gibson. The last one listed was the Chuck Berry ES 350, but it's discontinued. There are a few dozen people making teles and strats. Fender, G&L, Suhr, LSR, PRS, and ton of low cost import versions.

Well said, Kuz. My take on the whole thread is this: Who cares? So an H150 might sound different from a Gibson LP. So what? That doesn't make it a bad or undesirable guitar. The entire 'holy grail' thing about LP tone is utter nonsense. Why should that be the standard by which everything else is judged? I think people should look at how much they enjoy an instrument's playability first--if you don't enjoy playing it, you're not likely to play it--, and maybe its sound later. Sound can be altered in so many ways from pickups to pedals to amps to amp settings, and I think it's pointless to chase after some mythical sound they think they hear from something manufactured 65 years ago.

New (used) guitar day for me. Picked up a nice clean, 2001 H535 in natural, figured maple with HRW pickups. Very little wear on it front or back, frets in very good condition. I had an aluminum stop bar and Nashville tune-o-matic bridge, so I swapped off the Schaller bridge and tailpiece. The Schaller hardware is ok, but the rollers on that style tailpiece tend to work themselves loose over the years, and I had the parts in my parts drawer. At 7lbs, 12-ounces, it is a really nice light weight. The label doesn't say "HRW", but the black-dot on the switch and the dates match, no sign that it has ever been worked on before, so it looks all legit as shipped back then. I know HRW's are not everyone's cup of tea, but I'll give them a fair shot. So far, it sounds really good with them. Sadly, the Heritage case didn't come with it. It looks like they're out of stock at Heritage, maybe I'll call Monday and see about it. It did come with a cheap, poorly fitting generic case. It does fit pretty well in a Gibson ES335 case. But there's some disagreement as to the ES335 vs. H535 dimensions, and I don't know if the Heritage case is specifically-fitted or not. It does appear the 535 might be a little thinner than the 335. The 2002 H535 joins my 1998 H150 that I've had for over 20 years as my second Heritage. The H150 came factory with SD59's, Nashville bridge and heavy stop bar. It's been a great guitar all this time too. Photo of the H535 after cleanup, swapping the hardware and restringing. Temporarily occupying a Gibson case.

Here are some shots of my band and me playing a gig last night. A friend of mine is a professional photographer who has photographed many jazz legends up close in performance at the Monterey Jazz Festival and (and many other venues) for decades . https://michaeloletta.com/. He’s a real pro and can make even an amateur like me look like a real musician. I had no idea he was photographing. Consummate professional. The guitar is way more photogenic than me…

Schaller did all kinds of stuff right. Lots and lots and lots of very well made Schaller guitar parts out there. The "Nashville Tune-o-Matic" bridge - Schaller. Look how many say, "made in Germany". Schaller right there. They made a lot of very good tuning machines used on a variety of brands. The Schaller GTM bridge, aka "roller bridge" works fine, just looks weird. The top-loader tailpiece is weird looking, but very functional, especially with fine-tuners, if you want fine tuners. Schaller humbuckers were well regarded in their day and widely used by the entire guitar industry. I've taken electrical measurements of them as well as taken them apart and honestly, they're well made and nothing bad about them. Guitar pickups are about 98.9% mythology and 1.1% actual engineering. There's only so many ways to wind two bobbins full of wire and stick a bar magnet between them. You might like something else, because it is different, but that doesn't mean the other is "bad". I also can't fault Schaller on the spare parts support and ease of ordering. I've certainly replaced many worn or butchered saddles and other miscellaneous stuff over the years and you can still order them right from Schaller in Germany. You can even ask them questions about stuff they stopped making 30 years ago and if they have the data, they'll actually try to answer your technical questions.

I detest the absolute absurdity of YouTube videos like this. There are a couple of YT formulas to get a lot of hits on guitar vids, the first being, "...I can make this cheap used squier just as good as the custom shop all those rich guys paid too much for!" The other is "you can't hear it/yes I can hear it!" First of all, Gibson has churned out a LOT of things with the "Les Paul" model name on it. Thing is, they ALL SOUND DIFFERENT even though they all say, "Gibson Les Paul". It depends, what wood, what construction method, what hardware, what pickups and even what strings are on it, what it is plugged into and most of all, who's playing it. My 1998 H150 came with SD 59's, and Nashville Tune-o-Matic and a zing stop bar. It weighs a bit over 9lbs. It also came with 70's era Les Paul potentiometer in it, namely, 300K/100k volumes and tones. So, it sounded pretty dark most of the time I've owned it. I had occasion to replace a pot, was surprised to find the values and put in the more commonly used "vintage" era 500k pots. Incredible difference in tone, much brighter, fuller and a touch more output. I have a 60th Anniversary Gibson Les Paul 1960-Reissue, V2. It's 1 piece mahogany, no weight relief, 8lbs, 1oz in weight. It has the correct "'burst" era ABR-1 screwed into the wood and the light aluminum stop bar. It has the Custombucker III pickups, unpotted, alnico-III very PAF type in it, and the 50's era wiring. It does that, "beefy telecaster" Les Paul thing, in spades. Plus, at 8lbs, it is a joy on my aging back. These two sound incredibly different from each other, despite being so extremely similar in so many ways. But my Gibson Les Paul sounds incredibly different than a Norlin era Les Paul with the pancake body and a maple neck, and different than an 11lb example from the 1980's with Tim Shaw's, or T-tops, or any of the overwound, ceramic magnet pickups they offered at the time. So, really, no one can hear the "brand", but you can discern between instruments that were built differently, of different materials and methods, even if the brand and model are the same. My just acquired 2001 H535 is super light and it gets that classic 335 tone. I had a 1997 ES335 "dot reissue" that sounded like poo, no matter what you did with it.

1) I like the feel and generally the look of the "aging" on CCs. But the headstock aging is a little too much for sure. 2) The tuners do suck. I replaced them with drop in Gotohs and it is a HUGE improvement. 3) The pickups sound OK, but I like A2s so I dropped in a used set of Throbak SLE-101s. I called Heritage to see if they would sell me a set of unpotted Parson Street pickups, but they said no because they were all currently potted.

This...period.

(IMO) I don’t really believe that any years of the “Pre-Plaza” era H-150s’ were any better or worse. You really have to take them on a case by case basis.

I think the fret wire is standard Jesco stuff. It's pretty much used industry wide, unless you go with stainless. I don't remember the number, though. The caps in most Heritages are Vishay MKT metalized film. They are yellow axial capacitors and are good caps. The pots can vary over the years, depending on availability. They use standard audio taper pots. I have tried changing pots and to be honest, sonically there was no change. I had one that was scratchy, so I replaced all 4 with CTS pots. The only difference was in the feel, as I used low torque CTS with a 15% taper which changes the rate of volume change as you turn the knob. They also made it easier to turn, which might be good or bad, depending on your style. Wire is wire... You can get nice cloth covered vintage style wire, but it won't change the sound. It's pretty and if you want it to look like 1959, then go for it. Jacks and switches are pretty much generic. If they are clean and work, they're good. If they get dirty and noisy, or cut out, then change them out. I've used Switchcraft and cheapos from China and as long as they are quiet and solid, they're fine. Depending on how you like to roll off volume, I added a treble bleed to my 157 for a while. I liked it's effect more than 50s wiring or standard wiring. Here's my 157 control cavity with treble bleeds and the stock pots and caps. As I had changed a noisy switch, I changed the cable running up to the switch with a shielded cable. (the grey stuff).

Thanks so much. Would love to chat with her about her guitars and previous PSP's. Can't wait for the one this year and an opportunity to meet you folks.

Welcome LL. The resident "expert" on lefty guitars would be Lefty Alicia. She has been at most of our PSPs with various guitars. Here's her Millennium.

Found another. A trans black H150 I got off Brent. Thanks again! Hard to see unless the lighting is bright enough: the black hides the flame. Which is kinda cool in a stealth way. That's a one piece top too.

I have read so many arguments about wood making a difference, the discussions seem to fall apart into chaos and anger. I’m not sure how anyone could argue with Terry Mcinturff though. I also firmly feel wood plays a huge role in the sound of the guitar and feel of the guitar. It is why I love my 150 so much, it is a joy to play plugged in or not. It is a joy to thump the neck with my finger and hear what it sounds like. When the guitar sounds great unplugged or just tapped on with a finger it will definitely sound great with good hardware, electronics and a great amp. They all come together for a killer sound. I play all my guitars unplugged the majority of the time. When I plug them in they all translate the unplugged sound and feel into the amp. I don’t use pedals and all my amps are fender derived so not super high gain and I think that really allows the guitar to express itself. Each one has its own character but they are all LP derived.

Hey it's friday. A better shot of that trans black H150. Mic stand? Abuse on the front I might try & get refinned. Hey people pay extra for fake abuse & aging: does the real thing look as good? Lol

The aluminum Pinnacle bridge and stoptail on the 150 Custom Core is definitely a step in the right direction, but I wish (for at least the CC models) they would have used a locking Faber ABR or an original ABR-1 bridge. The biggest problem with the Pinnacle bridge is it uses proprietary bridge studs (screwed directly into the top) that are larger in diameter than the original ABR-1. The Faber locking ABR bridge will still work if you use the Pinnacle bridge studs, the Pinnacle thumb wheels, and the Pinnacle locking top screws. I am not sure if a traditional (non-locking) ABR-1 will fit with the large Pinnacle studs. Original hardware... Locking Faber bridge (using Pinnacle bridge studs, thumb wheels, and top locking caps. Locking Faber stoptail studs using the Pinnacle aluminum bridge. Stoptail is flat to the body.

Gee, I thought that it was my playing that made me sound beyond awful! It was the pickups in my 157 all along!

Awe, but they do.... I ordered some 510s off ebay with a new "Antique Nickel" finish. I will report back when they come in, installed, and post pictures.

To bring back some classics? How about the H-357, Stat and H-140? It gets a little boring seeing the same shapes coming out of Kalamazoo. This is just my personal opinion but I feel that if you have seen one of these current H-150's, you have seen them all. They say that variety is the spice of life. Please Heritage, bring back some spice. y2kc

I got on the phone with Heritage and bought a b-stock, or "shop-worn" case at a nice discount. LOL, yeah, the guitar world makes no sense at all. So much is voodoo and superstition and the often silly, "conventional wisdom" from the interwebs. I'm an electrical engineer by training. I have the equipment to measure pickups magnetically and electronically. I can measure the coil inductance, capacitance, resonant frequency and I can take response plots using a signal generator, exciter coil and an integrator with an oscilloscope and make accurate frequency response Bode plots. If it weren't such a PITA to get to the wiring in a 335/535, I'd have measured these already. There's a little "white corrosion" I want to clean off the bodies of the pots, and I'm curious enough, that I'll get around to measuring these. The extra long solder joint on the covers of the HRW are a sign someone didn't want us in there easily. I've never seen images of one opened up. I have a pile of Schaller humbuckers in my work bench draw and I've measured them. It will be interesting to have an objective measure of these. Honestly, the difference in tone by setting the pickup-string distance was rather marked with the HRW, more than I think most humbuckers I've played with. I started at 1/16" from the string to the covers and worked them down, little by little. At a certain point, with just a little more distance, the zingy-ness dropped away and they got right into the zone. They have relatively strong magnetic fields, likely alnico-V magnets, as most similar Schallers and SD59's also have. The Custombucker III's in my Gibson have about half the magnetic strength at the poles, as they are alnico-III and they're happy to be very close to the strings.

My Heritages all have Grovers. I don't think I ever got any with Schaller tuners. I tried putting Ivory keystones on my Grovers once, they lasted a few weeks and were off. I think they look really classy, but they strip out too easily.

Thanks everyone! I've been around at least one or more Heritage Forums over the last 20 years. I got my H150 back in 2002, when it was a used guitar (very used at that point!) from Buffalo Brothers at the Marin Guitar Show. The H535 is my latest acquisition. I was out looking for a fretless bass of all things, spotted this hanging in a corner and gave it a tryout. Kind of like "just looking" at puppies at the pound. When I first looked it over, was amazed at the condition, despite the used-guitar-shop, "grunge" all over it. They had misdated it as a 2020, but the R-serial number clearly dated it, along with the Schaller bridge and two-screw pickups. The black dot switch tip I also spotted as the HRW, and sure enough, there they are. Handwritten date corresponds with the serial number. I'll keep the Schaller bridge and tail aside, as there's nothing wrong with them and cosmetically, they're also in good shape. As I recall from the era, HRW were a factory upcharge and I think the wood was likely a factory upgrade as well. The top, back and sides are very "flamey". Virtually no fretwear, binding nibs all intact. Clean inside and out, very little dust inside. After a little setup work, I managed to find a sweet spot for the pickup height adjustments, where it really gets that semi-hollow sound happening. The HRW's are pretty hot but remarkably clear sounding. Tone control is also very effective, and a little tone rolloff sweetens them up without darkening them. The Nashville bridge and aluminum stop bar made it a little brighter than the Schaller hardware, both acoustically and in the amp. Bummer about the case. This one clearly lived most of its life in the case, but who knows where it went. Would have loved to have it. Looks like TKL cases are still Heritage's manufacturer. It fits very well in a modern, "brown vintage Gibson" case for a 335. Though it just seems weird to put a Heritage in a Gibson case, and I need to sell the guitar (an ES-135) that lives in that case now. If I get a chance, I'll measure the inductance, capacitance, resonant frequency and make a Bode plot of the pickups. I've been studying Schaller pickups from the 80's-2000's for another project. It will be interesting to see how they compare electronically.

I had an H170, once upon a time. Had a ToneSucker(tm) and everything. Never should have moved it on. Enjoy your new guitar!

Yes! Yes! Although some of the coolest Heritages I've played have been old ones, a good percentage of the worst quality, I've seen were also from the early years, with many guitars having to be sent back to the factory! One of my close friends was a Heritage dealer in the so called good old days, and he relayed to me some stories of such guitars, and some newer dealers I've talked too have repeated these stories, so average at best is a fallacy. Also the factory in my opinion was very run down and in need of some good clean up, but these days it's looking great. And some of the new ones are in my opinion the best Heritages I've ever seen, heard, or played! Hands down, with the new guard, the nuts, frets, and binding on the on the standard models look great, and both of my older H150s needed work in all of those departments. The only thing I don't like with the new guard is the relic-ing, especially on the tuners and around the headstock. Another thing, on the custom cores, I think they should offer unpotted humbuckers, for what they are charging for CCs, I think they should cut a deal with Throbak! They should also use better bridges (Faber or ABM would be nice), and better tuners, like Japanese made Klusons (or upscale Gotohs). But all all in all, I think Heritage has upped their game. Things I love that went by the wayside... Schaller bridges, tailpieces, and pickups!, I never liked any of them.

I use plain Zippo lighter fluid, non-diluted, and it works great! My guitar not only smelled of smoke, but of of dank basement. And now it smells fine (like old nitro)! This is the guitar I'm referring to...

Tim Pierce's CC was chambered also. At 7.5 lbs, that's an interesting guitar.

Purely my own experience and anecdotes from others. I own a 98 H150 and a late 80s- early 90s 535. Both are incredible guitars and every person who has tried them comments on them, both will be on tour with me for a up coming project. Ive heard a lot of people say about this era being sought after as the best was incredible and the worst just average. However I have also heard of the inconsistency’s of this era but I’d argue that’s down to the hand made nature. Conversely, I’ve played several transition years heritages from across the range and they were all average at best and mediocre at worst. The shop I work for was a UK dealer at the time and could not shift them for this reason. Poor finishing such as bad fret work, poor woods, defects such as incorrect neck angle, electrical issues and just general poor QC when compared to the obvious comparatives. I have heard since the new take over quality has vastly improved again and they are once again the sort after guitars they were.

FWIW- I have a 1999 H150-CM that I absolutely love. (I did replace the pickups with Bare Knuckle Rebel Yells and put Sperzel Locking Tuners on it)...

It would seem, to those paying even casual attention, that I did. Yes. You may refer to the first post in the thread if you're unsure.

That's All Folks!

Happy 'Heritage Flame Top Friday'! This 2004 Heritage Classic is an 8.1 lb Korina body/neck tone monster. And such a fun guitar to play. The Duncan 'Black-Back' pickups sound killer with any rig.

My 150 Artisian Aged Custom Core has been a labor of love in modifying it to how I wanted it to look and sound. Like the theory behind the 150 CC, I used a '59 LP Burst as my inspiration. -Some of the mods were merely just personal choice; 1) I greatly prefer A2 magnets over A3 magnets so I installed a used set of Throbak SLE 101s pickups with aged covers. 2) I like the look of the Rhythm/Treble "poker chip" pickup selector 3) I replaced the orange drop caps with the same values in repro Bumble Bee paper & oil caps 4) For consistency in pot values and taper I installed RS Guitarworks 500K volume and tone pots -Some of the mods were just necessary functionally; 1) the bridge studs and the stoptail studs were drilled at an angle instead of straight into the top from the factory so the TOM bridge & stoptail wouldn't lower completely. So a Faber locking ABR bridge and Faber locking StopTail studs were used to fix the original off angle bridge & stoptail studs. 2) three of the aged tuners stripped and became useless. I replaced them with CHROME (I couldn't find Nickel ones which I would have preferred) Gotoh tuners that were a direct drop in, lighter, and had improved tuning ratio. .... BUT WAIT, A MAJOR UPDATE ON NEW AGED NICKEL FINISHED GOTOH TUNERS.... SO... the last 150 CC mod/improvement was buying on Ebay some new Antique Nickel Finish Gotoh tuners. To me, the Chrome on the Gotohs tuners was a complete eyesore with the aged finish of the rest of the 150 CC. These new Antique Nickel Finish Gotoh tuners were not cheap ($110 + shipping) but to me they were the final piece in the puzzle to getting my Aged 150 CC to look close to Vintage LP Burst. (I also added some Kluson-like tuner buttons to finish the transformation) BEFORE with the CHROME GOTOH tuners AFTER with the new ANTIQUE NICKEL GOTOH 510 tuners

My favorite finish! so nice.

Looks great! I can almost hear it.

Hey all, When I bought my 2011 H-535 it did not have a key for case. It's one of the older style cases that say "The Heritage" in big print on it. Would anyone out there have an extra key for this case? Thanks.

Wow! You use the key? In the past 60 years, I don't know that I have ever locked a guitar case. What's the point? If someone wanted to steal my guitar, they would just pick up the case and walk away. 😉 I don't even remember getting a key with any of my guitars. The after market case I bought from GC had two in the box. They're still there.

Thank you Heritage for making these!!

What a unique and beautiful specimen!

I would love to see a return to the original wood pick guards