Leaderboard

My favorite Heritage and me waiting to go play at a jam. 2001 H535 in blonde, with HRW's. I put the Faber bridge and tail on it, and a set of lightweight Gotoh tuners. The heavy Rotomatics were really stiff from disuse. I got this one used a few years ago. It was absolutely pristine with virtually no sign of play. I picked it up browsing at a guitar shop, wasn't even looking. But it instantly had "the sound" that I look for in a great semi-hollow 535 or 335 style guitar. It had a problem that explained the utter lack of play. The fretboard was like a roller coaster. Some heroic efforts to level the frets on the wavy fretboard had been done to it along its history. Some of the frets were tall as brand new wire, others were under .030 tall, what most of us would call worn out. The fret tops were level, but the board wasn't. The neck itself, straight as an arrow. The surface of the board was nuts. I tried everything I could think of, but just one day said, "this is it." and grabbed my fret puller pliers and took them all out. I put some fine grit paper on my leveling beam and lightly sanded, which revealed all the high and low areas. Pretty much like a lunar landscape it turned out. Also, I measured the radius at around 9.25 inches which kind of meandered up and down the neck. Clearly, this one escaped the factory with a wonky fretboard. The fret nibs were all intact, so no question it was built this way. I leveled the fingerboard and flattened the radius down to about 10". I was already sanding into the pearl dots by then. Didn't want to get into replacing inlays, so I stopped about there. Put in a set of Dunlop medium jumbo wire. With the board leveled out, the frets went in nicely and only needed minimal leveling after installation. I put in a CNC-cut nylon 6/6 nut. Nylon was used on the Gibson's of the late 50's and early 60's. It is a fabulous material for guitar nuts. Hard, durable, and extremely slippery. The Faber hardware went on after. The Schaller stuff was shiny and clean without a single speck of corrosion, but I'm so used to tune-o-matic bridges, I changed it. The most amazing bit of that were the deep bushings Faber offers for their ABR and the tailpiece. They sink much deeper and tighter into the wood and really get in that maple center block a lot better than the short and skinny Schaller bushings. The tone change from the bushings alone was remarkable. And here she is. This is a 100% keeper for life guitar. It's everything a semi-hollow guitar should be. Plays like butter, sings like a bird.

@Steiner.....If I decide to sell this Chestnut triple-set lady, you'll be first to know, my friend. 👍 My favorites: Of course, there’s your Fine 157 in chestnut sunburst, the 3 holer @Gitfiddler, I understand it’s a sin to covet another’s beauty but that guitar has haunted me since I first saw her.

So many Fab guitars. How about the "Centurion" while we're at it?

Did you forget the Katie's Psycho Popsicle H-150?

OK I could not commit or admit any one of my 6 are superior to the other 5. These guitars are cardiac and I do not wish to hurt their feelings, otherwise their necks could warp

My favorites: Of course, there’s your Fine 157 in chestnut sunburst, the 3 holer @Gitfiddler, I understand it’s a sin to covet another’s beauty but that guitar has haunted me since I first saw her. Since I’m on a trip down memory lane… @Millennium Maestro’s half century H-150. Possibly the best custom guitar built. It comes with a boatload of stories going back to his first purchasing the wood. There’s @kbp810’s 157 with possibly the world’s prettiest wood. Not forgetting @Spectrum13’s H-575 custom in mahogany and spruce. His nestles in between G’s L4 and L5CES made throughout of solid, natural tonewood. There’s @DetroitBlues’ 137. Someday I may just own that beast… @TalismanRich’s and @High Flying Bird’s chestnut sunburst guitars. I’ve seen an H-155 Eagle in CNSB that I’d really like to own. One of our seldom seen members (Brian?) brought a hollowbody to the hotel back in the barn days that I recall being floored upon first seeing. I don’t know what I’d do with it but, hey, look at it! Back in the @skinslammer days there was another member from this area who stopped by the ranch with his custom 150 he had. @snowplow (Pete) built it to mimic a ‘59 LP. That piece had a life-force I've experienced only once or twice since. There are SO MANY other beautiful Heritage guitars I’ve seen and played over the years. I’m sure I’ve forgotten many guitars that touched me but, you know, Father Time has a habit of erasing pure, exhilarating moments.

This is from when it was new 10 years ago. Not just my favorite Heritage but my favorite guitar since then. Just got it back from the luthier where it had a new nut put on, fret dressed and new bridge slots. Ready for another ten years.

Well done review. I'm a little bummed to think women on the Internet might not really like my photo. Could that true?

I agree that the half & half fretboard inlays were not the best design. I had Heritage correct that with a Millie custom build in 2011. Sunburst Spruce Millie from 2011 on the right Millie SuperLight from 2017 on the left. I had a change in guitar philosophy in my later custom builds preferring more wood less shell.