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These are not quite identical twins and are old-school H-555s. One of them was made for Vince Lewis. That one I once owned and can tell you it plays perfectly. I'm told the other one is about the same. I'm trading one of my Heritage ghost built Gretsch Synchromatics plus some dough for these two with a long-standing friend and trading partner. Heritage wasn't run as tightly back in the days these were made, but the Vince one is perfect. I believe the other one is as well based on my friend's experience. The Vince build has Schallers, which I wouldn't change. The other one is stated to have HRWs, but I'm not sure. I recently got a newer build H-535 that has PRS pickups. It is extremely nice. I like the general formal of the semi-hollow.

Hello everyone I am fortunate enough to own 3 Heritage guitars - H530, H137 and an H575. The H137 was purchased 5 years ago and the other 2 guitars were purchased last year. All 3 are great high quality guitars. The H137 is a real blues rock monster of a guitar. I get stoked every time a play it. For the most part I play clean (some reverb/delay) with a sight bit of OD when necessary. I use the H530 primarily for western swing blues (still learning). The H575 is for jazz (ie George Benson etc.). I gig about 2-3 times a year and have been playing guitar for many years (modest talent). For those of you who have a H530, I am curious to hear what types of music you play with it. I don't take great pics, these are from the dealer - they are pics of my guitars.

Paul @ Green Oak has been serving HOC members for over 20 yrs as a very straight guy. I also have some incredible pieces of unsold, full warranty one of a kind Heritages. https://www.gbase.com/stores/american-classic-guitars I REALLY stepped back from selling during my divorce and I should get on getting about 50 guitars out in the real world!

Or Green Oak Guitar. Green Oak Guitar | Gbase.com > Guitars Amps & More

Try Green Oak Guitar.

Where is the best place to say hello and tell people a bit about me and my Heritage guitars?

An update.... after letting things settle down, I've done a bit of setup work. A 1/4 turn tighter on the truss rod, and some adjusting on the bridge and it's playing nicely. 5/64 for the low E string, about a business card worth of relief around the 8th fret. It's much closer to my 535 now in feel. RE: the sound. I'm actually surprised it's darker/deeper sounding that the 525, even though they both are maple and have Lollar P90s. I brought the poles up on the G B and E of the neck pickup and took the low E down a bit. Sound is more balanced between strings now. It rings very well. And just like the 525, if you have the amp up a bit, you can get it to howl on a nice A or D string! Eternal sustain!

Having just been through the factory 2 weeks ago, things are a bit more modern, but it's still a relatively small operation compared to a Fender, Gibson, Cort or World Music. There aren't any conveyor belts carrying a hundred guitars around the building. What you see is people at benches with a guitar, maybe 2 people in the spray booth with a rack of 15 or 20 guitars hand spraying the guitars as they did for decades before. On one side, there's a guy hand wrapping binding with a half dozen guitars hanging next to him as the binding. My oldest Heritage is an 87 H140, and my newest is a 2025 H-530 that I got yesterday. I play all my old ones, I'm sure I'll play this one just the same. I love 'em.

I don't need to! FedEx said that it was scheduled between 12:40 and 2:40. I got to the doctors office a bit early, and got in right away. I was out and home by 1:20. The truck showed up at 2:08, so it all worked out. I gave it a couple of hours to cool down from the FedEx truck (it was almost 90 around 1:00). I've tuned it up and made a slight adjustment because the low E was buzzing from fret 5 to about 12. Give it a day or two at tension, and I'll check the relief and set the final action. The rest of the strings were fine. I gave it a quick workout with some Sultans of Swing and Come On Part 1. So far, so good. It's a nice weight, and well balanced.

I've had this guitar for years, and the more I play it, the better it sounds. To be honest, that applies to all the guitars I own, they're all great as I tend to avoid impulse buying: I'm a professional guitarist, so quality is of paramount importance, but this Heritage is something else! The serial number tells me that it was made in 2000. I've had it since 2004, and the only changes I've made are a set of OX4 'Beano' pickups and a Shadow pickup ring tuner, as I like to stay in tune(!) but this guitar excels even in that department: once it's tuned, it stays that way forever, no matter how wild the bends!!! Anyway, after I'd used it regularly for years, it ended up in storage for the last three years, as I ended up playing other guitars, all of which really served the purpose I have to admit, however a few days ago I took it back home, and I'm delighted to say it's by far the best Les Paul, not only in my collection but also the best I've ever had the pleasure of playing, and that includes some very expensive vintage "Holy Grails"! Playability, resonance, range of tones, and ultimately looks, it ticks all boxes. This is one guitar I'll never part with, that's for sure.

We did a deal in which he got one of the Heritage built Gretsch Synchromatics, which are Super Eagle bodies with Gretsch appointments. The two 555s should land at my home shortly. He is a jazz player and has already setup the Gretsch. He has had Super Eagles before but in a way forgot that they are big ass guitars. He's happy with the playability, the sound, and the wow factor!

I mentioned in my NGD post that I had ordered a wireless adapter. The post office sort of lost track of it for 8 days. It suddenly appeared on the tracker on Sunday. The Joyo JW-06 showed up today and I had time to test it out. It worked without issue, as I expected. The question I had was how did it sound. I made 3 comparisons. First I compared it to my Steiner cable direct into the Princeton. There might have been a difference, there might not have been. It was so close that I couldn't decide if I heard any difference at all. Next I plugged into my Tascam interface instrument input. In the past I've had issue with everything sounding really midrangy with no top end. I think the loading really plays havoc with guitar pickups. I even noticed it with my bass. I would use my PodXT on the Bassman setting to record. The Joyo seems to be perfect. It sounded crisp on the top and full on the bottom. Finally used my pedal board which has the Strymon Iridium for direct in use. Vox Wah > TurboTuner > TS9 > H20 Chorus > NotaKlon > Iridium. It sounded very clear, good top end and full. No issue with noise or signal loss when walking around the room. It's supposed to have 20M range We'll see how long the battery lasts. Tomorrow we should jam for about 3 hours. They are supposed to last 6-8 hours. That would just about cover an entire PSP jam. I'll have my cable in the box just in case, but it will be nice not to have to worry about stepping on my cable. $70 on Ebay or Amazon.

I'm getting together with 3 other guys to play some tunes on Tuesday. I've been using the 535, but this week, the new H-530 will make it's debut. I did a couple minor tweaks a week ago, and it's playing nicely and seems to have settled in. I think the wood just needed to stabilize to it's environment. I ordered a Joyo wireless set a week and a half ago. I figured that this Tuesday would be a good test. The post office seems to have lost it. It made it to our distribution center in 1 day from Cincinnati and then nothing for a week. I filed a lost package report and they can't find it. Then the tracking says it will deliver Monday, only 9 days late! I should have just had my daughter order it on her Amazon Prime and it would have been here 10 days ago!

As I recall (and that's a shot in the dark anymore), L. Paulverizer was a semi-regular here many moons ago. Good to see you back! The new Custom Core 150's are incredible! So good, I put my '61 PAF's in it!

At last count it was over 50. 🙂

Sure, and I'm actually thinking about getting an H157, which for all intents and purposes is Heritage's own Les Paul Custom... A Custom is actually what I've been playing the most recently, it's just the perfect guitar for a show that I've been part of for the last couple of years, but having rediscovered my H150 and only yesterday jamming with a friend who has an H157 made me think. This guy bought it inspired by my own Heritage so in a weird way seems like the whole thing is going full circle!!!!

les paulverizer that's a beautiful H150! nice top figuring too I agree every time I grab one of my Heritage's I get wowed by the quality, feel & sound of the instrument. Last night I had a similar epiphany with my H157: pulled it out & thought "damn, I need to play this more often!" It's a mahogany top that has aged enough that the woodgrain is now textured into the nitro lacquer. Or the reverse. Whatever, it looks great. This thread has me inspired me to pull out the H150

Thank you! Yes, certain guitars are, as you say, "just right". I have a Telecaster, an American Ultra one, that is just perfect and even when other people play they just go "oh yes...!" Heritage guitars are very much a cult thing, at least here in the UK they definitely are, and when I pull it out some guys are always amazed and captivated by it, one esteemed luthier in particular even asked me if I really knew what I had there!!!! Of course I do! Now Heritage has changed hands so I don't know how things are, but back then when my H150 was made it was still very much a small, almost family-type operation, and the care, craftsmanship and expertise were second to none, and it definitely shows...

I'm a sucker for stingers. If I ever had a custom guitar built it would have a stinger. And that flame on that multipiece neck, it's fine! The guitars that I have that stay in tune the best and are some of the best sounding, are the ones with multipiece necks! My dragon Zemaitis guitar is multipiece and that neck rings like a tuning fork!

cool guitar!

First you need a proper computer.... I recommend this one.

Beauties both! I like stingers

Give Paul at Green Oak a shot first. One stand up guy!

And a Glorious “over 50” it is at that.

Acquiesce to pressure.

And if you don't have Irfanview (or don't want it on your computer) File Explorer in either Windows 10 or 11 has a photo resize function.

If you're working with a Windows computer, you can use Irfanview (a free photo editor) and simply resize it to half or less and save the smaller file. You don't need to be posting a 4800x3600 image. Something around 1280x960 is perfectly fine for viewing on a computer. There are free photo apps for Android and Iphone.

Or a woolier coat? maybe wear some wool underwear too Or get the extra extra spanky model. I heard it's spankier.

No, you would not!

you need an amp that goes to 11

I was DEFINITELY NOT in the market for a new guitar!!! I had just sold an extraordinary H157 to a good friend of mine a couple months ago, so I knew how awesome these new Custom Core H157s are. Then I go poking around on the Sweetwater’s website, looking at what new Heritage Guitars they’ve got in….and I see it A beautiful SILVERBURST H157!! And is was a demo! Normally a $4400 guitar, marked down to $3200!!! Only 8.5 lbs!!! ”I really can’t afford this”. “I really don’t need it” Throw common sense into the wind….i had to get it. More pics and a full review to follow!!

No!

Yes- but too large to post here!!!

After gigging with this amp for a while I’ll say without question that it is a wonderful amp for small to medium venues. Or bigger ones if you mic it. Since i play jazz almost exclusively - it is a great gigging option for clean tones at moderate high volume. 35lbs, so very portable. I put a Neo speaker in it to shave a couple pounds as well. Recently - our drummer is getting pretty loud and so in turn the rest of needed to crank up a bit just to hear each other and ourselves. (I mentioned it to him…he didn’t react particularly well). As a result of the increased volume i hit the headroom limit when we got a smoking groove going. So…to see if i could stay clean at that volume, i swapped the 12ax7 in v1 for a 12at7 and replaced the TAD 6L6s with Tung-Sol 7581As. Sounds glorious at living room volume. Maybe better than before, but hard to really know. Will report back after next gig as to whether i got more headroom, but with what i am hearing so far - i am optimistic.

Beautiful guitar! I too have a 2000 H150, my first Heritage and she’s definitely a keeper. Kinda wish I had ordered it in Old Style Burst, ( your colour) instead of cherry sunburst, but I still love her! Now it’s time to give her some love!

Nice snatch! I have certain Heritage’s that are earmarked to NEVER sell. Do the same!

ha. well you can blame me if you need a scapegoat

Welcome, CVS. Right here. Let it fly.

And the waiting begins.....

Way to go, Rich! My first H was a 530. I bought a 535 with the same finish as your 530 and it just arrived today!

Back in 2017 at PSP, Zach Avery played several tunes in the shipping area. Zach was working at Heritage at the time. He was a damn fine player. I happened to run across this video of his band at Chicago Music Exchange. He's STILL a damn fine player...

And here he is wringing out a Custom Core 150

And another for good measure. 😂

The lighting in my office was just right this morning.

Sam Ash is owned by a Mexican group. They had bought Manny's in 1999 and closed it about 10 yrs later. Eventually all the stores on 48th St closed up, Rudy's Manny's, Sam Ash were all there. The building were demolished around 2018 and now have high rises with a Hampton Inn and Hard Rock on those sites. If you go to Google maps, you can look at street view from the days when they were all there. Manny's Music is now owned by Vista/Bandlab. They bought the name, trademarks etc from Sam Ash in 2024. They are mail order only, and sell Harmony, Heritage Ascent and Ascent+, Mono cases and Teisco pedals.

For those interested, this is how the H-535s are put together. You can see the center block, how they add the kerfing, and how the top is made and curved. This is from almost 10 years back, but the process is the same now. It's not a process that would be done by CNC.

FYI- I purchased a 2016 new old stock H155M in vintage wine burst last year at the plant. It was hanging in the showroom and I couldn’t resist. They made me a very sweet deal. They buffed it, gave it a PLEK job, and a setup before shipping it out to me. Heritage takes care of their HOC constituents.