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I have a 2001 H535, with HRW's. The switch tip has a black dot (and black tips have a white or cream dot). The pickups have the double height adjust screws, as do the regular Schaller humbuckers. (HRW's are made with the same hardware from Schaller). They are also marked on the back of the pickups as HRW in ink.

I went with Farber, including the insert bushings. Super happy with the results, especially my 2001 H535 which came with the same Schaller roller bridge and top-load tail piece. I had to wait on getting the inserts for the H535, so I played for a while with just the Farber bridge. Once I pressed the much longer steel Farber bushings into the guitar, I was amazed at how much better it sounded. The go will into the maple center block, where as the original tailpiece bushing from Schaller was very short and just mostly contacted the upper shell. My 1998 H150, came with Gibson style zinc tailpiece and a "Nashville" bridge. The Farber hardware didn't make as much sound difference, but the lighter stop bar helped my goal of reducing weight of the guitar to under 9lbs, along with replacing the Grover tuners. I find the ABR-1 style bridge more comfortable to play.

I guess we'll see. F-brand and G-brand still continue their made in USA standard lines, at the apex of their standard lines. It is undeniable that inexpensive guitars sell in higher volume and make up the bulk of revenue, at much thinner margins. The lure of inexpensive off-shore products is undeniable. Pretty much everyone with some volume is doing it. I think it waters down the brand, especially if not clearly labeled in a way that is clear what it is. Strangely, Gibson will make some Epiphone models in the US from time to time, despite its position as their off-shore less-expensive line.

Be aware that Faber website also says that Heritage tended to do different things sometimes, and to measure what you have in hand first. Some of their recommendations were not exact right for what i had in hand.

I did both my H150 and H535 with Faber and completely happy with how it turned out on both. Especially the 535, the Faber bushing inserts really got some deep contact with the wood in the center block. I wouldn’t have expected such a positive improvement from an already good guitar. My 01 535 was like yours with the Schaller hardware. My 98 H150 came with Gibson style stop tail and Nashville bridge from the factory. Traveling at the moment, I’ll look up part numbers when I get back. I did have to get a special drill bit for the 535. The factory holes were just a smidge shallow for the new tail bushings. It was to make a flat bottom hole just about 3/32 deeper. But it was well worth it. The factory tail bushings in the 535 were really short and light. The Faber bushings are normal size and fit much tighter. Search on my user name to find some comments about what I did. I would 100% do exactly the same upgrade with Faber.

That's a beauty! I have a 2001 535 with the same color scheme and curly maple and the wood pickguard they put on the older ones. I got it second hand about a year ago in pristine cosmetic condition, but with some fret issues I fixed. It is a lifetime guitar for me now. Enjoy and play it in good health.

There really isn't a better tuner than Gotoh, made in Japan. I put them on both of my vintage Heritage in place of the rotomatics. Collings uses them on their electrics, and they are very good. Grover makes many tuners in China anymore. Schaller are still making them in Germany. Waverly still makes tuning machines in the USA. There are tuning machine companies in Korea supplying Fender and others with unique tuners, like the "70's F-branded" machines on the vintage re-issues. (originally made by Schaller).

Certainly, good guitars can be made in China, or Indonesia, or Korea. The labor costs are lower overseas, environmental and worker-safety less strict, and the currency manipulation make them even cheaper. Just like Epiphone, and PRS SE and any number of Fender sub-brands, and many others, production is offshored. Some are pretty good, some are every freaking corner is cut to hit a price. The truth is that cheap guitars outsell expensive guitars, by quite a lot. What is the value of the Heritage brand? Is Heritage associated as a USA made instrument brand? Does branding imported guitars with the Heritage brand de-value the brand? Outside of a small group of guitar nerds, Heritage is kinda unknown. Even among guitar players, I get a lot of "what is that guitar?" about my H535 (it is quite a looker in curly maple natural as well as incredibly good sounding). Gibson for instance, separates the Gibson and Epiphone lines as generally, USA and offshore brands. Fender has gone both ways. When CBS sold to private investors in the 1980's, they had no factory for a while. They were building Fender-branded guitars in Japan. (I have one, they were excellent!) They also did Squier brand and some other variants for offshore, and make Fender branded instruments in Japan and Mexico as well as USA. It just seems weird to me that it is virtually impossible to make electric solid-body guitars in the USA that cost less than $2000

Yeah, both my '98 H150 and 2001 H535 are wearing Faber locking ABR bridges and tailpieces including the threaded bushing inserts. My H150 was factory equipped with a Nashville bridge and standard (heavy zinc) tailpiece instead of the Schaller hardware that was usual at the time. The bushing didn't make much difference on the H150, as the bushings installed in it were actually pretty decent. My 535 had the Schaller roller and top-loader bridge and tail. It had the really crappy short bridge bushing inserts. I used them with the Faber bridge for a while, as the holes were not drilled deep enough in the body. I got the right size and type of bit to do the job correctly and installed the longer Faber steel bushings. Wow, I was not expecting how much they improved the tone of the 535. It really just did the trick, they fit solidly into the maple center block and that seemed to couple the bridge into the body way, way better. The original bushings were so short they really didn't contact much but the laminate top. All in all, I really like the Faber hardware. Seems like a great choice by Heritage to switch.

That (SD 59/JB pair) is exactly what is in my Fender Robben Ford model. Curiously, the basis guitar that Robben was playing, the Fender Esprit, (have on of those too from 1984) had a very unique set of pickups that Schaller made specifically for the Fender "Master Series". While the pickups have a unique appearance and some very cool features, the LCR (inductance, capacitance, resistance) values are right in line with the '59/JB pairing. These were used on the three D'Aquisto designed Fender models made in Japan during the CBS-to-private ownership transition in the early/mid 1980s: The Esprit, The Flame and the D'Aquisto jazz guitars. They're quite nice, largely unknown and pretty rare. The Esprit was slightly changed and became the Robben Ford model. Pickups are one of those weird things. What was hailed a few years ago, is dogged on today on the internet. My H535 (2001) has the HRW pickups in it. I absolutely love them. They're similar electronically to the SD "Jazz" SH-2 set. When the HRW was a new girl in town, the online crowd praised them and now the internet talks them down. LOL. It is flavor of the month on the internet.