TalismanRich

As I remember, some of us saw something at the factory that was WAY cool, but we were sworn to secrecy lest we be curse with all our guitars being out of tune for eternity!

According to their website TKL gets cases from both Richmond, Virginia "and numerous partnerships throughout North America and around the world." From the info I have found, Canadian builds are made by Etuis Boblen in Montreal. It wouldn't surprise me if TKL also had a manufacturing partner in China or Indonesia. Companies will change sourcing from time to time. According to Matthew Larrivee, Larrivee bought cases from a half dozen companies over the years, including cases built by a private company in China starting in 2011. Boblen supplied cases off and on for close to 20 years.

I think that the change over started with the design of the custom core series. It seems that now they are spreading it though the whole line. There were still guitars with the narrow headstock. I don't know if it qualifies as a big announcement. There have always been wider headstocks on 575s, Eagles, 525s, etc. The narrow ones were on the 140, 150, 535, 137 lines.

That's the wider headstock. This is the older headstock.

So which headstock do you think it had? Heritage has different size headstocks for different guitars. My new 530 is wider at the top than my old 535 by 1/2". Its easy to see the difference by looking at the string pull and the space on the sides of the logo. The archtops always have had wider headstocks than the solid bodies.

Isn't this just like guitar people. If you have humbuckers you're putting in P-90s. If you have P-90s, you gotta replace them with humbuckers!

OK, here's the deal. Next PSP, you bring your 530, I'll bring mine. You pick a song and let me know and we'll jam on it! When mine showed up, it had been sitting in the Fed Ex truck and temps were in the mid 90s. It took a few days for things to settle in. The low E string was buzzing, but a truss rod tweak and bridge adjustment to get it back to 5/64" pretty much cleared that up. It rings nicely now. Interestingly, it sounds quite different from my H-525, even though both are maple laminate tops with Lollar P90s. I don't know that the pickups are the same version, as the guitars were built many years apart. I took the 530 to jam with some friends, and it pretty much sat on the neck pickup the whole day, just some knob twisting and hitting a couple of pedals over 3 hours.

TKL makes them in Richmond Va. Gator makes cases in Columbia City, Indiana, just down the road from Sweetwater in Ft Wayne. G&G cases are made in Los Angeles. I think that's probably why Fender used them.

Yeah, that's part of the new "sustainable sourcing" initiative.

Ah! so you're the guy who snagged that guitar. When I talked to Mike on that Wednesday, he said it was gone. I got the Antique Sunburst that was hanging next to it. I thought about the possibility that they might suspend the standard series and concentrate on the Custom Cores. In that case, I'm glad I grabbed my 530 when I did. I'm enjoying the lighter weight when I standing for 2+ hours, and it's very comfortable to play, just like the 535. I've play a few times through my Princeton, and it really sounded good going through my Strymon Iridium when I was jamming with some friends.

Maybe you should have gone with the Custom Core version rather than the standard. For the extra $2000, you do get a much nicer case, among other things. Or you could have ordered two TKL cases for $400 and sold the Heritage cases. A Collings will be a nice guitar. For $8000 it should be.

I don't know the headstock dimensions of the CC, but I measured my H-535 and the top was 1 3/4" and 2 5/8" at the widest point. My '25 H-530 is 2 1/8" at the top but still 2 5/8" on the bottom.

I don't know what exactly Heritage is using, but Lollar recommends 500K pots with 0.022uF caps, same as for humbuckers. If I had to guess, the wiring would be the same. But doing wiring on a Semi or Hollow body with f-holes is never a quick and easy project. One last comment.... the neck pickup has one spacer, so the height is not drastically different from a humbucker.

It will take some work to get Seths into an H-530. It comes with dogear P-90s, so you would most likely need to reroute the pickup holes. Plus you have two holes from the P-90s. I don't know if you could get SD to make a pair of Seths in dogear.

The cases have changed. The new ones aren't TKL, although of the 5 other Heritages I have, only 2 are classic TKLs. The one with my old 535 is different from the TKLs for my 157 or 140. In the past dealers could buy the guitars without cases and add whatever type they wanted.

They couldn't have discontinued the H300 and H335 because there are no 330 or 335! Are you thinking H-530 and H-535? I just picked up an H-530 from the factory a month ago. They had both types of guitars hanging on the wall of Ren's pickin' parlor.

We'll have two drummers available. It's at one drummer's house. But, it you want to drive up and be here tomorrow around noon, feel free. I might even buy you a Reuben at Shenanigans!

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!

They have some guitars available at the factory, but they also have a wide selection at dealers like Sweetwater, Daves or Chicago Music Exchange. Custom Core 150s are being made daily, as are Eagle Classics.

That's why you got the Fender ToneMaster Deluxe, right? 🤣

After playing through that one, I'm tempted to replace my old TS-9 Tube Screamer. I listened to a few comparisons of the Blues Driver vs Tube Screamer, and I think the Boss is more the sound I am looking for.

CVS, I just got my H-530, but I see no reason I can't play any of my normal music on it. Heck I've played Allman Bros on a 525 and Billy Holliday on my Millennium. CSN on an H-157 and Stray Cat Strut on a 535. I've even played Led Zeppelin on my acoustic! It's all good.

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!

Yes, hollow (notice the trapeze tailpiece) and P90s.

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.