Heritage H-535

Made in 2001, this is a transparent red, highly flamed, thinline double cut away. The single binding on the body and neck is creme colored. The matching wood pickguard is also flamed red. On this guitar, it uses Gibson type tunematic and stop tailpiece. I've seen others with the a Shaller roller bridge and tailpiece. I don't know which is better and I really don't care. Nice rosewood fingerboard once I put some lemon oil on it. The tuners are Grover and are solid. The pickups on my guitar are Shaller built in Germany. They sound good and don't need changing at this time. I straightened the neck lowered the action a bit and it plays good. Buzzes on the top string cause it is hitting the pickup but I will lower it. The scale is the usual 24 3/4", the width at the nut is 1 11/16". Very comfortable like a LP Classic slim taper. This is a beautifully made instrument and it sounds very good to me. I received a TKL case. This may not be the Heritage case but I really don't care. A case is just a case, guys.

It has a very sweet, tone and still has more acoustic sound than a Gibson 335. It also has a decent sound when I play it unplugged around the house.

Very good fit and finish. The flamed wood is awesome and I like the deep cherry finish. Once you get it home adjust the action to whatever you want. The dealer said that they would do a complete setup at no charge.

This guitar is solid, no back up needed.

Need no contact. I did not receive any papers but I registered with Heritage by email.

Been playing for 45 yrs and owned many guitars. This guitar is very good and the workmanship is top notch. I also like the sweet tone of the guitar and it can be used in various venues. I tried about 5 guitars in different colors before picking this.
What's wrong with Ed Roman's? Just don't walk into the store with an attitude and you will be treated with respect. No problem with me, I walked out with a guitar that I wanted.

I'm sure you know the Heritage story. Basically, the Heritage People are the guys who built the vintage Gibsons. I had this guitar custom ordered with a Flamey Burnt Amber Finish, Tone Pros Bridge and tailpiece and Seymour Duncan Seth Lovers Pickups.

This guitar is stunning. The Jumbo frets play amazingly sweet.

I play a Blues/Rock/Outlaw country variety and this guitar suits me perfectly. I have a 1961 50 watt all tube Gibson Falcon and a 1979 Acoustic 124 amp with 4 10s and 100 watts when I am doing a larger gig. The guitar sounds great through both amps.

For effects, I like to use a light overdrive with a Tubescreamer or Blues Driver and some reverb. I will occasionally use a wah.

This guitar is a monster Blues, Rock, Country. IT SOUNDS AMAZING!! It is a true tone machine.

The guitar was set up great but because of our lack of Humidity in New Mexico there is some slight buzzing that is happening. My luthier will take care of it for free next week because he ordered the guitar for me. The finish is outstanding but because of the buzzing, it gets a 9.

The guitar stays in tune niceley and it seems durable. The strat is my main guitar but this guitar does get some playing time for every gig. When I pull it out it gets a lot of comments because of the look.

I bought it from After Midnight Guitars in Santa Fe and the dealer is a super helpful guy. The guitar has a 1 year warrenty.

Ive been playing for 17 years and own a 1991 custom Fender Strat a Charvel 525 D acoustic electric, Fender Gemini I Classical. If this guitar were lost or stolen I would Buy another with the same features. This guitar is highley recommended. If I could give a 12 here I would.

I came across this guitar by accident at the local Guitar Center and took it home after playing it 1 minute and cutting the price by $200. I had read and wondered a lot about the Heritage sequel to the Gibson and I wasn?t disappointed. For those readers that have heard about the Heritage brand and it?s close sibling relation to Gibson and are curious about the H-535, this review is for you. Many details are shared between the ES-335 and the H-535 like the dot marked compound radius 22 fret set-in mahogany neck, identically shaped center blocks and body contours but there are differences also. The thickness of the H-535?s body is 1 5/8? vs. the ES-335?s 1 3/4? making the Heritage guitar about a pound lighter than the Gibson.
In terms of features the Heritage has the standard two pickup configuration, a three way switch, separate volume and tone controls with gold bell hat knobs, a heavily chromed two-way adjustable Schaller bridge and tailpiece, Schaller pick-ups with chrome covers, nickel plated Grover tuners and so forth. Bracing within the guitar appears identical to a 1994 Nashville Custom Shop Dot Reissue and a 2003 Memphis ES-335 Dot Reissue. The bound pickguard is also made from flamed maple like the laminate top of the guitar and has the Almond Sunburst finish. The logo on the headstock is in the form of a decal instead of an inlay.
The roller saddle bridge has been derided elsewhere as being responsible for rattles and buzzes but, if you bend your first three strings a lot, these roller saddles will make your strings last longer. The downside to this set-up is the fact that the saddle height is not adjustable unless you carefully score the entire diameter of the roller saddle. The feature that allows side-to-side adjustment of the individual saddles on the bridge is a useful one as long as you put a little clear thread locker or fingernail polish to keep them in place after adjusting them. A well made arched top black hard shell case included is fitted with burgundy plush with gold script lettering reading ?The Heritage? on the outside.
Overall, most people aren?t particularly fond of the Schaller pickups and the headstock has a decal instead of inlay and these detract from the feature set of this guitar. Like the Gibson counterparts, this guitar?s features would be enhanced by pickup splitting/tapping and phase reversal functions. As modern potentiometers have the ability to incorporate these switching functions into a push-pull pot, there is no need or excuse for extra holes in the top of the guitar (like the Heritage VIP models use). This feature would allow the guitar greater reach in terms of usefulness to the working guitarist who must drag along a Fender now and again. For these reasons the rating for features is an 8.

Much has been said about the Gibson ES-335?s ability to cover a lot of musical ground and this Heritage model is no exception except that the tone and acoustic properties of the H-535 are very different from the typically darker sounding Gibsons. Unplugged this guitar has a warm and open woody sound and the chords in the first position ring long and true; it sounds much more like a true Electro-Spanish guitar than even the ES-335. Plugged into a modeling preamp like the Johnson J Station, many different sounds and styles can be coaxed from this guitar and the Schaller bridge pickup can scream like a banshee from hell, particularly stretching the first and second strings up the neck. I thought the neck pickup was a dud; it had a deadened decay quality that prompted me to swap it for a Seymour Duncan ?59 neck PUP. The resulting mating of the SD and Schaller is a good one with a vibrant and resonant quality with both pickups engaged. Definitely brighter sounding in any pickup position than the Gibson, the Heritage excels at bright chickin? pickin? and funk. The neck pickup does a commendable job on jazz work and working the tone pot around is a must.
The differences in tone between the 335 and 535 can be accounted for not only by the pickups but also by the pot values, impedances, wiring details and capacitor values. For reference the impedances of the Schaller pickups was 7.30 on the bridge and 6.78 on the neck. Note also that the Seymour Duncan pickup magnets needed to be reversed so that they would be in phase with the Schaller bridge pickup. Pickup loading is evident now with both pickups firing and turning the neck volume down 3-4 points actually increased the overall volume. An excellent article by John S. Atchley about impedance loading, typical wiring schemes and work-arounds for these Gibson type guitars can be found at HTTP://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/stockgibson.php
Overall this guitar has a brighter sound than the ES-335?s and I found the bridge and combo settings to be more useful than on the Gibson siblings. This bird can really scream on solos with a wonderful singing, stinging sustain and really nice harmonic overtones when plucking two or three strings together. A real winner. I give it a 9.5.

When I first played the guitar I noticed that playing above the 14th fret resulted in the strings hitting the 20-22 frets above. The luthier dressed the fretboard, adjusted the truss rod and crowned the semi-circular jumbo frets with exceptional results. The guitar now plays effortlessly in the upper registers with perfect intonation and detail. The action is also very fast because of the jumbo frets and you find yourself playing faster and faster up and down the neck. Gibson should be using these frets also.
Here?s where we get down to the devil in the details. I noticed right off that the first string had a tendency to roll off the side of the neck during arpeggios if you weren?t real careful so I measured the string and neck widths of the Gibson ES-335 and the Heritage H-535 at the nut, 5th, 12th, 19th frets. To my surprise the Heritage was actually a little wider in some instances than the Gibson. I was stumped. Then I looked carefully at the frets and neck binding carefully and found that Gibson and Heritage work their necks differently. The 335?s frets are actually extended and made wider by shaping and crowning the binding to match the frets. This results in a wider and more sure-footed fretboard for the Gibson. The frets on the Heritage are also angled rather steeply at their ends making the perceived ?roll-off? problem worse. The result is that the effective width of the Gibson fret at the 5th fret is 1/8? wider than the Heritage model and 1/16? wider at the 12th fret. A noticeable and noteworthy difference.
The other topic is the finish. Although the laminate top has a beautiful Almond Sunburst finish with mild flaming of the maple top, sides and back, the sealing of the wood grain was not completed and number of lacquer coats applied was too few. This is revealed by holding the guitar at an angle and sighting the striations in the finish. Almost identical to faint brush marks, these imperfections run with the grain and result from the wood not being sealed properly and can be made less visible by thorough sanding between finish coats of lacquer which was not done.
Along with the previously mentioned lack of inlay in the headstock these flaws in the action, fretboard and finish reduce the rating in this category to a 7.

Since I?ve only had the guitar for a few months I can?t really comment here except to say that the guitar holds its tune very well and has less string breakage because of the roller saddles used on the bridge. Whereas the Gibson 335?s feel like you?re holding a stone house, the Heritage feels lighter and more delicate and resonant. Since this guitar was built in 1995, it already has it?s quota of belt buckle and peghead dings, dents and imperfections from the previous owner so it will be going out on the road while one of the newer and perfect Gibsons will be staying home.

When I approached Heritage about the neck and pickups they only offered to replace the pickups for $250.00 and ?take a look? at the neck problems with no guarantees. Hell, I can buy the SD?s for 55 bucks a pop pay the luthier $30 bucks to put them in and still go out on the town. Compare this to Gibson where they replaced my guitar (and Case) outright with brand new heavily flamed Memphis Dot with Gold Hardware after 10 years of really hard use because the upper bout of the 335 had a 1? split in the top of the maple laminate. No comparison here. Heritage gets a 6.

Been playing too long to stop nitpicking now .Despite the design flaws and the lack of some details and features that the Gibsons have, I would still heartily recommend this Heritage guitar to anyone who wants to save a grand in money and have a guitar that can cover some of the Fender territory in addition to the traditional tones the ES-335?s are famous for. Both Gibson and Heritage could make their products better by including the split/tap/phase functions into their volume/tone pots as mentioned above.

535 made in 1989

Stock setup was:

Schaller pickups
Schaller roller bridge and tailpiece
ETC....

This guitar was lifeless, and downright dull before my mod's!

Mods:

Swapped the stock 250K pots to 1 Meg (500K would also work)
Swapped the Schaller pup's for Dimarzio PAF Classics (gold covers)
Swapped the Schaller roller bridge and tailpiece for TonePro (save your money)

First thing:

This came with 250K pots all around (what were they thinking?)
Changing them to 1 meg was a drastic improvement. NOT bright and brittle! It is just downright sweet and toneful!

The Dimarzio PAF Classics are superb sounding pup's (not crazy about their standard PAF's)

Bridge pup (809K DC resistance) Neck (743K) Combo (387K)

The Schaller roller bridge was a terrible choice for Heritage to use. Changing this to a standard "tuneomatic" type bridge is a HUGE improvement in tone and sustain.

A little note regarding the Tonepro bridge that so many LOVE.

The folks at tonepro take a Gotoh or Schaller standard "tunomatic" and add a small hex nut to lock to the post.

People swear that they hear an improvement in the tone with this locking hex nut....Save your money! in terms of tone the only difference I noticed was the Gotoh was $20 and the tonePro is over $60

This guitar went from a lifeless, dull sounding guitar to a tonefull singing sweet guitar!

The 2 pup combo sound has a bell like ping to die for.

Tip:

When using both pickups, move the bridge volume control from 10 to 9 to add a touch of depth to the combo tone. This changes the DC resistance from 387K to 433K.

A very nice lacquer finish (natural)

The gold parts look great with the natural finish

Looks like a Gibson from the good ol' days in terms of build.

I have been playing for 34 years and own 18 guitars to date.

I am VERY picky about tone, and find that I mod most of my guitars until I find what I am looking for.

Harry Jacobson
www.harryjguitar.com

This is an update to my previous posting.

Originally, the 535 was kinda rattly and buzzy.

Thanks to Larry Turner (who also posted here) for pointing me to Graphtech graphite saddles for the Schaller bridge. I put new saddles in and took out the roller saddles. WOW!!!!! This improves the sound dramatically. This is an excellent excellent guitar now. Sweet. Clear as a bell. Yummy.

If you get one of these Heritages, putting in the graphite saddles pretty much fixed the buzzy rattly issue. I'm very happy with the guitar now.

Fantastic copy of the Gibson ES335. I prefer it to the new Gibsons themselves and to many if not most older ones I have played. All the usual features in this style of guitar including mahogany neck, rosewood board, maple top back and sides. Mine was made in ?95 and has Grover tuners. One of the things I prefer cosmetically on the Heritage relative to the Gibson is the pickguard. Its shape mimics that of the overall body better than the Gibson, and on mine it is made of stained flamed maple that almost looks like a cat?s eye finish and complements the Antique Sunburst finish of the guitar itself beautifully. Also, the input jack is on the side as opposed to the Gibson which is on the face.

This is the tone by which I now judge all others and the reason I don't give 10's for sound in any other guitar review. Full, rich, creamy, lots of harmonic content, amazing clean or moderately dirty. Clean it is closer to a jazz sound than a rock sound. For my preferred style of music (jazz/rock) I think this is as good as it gets. It is wonderful for lead playing (I haven?t heard a sound I prefer for cleanish to somewhat dirty but not fuzzed jazz/blues lead) but what is really amazing is using it for complexly chorded rhythm work. Playing the constantly shifting chords in ?Deacon Blues? as a solid harmonic backdrop for all the horns, keyboards, and guitar fills on top is a religious experience. Each note is distinctly heard yet organically blends together with everything else. It is a natural for mixing with a brass and horns section. This guitar is also comfortable with straight-ahead jazz. Kenny Burrell, old George Benson, all sound convincing and satisfying.

When I got it, it was set up with 10s. Shortly thereafter I restrung it with Flatwound 12?s and did all the needed set-up adjustments; truss-rod, intonation, widening the nut slots for the thicker strings. It took to the new set up wonderfully. The action is medium and the frets are fairly low and wide. If I had one built from scratch I would request taller frets, but that is simply personal preference based on my style of playing. It plays very well, but the basic design is such that this is not a shredder?s axe.

This is as reliable as any semi-hollowbody out there, but the nature of the beast is such that it is a bit more delicate and sensitive to temperature, humidity and seasonal and geographical changes than a solidbody. If needed, I would gig it without a backup with no worries at all.

On the few occasions I have had to call Heritage they have always been helpful. They instantly sent me a truss-rod adjustment tool (for free, postage paid by them) when I called to ask.

This is the most satisfying guitar I have ever owned or played, mostly based on tone considerations (my Ibanez feels better but sounds worse). I?m sure everyone reading this knows the Heritage story; original Gibson employees who bought the original Gibson factory and use the original Gibson tooling but better woods, at half the price. I?m a believer.

I mostly play jazz/rock such as Steely Dan, Doobies, etc. I play through an Emery Microbaby (fabulous 1-2 watt amp with interchangeable tubes) amp into a 12? Weber speaker through either a Rode NTK tube mic or Shure SM-57. Generally no effects except possibly a compressor on the front end. The sound when mic?d, a touch of reverb added afterwards and then monitored through headphones or recorded is world-class and never ceases to put a huge smile on this tone-freak?s face. My other guitars are an Ibanez S540LTD upgraded with Duncans, a Stewart Travel Strat equipped with Duncans, and a Moonstone Eclipse neck-through with custom Bartolini single-coils. Like most people, in 25 years of hobby playing I?ve owned and played lots of other gear as well, but these are the ?keepers?.

A comment on dealing with the controversial Ed Roman. If you know what you are looking for and why, his shops are great places to go to see lots of top-level gear. Just know in advance what it is you are looking for and how much it should cost and realize that he is about the most opinionated individual on the planet, which is OK if you recognize that and have your own independent opinions as well and don?t let him sway your judgement (he pushed me to buy his ?Blues Deluxe? which he has custom-made by Heritage; I?m sure he makes more $ on those). If like me you want to try out 25 or more different H535s to find the ONE that feels and sounds best to you, it is one of the only places I know to do so.

Paid 1400.00 out the door, Buffalo Bros, Carlsbad,CA. Extra flamepackage and S.D. '59s.

Action was a little high which was to be expected. Took it to www.soestguitar.com for the final dial-in. He loved it nad if you see his client list, that speaks worlds.

Awsome blues machine. The action is all I had hoped for. Better than the old 335s I played in the 60s and 70s.

Slim tapered neck,fast as lightning and the Duncans just howled thru my 4-EL-84 amp with Weber speakers.

I just bought a H-157 and am selling mt LP Custom. I'm a convert.

AS I said, a killer blues machine. Peter Green should have had one in his glory days.

Compared to the 335s I was auditioning - no comparison, especially in the choice of woods. the one piece neck was an added plus.

Rock solid so far.

Not needed yet.

Mine is a 1999 H-535. Nice sunburst model. I traded in my H-550 for this. Pretty standard features. Standard Heritage pickups. It has what it needs so I give it a 9.

My only real complaint with this guitar is with an annoying rattly, buzzing, tinny sound which comes from the guitar when it's played. I can't figure out what causes it. I had an H-550 previously with a similar problem. I also play an American Strat and PRS McCarty which don't have this noise. Perhaps it is common with hollow-bodies and semi-hollows unless you spend several grand. Anyway, it's annoying and takes some of the pleasure out of an otherwise great guitar.

Although I got it used, it has hardly been played. The frets are like new. I had it set up and had a Buzz Fieten nut installed on it. The action and finish are perfect except that the A and D strings sit about 1/64" lower than the others, due to the way they fit into the roller saddles on the bridge. My luthier was unable to set the action as I like on my guitars (12th fret - 4/64" for high E and 5/64" for low E) because of this. I contacted Heritage and they said they would send new rollers. Hope that fixes it. Else I will probably install a new bridge with knife-edge saddles. I like my setup perfect and this one is not there yet. Other than that, the finish, fit and operation of everything is perfect. Very nice. I don't like where they put the strap button at the neck joint. It's uncomfortable after a while, especially compared to a Strat or PRS. Not sure if there is a better place to move the button.

Seems very solid all around.

Every time I have contacted Heritage they have been great. Nothing like the usual large corporation BS you get almost everywhere these days. A definite plus.

I play all kinds of music, currently in a well-paid wedding, evert type band. Also do a fair amount of blues and jazz style. I am now using a Mesa F-50 which is a great, versatile amp. Also play through a Peavey Delta Blues and a Mesa Blue Angel. I have a custom-built pedalboard with a bunch of various stuff on it. Sometimes I go straight to the amp.

You know the features This is an upodate to my below review
This a a Trans Amber , Ultra woods 535

Sound is great- getting better, too.
I'm learning to work the dual vol/tone controls to really dial in some wonderful tones.

I recieved the guitar in Dec, 2002. About one month ago, I brought it in to Joe Pichkur, Floral Park, NY, who did a fret grind and polish. This made a significant improvement in the guitar. Played better, sounded better, I highly recommend this for all 535's. The difference will be worth it.
This shouldn't be needed for a guitar in this range, but that's life.

Jammed lotsx of times-holds up very well.

The company is great to deal with. Bill Paige, you are the best.

Am now searching for an amp to be worthy of this guitar. Thinking of a Bruno Undergroud 30--they sound incredible, but the prices!!

Features are that of a standard ES-335 style guitar. Grover tuners, two Schaller humbuckers. Very nice natural finish, lightly flamed. Two F holes with a center block. All maple body, mahog neck, rosewood fingerboard.

The sound of the guitar is very good. The body resonates the way you'd expect a 335-style to resonate. The sound is brighter than other 335-style guitars I've played.

Very quiet, and the pickups are very good. I might like Duncan 59's a tad better, but the Schallers are still better than, say, normal Gibson pickups.

First, the guitar is finished wonderfully. Excellent gloss lacquer without any flaws in the finish. The wood is good quality, very nicely figured.

The neck feels super and the guitar plays really well.

The buzzy and rattly acoustic sound is where I'm disappointed. See my support story below. The second 535 I got was infinitely better than the first one. However, even the second one was a bit off. The best description I can give is that it sounds "rattely and buzzy". I have a Gibson HR Fusion and it is so solid when I play it. The Heritage sounds like it's rattling all over the place. I took it in for a setup and the luthier said that the 335-style guitar was sometimes intrinsically rattly. I don't know if this is true or not. Most 335-style guitars I've played DON'T rattle. Sigh. I've upped the string guage a couple times and I'm not satisfied with the acoustic sound of the guitar.

Other than the buzzing and rattling, the guitar is very solid. The guitar will last a while.

I bought a gray-black 535 from Ed Roman. It came very quickly and was packed well. And the price was reasonable. However, when I started playing it, it buzzed all over the place. I took the guitar to a local luthier for a professional setup. This guy gold me the neck "looked like the Kent-Narrows bridge", meaning it was totally warped and twisted. I called Mr. Roman back and he pointed me back to Heritage and got me in tough with Bill Page directly. Heritage was extremely supportive and offered a direct replacement. I sent back my Gray 535 and a month later they sent me an antique-natural one without any question or anything. Wonderful!!!!

It's a good guitar in so many ways-- it just seems to rattle a bit. I've taken it a couple of times to other people to try to solve the problem, but it's still rattly. I've yet to have the frets leveled by a pro-- that's probably my next step.