Heritage H-535

Typical 335 setup, 2 humbuckers, schaller hardware, grover tuners. The body is thinner than a Gibson 335. Litely flamed maple top, back and sides. Beautiful matching wood pickguard. The wood boosts the rating here.

I must have bought a bad one. I play jazz mostly, but also blues, and funk. I really wish I could say that I like the tone that this guitar but I can't. I did not order this guitar custom so I'm not certain what the pu's are. I'm assuming they're the standard schaller ones that are common. The rhythm pu was muddy and lacked clarity and the lead was too bright to compliment the other pickup.
I thought about installing gibson '57 classics but decided it wasn't worth it. I really wish they used better pickups in their stock models...oh well.

The guitar was made pretty well. I'm dissappointed in the finish work on the headstock and body binding. But otherwise everything was nice. The headstock veneer was obviously only black paint instead of the more typical ebony or rosewood, and the logo was painted on!?!. I know this may be trivial, but it seemed odd for a guitar that claims to be competing with a Gibson! When I got the guitar home I noticed that the lamination over the binding was already flaking off near the lower bout. I really wasn't impressed with the harware either. I found the rolling saddles became more a nusance than anything.

The set up of the guitar was less than perfect. When the action was lowered to a reasonable height, strings would "fret out" in random places all over the reck. Neck adjustments and new stings (12's) still did nothing to make the guitar play better. I also could not get the guitar to intonate correctly. Chords would sound ok in 7th position, but if you tried the same thing in third it would send a chill up your spine.

After a month I decided that I wanted nothing more to do with the guitar and sold it. I ended up buying an '85 Gibson 335 that puts this guitar to shame in every category. Better pu's, hardware and detail.

On the plus side, the guitar seemed to be made of very nice figured maple. The guitar had a antique natural finish and was a joy to look at.

Sold it after a month and Bought a Gibson.

I have been playing for over eleven years. I play professionally doing gigs and studio work. If I had to do it over again I'd go straight for a Gibson or an '80's Ibanez Artist as-200.

I am sure that Heritage makes fine guitars and please DO NOT take my review as a endorsement to NOT BUY Heritage. I bought the guitar new, in a music store with less than ideal buying conditions, so I didn't get a real feeling for the guitar while in the store. Just remember, even the best companies put out a clunker every once and a while, be sure to keep your eyes and ears open!

It is a slightly modified version of a Gibson ES 335. I think most know the story. If not see features in other reviews below.

The sound is what you should expect from this guitar design. Im sure pickup type and hardware choices make small differences, but we are talking small. I love the sound.Yes , it sounds like most es 335 model guitars, better acoustic sound ( must mean something) than most Gibsons I played.

Action was not great when it arrived. I purchased it a couple of years ago from Ed Roman. I agree with the other review about the way he was treated by this man. I would not buy anything again from him. He must buy a ton of guitars from Heritage because he is getting away with stuff no other dealer would. Heritage should be carefull with this man.My Heritage was sold as new but I also believe my Guitar was a second. Although not marked that way, it had many small dings and imperfections. It came with NO paperwork, company info or even a real receipt!! When I called and asked about this, Ed was nasty about the whole deal. Who was I to ask for a receipt!! Didn't I trust him? No one had ever done that in his many years in business!! YEAH RIGHT ED!!
I knew I was on my own. WARNING ..stay away.... or go and see and playthe guitar you want. Good Luck
Other than a few flaws ( which does not affect tone or action at all) the guitar is built very well. Better than many Gibsons I looked at (they also had many flaws)and felt better while playing. I have playrd the guitar alot over the last 3 or four years and it seems time is good to it. All the little fret and finish concerns have faded away. My advise would be to play one and not buy buy mail order.Yes, the maple tops are much prettier than Gibsons. Solid maple ssides ( although no one ever mentions this guitar is slightly tthinner than Gibsons!)

The guitar has been very reliable. The neck relief needs more tweaking time to time than any of my solid bodys but given the way semi hollow bodies are constructed this can't be that unusual. It does response nicely to relief adjustments however. I have giged with it regularly the last 3 or 4 years with no problems. I do however take care of it.

When I first received the guitar from Roman ( see above for that story) I called and Heritage was very helpful and friendly on the phone. You actually get to talk to someone who is involved with the making of the guitar. Try that at Gibson!! They sent me a bracket for the pick guard ( I didn't have the heart to drill a hole in the middle of the guitar body!) and it came quickly. I have had no other problems but I would not hesitate to call them for any questions. I like that!!

I have been playing professionally for over 22 years. I have played all styles (from Bluegrass to Jazz)although the H 535 has mostly played the blues the last couple of years.Make no mistake this is a very versatile guitar. I would look again at Heritage guitars, but this time I would hold one in my hands before buying.I have no reason not to think this one will be with me for a long time.

Custom built 2001, at Heritage in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Came with deluxe hard-shell case. Basically your standard setup, but with a few custom features. Semi-hollow body (Gibson E-335 style). Laminated maple top and back, solid maple sides. Excellent binding. Trapezoid inlay on neck, Almond Sunburst finish with matching pick guard. One of the most beautiful color guitars I have seen. I highly recommend it. 2 volume, 2 tone controls. Schaller bridge and stop-tail piece. Special Heritage HRW pickups. Grover tuners I believe. I called Heritage to ask about what pickups were available and the guy at Heritage told me about these ones he just designed. They are incredible, and very versatile. I'll go more into them later. Heritage is so easy to deal with. I called a few times to ask some questions before I ordered it, and they gave me nothing but honest answers. Much better than any other company, I've ever dealt with. They will custom make a guitar just about any way you want it, at very little extra charge.

This guitar has tone, tone, and more tone. Excellent on both the high and low ends. I play through a Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb reissue with a Ibanez Turbo Tubescreamer for a little distortion, and occasionally a Vox Wah. This guitar has excellent sustain. The Heritage HRW pickups are incredible. Both are passive, covered humbuckers. I tried a couple other Heritages before I bought this one with Seymore Duncans, and the sounded good, but took a chance on these after I talked to the guy who invented them. It was great, you can actually call Heritage and talk to the luthiers who make the guitars. They are a pretty new invention by a guy at Heritage, and they are great. There is no noise at all. They can go from very hot to a nice mellow jazz sound. Which suits me perfectly. I play mostly acid jazz genre, funk, blues. (Grant Green, Greyboy Allstars, James Brown, Melvin Sparks). Starting to dip into more traditional jazz now and this guitar has what it takes to do it all. Only thing its not really good for is heavy metal or punk. But then, if that's what you want to play you shouldn't have bought this guitar. Besides, it sounds too good to just bang on with the distortion turned up.

Well, I'm not sure how the factory set up was. I custom ordered it from Wallace Reed Music in Atl, Ga. Excellent store, gave me a great deal, and a helluva nice guy. By the time I got to the store to pick it up and started playing, the action was great. I don't think the guy at the store wanted to part with it. I thought it would take a little while to adjust to the larger body (my other guitar is a Les Paul), but it didn't. It played easliy from the beginning. Now for the finish. Almond Sunburst with a matching pick guard. Its sort of a beautiful dark orange sunburst, that brings out the tiger stripes of the wood grain excellent. You can see the color on Heriatge's web site, but it doesn't do it justice. Up close its amazing. By far the best color I've seen. Binding is perfect, I can't find anything wrong with it and I've looked evrywhere

This guitar should withstand live playing easily. I've only had it a few months but the finish loks like it will last a lifetime. Everything about the guitar seems to built solid. But of course, its a semi-hollow body, so you don't want to slam it into your amp, or do a lot of jumping around on stage. But if you treat it well, I don't see any reason why it would last. Only problem I had was that one of the volume knobs became lose after about a month. I sent Heritage an email, they asked for my address and sent me a replacement the very next day. No hassels or anything. How about that.

I've never dealt with a company and received better customer service. Like I said earlier, I talked with the guys who built this guitar and the pickups, and they treated me with the utmost respect, and gave me honest answers. There are not a lot of musical instrument companies you can even get to answer the phone. It only has a one-year warranty, but that's as good as most companies. Even Gibson with the "lifetime warranty" covers very little repairs. And, I feel confident that even if something goes wrong after a year, they would be more than willing to repair the guitar at a minimal cost.

I've been playing for about 9 years. Took some jazz classes in college and now that I'm out of school, I play about 1-2 hours a day after work. Only thing I wanted that I didn't get on this guitar was a split block inlay but it was about twice as much as the trapezoid inlay. I also own a '95 Les Paul and an acoustic Alvarez 25th anniversary edition, and this is the one a reach for everytime. Its as good as any guitar I've ever played. I looked at other semi-hollows, before I got this one. Gibson 335, Guild, and a few others. Mush better than any of the Guilds or others for just a little more money. I would go as far as to say that it better than the 335 or 336. Defintely made with more care. Remember, the guys who built this guitar are the same guys who built those vintage Gibson's that are so sought after today. Only I got this one for about a $1000.00 less. defintely the best value you can find for a guitar. Hand made, custom built, to quality gutiars at a fraction of the price. I know that sounds like a commercial, but its the truth.

1999 left handed semi hollowbody 335 style guitar. 2 Schaller humbucking pick-ups,tune-o-matic bridge.

Perfect!

Great once I had it set up. Ed Roman failed to do this regardless of what he promises on his website.

Seems fine.

Here is where my beef comes in. I purchase this guitar from Ed Roman in December of 1999.When ordering from him I specified a couple of things I wanted extra, first I wanted a Gibson Tune-O-Matic bridge and stop tailpiece instead of the stock Schaller,and second I paid for a Gibson case instead of his generic case. I had looked at both and felt that the Gibson case gave much better protection. The first thing I noticed upon receiving the guitar was that it was in one of his cheap Canadian cases that he keeps harping about that are so good. Then I noticed the binding on the neck up aroung the 2nd and 3rd fret was cracked and it looked like there was cracks in the finish around the back of the neck. I immediately contacted Ed Roman himself and told him of the problem. He then asked me if the box it came in was damaged to which I told haim No, he then told me to put some dents in the box so UPS would have to accept liability for the damage. I said no way and that I just wanted to send it back to him for an exchange. He said he couldn't do that because he didn't have any more of these in stock.
I also noticed several small nicks in the guitar as well as marks on the dise of the headstock from the rubber hangers that are used to hang instruments up in a music store, I also did not receive any of the documentation with the guitar such as hang tags or warranty cards of even a receipt. When I called him back about this one of his morons at his shop told me they don't give receipts out because of tax purposes (YEAH RIGHT!). This led me to believe that I had been sold a used instrument instead of a new one, mind you that I could not prove that but the facts of this sale were very suspect. After about 3 weeks of trying to deal with him I went straght to Heritage and told them my story. They said they would handle it and within 30 minutes I got a call from Ed roman stating that if I shipped the guitar to Heritage he would then arrange to have another one shipped to me the way that I ordered it. thanks god everything was finally worked out, but I just wanted to warn everyone out there to please be careful about dealing with this man, once he has your money he could care less about you or your problems, he treated me as if I was some ignorant kid who had just picked up a guitar for the first time. I am 45 and have been playing and making a living at it for the past 25 years and I don't need him or his idiot staff to tell me about guitars. When I received the 2nd guitar the bridge saddles on it weren't even notched for the strings and his tech told me that they are never notched , then I told him that I have owned over a dozen Les Pauls with the same bridge and everyone of them has been notched.These guys are complete assholes, so if you want to do busines with some one who will take your money and lie to you about everything they do then go right ahead but dont't say you weren't warned! I just want to make it clear that Heritage makes a wonderful instrument, in fact I plan on ordering another one from them direct in the near future, but please save yourself alot of pain and suffering and do not deal with Ed Roman, he is nothing but trouble. P.S. It turned out that the whole neck was cracked in half on the original guitar and not just finish cracks.

These are truly great guitars and I can't imagine playing anything else.

I custom ordered my guitar with a trapeze tailpiece and a piezo pickup underneath the bridge. The output is stereo, with the piezo on the right and electric pickups on the left. The humbuckers are the same as the reviews that have come before mine. I have two volume knobs (one for the electric pickups and one for the piezo) and a tone knob for the electric pickups. I would definately like individual volume for the two electric pickups. This is not a big deal because I am getting the two volume knobs rewired to the two electric pickups and running the accoustic pickup through a volume pedal.

I love this set-up! Definately one of the more unique set-ups out there. Unbelievable versatility! When blending the electric and acoustic pickups I can get a big arch top sound. Cut out the accoustic and I get that classic, 335 sound. Give me volume control for each humbucker and this category gets a 10.

Really beautiful. I play nearly everything (jazz, blues, rock, rockabilly, even some harder rock) and I can get nearly any desired tone out of the guitar. Great versatility.

I custom made my guitar with blick inlays on the fretboard, a great deep brown sunburst and a pickguard to match. I think it is the most beautiful guitar I have ever seen. Of course that is why I ordered it that way. The action and fit are great but I think that has more to do with the set-up the store I bought it from employed. Rumor has it that these come with a terrible set-up from the factory. Make sure you have the store you bought it from set it up properly!

Since Bluenote did such a good job, my 535 rates a 10 on the setup.

I haven't road tested it that much, but it seems to be very solidly built. I have an American Standard Tele that is my real war horse. Would definately not want to put my Heritage through the same wear. Too beautiful!

I would say the one problem with Heritage is that their Guitars take a little too long to arrive. Mine was supposed to take 8-9 months and it took 10. While one month shouldn't be that big of a deal, the anticipation was tortuous! I really would have appreciated updates on where my guitar was in the process.

Heritage seems like an engineering centric company without as much focus on the actual customer. That kind of environment makes fantastic guitars but not the best customer relations. In the end, I would want this to be the worst part of the experience. Afterall, the guitar lasts a lifetime and my contact with the company only lasted a couple of months.

I have been playing for about 9 years and have had all sorts of guitars. I custom picked this one to appease my sonic as well as aesthetic tastes. I could not be happier. Other than the minor volume problem--which is easily fixable--this is a perfect guitar.

I compared this to the Gibson 335 and the Gibson paled in comparison and was much more money! God forbid if it were stolen, I would get another one in an instant. In fact, I am contemplating another, larger Heritage. Really great guitars from a great company.

I got this guitar in 1996. I bought it mostly because of its versatility. Two humbuckers, 22 frets and classic Gibson 335 style. The quality of the material and workmanship is fantastic. Maple front, back and sides, mahogany neck and rosewood fretboard. Beautiful antique sunburst finish. No fancy features, just straight forward great guitar function.

I play mostly blues rock, and the guitar has proven to be a dream for it. I can even dial in that singing Santana sustain. BB King and classic rock are right there at my fingertips. Very quiet because of the humbuckers. I play through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, and that blues sound is so easy to nail.

I don't know how the action was when it arrived from the factory. Fortunately, the music store where I buy all my stuff goes over the whole guitar while I'm there, and they always set it up perfectly. There were no flaws in this guitar, binding was clean, the finished shined, and the hardware glinted. The wooden pickguard was the same color as the guitar back then, and even had the same antique burst finish. This guitar has always looked so good that I baby it to no end.

This guitar could withstand the most grueling roadwear, but I've never put it through those paces. Being as it looks so good, I hardly take it out of the house, let alone gigi with it for fear of getting it stolen or damaged. I suppose that if I was making more money, I wouldn't worry about it so much. IMHO, I would rather play live with a Gibson than my Heritage, simply because the finish on the Heritage is just that much prettier. The strap buttons were solid, but I replaced them with Schaller straplocks just to be safe. I have played with it at practice, but am seriously considering a Heritage H-150CM to gig with, because of the size of the H-150, but also the quality of Heritage. Since I baby my H-535, I'm pretty certain that it will outlive me, and I am only in my 20's.

I've never dealt with the company as far as service goes. I've never had to. From what other people have said though, they seem very down to earth, and I certainly don't mind dealing with people like that.

Compared with other semi-hollow bodies out there, I would definitely rate the H-535 among the highest. I tried quite a few before deciding on the Heritage. What you are getting is Gibson quality from when Gibson instruments were quality instruments for more than half the price. Sure, it's a little more expensive than other guitars made by Washburn and Ibanez, but the fit and finish of the Heritage is just that much better to be worth the investment.

Made in 1997 or 1998 in USA. The top and back are laminated maple, and I think the rims are solid. Nice mahogany neck, with a light-colored rosewood fingerboard and fairly fat frets. "Antique Natural" finish with nice grain. The wooden pickguard is a nice touch. I'm not crazy about the (Schaller?) bridge--there's something a little off in the radius. Chrome Schaller tuners, good hardshell case.

The sounds is its strongest feature--great for a clean jazz sound, and great for a bluesy overdrive sound. Good high end--clear and sharp but not harsh. Great on the attack. Sounds best, I think, with both pickups engaged and the volumes turned all the way up. Great sustain. I play through either a recent Fender Blues Junior or a 1970 Ampeg Gemini 12. The Ampeg sounds better but it's heavy and I'm getting lazy. I don't use much in the way of effects--reverb or delay and some compression. Easy to record. I bought this guitar because of how it sounded.

Terrible setup from the factory. The bridge is wacky--it's radius doesn't seem to match the radius of the fingerboard, and I can't get the action where I want it without buzzes. The trussrod seems to be about right, so I may need some expert help here. So it's playable but not optimal. The finish is excellent. Beautiful wood, well matched. But the action and feel are disappointing.

The pickup selector switch has done some screwy things--cutting out at band times, etc. Usually just flipping it back and forth straightens this out. Also, the tuners (Schallers, I think) slip a little. Tightening doesn't seem to help. The finish is great, though. I've used it at a couple of gigs and did a lot of tuning. Not quite ready to trust this thing entirely.

I've been playing over 30 years, and I've owned more than a few guitars, including a Guild Artist Award, a Gibson ES Artist, a Taylor 314, a Yairi acoustic, a Standel 430 semi-hollow electric, a Yamaha electric classical, etc. I would say the Heritage sounds a lot better than the Gibson (not really a good comparison because the Gibson had active EQ and other gizmos), but the feel is not nearly as good. I'm sure it can be improved, but it's not as straightforward as simply adjusting the bridge or the neck. But the sound is worth it--and it looks incredible.

Played through my Mesa Boogie Nomad 55 (on vintage gain Ch.) I can get a tone that is part Santana(his tone on "SuperNatural") Duane Allman, and Jimmy Herring, it is bizzat. Plus I can closely emulate most other classic rock textures. W/ clean, you can go from Jazz, to country. The 535 also sounds great with my 65' BF Princeton Reverb.

Like any other set neck guitar, you will have to tweak the truss rod here and there, certainly more often in the winter. Actually I havent touched the truss rod once this summer and the neck still feels great. If you can, learn how to make this adjustment yourself, it's not a costly repair, but it's more satisfying, and less time consuming to do it yourself. If you need a guide, by the Guitar Player Repair guide by Dan Erlewine, it is an excellent soure for repairs, it covers basically everything.

This is just a follow up to a previous review. I bought the guitar in Oct. '99, it is now Aug. '00, the only complaint I have is about the input jack. The placement is much better than an ES-335, its on the side of the guitar, just like a Les Paul, PRS, etc. But there is no metal Plate under the nut, the nut keeps coming loose, and if you tighten it too much, it will very slighly crack the wood, not a huge flaw. But a flaw all the same. You just have to be careful. Otherwise the Heritage, no matter what model you get, is an outstanding value. Better than a Gibson, and half the price, I cannot stress that enough, but you make the call.

This is the 335 style Heritage, with a Schaller adjustable bridge and stop tail with top loading strings. This one has a nice, one piece (!) maple top, back and sides with nice flame (though not an upgrade) with a standard sunburst (tobacco?) finish. Has Schaller humbucking pickups, 24 3/4" scale mahogany neck (with sunburst even at the heel/body joint) with rosewood fingerboard, dot position markers, some kind of synthetic nut material. The only real difference from a Gibson is the position of the output jack on the rim (side) rather than on top of the guitar...a position that makes more sense to me, anyway (yeah, harder to see and get to, but out of the way!). Grover tuners. All hardware is nickel (?) chrome finish. This guitar is everything a 335 style "blues/rock" guitar should be!!

This guitar works great for blues, rock, jazz, and "contemporary accompaniment" (which I do in church with a praise band & singers), even fingerstyle under some circumstances! I use it mostly with a Peavey Delta Blues (w/ 15" speaker), occasionally supplimenting it with a Boss GE-7 pedal to add treble and reduce bass, but it balances out nicely with a Fender amp; Fenders offering a little more treble than some others. My Peavey Transtube Express (w/ 12" speaker) can do an incredible Free "All Right Now" rock guitar sound with this thing...just found that one after owning it for a year! Played that for 1/2 an hour just out of shear enjoyment!
With the two humbuckers the sound it thick, obviously...not meant for the str*t tones...but if you dig Freddie King, Clapton ("From the Cradle") or even Carlos, this thing is great! If I want to go over the top, I use a Boss DS-1 distortion pedal or (my favorite) a Danelectro Daddy-O (the yellow one with 3-band eq).
I've read some complaints about the pickups, however, for standard issue, they work/ sound fine,with a good variety of tones...use your volume/tone knobs, fingers, the GE-7, etc. to find some new sounds...
For some the size of the body may seem ungainly, but I'm 6'2" and also appreciate that it's not as heavy as a Les Paul (since I'm also 42!!)...the hollowbody gives the tone more "air" and variety than a Les Paul; I've always thought they had a limited tonal range (personal preference there).

Since the guitar came from the dealer (Southpaw Guitar; thanks, Jimmy Duncan!), I'm not sure if they did any set-up on it after the factory: like another reviewer here, I've played for over 25 years, and don't expect a "perfect" set-up from the factory; I always expect (and want) to do my own set-up with MY choice of string gauges, etc.
BUT, right out of the case the guitar played well, with 10-46 strings on it...I usually keep 11-49/50 on this one (sometimes I even use a wound G; around 18-20 gauge); it just gives it more round full tone,and I like to work at bending those wires!!
I've adjusted the pickups a little; no big deal. You have to watch the rollers on the bridge when you change strings...sometimes they move and you have to recenter them above the strings, just a quirk of that spacing option on the bridge; I DO like the top loading tailpiece, too~ nice and easy to change strings.
Fit and finish all over this guitar are excellent!! Very nice woods for a standard production model at this price, even the side maple had flame in it; no poor fit or finish anywhere. I would like the nut to be bone or ivory: may do that mod myself, since I've done several on my Warmoth necks. The strap buttons are larger than on some electrics, and since I don't jump around when I play, they hold onto a thick leather strap quite nicely. The input jack tends to loosen from time to time; that's the only minus I've noticed.
I might have the frets redressed someday to get them "like butter," but they're great right out of the case; actually I kind of like a little "character" between fret and string when doing that Freddie King thing!!

I don't play in bars or other dangerous environments (unless you consider playing before God Almighty on Sunday morning hazardous; we probably all should!) But the guitar is as sturdy as any hollowbody. The neck joint seems very stable, all the hardware is put on properly and seems very durable.
The finish seems to be plenty durable without being paintbrush thick; just right.
I live dangerously all the time; I take almost any of my guitars to a "gig" without a backup, but I'm a pretty light player, don't break strings, and since I'm not playing professionally, I'm not worried about stopping the show and losing the paycheck! This guitar seems very dependable...it's not like a British/Italian sports car you have to baby all the time...more like a Mazda, Toyota or Honda.

I believe the warranty is for one year. I haven't dealt directly with the company, but I know they're very responsive to left-handed players needs, so I rate them excellent on that factor alone! That's customer service, IMHO!!

As I said above, been playing for over 25 years. Have several other electric guitars that I've built from Warmoth and Carvin parts (all very nice), a borrowed left-handed '74 Les Paul Custom, a 20 year old lefty Ibanez all-laminate acoustic, a Larrivee OM mahogany body, and a lefty Pimentel Rosewood/Cedar Classical.
The only thing I would change about this guitar is the finish color (to the Almond sunburst), but I love the woods, so I'm satisfied. If it were lost or stolen I'd get another one in the other finish, and maybe add a coil tap for a little more tonal variety.
My favorite feature on this thing is the TONE and playability... and at such an incredible price when compared with Gibsons: the only Gibsons I've seen that are comparable list for $3500 and up!!That's shameful!! I much prefer the tone on this one to the Les Paul Custom that my (obviously very good) friend is letting me borrow...I've hardly had that one out of its case, because I can play this one instread.
I went to Southpaw in Houston last January (flew from Omaha) and played as many guitars in the store as I could for 2 days...PRS, Rickenbacher, Guild, Gretsch, Gibson, G&L (a different animal, but nice)...it was my wife's Christmas present to me; with one stipulation: I couldn't buy another guitar!! Well, I didn't need to, because this one keeps me satisfied! (Although that custom blue Heritage 535 was gorgeous! Check out the website to see it: www.southpaw.net). This guitar is a lifetime keeper. How lucky can you get!?!

This guitar was made in '99 at the old Gibson factory in Kalamazoo MI. This guitar is the traditional ES-335 style(more so than the 335's Gibson makes today) 22 frets, laminate maple top and back, however with solid curly maple sides(unlike Gibson) 3-way pickup selector, two volume and tone controls for 2 humbuckers. My Heritage came with two Duncan 59' pickups which are passive. Body as I said was maple(thin-line semi hollow), the neck is one piece mahogany. The finish is natural(which is no extra charge, unlike Gibson) with a nice flame. It has a schaller stop tail and tune o matic bridge with roller saddles(they do slighly inhibit sustain, not to worry there is still oodles of sustain/feedback to go around. The saddles do make adjusting distance between strings much easier) Grover tuners are standard on all Heritage guitars. The neck is a 60's taper style, ooh its soooo good. Hard shell case is included. I'll give it an 8 for features because they're all stardard features, Heritage however will customize a guitar to pretty much whatever tickles your fancy.

The sound is absolutley beautiful. I can't wait to hear this guitar in 30 years. I cannot think of any style this guitar could not play. Jazz, blues and rock are its specialties, but country could be played and I guess even metal, but metal with tone mind you. I play through a Mesa/Boogie Nomad 55 which is probably one of the most versatile amps out there, so this extends my range even more. The sound is generally rich and full, but you can make it shriek if you like that kind of sound. One cool discovery I've made, is certain notes will feed back just when fretted, they don't need to be picked, when this happens, I can cover the f-hole with my hand and the feed back fades away, when hover my hand over it, I can make this sort of warbling sound like when you dial the tone control up and down, I just thought is was kind of neat. The only thing i dont like, but accept is that I can't reach down to the volume pot(s) with my pinky while I'm picking inorder to do volume swells. That's one of the thing I liked about my strat, but I think the tone of the heritage will compensate.

Heritage is sort of notorious for not having the action set up properly, mine was just a tad low so it buzzed on the lowest frets. The pickups needed to be lowered, but that is based from personal preference. The only other problem I had was that some how the bracket that secures the pickguard was not ship with the guitar. My dealer called Heritage up and asked them to send one, a week later it was there. Other wise the actual guitar itself is flawless, very solid. You must keep in mind that the luthiers at Heritage started their careers with Gibson back in the 50's, these guys were building the guitars that are classics today and are so heavily sought after. The method of making Heritage guitars is no exception to the method of building vintage Gibsons. They bought the original tools from Gibson and get their wood supplies from the same source from way back when. Heritage seems committed to making guitars they they used to be...hand-crafted one at a time.

Man I just got done with my spiel about how great these guitar are they're damn fine instruments. I probably would not gig without a backup just because if you break a string or something, it's much more convient just to grab another guitar, the music must go on man. But if I had to, I would be confident with just the Heritage, I have a pretty light touch anyways. As long as youre not dropping the damn thing on the floor, it will hold up just fine.

I've talked Heritage once, just to ask them what type of Duncan pickups were in the guitar('59) They were quite friendly and asked me where I was from. It was a limited coversation, but I got the info I needed. The Warranty is for one year, I'd really like to put some Lindy Fralin Pickups in this Hog, but I will wait until the warranty expires before I modify it at all.

I also have 50th anniversy Strat, that's my true blues guitar. A blackface Fender Princeton Reverb, and Daneletros and a Line 6 amp are on their way. If it were stolen/broken, I might compare another H-535 to a PRS hollowbody quite intensively, but the Heritage is less than half the price, the quality is just as good if not better, and the 535 is just a little more versatile. Sure I would go with Heritage again. I love the fact that this guitar has great tone, and that it's beautiful, and that's it is mine. I did compare the Heritage with a PRS McCarty which is a great guitar, but I liked the versatiliy of a semi hollow body. I don't think I mention how well it plays, but it is like butter. Well it always makes me chuckle to think that my Heritage is actually closer to a vintage Gibson than the guitars Gibson makes today, however the heritage is half the price. Wow what I great idea, making a higher quality product, and selling it for a lower price, why hasn't anyone else thought of that?