Heritage H-575

Bought new in 2007, made in Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA.

Neck - 17 degree peghead pitch; one-piece mahogany neck.

Fingerboard - 24 3/4??? scale rosewood fingerboard with 20 frets; mother of pearl dot positions markers.

Body - Single cutaway solid carved curly maple top and back; solid curly maple rim; cream bound top and back wood pickguard; with f-holes.

body size:
rim thickness - 2 3/4???, body width - 16???, body length - 20 1/4???

Electronics - Two chrome Seymour Duncan pickups; two volume and two tone controls; selector switch.

Hardware - Individual nickel plated machine heads; nickel plated Heritage bail tailpiece; adjustable rosewood bridge.

Color - Antique Sunburst

Full warm jazz sound, beautiful for a lot of jazz and old school funk and soul styles. Very acoustic and wooden sound, for bossa nova rhythm guitar I don??t need a nylon string acoustic any more.
I??m playing it with a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with the band and with a Roland Cube 60 at home and on small gigs.
I bought it in a shop with 10??s roundwounds (not useful for jazz) and changed them immediately to 12??s flatwounds.

Very good looking guitar in a classic and simple look with very nice woods used (I don??t like gold finish and lots of inlays).
The setup is almost good, but there are some imperfections like the laquer finish between neck and fingerboard, and the distance of the strings on the bridge is not really equal.

It has an arched top of solid wood, so you have to handle it very carefully. But it is well made.

Until now not needed.

This guitar is very close to the Gibson ES-175, the body is a little bit thinner, the woods are solid and are looking better, the sound is slightly different. When I bought it the price of the Hertitage H-575 in Germany was about 2000 Euro and of the Gibson ES-175 about 4000 Euro, so the choice was easy.

Update to my previous review (one down).

I don't know why I thought it was an '03. That doesn't make any sense.
The serial number is an "X" designation, which means it is a 2007.

Which is why it has the great HRW pickups and has been Plek'd.

Still sounds great. I have now D'addario 12's nickel wound (which are actually nickel plated steel wound strings). AKA Light Jazz in the blue package.

These intonate almost perfectly on the compensated (for a wound G) rosewood bridge.

For Jazz it sounds nice and woody, and really bluesy.

On overdrive the bridge pickup really gets a singing sustain from the body at club levels. The feedback is in the upper mids, which really is usable. Most archtops just get obliterated when they feedback, but this one drives the body really usably for infinite sustain.

The bottom portion of the bridge doesn't sit entirely flat (or matching the curvature of the top actually). But it still manages to sound fine acoustically.

The dovetail joint area is big and stout. If this thing ever needs a neck reset it will be because something catastrophic happened to it, not from normal aging and string tension.

This is probably the most ME sounding guitar I've ever had. It really has a snarly personality for jazz. Sort of an early George Benson tone (when he was using Guild guitars).

Years ago I had an earlier H-575 in blonde. This one seems more precision in the neck and frets, and the HRW pickups are a big improvement. Much clearer sounding and the tone pot taper is perfect.

Used '03 almond sunburst Kalamazoo U.S.A. made.
Parallel braces. Double HRW pickups (Schaller: Designed by Rendell Wahl, of The Heritage factory). "H" tailpiece.
All solid maple except the mahogany neck.
20 Gibson style frets on unbound rosewood fretboard. Grover tuning machines. 24&5/8 scale length.
Compensated rosewood bridge.
Glossy lacquer over flame maple.
Looks sort of like a Gibson ES-175, but thinner.

Hardshell The Heritage case.

Darker Jazz sound. Midrangey. Classic.
Very quiet. This particular one doesn't feedback.
I use Fender tube amps mostly. TI Swings or Be-Bops (12's), or Pyramid flatwounds (13's). Sometimes TI BeBop 14's.

It sounds like I sound. Responds well to technique changes and though I use mostly the neck pickup, the bridge pickup can be added or used alone for more raunch or twang if needed.

It's not a sweet sound like an L5. It's got a hotter, more urgent sound. If you like Anthony Wilson's L5 sound (he plays for Diana Krall, etc), this is not it. More Joe Pass sounding.
Chord solos sound fine, but Tal Farlow or shorter sustain like BeBop is the forte here.

Fairly resonant acoustically, given its two-pickup design. Quiet but nice tone. No rattles or sympathetic trash sounds.

Beautiful.

There's some little imperfections where the binding picked up some stain, but all the old Gibsons I see are the same.

Hella stout.

Requires being at least being a little conscious of not letting it fall over, etc. It's an archtop, not a Stratocaster.

For being an all solid wood archtop, it feels strong and substantial, not delicate and flimsy. Good materials and proven methods luthiery. No neck flex.

I gig it all the time with no backup required. I don't stage dive into mosh pits while wearing it (or any other time).

I have dealt with the company before (I had an Eagle and wanted to know something about it, years ago). Whoever I spoke to when I called the factory a decade ago was helpful and knowlegable. Friendly.

I have never had a warranty claim with anybody. This one was used, but new ones have warranties.

Almost 50 years playing guitar.
This is my main guitar, but I also keep a partsocaster around for Rock&Roll jams.
I play mostly Jazz, and some Pop Standards jobs, though I can play all styles.

I like small Fender style tweed amps. They're light and midrangey.

Currently with this guitar I use a Victoria 5112 (Champ circuit with a 12" speaker) for dinner jazz jobs with a quintet. Not too lush, but it does the job and is easy to carry. With the 575 it gets a decent Charlie Christian type sound.

With bigger amps like a tweed Bassman it can be more lush and/or snappy. It can get a good Funk sound like an ES-335 type guitar when both pickups are on.

It's not great for Country exactly, but maybe with a tune-o-matic bridge it could get more sustain. Haven't tried. Bright enough though. Just needs a bit more sustain for that kind of stuff I think.

The neck and frets are great. Body size just right for me. Not as thick as an ES-175, so it's more comfortable. Don't have to reach over the body as much. It's just right there.

Not totally in love with the endpin jack, as it makes taking a break a bit more complicated (I unplug it), but I can see it's more protected than crunching the side of the guitar if it were to get hit, so no points off. I guess it solves one problem and so I'm happy to live with it.

I use a headstock leash so I don't mind that it doesn't have a strap button except for the tail.

I've had lots of guitars. Can't say any were better than this one, though some were quite a bit more expensive. I'd say it's quite a bit more guitar than the laminated Gibsons and Guilds I've had. I had an L5 at one time but it just wasn't for me: too big, fedback, and I like shorter scale length necks I guess. Nice sound though.

I like this h-575 fine. It's a good solid working ax that sounds pretty good and plays and looks great.

I think there are better sounding guitars out there in the nuances maybe, but by the time you're in a club all that nuance is lost and I just need a basic sound I can hear that gets the music across.

If I wanted the lusher Jazz sound I'd choose spruce top though. Same guitar though, probably.

This one was affordable and does the job. I'd replace it with another if I had to. I don't really want anything else. I'd like to try a spruce topped version of this guitar, but who knows if I'd like it any better? This one sounds like me. If I can play the notes right, this one will get them out the amp just fine. It ain't the arrow: it's the indian.

Trans cherry sunburst, SOLID maple top, back and sides. Two hummers, rosewood board. Hollowbody guitar, single cutaway.

Great for any music style. I play through old BF super reverbs and a a 4x10 mesa blue angel. This this is great for Jazz, Blues, rock.. Not country.. I like the hollow body feedback and warm tones.. This is like a better sounding LP.. I did change the PU's as the originals were a bit muddy. I replaced the PU's with the Seth Lover hummers.. Who knows more about hummers than Seth!

This guitar actually sounds great unplugged.. If you take a Gibson ES175 and this H575.. Play them unplugged, the Herritage sounds 10 times better. Why? Because the Herritage is made from SOLID wood, not laminant (plywood). Why pay more for a plywood guitar? Get a Herritage..

Great form fit and fuction. Very professional!

The best!

Herritage gets back to me whenever i call them or email them..

I would buy this guitar again anyday.. This is hands down more "guitar" than any gibson hollow body in this range. You may pay $4000 for a plywood gibson and pay $1800 for a solid wood herritage.

Get one, play it, be happy!

2005 handmade in Kalamazoo MI; 20 frets; solid maple top; 2 volume 2 tone controls plus a 3 way selector; upgraded with 2 HRW four point mounted humbuckers; nitro old style sunburst finish; rosewood adjustable bridge; "H" chrome tailpiece; upgrade Schaller tuners & hard shell case.

I've been takling up jazz for the last few years and took the jump into the howwlo body market a couple of months ago. This is one sweat sound (better than my Gibson LP I had been playing)...full yet very clean with that slightly accoustic quality, through a Peavey tube amp. Great for anything from traditional jazz to hardcore blues.

This guitar was set up very well. I purchased it through Jay Wolfe guitars out of Florida and they set the action a little lower than what came from Heritage. This was set up better than my les paul, i was told the PLEK machine used by Heritage was a big part of the reason. I was surprised it didn't come with a left side strap button, but that was very easy to install (only reason this was not a 10).

It seems like it will go the distance, but I've only had it a few months. Everything appears tobe very solid and the tuners are much better than the ones on my les paul. Only rating it a 9, because it seems a hollow body will be somewhat more delicate than my solid body.

I sent an email to Heritage about the left strap button installation. I immediately received a reply from Ren, along with his phone number. When I called, he explained where it should be installed, and why.

I have been playing around 8 years, the last three learning jazz. My other guitars are a Gibson Les Paul, a Taylor 314CE and a custom stratocaster type guitar. If this one were to be stolen I would definately buy another...in fact, I'm planning on buying another sometime, anyway. I can't believe anyone would buy a Gibson 175, after playing and comparing the two (even at the same price, let alone with the Heritage selling for about half).

1988 575 bought s/hand recently. Natural finish with two Schaller p/ups.

Everything as described previously so I won' go further. Nice flamely top though.

This is a bit of a curates egg in my opinion. I think there's a great guitar in there but I don't like the Schallers at all - reading the other reviews I'll probably stick some Classic 57's in. I use it mainly on the neck, but it's a surprisingly versatile instrument. I prefer to use a semi-solid live, but this will be a great studio instrument with new p/ups

Some probs here, but it is a s/hand instument. I had a number of buzzes at the top of fretboard, but a good set up helped wonders. Unfortunately I don't like the Schaller roller bridge either; it rattles and quick string changes are far more difficult than a traditional wood bridge or even a tunomatic. General construction on mine is very fine.

A bit delicate being a solid wood hollowbody, but with care this feels like one for the long run. It's survived life so far totally unscathed so I can't see why this shouldn't continue.

E-mail Heritage once an got an instant reply. No other issues

I must point out I'm not a jazzer - I mainly play funk/blues. My fave guitar is a Gibson Customr Shop LP Special Double Cut; it can do almost everything I need. But the Heritage offers something unique, and it is also better built than my Gibson production guitars.

However, I probably wouldn't replace this, mainly due to my dislike of the stock hardware, but I'm seriously considering ordering a 535 or 555 with SD's or Classic 57's and decent hardware.

2003 H575, basic 575 but with a single HRW pickup, Spertzel tuners, X-braced spruce top, and maple backs and sides, extra binding on the neck and head stock. Solid wood and hand made.

straight ahead jazz tone. strung with med. TI flatwounds, and played through a nice tube amp and it truely sings. perfect traditional jazz sound.

Setup and strung by Jay Wolfe at Wolfe Guitars. low action, nice feel, fast neck for a jazzer.

This is a my daily grinder, i have every reason to expect it to perform fine for years. only reason that I give it a 9 is that it it solid wood, and i will take more care with it than i would with a laminate.

Heritage is great and Wolfe is great too. This is my 3rd Heritage archtop that I have bought from them. I recommend the both of them.

I bought this guy to be one of my two main guitars, the other is a Heritage Eagle X-braced spruce top(also reviewed in HC) that I use for fingerstyle tunes. This was bought as a straight ahead jazzer, and it fits the bill perfectly. I planned on buying an ES175 but i like this a lot better. And it is similar to my Sweet 16. The tone and the finish are much better than the Gibson and at a considerable discount.

2003 Burnt Amber H575 (Factory Second). 2 volume pots, 2 tone pots, 3-way pickup selector switch. 2 stock Schaller pickups I replaced with a Gibson '57 classic (neck) and Gibson Burstbucker V (bridge). No left-side strap button. Grover tuners. Mahogany neck with rosewood fingerboard (no binding, pearl dot inlays). Rosewood bridge (miscut - replaced for free and recut by me). Solid top. Nice hardshell case. Made in Kalamazoo, MI. If number of features is proportional to rating, this would get a 5. However, I rated this an 8 because I think the features match the intent of the design (10-2 for no strap button)

Stock Shaller pickups were a bit muddy. The replacement was simple and the Gibsons sound great. I play jazz and experimental rock through a Fender Hot Rod Deville with 4 10-inch speakers. This guitar has a moderate range of tones, all of which are very full and rich. I generally use TI Bebop 14's, which are quite heavy, but have a beautiful piano-like tone. I use the '57 classic clean for jazz, slightly overdriven for blues. I use the Burstbucker V clean for country and overdriven for rock.
I highly recommend the '57 classic pickup (in the neck position) for jazz because the natural harmonic characteristics/imperfections give a much better sound than perfect clarity. Though the tone pots don't have a huge range, it is adequate for going from Grant Green to Kenny Burrell with a little Tal Farlow in between. With roundwound strings, there is more Pat Martino, with flatwounds the Wes Montgomery is perfect. Overdriven, the sound is very BB King-ish using roundwounds. Flatwounds do not sound well with blues-type distortion.
The Burstbucker V pickup at the bridge is my attempt at getting a Les Paul sound - and it works very well (with roundwound strings). Sounds very Jimmy Page with some overdrive and Tony Iommi with more. The stock Schaller pickup was really inferior.
Pickups aside, the inherent tone in this guitar is fantastic, which is why I bought it. The top vibrates well, especially with heavier strings. However, this causes a few problems. Feedback can be an issue in confined playing spaces. And the vibrations cause the pickups to buzz in their mounting brackets. This is easily fixed by putting a piece of electrical tap in between.
This guitar (unless heavily modified) uses humbuckers and will have a humbucker tone. It is not intended to be a one-size-fits-all rig. I have a Strat as well, and I cannot imitate its tone on the Heritage. For rich hollowbody tone, I have never played a guitar that sounded better (to me, of course).

You get what you pay for. I shopped for a little over a year for a hollowbody and I found that action (and even finish) can be adjusted. Inherent tone can not. So I made concessions - and here they are:
The rosewood bridge cutting was not good, so the strings were unevenly spaced and not centered over the pickup screws.
There was a small crack under the saddle plate - supposedly the reason this is a factory second
The binding on the body is not perfect
The finish over the fretboard dots (on the side, not on the fingerboard) has imperfections
There is a slight scuff on the finish on the back of the neck.
One of the volume pots had to be replaced - free
The frets were dressed by a machine - they are ok, but the action could be further lowered after a pro fret dressing
The burnt amber finish is really not that pretty. I would have prefered a sunbust. The wood underneath has a slight flame, but its nothing outstanding.

Setup-wise, this beat many Gibsons I played. The neck is true and the fingerboard is not gouged up like the Gibsons out of Memphis.

Hollowbodies tend to be more fragile. That being said, this seems a bit more sturdy than the Gibson ES-175s I compared it to. The hardware is pretty standard. Thick finish, solid strap button (on the right-hand side). Using heavy strings (14s) I hardly ever bring a backup since the only thing I really worry about is a broken string. But any working musician will tell you to always bring a backup. I always wondered why people talk about backups. I figured it was a survey question :)

I have dealt with Heritage only once, and that was when I asked them if putting 14s on would screw up anything and they promptly responded that it would not. I purchased the guitar from a guy called The String Collector near Kalamazoo. My dealings with him have all been positive.

I have been playing for 12 years and have 2 other guitars: 70's reissue Fender Strat and a Martin D28.
Honestly, some of the cosmetic flaws are a little annoying and sometimes I wish I had bought a Paul Reed Smith - mainly due to the resale value and craftsmanship. But I haven't played a PRS that had a better jazz sound (though their $3000 archtop is close). Based on ebay, I doubt I could recoup my investment if I wanted to sell it.
As I mentioned above, I spent over a year looking for this guitar and bought and returned several in the process. Here is a list of what I compared it to:
Gibson ES-135,ES-137, ES-175, ES-335, Les Paul Standard, SG Supreme
Gibson ES-333 (purchased and returned - poor craftsmanship, tone)
Gibson Les Paul Studio Mahogany (purchased and returned - poor craftsmanship, setup)
Gretch G6120-1960 Nashville
PRS CE22, CE24, Custom 22, Custom 24, McCarty, McCarty Hollowbody

I wish I would have tried a Sadowski, I've since heard they are a good value, but have yet to play one. Like I mentioned before, I chose this guitar base on its inherent tone - which is kind of a gamble because I didn't know how it would sound with better pickups. What a relief that it sounds great! For playing jazz, I've never heard better. For playing rock, the feedback can be an issue at high volume. Bottom line - great tone value IF YOU REPLACE THE SCHALLER PICKUPS. I have heard the HRWs and I still prefer the Gibson classic '57s.

2001 Heritage H-575, 20 frets, solid Maple top, Hollowbody, 2 Humbucking pickups 2 Volume, 2 tone, neck is 24 3/4 scale. Strap button optional, see below.

I play Blues, Jazz, R&B and country, straight pick and fingerstyle. It has a great Jazz, "fat" sound. I love the sound of a hollowbody guitar.

I bought this guitar new from a dealer at a guitar show. It is a few years old, but never played, (still new). It is a 2001 model. I got it home, and changed strings to a lighter guage. (.010) I got a serious buzz at the 6th, and general buzzing all around. The truss rod was already adjusted for max relief. After checking it out further, I found that the 6th fret was lower than the others. I called Heritage, and they said "send it back to us and we will take care of it, under warranty." I sent it back, they had it for a month, and it came back to me with the same problem. I ended up sending it back to the dealer (The Music Shop in W. Middlesex, PA )which I should have done in the first place. Their repairman did an excellent job. The neck had to be heat treated for more relief, and the frets leveled. It plays and sounds great now. I can't thank those guys at the Music Shop enough. They know what customer service is all about. They even paid shipping, (I'm in Ohio)

Heritage does not put a strap button on this guitar. If you want one installed in the rim of the guitar, a block of wood has to be added inside, since it is a hollowbody. Heritage did this for me for $50.

I obviously did not have a good experience with Heritage. Every time I talked to someone there, they were dying to get off of the phone. They seemed too busy for a customer. I got different stories from one guy to the next. (we replaced the fret, we didn't replace the fret.???) Heritage needs a customer service person to take care of people. Maybe this was an isolated incident, I don't know. The only good thing I can say, is they installed a strap button for me. (for $50 bucks)

I think this is a great guitar. It feels and sounds good. It just needed the right set-up. The problems I had were of no fault to the dealer. They were excellent.

My Heritage is circa 1993, it is a bit different than the standard H-575 in that it only has one pickup, in the bridge position, and a carved spruce top. Rating the features is a bit difficult as this is a jazzer through and through. (What self-respecting hep-cat would hit the small stage with a locking tremolo, coil splitting, midi-equipped plank with a hundred push-pull knobs?)

That said, this guitar has almost no features and that is how it is meant to be. Though I would say that having a carved spruce top, is a nice feature on a guitar that cost $1,350.

In my experience, there are two traditional six string jazz sounds, if you are playing without effects. There is the shimmering, crystalline luxurious sound of Kenny Burrel, Russel Malone or early George Benson. On the other end of the spectrum are players like Tuck Andress, Grant Greene, Tal Farlow who capture a more earthy, woody, "natural" sound. This guitar falls squarely in the latter category. I happen to love that sound, so I am thrilled with the tone. Much has been written about the Schaller pickups that come stock with this guitar. To my ears, this is an excellent pickup. Very transparent and plenty loud. Though, I do get a sympathetic vibration in the middle register because of the way it is wired.

This guitar plays like a dream. The neck is extremely comfortable and accessible. When strumming, there are no switches or knobs to accidentally knock. Everything is set up perfectly to allow untrammeled playability. The finish is a gorgeous almond sun-burst that really turns heads. The matching sunburst pickguard is a unique appointment that exudes a sort of up-town classiness. The cursive H in the tail-piece is eyecatching as well. For the price, you get a bit of old world craftsmanship not found on Gibson ES-175, which incidentally, is much more expensive.

The only umbrage I take with overall presentation is the binding. It is unevenly applied on my example and there are numerous places where the white paint bleeds into the finish. Too bad, because in every other aspect, this guitar offers superb workmanship.

This guitar is built for the stage. It is a workhorse. Everything is tight as a drum and built-to-last. The only fault with durability is also a strength with tone. The spruce top is extremely soft and dings if you look at it too hard. Of course, the thin soft top helps this guitar nail that signature jazz tone.

I have never dealt with Heritage, so I cannot accurately comment. However, I will use this space to applaud Tom Wolfe Guitars, the retailer I bought this from, for running an excellent company. The guitar came carefully packed, it could have fallen from the firmament and not suffered a scratch. Tom is extremely knowledgable and patient and a real pleasure to do business with.

I took a good long time selecting my 1st jazz guitar. For under 1,500 I wanted three things: Hollow body, USA Made, well-known brand-name that nails the sound of all those Wes Montgomery, Grant Green et alii, records I've worn the grooves off. This one came out on top. It is an amazing amount of guitar for the money; it has to be one of the best buys going. For 1,350, I got a professional quality, gorgeous sounding insrument that I will cherish for years to come.