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just off the Fedex truck!

All this talk of H530s started me thinking that one would be quite nice, then I got a message from Cliff Brown of 633 amps. One of his customers had an H530 to sell and, knowing I was a fan of Heritage guitars, would I be interested? Er, yes... Cliff gave me his contact details, I got in touch and arranged to have a look at the guitar, which was located about 1.5 hours drive away. Suffice to say it's a 2018 model in Antique Natural, and playing it through a 633 Firefly (like the one I recently bought) was enough to convince me to buy it. It's light, 2.69kg or 5lb 15oz, and those Lollar P90s sound great! Some pics...

Thanks for the suggestion to buy from Green Oak, unfortunately they didn’t have the color I wanted but I was able to talk to Heritage and order this!

An image has been leaked to the press.

To put this politely, reasonable people have different opinions. I have no quarrel with someone whose preferences differ from mine. I would appreciate a certain humility that precludes stating an opinion as a universal fact though. I do understand that love of guitars is a certain manifestation of mental illness that I suffered with most of my life. I am confident of this much on the topic: weight relieved H-150s weigh less.

In my life I have witnessed in myself and others the same feeling of an instrument not fitting well. I have also seen looks of disbelief. A friend of mine was asigned the upright bass in high school. I had a cello. It didn't matter how we liked it. I had a Howard Roberts as a kid. It was big. My teacher said after a while I'd get used to it. He was right. But we are grown men. We don't have to put up with that anymore. One of my guitar teachers was Joe Fava. We were in his small teaching room, and he would smoke. He focused on technique and stopped me everytime my fingers didn't move correctly. It was constant criticism with occasional "good". I practiced this uncomfortable technique two hours a day. Eventually it became natural. Violin players told me the same thing. I wouldn't dare to complain. He'd say play your instrument properly or quit. Eventually it because okay. I went through the same with a bass clarinet. I have a H-575, two actually since I'm borrowing one, but like the feel of the H-530 a bit better. To get sentimental, I enjoyed the days being a kid and having a strong teacher who told me exactly what I'm supposed to do. It cut out a lot of noise from the other voices. Then Hendrix came along.

A flying V banjo would be pretty cool!

Ive never worried about dinging or scratching a guitar, Im going to at some stage if Im going to put serious play time on it. My most gigged guitars are the most dinged, scratched and worn. What relics are good for, for me, are taking in trades, because they are easy to sell on, there is a demand. I took on a lot of them because of that. Oh man, I spent so much time trying to be less direct. I cut paragraphs out and redid them, then deleted them, reworded what I kept, re edited again.....all I want to say is, I cant stand relic'd guitars

NIce job, Brent. It totally baffles me as to why someone would want to mark up a beautiful, new, expensive guitar like that. I just don't get it.

I thought I was done chasing the full-hollow-with-humbuckers will o' the wisp. Then, the esteemed Talisman Rich posted in another thread that Wolftone makes HBs in P-90 size . . . Little wheels in little head turned . . . Found a 2023 530 in ebony at Dave's Guitar for $1750 and bought Wolftone Legends for it . . . Ebony is good color so I can tell my axes apart: 535 in OSB, 530 in red, and now RichCaster in ebony . . . Looking for good bankruptcy lawyer . . .

I've never licked a guitar, so I couldn't imaging re-licking a guitar.

I thought they were closing up shop and moving everything to Guangdong China. Next year's PSP was going to be held at the Country Inn in Guangzhou with a tour of the tin shack where all the guitars are made! Man, the rumors that get started on the internet! You just don't know who to believe anymore. As for the Standard II collection, I kinda like the idea. In-house pickups is a good thing. Keep those winders going. I would have to feel the neck... I don't need a Louisville Slugger but a little bit of beef seems to give a bit more stablility. Weight relief is a good thing. Witness the recent purchase of my H-530. Much more weight relief and I would be playing air guitar!

IIRC, the last truly great Heritage announcement was the introduction of the beautiful H-717 archtop. I have no idea what's coming, but the speculation gave me another excuse to post this amazing (expensive) archtop. 🙂 https://heritageguitars.com/pages/core-collection-h-717?srsltid=AfmBOoqdWZn8YIQImFh9CiCxkXtGveUNpvw0waqpsgALxuwmldPvLK_c

and I popped for a brand new 530 in red!

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.

They are coming out with a full acoustic flying V and line of banjos, or the bespoke program will be back. My guess.

MORE AFTERS…

Some relics look like real playwear. The finish cracking on every square inch and a few dings don't. This one is decent. Still I won't pay to have it done.

I met a girl like that in Ipanema...aaahh. I think there was a saxophone playing in the background but I might be mistaken after all it was the 70s.

Really? $150 for a Squire Strat, $2.59 for a can of Zippo lighter fluid, $.99 for a box of matches. PRESTO! It's like printing money! 🔥🔥

Oh fuck!!! That sucks. He was a great guy.

Says the guy who owns the most Fab of Millies.

This is so odd. As mentioned, there was an uproar when Gibson did this. There was this argument that heavy guitars sound better and have more sustain. I have owned two weight relieved H-150s, one I got by accident since I ordered it. The Heritage dealer didn't even know it was weight relieved. He would have charged more. I very much approve of this design. If it adversely affects sustain or tone, I don't notice.

"I'm underwhelmed" he said in true curmudgeonly fashion . . .

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.

-->At one of the PSP's, a large stash of old Banjo parts was spotted, and it's been a long-running joke that Heritage would build Banjos again They did build a few at one point Myself, I was hoping for some Accordions too

I guess we'll find out on the 25th. Otherwise its just wild speculation & banter

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.

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

Maybe they are going back to using wood pickguards?

Wait a week. I NEED a Heritage bespoke banjo! Do Dah…

I've owned a few over the years. They are big guitars. It's obvious looking at the specs. It'd more obvious playing one. They are striking with beauty because of the great woods used, their finishes, and their size. Most people can get comfortable with them if they put the hours in. I'll state this anecdote once again. I was at Heritage talking to Marv Lamb with Ren Wall and Bill Paige. I asked what it cost to order a SKB in a certain finish. Marv asked me why I would want to pay all that extra for a SKB when I could order a Super Eagle with a Florentine cutaway and get the same thing for hundreds less. The point he was making is that the artist models cost more because money goes to the artist for each guitar built. In the end I got a SKB used for less than either model new. I have found that used ones came up occasionally and were generally minty. It seemed back then that those who bought them either kept them in excellent shape while playing them or just didn't play them. Now they are collectible. I have a few big ass guitars, Super Eagle size. I found that you will eventually get comfortable with the size. Beware the feedback. You'll learn to sort that out too.

Having just been through the factory 2 weeks ago, things are a bit more modern, but it's still a relatively small operation compared to a Fender, Gibson, Cort or World Music. There aren't any conveyor belts carrying a hundred guitars around the building. What you see is people at benches with a guitar, maybe 2 people in the spray booth with a rack of 15 or 20 guitars hand spraying the guitars as they did for decades before. On one side, there's a guy hand wrapping binding with a half dozen guitars hanging next to him as the binding. My oldest Heritage is an 87 H140, and my newest is a 2025 H-530 that I got yesterday. I play all my old ones, I'm sure I'll play this one just the same. I love 'em.

But how does it sound, now, Steiner? Quickish ancedote: Headed to a party in my S-10 about thirty-five years ago. Rutting season, and I was being careful! Middle of nowhere, small herd pops out of the scrub pines to my right. I t-boned a large doe. Stove in the front end, radiator Swiss Cheesed. Truck, with the headlights still on, sits there steaming like the Union Pacific's Big Boy. This is pre-cell phone days. I have about ten miles to hike back to town. About that time a car, big Buick Estate Wagon, rolls up from the other direction. I wave, and the car stops about twenty-five yards past me, about where I hit the deer. Great! A ride home. Two Good Ol' Boys pile out of the Buick, pitch the deer into the back...and take off. I got home at about 3:00 a.m.

I don't know if simply buffing would have fixed it, but the advantage of nitro is that it could have been resprayed with clear and then buffed out. I don't know that Heritage would do it but Arnie Hileski or Dave Teske might have been able to do it.

Thanks Scott!!!

No worries.. As you know, it's always so easy to work on the electrics of a semi hollow guitar. 😕 When I was working on my 535, somehow the lead from a tone cap broke off. Turn the knob and ... nothing changes. So it's pull the harness out and do it all again.

I recently got a deal on one of these. The reviews were good, so I bought it. It's loud AF and has a lot of great tones. It models a Dual Rectifier and a Fender of one kind or another. It's lightweight, so all I need is this, my multi effects unit, and a speaker cabinet. I use my old ZT Lunchbox for that. The amp stopped working a while ago, so I made it into a cabinet. It has a 6 inch 100 watt speaker 8 ohm speaker in it. So most of my setup can fit into a backpack. I love tube amps, but at this stage in my life, portability is very important. I just don't want to carry a lot. Here's a link to the Amazon page for specs. https://a.co/d/aOcxqkO

speaking of Carlos Jobim & that song... This is a good article: ( ps the website is about skin care & health! ) https://brazilianskin.com/blogs/news/the-girl-from-ipanema-brazilian-beauty I have a 575 with P90s, maybe I'll call it "Helo"

Congrats! I love mine CC model. The cherry is my 2nd color choice.

Yes . . . I changed my thinking and got a 530 for more variety. It came today and I'm glad to have it!

I'm guessing at least a pound. Did you get to hear Pete Farmer when he was pointing out the different select pieces of mahogany. They had the ones for Standards, then for Custom Cores, and then over on the other rack, were the "hold these for special things". Once Sweetwater gets in the Standard II guitars, you'll see exactly how much difference there is since they post the weights of the guitars.

All joking aside, that is a masterpiece!

https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=3df9ee326b7783b3f88e96ee2619cc8438de3f88e22551946cb7018f9fa23639JmltdHM9MTc1ODQ5OTIwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=4&fclid=3a257823-0e11-6dbe-2e53-6df80f386c57&u=a1L3ZpZGVvcy9yaXZlcnZpZXcvcmVsYXRlZHZpZGVvP3E9YWxsK3RoZStkb28rZGErZGF5JiZtaWQ9RDU3QTFBOENDNkI3NzMzNkQxQkNENTdBMUE4Q0M2Qjc3MzM2RDFCQyZGT1JNPVZBTUdaQw

Thanks, everyone! My guitar repair guy told me that a P90 guitar should stay a P90 guitar, way too much hassle to change to HBs.

This is probably not it... but... I also got a very sweet 530 not too long ago that had been hanging on the wall at that same Pickin Parlor mentioned above. It was discounted a bit more than other recent discounts because there was no pickguard (being a slightly older iteration... maybe previous year's model, I think), and I was told that one reason for the extra discount was because they no longer wanted to send that model of guitar out without a pickguard. I suspect that's a pre-existing change or policy that has nothing to do with whatever may happen on the 25th, but who knows. I'm very much hoping that the announcement is not a discontinuation of the Standard series.... (I've read some speculation on Facebook and/or here that they might be considering doing that, but I think it was just speculation by fans like us). The 530 that I got is absolutely delightful, and probably my new favorite guitar.

All the Do Dah Day..... Boomers know!

You first consideration might be how the top was routed to fit the pickup rings and where the holes for the screws were placed. On second thought the first consideration might be the neck angle as the height of a humbucker with adjusting screws vs a p90 that has just two screws to attach to the top and no vertical play other than pole pieces just might be problematic.

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.