Leaderboard

They both use in house pickups, but the CC's are alnico III with a vintage tone, and the hardware and tuners are better. Also different neck shape and better looking headstock and inlays on the CC. And probably a nice, more select, piece of mahogany for the neck. If it were me, I would play both and see if the differences are worth it.

VIP-1 which has also flown.

STAT, Parsons Street, and H-162. Only the STAT remains.

It's the size of a 535 but with a deep single cutaway. The inlays are block. If it didn't cost more than the 555 it may have been more popular. Endorsing artists received money for each instrument that has it's name on it. Long ago I recall that Johnny Smith was to receive $500 per instrument.

The wood for the two are "different", at least for the 150s. Custom Core use selected light weight mahogany pieces. The Standard line use the heavier pieces, but now do weight relief. Some people will claim that doing weight relief does bad things, but that hasn't been my experience. The Millenniums are similar in shape and spec as the 150s, but are hollowed out. My Mille LE is as good as my 157 with a heavy dense chunk of wood. Same bridge and tailpiece, same strings. Not necessarily sounding exactly the same with different pickups, but if I crank up the distortion, who can tell what the guitar sounds like. It's like trying to judge the better tasting piece of steak after you douse it in salt, pepper, and cover it in a bottle of A1 sauce! Some people will claim that the denser wood is better, others will say that lighter wood is more resonant. Whatever... If you believe it, it's true! It's on the internet so its a fact. Oh yeah, the earth is really flat. I read that on the internet too! When you're talking about the 535 and 530, it's a laminate anyway. There should be minimal difference, except for the figuring of the top laminate. I don't know how much of a premium that should command. I don't know the differences in the bridge/tailpiece. There's a difference in neck profile, but that shouldn't be a cost difference. I don't know if they choose different grades of wood. Do they use the better quartersawn for the CC neck? The best quartersawn wood should be more stable due to the orientation of the grain. As the grain goes more towards flatsawn, it can flex more. Pete did say that the finish isn't the same between the two series. The final polishing of the CC line is slightly duller than the Standard lines. It should feel a bit slicker, since the smoother something is, the more you can have some "stiction". It sounds counter intuitive, we had a similar situation in the printing industry. A chrome surface that was too smooth would literally destroy itself in a few hours. If it was above a certain roughness, it would last weeks. I know some people like the fake aging, but for me, if I had a choice between a pristine Standard II and an aged CC at the same price, I would take the Std II. Fake finish checking and fake corrosion isn't for me. I like the inlay work on the CC line. For me, the block inlays on the 535, 555 and 530 CC guitars are a definite advantage. Dots are ok, and I live with them on my guitars, but I bought the 157 for the blocks, extra binding and gold hardware. For a while, I was watching for a red 555, just to get the same vs my 535. Since they are making the pickups, I don't know what premium one would have over the other. Whether it has 5000 turns, or 4750 turns, Alnico II vs III vs V, rough or smooth magnet. I don't know that it makes a tremendous cost difference. It would be a lot less that the difference between nickel and gold plating, especially at the price of gold today! The case of the CC line is definitely nicer than what comes with the standard line. I even mentioned to Mike that the new case that came with my 530 wasn't as nice as my old TKLs that came with my 157, 535, or 140. It's OK, functional, but it binds a bit when I close it. It's not lined up as well. Once snapped down, it's fine. Something I think should be on the CC line would be stainless steel frets. I don't know how much of an issue that would cause with the Plek, but you're already paying a hefty premium. That is an upgrade that I think would be very worthwhile, especially for a guitar that gets a lot of use.

Out of the pedals I tried the Friedman had the low end "thunk" and tightness that was part of what I was looking for. It lacks some of the fluid gain characteristics as well as some of the mid frequencies that I liked in other pedals I tried. Running it into an amp that was already breaking up either through amp preamp gain or a pedal seemed to add the fluid nature and mids I was looking for as well as retaining the tight low end thunk. A pedal I thought was pretty great with my gear was the Marshall JCM800 pedal. I will probably keep it as well. I wasnt expecting much from it tbh, but when it arrived and I plugged it in it ticked off so much of what I was looking for. I also heard things I liked I didnt know I was looking for. Also, I discovered that the Boss MS3 has a Guv'nor in its OD/distortion settings. With the use of EQ, compression and noise gate settings in the MS3 I could dial in some really great sounds that also felt right under the fingers. I bought the MS-3 after I stopped playing thinking it might be a cool thing to spark some creativity. I never explored it beyond turning it on and playing with delays etc. Its still like a new unexplored toy to me after 8yrs of owning it.

I'm not a distortion kind of guy, so take the following "cum grano salis", https://1981inventions.com/ it seems you didn't mention it Bondi Effects "Sick As" is a Klon clone kind of OD, the High Headroom version is a distortion unit: https://bondieffects.com/products/high-shredroom-sick-as-neon-pink Crowther Audio Prunes and Custard https://www.asapeurope.com/collections/crowther-audio/products/crowther-audio-prunes-custard-special-deal Hot Cake: https://www.asapeurope.com/collections/crowther-audio/products/crowther-audio-hotcake I'm sure I'm missing much more

Best bet is to play a few examples. I can't say for sure, but I think the neck is a little different carve on the CC H535. I have a 2001 H535, the neck is a bit thinner, perhaps a little thinner than I might prefer, but not razor thin. It has the HRW's, the wooden pickguard and lovely figured blonde wood. The weight sorting is a real thing, as lighter woods are in demand, people ask for it a lot these days. Probably 'cause all us old people are the only ones still playing electric guitar. Fender and Gibson do it on custom shop products, so there's demand and money for lighter woods. Yesterday, I played a Collings I35LC-vintage with the factory, Collings spec Throbak pickups. Man, that's a nice guitar. Neck on it was just perfect. I just didn't have that much money burning a hole in my pocket.

The shape still looks different (body carve and lower horn on the CC. And they still say the neck angles are different.

It wouldn't matter if guitars came with vintage 59 PAFs, SOMEBODY would pull them and put a different set in, and then sell the original pickups. There was a time when the HRW pickups were special, and were considered an upgrade. Then people pulled them out of the guitars and they started showing up for sale at $3-400 a set. It's important that you can't just order a set the way you do a pair of Seth Lovers, or 36 Anniv PAFs. It's like they're made of unobtanium! 😁

Sorry, I would still take a 2000 era 157 or Millennium. Gimme some mojo and bling

I noticed a set of those pickups for sale on this site.

Academy is another street in Kalamazoo

I was thinking of the Academy. I own a Prospect 12 which must be very rare as I have never seen another anywhere. It is a truly great 12 string. There are someother unkown Heritage guitars out there also. I do own the Leon Rhodes model which is very much a tele style guitar. I am always looking for one of the Aaron Cowle Heritage mandolins and would love to try out one of their flat tops.

Yes, the Prospect is a semi. It's a bit like a smaller version of the 535, much narrower at the waist. It came out in 1991, along with the Academy which is a single cutaway.

Good to hear! I actually just played a beautiful used Heritage Custom Shop Artisan Aged H-530 at a local shop near me: H-530 Antique Natural It's a real stunner but out of my price range. I definitely don't have any qualms about going for a standard. I have no doubt they are fine instruments!

This Heritage Parsons Street is a great player, A different feel other Heritage. You're unlikely to see another one and may have different headstock ,tail piece, etc. It's the Darth Vader of Heritages . 6.36 LBS.