Leaderboard

My 2004 555 has HRW’s. I even got a black dot on my pickup selector switch!!

Well, I scored a used set of 2016 Seth Lovers on FleaBay, reasonable price and already patina'd and "pre-aged" from natural wear and tear, so they look right in this workhorse guitar with its own natural wear and tear. The harshness I heard with the stock 59's is reduced, the Seth Lovers are more bell-like, clear, and I think a step in the right direction for me anyway. I took measurements of inductance and capacitance at 120hz, DCR, and magnetic field strength while they were out. SD-59 Bridge: 5.016 H, 350nF Cs, 59.47 nF Cp, DCR 8.27k, field 40mt at the top screws. SD-59 Neck: 4.191 H, 419.6 nF Cs, 65.84 nF Cp, DCR 7.236k, field 40mt at the top screws. Seth Lover Bridge: 4.76 H, 369.6 nF Cs, 58 nF Cp, DCR 8.202k, field 37mt at the top screws. Seth Lover Neck: 4.00 H, 438.7 nF Cs, 58.84 nF Cs, DCR7.59kk, field 37mt at the top screws. I compared the Seth Lovers now installed in my 1998 H150, with Faber hardware and lightweight locking Gotoh tuners, against my Gibson Custom Shop R0, 60th anniversary edition, with its stock Custom Bucker III pickups in it, unpotted like the Seth Lovers. Both have 50's wiring, paper-in-oil caps. The biggest difference is weight, the H150 being 8lbs and 13oz, the Gibson Les Paul is a svelte 8lbs, 1oz. (not chambered). The Gibson is more lush, with a bit more overtones, the neck being on the dark side and the bridge having a good bit more brightness and snap. It does that, "beefy telecaster" thing. Though both pickups are the same in the set. The H150 with Seths is more forward sounding, brighter, punchy, but doesn't have the same rich overtones as the Gibson. They're quite distinctly different sounding guitars, in spite of their close similarities. Both have the pickups set to the exact same height, both wearing pure nickel strings. With nearly a pound of weight difference between them (about 13oz) I wonder how much is wood and how much is pickups.

One thing is a clear difference. Tap the cover of a Seth and you will hear a click. No wax. Not a big deal.

This might be a little off course, but if you are looking for low output style PAFs, check out the Duncan Jazz pickup in both neck and bridge, I was taken a back at how good these pickups sounded. A realsleeper set! I liked them better than the Seths and 59's! Great clarity in the neck, and the bridge was perfect for on the edge of distortion sounds with a great mid honk. Here's a set plugged right into my Marshall...

You're right about the dot. I've put HRWs in my guitars a couple of times and did this. Clever guys!

They put those on all guitars that left the factory with HRWs. It's a side fretboard marker dot. Ren told me that was Marv Lamb's idea, so any time someone would see a Heritage with that marker, on TV, live, etc, they would know it had HRWs in it.

Me too! It’s a black switch though…

We've gone down this path.