MartyGrass

Some have better ears and know what they like. I've never had a problem with Schallers. Here's a sound comparison between Seth Lovers and Schallers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mURVofPTnY

That's a beautiful instrument. It looks like it has a rose natural finish. I'll bet this nice instrument is an example of why Johnny left Heritage. Johnny wanted black hardware and a floating pickup. As best I could tell, the first few years that's how they were made. Aaron Cowles did the tap tuning on these. He got the plates and took them to his shop. Heritage later did the the rest of the top. I've had an x-topped Heritage get a mounted pickup put in. It cut into the bracing some but was still stable. Here's Aaron in action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsCIAboHDeI I don't want to rain on a parade here, but I don't get why someone would take a tap tuned top and mount a humbucker on it if that was the plan from the get-go. But I did that once on a used instrument and was happy with the result. The HRW in the neck position sounds very good and a bit sparkley. I heard Henry Johnson and Kenny Burrell play with that setup. I had a HJS long ago that I took to Heritage to ask a couple of questions and get a tone pot put in. Ren Wall talked with me a while and said he'd put the extra pot in. He let me watch. It took about 15 minutes on his work bench. When he drilled the pickguard he had me point to where I wanted the new pot. After he was done, I asked him what I owed him. $15! I like the finish and the gold hardware on yours.

Could be!

When I was a kid I worked for the Kalamazoo County Fair. Aside from all the manual work of putting up huge tents and taking them down, I worked the stage area. I assisted Jerry Reid and Bobby Vinton. I was with them immediately before the show around their dressing rooms, on stage to hand them instruments, and to escort them off stage. Honestly, I didn't care for their styles of music. But both were very nice to me. And both were amazing musicians. Bobby Vinton sang wonderfully, played some great piano, and then played the clarinet, the sax, and the trumpet. He did all of this effortlessly. Jerry was an amazing showman and incredible guitarist, particularly speedy. What I learned as an 18 year old was that these guys worked hard and made it look easy and enjoyable to them. They brought joy to audiences every day despite the drudgery of life on the road doing the same gig to a smallish crowd of yahoos. Bobby Vinton was particularly nice to me and asked me about myself in the 15 minutes we sat in a room together. I remain impressed with both of them.

Hearing a guitar includes the setting, often more than the micro-acoustics. A guitar won't sound the same at 9 AM and it does at 9 PM. It will sound different in January than July, at least where I live. A ton of factors come in to play. Our expectations may not affect the true acoustical pattern, but it can greatly affect our perception. I asked AI how magic works: "Magic," in the context of a magician's performance, works by utilizing a combination of skilled techniques like sleight of hand, misdirection, psychological manipulation, specially designed props, and illusions to create the perception of supernatural abilities, essentially tricking the audience's perception by exploiting how the brain processes information and focusing attention away from the actual methods used. Here's more for those who are into this. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/achievements-the-aging-mind/202107/the-role-context-in-perception Heritage names its guitar the H-150 Ultra, uses highly flamed wood, puts in its mysterious upgrade pickups, and uses gold all over. Of course I hear the best possible sounds. Then someone brings in physics.

I wonder if there is a perceived difference among pickups with gold covers, chrome covers, or no covers. Perception affects perception.

Oops. I can count. There are four. I started the thread and then recalled i had a fourth in storage. I forgot to change the title. My go-to guitar is a H-535 these days, but I was raised on jazz boxes.

They are brothers but not identical quads. Each has a different quality. The far left is one is a 1991, one of the earliest. It has a 12 pole pickup installed on a second pickguard Heritage made. It's 17" across and 3" deep. It weighs 5# 9 oz. It's in a natural finish. Next to it is a 1992 rose natural with an 18" body and 3" depth. It is 6# 11 oz. It has a Floating #3. The next one is a green burst 17" by 3" weighing 5# 14 oz with a Floating #3. This came from 1996. Lastly, the antique natural is 6# 12 oz and also was made in 1996. It has a stock pickup. Its measurements are 18" by 3.25". I don't know how many HJSs were made. Over the years I had a few others. I'm guessing there were a few hundred made, but I don't know. I doubt Heritage has records. Maybe. There's an irony about this model. Johnny left Gibson because he was concerned about quality and consistency. He knew JP Moats from the Gibson building days and worked toward the design specs on the HJS. Johnny specifically wanted a custom finish they called rose natural to be an option along with the usual natural on his guitars. The first ones came out in 1989. It didn't take long for variants to emerge. This eventually led to Johnny leaving Heritage and eventually joining Guild. By 1996, Heritage built HJS with bodies ranging from 16-18" and various other finishes. The 16" guitars were not labeled HJS, but they were the same sort of build without inlays. I believe the quality remained high, and the Heritage workers confirmed that they treated HJS with special care. But the build specs were what was ordered, not necessarily what Johnny wanted. I have a couple of Heritage ghost-built Gretsch Synchromatics built around the same time period, the early 1990s. It should be no surprise that their weight and dimensions are almost identical to the 18" HJS. The second pic shows how they line up. The main difference besides cosmetics is the nut is 1 3/4" on the HJS. That's all I got for today.

I should have said they were stolen. I'll see how that happened. My guess is someone broke into one of his homes or a moving van.

The old H-555s had maple necks. Some were single pieced and some were multiple.

Yours is stunning.

Just out of curiosity, I searched for reviews on Schaller's humbuckers from back in the day. Specifically I looked for the German made ones. I looked at non-HOC posts. There were several threads in the Seymour Duncan Forum on these. The comments were largely favorable, even glowing. This does not prove anything except some people liked them a lot. Here's an example. https://forum.seymourduncan.com/forum/the-pickup-lounge/114718-schaller-golden-50s-humbuckers My guess is that Heritage had some deal going to use Schaller hardware and pickups, which makes sense from a business perspective in an emerging company. Even back in the earlier years the Heritage founders would defend their choice. Specifically, the four original owners and Ren said Schallers were good pickups. Ren told me that the bridge and tailpiece were very well engineered. Yesterday I spent the afternoon with a pickup engineer and luthier who knows Heritage well. He has been designing pickups for decades. He did not disparage the Schaller pickups Heritage used. It's refreshing to get his perspective. Not that many would be surprised though. To paraphrase, whatever a skilled pickup designer makes, someone will call junk. He likes Seymour Duncan's quality and says Paul Reed Smith is very fussy about his pickups. He also has respect for Fralin and Lollar. Lastly, he commented that he's sad to see such harsh criticisms for new winders on pickup creators forums. A budding designer shows his new ideas and their sounds and will receive harsh criticism from some, not encouragement to keep going. It sounds like the same sort of stuff that happens on various guitar forums also about pickup opinions. For example, I recently looked for reviews on Phat Cats. It seems that hate motivates posting more than praise. I've heard good reviews about the 225 hots on the H-555 from a person I don't think is over critical in nature. The big picture I get about Heritage is that it has morphed from the origins we all know well to a different company which is more refined and that has a R&D process that's pretty sophisticated. I have my older Heritages that I cherish. I've also have handled the new ones and understand the changes. I'm optimistic about the company. There's a reason Gibson moved to Tennessee from Kalamazoo. I don't fully understand why, but it certainly had something to do with cost reduction or profit ratio. Now Heritage can make a guitar consistently as good as Gibson for less money. Some will differ in which is better, but that's soft opinion. Kuz, for example, gave an excellent and detailed review of two LP style guitars made by each. Neither seemed shabby and there was a significant price difference. That's remarkable. I posted recently about a H-535 I got built just a few years ago. It is as good as any I've seen and better than some. It has PRS pickups in it. They sound good. Would I pay twice as much for them and replace the harness? No. But I don't think I would get a better sound out of any other setup. I also got a 2019 ES-345. The pickups were replaced with Phat Cats. Various forums contained hate reviews of these pickups as well as a little praise. People are nuts. They sound like single coils, hotter than stock Fenders. I have the T-types to put back in it but won't do that, at least for now. I'm done rambling. The bottom line for me is that Heritage is in a great place as a quality electric guitar producer and innovator. I have not always felt that way but have always respected the original owners and what they could do. Heritage is not the same without the internal soap operas, which were a source of interesting drama. Here are pics of my 2002 Ultra that just had a bone nut put in and frets leveled.

The owner who lent it to me had 200 guitars. Somehow 60 were stolen when he moved to a different place. I don't know the details.

H-530 is one of their best models. Light as a feather! The single coil sound is transcendent.

I don't know why there isn't such an option. Fender does it. There must be a significant percent who would like a H-530 or a solid body with single coil sounds but no hum. Yes, the sound would be slightly different but still more single coil than humbucking. It is more expensive to replace pickups than to not. Heritage used to let you supply your own pickups or they would get them for you.