May I introduce my H-537... and me

[Klaus]

Hi there,

 

just yesterday I came across this forum, when I was trying to determine the built year of my Heritage.

My name is Klaus, I'm living in Germany not far from munich.

Besides several other guitars, since 1991 I'm the proud owner a Heritage H-537 (at least the sticker inside reads like this), which I want to introduce with some pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The serial is G27401, which means (what I learned in this forum) that it was built at the 1. of April in 1990

 

Hope you like it.

 

Question: What's the difference between a 537 and a 535?

 

Klaus

[FredZepp]

Hello and Welcome, Klaus.

 

That is a beautiful Heritage there... nice Antique Sunburst finish, I believe.

 

It even has the old style truss rod cover, which gives an extra vintage vibe to a Heritage.

 

I am curious if you know what the pickups are... ? Am I seeing right that they have no polepieces? Hmmm , and 3 screws.

[Klaus]

Yes, there are no pole pieces and the PUs have got three adjustement screws.

 

I never unmounted the PUs, so I don't know which brand they are.

 

The guitar is absolutely unmodded, just as I got it (but with some dings I'm guilty for )

 

Klaus

[rjsanders]

welkommen & froehliche weihnachten, Klaus.

 

a 535 is Heritage's take on the old Gibson ES-335, double-cut, semi-hollow

[Millennium Maestro]

I am sure its a TYPO but the model is a 537... Welcome to the Club!!! Merry Xmas

[Genericmusic]

Welcome to HOC. Very nice guitar you have.

[chico]

Nice Heritage and welcome to the HOC!

 

I thought I saw a nice natural ash strat on the wall?

[bolero]

wow, that's a really cool, unique guitar, congrats!!

 

and welcome to the forum

 

how thick is the body on those? same as a 535?

[schundog]

Welcome to the forum! Congratulations on a beautiful guitar. I hope you enjoy our little corner of the world here, it has taught me a lot.

[Assumer]

Beautiful guitar.

[Klaus]

Thank you for the warm welcome in the HOC and best Xmas wishes to you all.

 

The title of the post is a typo, indeed, in the post itself I wrote 537. Saw it to late and obviously as a new member I cannot edit my own posts.

If some admin or mod could - please.

 

Besides the Heritage I got some other guitars, mainly vintage Ibanez models (2860, 2681 w. vine, 2619/AR300, AR5000RE, MC300, MC500), a Fender Tele, a self made Strat with neck through body (the one at the wall) and an Oakland ZX1200, to name the most played ones.

 

At the moment I just play for myself, but maybe set up a band again in the near future.

But just for fun and weekend, if I find some guys sharing the styles and stuff I'd like to play.

 

Klaus

[bebove64]

Hi Klaus,

Really nice guitar!Schaller tuners,probably pickups also !I've got a couple of golden '50s (4 screws) on my h575 custom.It'd be very interesting to know the pu brand;without unmounting the PUs insert a small mirror inside the body in order to read the brand name,it's not difficult at all!

bebove

Agh my english is not so good,apologize!

[Klaus]

Yes, the tuners are made by Schaller, BTW the Schaller factory is not far from where I was born and went to school.

 

A short story about that:

While beeing at university many years ago, I made some extra money by building customized electric guitars with exactly the configuration & sound, the customers wanted. To emphasize it: I never really BUILT guitars, I just assembled ready pieces. For complicated jobs I had a good friend, who was a real luthier, who learned his job at Höfner.

Although: Some wirings and active electronics were by my own ;-)

I even had a brand name: "Stage"

 

What it made easy, was getting the parts. Because areound the Nürnberg region (Bavaria, Germany), there are many guitar (& violin etc.) and guitar part manufacturing companies with a long tradition, like Höfner, Framus, Schaller and many, many unnamed others, who i.e. built bridges, vibratos, tailpieces etc. for that companies in perfect quality.

 

At those tímes (ca. '82 to '85) it was not too hard, getting the parts directly from those manufacturers, all of them small companies, mostly run by the family. And if you once had the connection and knew the people, you could get the parts for a steal.

 

For example, I got the body for the Strat with neck through body (shown on the picture at the wall above) completely painted and polished (without drillings) for 40 Germany Marks (abt. 25 US$ at that time). It was a so called factory second, but I never found the reason why. Tuners, Knobs and also the PUs except the Bridge (Seymour Duncan) are from Schaller.

 

 

All in all I made about 20 guitars and only the Strat stayed with me, 'cause the customer ran out of money.

Years back, this gave me a hard time, but now I'm lucky about this.

It's a perfectly playing guitar and many Real Strat owners, told me, they're really jealous about this axe.

 

Hope, not to bore you with that.

 

Klaus

[golferwave]

Hi Klaus, Welcome to the Heritage Owners Club! I'm glad you found us. Your guitar is a very nice single cutaway Heritage. Enjoy!

[Gitfiddler]

Hello Klaus and welcome to the HOC. Your H576 pickups look like Carvins to me. But the only way to know for sure is to pull them and see if there is a lable on the bottom. They use smooth humbucker covers with no adjustment screws. The first thing I noticed was the three-screw bevels. Definitely Carvin.

 

 

Carvin HB Bevels

 

How does your 576 sound? We don't see too many of those.

[SouthpawGuy]

Hi Klaus and Welcome to the HOC. You may have Schaller pickups. Schaller also manufacture smooth chrome pickup covers ...

 

http://guitar-pickups.biz/hp192977/Pickup-Cover-145.htm

[ronalr]

Welcome Klaus ...and that is one beautiful Heritage you have there.....

[brentrocks]

Beautiful 516!

[Klaus]

The trick with the mirror won't work. Left and right of the pickups there are wooden struts going from the top to the bottom.

 

Next time when I exchange strings, I'll unmount a PU and have a look.

 

BTW: The thickness of the body is between 38 and 40 mm (1,496 and 1,574 inches i suppose).

 

Klaus

[bebove64]

The trick with the mirror won't work. Left and right of the pickups there are wooden struts going from the top to the bottom.

 

Next time when I exchange strings, I'll unmount a PU and have a look.

 

BTW: The thickness of the body is between 38 and 40 mm (1,496 and 1,574 inches i suppose).

 

Klaus

Strange,the bottom of the PUs should be free or everything; Ok,the thickness of the body probably is not enough and it's better to unmount your Pu and let us know finally the brand name!....try thomastik strings really amazing!For my h575 I use the js112.

enjoy HOC !!!!!!!!!!!!

bebove

[Klaus]

Yesterday I finally got around changing the strings on my Heritage 537 (D'Addario 11) and also did some cleaning and maintainance.

 

I also took the chance, removed the pickups and made some pics:

 

 

 

 

 

There is not sticker or no writing on the PUs. Justs next to the cable outlet, there is a manual engraving.

On the neck PU it reads "R", on the bridge PU there's a "L".

 

With the new 11 strings it sounds much better than before with the thinner ones.

 

Klaus

[Genericmusic]

[mars_hall]

Looks like a fine guitar. I've never seen Schallers without the engraved logo so I would tend to think these may be aftermarket of some sort. Also this is a three point mount which Schaller doesn't do.

 

Tschuss!

[DetroitBlues]

The only pickups I've ever had that were like that were off my Aria Pro II. Which was from around the same time this guitar was made. I don't think that's the case here, but if it sounds good to you, then who cares.

 

Beautiful instrument, welcome to the HOC!

[Blunote]

Klause

Sometimes the factory stock pups are identified inside the control cavity cover. Have you removed that yet?