Patrick Posted February 7, 2011 Posted February 7, 2011 I've been playing my arch tops almost exclusively for a while. Whenever I did pick up a semi, it was my H 535 natural top with the Antiquities. About 4 days ago, I rediscovered what a truly amazing guitar this one is.
schundog Posted February 7, 2011 Posted February 7, 2011 NO argument from me. 535s in general, but that one in particular, are fantastic! It's cool to pick up a guitar you haven't played in a while, and re-appreciate it; almost like buying a NEW guitar, without the pain of having to pay for one!
fxdx99 Posted February 7, 2011 Posted February 7, 2011 Gorgeous! Love the matching pickguards that Heritage does. That ASB? The aged creme binding really sets it off nicely.
Spectrum13 Posted February 8, 2011 Posted February 8, 2011 Can't see the trees for the forest! Pretty nice semi Patrick.
zookroo1 Posted February 8, 2011 Posted February 8, 2011 Great finish on that one. She must have been jealous watching you play the other guitars!
MartyGrass Posted February 8, 2011 Posted February 8, 2011 There's the Sound Enhancer. Very nice top.
FredZepp Posted February 8, 2011 Posted February 8, 2011 Man, I love that. That finish is great with that top. ... What finish is that (ASB?) and what year of guitar..?
High Flying Bird Posted February 8, 2011 Posted February 8, 2011 It looks just like my first 535. I traded it to MikeNov after getting the gold 535. It had real low powered Schaller pups in it and it sounded so good. I think mine was a 96'.
NoNameBand Posted February 8, 2011 Posted February 8, 2011 They are all good guitars. But in the end, it all comes down to the 535. Period.
Patrick Posted February 8, 2011 Author Posted February 8, 2011 Man, I love that. That finish is great with that top. ... What finish is that (ASB?) and what year of guitar..? Good eye Fred . . . It is ASB. The center is actually a little darker than the picture shows. The serial number is an "O" . . . denoting 1998. My motivation for buying this guitar was actually the pictures of it on ebay. The binding is the darkest creme color I've ever seen on a Heritage guitar and the finger board is a beautiful piece of rose wood. The pictures showed it off beautifully. I wound up in a bidding war in the last 15 minutes of the deal . . (thank God for "Count Down" on ebay) This other bidder wanted the guitar almost as much as I did. Wound up driving the price up past market price . . . but, the value of an item, to me, depends on how much I want it vs how much the seller wants to sell it for. I wound up paying $1,800 for this great 535 and I do not regret it one bit!!
Patrick Posted February 8, 2011 Author Posted February 8, 2011 Man, I love that. That finish is great with that top. ... What finish is that (ASB?) and what year of guitar..? If you look very closely at the picture, you'll see that the tail piece studs are actually gold. On one of my visits to Parsons Street, I talked with Curly about that. He said "more than likely what happened was that the guitar was originally going to be a 555 because of the highly figured top and back . . . then Marv or Jim changed at the last minute because they needed a 535 immediately . . . and I just never backed the gold one's out and replaced them with chrome". Floyd, who was sitting next to him at the time said . . "that's a lot of horse-shit!! You used to do those things just to piss off Bill Paige" Curly just laughed, so who knows what really happened? At first it looked kind of goofy to me and I was going to change it out. Now, it's kind of grown on me.
Gitfiddler Posted February 8, 2011 Posted February 8, 2011 Overall, that is one of the sweetest looking 535's I've ever seen. ASB is perfect with the maple curl, but the darker binding sets it off perfectly. I'm not a huge fan of Heritage's standard white binding, but I REALLY like this one.
MartyGrass Posted February 8, 2011 Posted February 8, 2011 The darker binding is very nice. I also like wood binding but haven't seen Heritage do that.
tulk1 Posted February 8, 2011 Posted February 8, 2011 Not sure I'd agree it's the "sweetest" looking ever. I just parted with one that was purty dandy in it's own right. I would agree that Patrick's 535 is a top notch looker, tho'. However, I'd also like to postulate that we've yet to see an ugly H535. Anyone?
koula901 Posted February 8, 2011 Posted February 8, 2011 That's a gorgeous guitar Patrick, I love ASB and the pickguard is superb, the top, etc. And I liked your story about Curly, too! Am curious about what you find amazing about your 535 as compared to your arch tops?
FredZepp Posted February 8, 2011 Posted February 8, 2011 It does remind me of my '92 H-150 in ASB... it has that nice creamy binding also. ( and is probably my favorite Heritage to play... )
Patrick Posted February 8, 2011 Author Posted February 8, 2011 That's a gorgeous guitar Patrick, I love ASB and the pickguard is superb, the top, etc. And I liked your story about Curly, too! Am curious about what you find amazing about your 535 as compared to your arch tops? That's a good question Katy. I never really looked at my semi-hollows in comparison to arch tops. Although they could adequately cover traditional jazz (or anything else for that matter) quite nicely and there are many people who use semi-hollows for traditional jazz, such as John Scofield for one, I would not do so. Only an arch top . . . is an arch top. I string my arch tops heavier and with flat wounds because I want the tone and I know that I will not be bending strings/notes. I'm currently using .012 flat wounds on all of my arch tops. When I was playing more regularly and had better chops, I used .013, .017 & a wound .022 on the first 3 strings of my arch tops. The bottom 3 strings were .030, .040 and .050. Great balanced tone. I may go back to that after I heal from some impending surgery to correct the Dupuytren's Contracture in my left hand. (Which brings up another interesting subject. If this condition gets any worse and they can't correct it . . . there may be quite a few Heritage guitars available for purchase in the not so distant future.) The ASB 535 shown in this picture is strung with .011 flat wounds . . . because I consider it a cross over guitar and I do some different styles, more fusion type playing with it. That will require some string bending but also requires a some what jazzy tone. But, I'm probably going to go to .010 round wounds on it, like I have on my other 535 and on my ES 335. I have an H555 that is set up nicely for jazz/fusion with .011 flat wounds that I'll leave that way. So, I see them as completely different guitars. To your original question of "what do you find amazing as compared to my arch-tops . . . the versatility.
skydog52 Posted February 8, 2011 Posted February 8, 2011 I may go back to that after I heal from some impending surgery to correct the Dupuytren's Contracture in my left hand. (Which brings up another interesting subject. If this condition gets any worse and they can't correct it . . . there may be quite a few Heritage guitars available for purchase in the not so distant future.) Patrick, good luck with that surgery. I hope that does it for you. Your passion for playing is evident in your threads and your equipment. Nice 535
Patrick Posted February 8, 2011 Author Posted February 8, 2011 I may go back to that after I heal from some impending surgery to correct the Dupuytren's Contracture in my left hand. (Which brings up another interesting subject. If this condition gets any worse and they can't correct it . . . there may be quite a few Heritage guitars available for purchase in the not so distant future.) Patrick, good luck with that surgery. I hope that does it for you. Your passion for playing is evident in your threads and your equipment. Nice 535 Thanks skydog52
bebove64 Posted February 8, 2011 Posted February 8, 2011 Hi Patrick, It's a really beautiful guitar! spectacular top! Pure status of the art! Now I know how it will be my next white whale!!!! Congratulations
Hfan Posted February 9, 2011 Posted February 9, 2011 I was about to reply here re my 535 with antiquities like Patricks but never mind. Patrick, good luck with the surgery, feel free to call anytime if you need anything. I'm in the neighborhood.
Patrick Posted February 9, 2011 Author Posted February 9, 2011 I was about to reply here re my 535 with antiquities like Patricks but never mind. Patrick, good luck with the surgery, feel free to call anytime if you need anything. I'm in the neighborhood. Thank you kind sir!! As a nurse, I'm sure you are very familiar with the Dupuytren's Contracture syndrome. The operation to relieve (somewhat) the growth around the ligaments and restore as much function to the ring finger as possible has really come a long way. It's not nearly as invasive as it once was, and the healing time is greatly reduced. However, it's still not a certainty that there will be any relief at all. I have no pain and 100% use and functionality of my left hand, as a whole. But the fingers, most specifically the ring finger, are definitely affected and hindered by the condition. Certain chord voicings are now just impossible for me. I'll post some pictures of my palm, for those of you not familiar with this.
Hfan Posted February 9, 2011 Posted February 9, 2011 Thank you kind sir!! As a nurse, I'm sure you are very familiar with the Dupuytren's Contracture syndrome. The operation to relieve (somewhat) the growth around the ligaments and restore as much function to the ring finger as possible has really come a long way. It's not nearly as invasive as it once was, and the healing time is greatly reduced. However, it's still not a certainty that there will be any relief at all. I have no pain and 100% use and functionality of my left hand, as a whole. But the fingers, most specifically the ring finger, are definitely affected and hindered by the condition. Certain chord voicings are now just impossible for me. I'll post some pictures of my palm, for those of you not familiar with this. So far my experience is quite limited, the only contractures I've delt with are finger contractures as seen in peripheral neuropathy or from plain non use of a body part. I am reminding my pts constantly to to do those PT exercises. Hope it works out ok for you.
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