efflux Posted March 23, 2013 Posted March 23, 2013 Hi. My first post here. I've had an H-575 for a while and just got an H-150. This replaces a Les Paul Traditional and I like the Heritage a lot more. Great guitars. The photos are not that great but I photographed them to show someone else so I thought I'd add them here. Maybe later I'll take better photos. The H-575 has insanely huge maple figuring.
efflux Posted March 23, 2013 Author Posted March 23, 2013 It's a little less flamed around the control knobs on the bottom side (these are lefty guitars). The figuring is larger here and you can see it's not close to matched but I like the crazy exteme of it anyway. I'll take some more photos outside at some stage. I'm in the UK and weather is bad as usual.
chico Posted March 23, 2013 Posted March 23, 2013 congrats, welcome. both are super-looking axes. Had an H150CM like that, in ASB (antique sunburst), mine was a heavy one.. what's the weight on yours? look forward to hearing more from you here.
bobmeyrick Posted March 23, 2013 Posted March 23, 2013 ... I'm in the UK and weather is bad as usual. Another UK member! Whereabouts? I'm in a rather snowy Nottingham.
DavesNotHere Posted March 23, 2013 Posted March 23, 2013 Those are two beauties! I would love to see more photos.
efflux Posted March 23, 2013 Author Posted March 23, 2013 Another UK member! Whereabouts? I'm in a rather snowy Nottingham. I'm in Carlisle. Unfortunately in the UK you have to pay a lot more for Heritage guitars unless you buy second hand and since I'm left handed it's just about impossible to find them second hand. However, even at these higher prices I think they are still much better value than Gibsons. I absolutely love both these guitars. I wanted a Gibson for a while but the Les Paul standards I tried weren't good. The studios were junk. Eventually I found a Les Paul Traditional that seemed acceptable. I used that for a while and it changed me over to Gibson after using Fenders for many years. I wish I had investigated more and found out about Heritage though. I have to look on the positive side. The Les Paul got me into Gibson which led me to Heritage which it turns out are my dream guitars. I never liked a lot of Gibsons I tried not because a decent Gibson was a bad guitar but decent Gibsons seem few and far between. People complain about the Heritage headstock. You get used to that and eventually it seems quite elegent to be honest. It's just that we are used to seeing that classic Gibson shape. The Gibson headstock is the flawed one. String splayed out at nut, especially D and G strings. This leads to tuning issues. Also, the tuner positions are bad. On Gibsons when you bend strings it actually pulls the headstock very slightly to one side. I've tested that and on the Heritage this effect is much less. Much more stable tuning in general on the Heritages. I have just one small gripe with Heritage though. Their set up from the factory is bad. I've replaced both nuts on these guitars with bone ones. they were very poorly cut at the factory. This kind of problem doesn't bother me that much. I've done this kind of thing on numerous occasions but I imagine it might greatly annoy a lot of people. There is lots of comparison talk on the net about Gibson compared to Heritage. This is a mistake. In my opinion Heritage guitars have their own sound. It's very tight and woody with more sustain. Less bottom end flabbiness than Gibsons. That of course is one of the typical sounds from Gibson guitars but I prefer the Heritage sound. Seymour Duncan pickups also add to this with less output than Gibson pickups. Tighter and more dynamic with less distortion and compression. I have Seymour Duncan 59s in these guitars. Where my Heritage guitars kill the Gibson is for Rhythm work. Chords ring out fantastically. My Les Paul is too flabby and out of control for chords.
efflux Posted March 23, 2013 Author Posted March 23, 2013 congrats, welcome. both are super-looking axes. Had an H150CM like that, in ASB (antique sunburst), mine was a heavy one.. what's the weight on yours? look forward to hearing more from you here. Hi. I haven't weighed it yet. It's quite heavy but still lighter than my Gibson which has weight relieved body. One thing I have noticed is that the Heritage has higher carve on the top towards the neck. The Headstock is also heavier, probably due to the grovers. This adds up to a much nicer balanced instrument to hold. The Gibson is all heavy towards the tail end. It's horrible to hold. The Les Paul shape is never ideal anyway in terms of ergonomics but I love the H-575. It just sits in your lap perfectly balanced. Maybe a bit more difficult standing up though. The H-150 is Dark Almond Burst. I think the photo is making it look redder. It's not as extreme flame as the H-575 but at certain angles it looks lovely.
efflux Posted March 23, 2013 Author Posted March 23, 2013 I found two more photos on my camera. No decent one of the H-575 front. I need good daylight to take some more. While I was putting a new nut on the H-150 (reason the strings are splayed out of place) I saw it catching nice light for the flame so hence that photo. Funny though because in real life the H-150 is not nearly as extreme as the H-575. The flame seems to come out more extreme in photos.
houndhome Posted March 23, 2013 Posted March 23, 2013 What a beautiful pair of guitars,I love the H150.I fully agree about prices here in the U.K.,and also your comments on not comparing Heritage too closely with Gibson.They are both their own entities. Lots of snow here in Worcestershire as well!
efflux Posted March 23, 2013 Author Posted March 23, 2013 We've had snow here but it's not much and generally it doesn't lay long. The Lake District (which is near) will be blanketed in it though. I can see the mountains. It will look amazing over there. Like a christmas card.
bolero Posted March 23, 2013 Posted March 23, 2013 both fantastic looking guitars!! and welcome...I love the finish on the 150
efflux Posted March 23, 2013 Author Posted March 23, 2013 You may notice in the first photo of the H-150 I have the strings over the tailbar. I had my Les Paul this way. I use .011 strings. I don't like severe angle over the bridge. To reduce that angle and not have strings over tailbar means having the tailbar very high. I don't think that can be good. On my Les Paul I put bolts on that allowed me to totally lock the tailbar down. Without locking down, the tail bar tends to be pushed into an angle (probably does even when set at standard position with strings though). On The Heritage the tonepro tailbar was more of a snug fit into the bolts. I haven't arranged it to be locked down. Also, the body inserts are deeper. It's not so easy to lock the bolts down to the tops of the inserts. I might do that eventually though. It feels a bit different to play with the strings over the tail bar. I prefer it though. This leads to another issue with this design. The saddles (without any cuts) does not follow the neck radius well. If you correct that you'll find that the top E and low E saddles tend to end up cut slightly deeper into the saddle. Also, when the intonation is set correctly then saddles that are far back reduce the string height slightly if your bridge leans back slightly which appears to be the case on all Les Paul style guitars I've seen. Especially after you adjust the grooves correctly, you'll find that the back of the Nashville style bridge doesn't give a huge amount of clearance if the string angle is sharp. These are all foibles of the Gibson design. I notice Heritage put grooves in the saddles that makes the strings more spaced. That's fine by me though. It seems to put it more in line with Fender so less difference when I play my Strat. Here's a few more photos which show Heritage and Gibson differences. First one shows the different body carve on the Heritage beside the Les Paul. It's higher towards the neck. Here's two more shots demonstrating a terrible flaw on Les Pauls. First shot is the Les Paul. Notice the thick binding. This cause a crack to appear between binding and frets where your top E string can get caught. Second shot is Heritage. Much thinner binding and much neater job.
efflux Posted March 23, 2013 Author Posted March 23, 2013 The top carve on the Les Paul also has more gradual slope meaning more wood near the edge. Maybe this contributes to the tail end heaviness.
H Posted March 24, 2013 Posted March 24, 2013 I think you're our first UK Heritage lefty! Welcome to the HOC I'm in Essex near Colchester - always good to see the UK contingent grow a little.
mark555 Posted March 24, 2013 Posted March 24, 2013 Hi and welcome to the HOC. I am also in England, in Huddersfield and get to Carlilse every now and then with my work. Your guitars look super, I love the cherry sunburst, where did you find them? In June or July I am hosting a get together for any one on the UK who wants to come and bring their guitars, it's just a relaxed afternoon for any one who wants to come, you will be very welcome. I have to finalise a date with she who must be obeyed yet, but watch the boards for an announcement. We did it a couple of years back and had a really nice time.
efflux Posted March 24, 2013 Author Posted March 24, 2013 Huddersfield isn't a drastic distance from where I am so maybe that's possible. The H-150 isn't cherry sunburst. It kind of looks like a dark cherry sunburst from the photos. It comes out way stronger and redder in the photos for some reason. It's actually dark almond sunburst so is quite brown. The H-575 looks much as it is in the photos. I had to get the guitars from the one and only UK dealer who had any lefties. High End Guitars and the H-150 wasn't cheap. Lefties are special orders and cost more. The H-575 was a little cheaper but that is because it was special order and it was wrong so turned down. Apparently it was supposed to have neck binding or maybe the buyer didn't like the flame. It's a very extreme flame without bookmatching. It may not be to everyones taste. You'll see when I get more photos but I liked the craziness of it. You can get them cheaper from Europe but not lefties. Most other guitars I have bought second hand but then things like Fenders aren't such a problem. I had no choice but to buy brand new. However, I think the newer Heritages are very good. I still believe it's worth it. My Les Paul cost less but then did I save anything? I'm probably going to sell it at a loss.
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