H-535 first impressions

[HANGAR18]

49 minutes ago, Jean said:

One more question, is the 535 top the same construction as Gibson's; maple , poplar, maple?

That is an interesting question. I always assumed it was Maple/Maple/Maple but I cannot confirm that. The last time I was at the factory, I filmed them making a 535 top. Maybe if we listen to the video someone will tell us what goes into it.

 

 

[HANGAR18]

5 minutes ago, HANGAR18 said:

That is an interesting question. I always assumed it was Maple/Maple/Maple but I cannot confirm that. The last time I was at the factory, I filmed them making a 535 top. Maybe if we listen to the video someone will tell us what goes into it.

 

 

Darn. I thought the video was longer than that.

Might be Basswood in the middle too.

[Yooper]

In Pete Farmer thread he is saying in the video they have poplar, but prefer basswood to go with the maple. 

 

[deytookerjaabs]

1 hour ago, Jean said:

Ok , so I don't know much about electronics but from what I understood, the pots only affect the tone when dialing back, but does it make a difference when volume and tone are all the way up? 

Also regarding pickups the general consensus seems to be that PAFs are generally more open / brighter and less compressed than the later humbuckers designs?

 

 

The volume pots, specifically, determine how much "high end" (oversimplification) comes out of the pickups. That's why really bright fender single coils came with 250k pots (some with 100k) or really dark wide range humuckers came with 1meg pots, for balance! If I find a pickup too dark I swap in higher value potentiometers into the volume slot, if it's too bright I do the opposite. You're just tuning your tone a bit, nothing more.

 

 

[Vanschoyck]

Aspects of the Heritage lore make it easy to think that their models are direct substitutes for Gibson's, even the number designation H535 vs ES335 suggests that would be the case.  But they're not really.  I made a similar decision a few years ago when I was looking at late 60's 335s (I wanted a trapeze tail) and had a 535 made for me instead.  They sound different and they even sit on the lap differently.  I also have a Seth in the neck position and it's a great guitar, very versatile, maybe more so than a 335.

Pair it with a great amp and enjoy it!

 

[ElNumero]

Jean - Welcome to the HOC.  And congratulations on your new 535, it's very pretty.  I am immersed in watching the cyclists tour the beautiful French countryside. Wish I could be there!

As one of our long time members loves to say, stop worrying and "just play the damn thing"!! 

[Jean]

2 minutes ago, ElNumero said:

Jean - Welcome to the HOC.  And congratulations on your new 535, it's very pretty.  I am immersed in watching the cyclists tour the beautiful French countryside. Wish I could be there!

As one of our long time members loves to say, stop worrying and "just play the damn thing"!! 

Hey, thanks I totally agree with you, that's what I'm gonna do! 

[HANGAR18]

Oh yea, "Trebble Bleed". That's the term I couldn't think of earlier. I think that's the term they use when talking about 50's wiring. Someone around here ought to be able to describe the term treble bleed in technical terms. A relatively simple operation to achieve.

[FredZepp]

On 7/12/2018 at 10:10 AM, FredZepp said:

 

I've been getting some wonderful thick, rich tones from my Heritage Prospect with Seth Lovers lately.  I think your 535 just needs dialed in.  I'd start with pickup height.  

On mine, it just requires lowering the volume knob a bit to get there.  I'd roll off a bit on the tone knob if needed , but it doesn't.   I like to have a guitar where just working the volume knob takes you to a nice variety of tones.. with enough clarity on tap to not get lost in the mix in real time.. 

Just played the Prospect yesterday.. and I have to correct what I said about the tone controls.  I do have them turned down, I had forgotten that I'd done that.  On the neck pickup I was going for a full jazz archtop tone and have been impressed with what the Prospect will do. 

[rwinking]

Jean, it sounds to me like you got a lemon. I will take it off your hands for $1000.

[Millennium Maestro]

1 hour ago, rwinking said:

Jean, it sounds to me like you got a lemon. I will take it off your hands for $1000.

LOL, You guys are soooooo bad!  

[Jean]

1 hour ago, rwinking said:

Jean, it sounds to me like you got a lemon. I will take it off your hands for $1000.

Yeah right, dream on..  

Actually I'm playing around with pickup height and I'm starting to love the tone more and more!

[Millennium Maestro]

The pickups in that guitar are top shelf!

 

[zguitar71]

Hotter pickups will be darker than lower wind pickups. I switched out the Dirty Finger pickups in my ES347 to Lollar Imperials I took out of another guitar. The difference was HUGE! The DF are 15k with ceramic magnets and the Imperials are 7.6 and 8.4 neck/bridge A2/A5 magnets. Compared to the DF The Imperials are bright in the bridge and just meaty in the neck but not muddy. The DFs are muddy and have no character IMO. I prefer pickups that are unwound too, but that will have to wait for more $ in my future.  If I were to buy pickups for the 347 I would probably look at something with a short A5, unwound and upper 8s in resistance. That will get the bigger fat bridge tones. The neck should be low 8s to upper 7s in order to balance with the bridge. 

[Bcorig]

Tough spot when you cannot play a guitar to see how it really sounds. The bright  Schaller bridge pickup on my 555 is actually what I wanted after comparing a few 355s 555s to a couple of ES 335s. I use the tone knob to cut in . It was Y2K but I thought the 555 played better than the 335. And the price at the time was 45% less.

 

[Jean]

5 hours ago, Bcorig said:

Tough spot when you cannot play a guitar to see how it really sounds.

I know that was a gamble, although with all the research I did before taking the plunge, I knew it would be a very good guitar, now if that's the guitar that I'd have chosen in a blindest in a shop where I could try many, I can't tell but now after having played around with pickup heights and strings, I can say that I really love it!

I put DR pure nickel strings on it but they only had 10-46 in the store so I'm planning on having 11-50 on it , although I wanna check with my guitar tech that the nut slots are big enough as they seem really thin. 

 

[Jean]

On 7/13/2018 at 5:19 AM, Millennium Maestro said:

 

The second visual that bothers me is the Locking Advanced Plating bridge(Aluminum?) with a Tonepros locking tail(Zamac?), hits me like a Duncan pickup married to a Dimarzio!

 

Could you develop on this? From what I understood, all the hardware is Nickel. 

I'm thinking of trying Nylon saddles , anyone knows which ones and where to buy from ?

Cheers. Here is a pic of my guitar with the pick guard on.

 

 

[HANGAR18]

You will want a bridge material that will allow vibration energy to pass through it to the body of the instrument. Lightweight aluminum bridges are good for serving this purpose. You do not want any material which will absorb energy.

[Jean]

So I did my first mod , I changed the bridge for a TonePros TG6P with nylon saddles.

I had to change the body inserts which was a bit stressful as I had a hard time fitting the new ones in, 

but I'm happy with the result as it did exactly what I expected, tame the fuzziness of the high strings ,

now it sounds mellower and rounder. It did change the tone in a nice way.

Also the new bridge is almost double the weight of the old one.