early 575?

[edgerton]

Played a Heritage guitar today.  It was a H 156 according to the label but seems to really be a 575.  It is from 1999.  Is a 156 really just an early 575?

[tsp17]

1 hour ago, edgerton said:

Played a Heritage guitar today.  It was a H 156 according to the label but seems to really be a 575.  It is from 1999.  Is a 156 really just an early 575?

575 is a hollow body.  the 150, 155, 157 are solid body LP style.  I've never heard of a 156.    Anybody else?  

Pictures would help. 

Was it solid or hollow?  maybe the 6 was really a 5?  Could be a 155.

[edgerton]

Yep; that's why this is so strange.  It is a hollowbody.  And a deep ES-175 depth; not the shallower ES-335 depth (to use Gibbons terms).  Picture of the label taken through the F-hole.  I'll post a separate post with the serial #; I did not take a pic of the guitar.  It is a tobacco sunburst finish.

  

[edgerton]

Serial # on the back of the headstock

 

[FredZepp]

There's an H-516 for sale at guitar center online.  It shows a hollowbody with a venetian cutaway, not the sharp florentine cutaway on the 575.  

Maybe that's part of the difference.  

Of course they say it's  ... H-516 O5 B.. which should be OSB for the finish. 

 

 

[edgerton]

That's the one I played; GC nearby.  A real odd duck but you are right; different cutaway.  Certainly seems to be a Les Paul hollowbody which the H15X model number would seem to better reflect.

Guitar had definitely been played a bunch; I think the "Fair" condition for the shape it is in is reasonable.  Frets started buzzing above the 5th fret but not bad; probably just a minor truss rod adjustment would fix it.  Played it through a Mahalo amp which is another unique item I've never run into before in person.

[bolero]

that is one of the ultra rare Heritage "H-516058" models

[edgerton]

FredZepp, I agree; 516 OSB for "Old Style Burst".  GC kids don't always know what they are appraising these days.  I bought one of the 10th Anniversary Morgan JMI amps from them (45 of the 50 made) and they didn't really know what they had with that either since only 50 of them were made.

I've heard the sales people say they just look on reverb.com to try and price things so not sure how they came up with this price here if this is so rare that even this site barely mentions the 516 at all.  Maybe I should go back and snap a few more pictures so that we have photographic evidence of such a model actually existing. ? 

[rwinking]

Is it possible that the number is 576 instead of 516? I saw the picture of the one at GC and it looked a lot like a 576.

[DetroitBlues]

My assumption is its a model very similar to this.

Heritage H-516.

Per Jay Wolfe's Reverb posting.

This is the very 1’st Heritage H516 made and the Heritage owners hand signed the special label inside.
The H516 is the forerunner and base model for Heritage’s popular Kenny Burrell Groove Master model. It has a Nitrocellulose Lacquer finish, Laminated body, 16 inch lower bout width, 24.75” scale, 1-11/16th nut width, 2.75” rim depth, 12” fingerboard radius, dual vintage type low output humbuckers, 20 medium jumbo nickel silver frets, medium C neck carve, Honduran Mahogany neck with Indian Rosewood fingerboard, 17 degree peghead angle, H pattern tailpiece, end pin jack and Heritage logo hardshell case. This is from Jay Wolfe’s extensive Heritage collection and is as new, never sold and unplayed. Although this instrument has some collector value, it’s also a fine player with a very sweet hollow archtop tone. Very few H516’s were made because the Burrell model replaced it. The late great Al Caiola played a black H516 for years and loved it. Here is your chance to own and play a piece of Jazz Guitar history that will appreciate in time. The special label is signed by the original 4 Heritage owners.

 

[skydog52]

Rare one. 

 

https://reverb.com/marketplace?query=H-516&show_only_sold=true

[edgerton]

skydog52, nice link.  Looks like it exactly.  Interesting that OSB one on reverb sold for that price.  Makes this one with it's need for adjustments and wear seem to be priced a bit on the high side indeed.  It has more than $300 worth of work to get it to the state that one on reverb was in.  Just looking at the back of the headstock pic I posted you can see it is scraped up in a number of places.