NGD: Black H-530 Standard

[EllenGtrGrl]

Well, I'm back in the Heritage Tribe.  The deal to buy the black H150 Standard I mentioned a few months ago, fell through (I couldn't quite swing the funds to pay for the rest of the balance to take the guitar off of layaway), but I recently decided that I have too many guitars (I live in an apartment, and space is at a premium), so I decided to downsize my inventory, and replace what were 3 nice electrics, with one really nice electric.  Combined with having additional funds compared to what I had several months ago, my thoughts went back to getting the black H150 I almost bought several months ago (Cream City Music still had it in their inventory), but I realized I've always been kind of "meh" when it comes to Les Pauls.  I really didn't want another H-535, like I had a back in 2019 & 2020, but I noticed that Cream City Music, had a H530 listed on their website.  I like P90s, and I will ALWAYS have a soft spot for hollowbody guitars, so, I paid ye olde guitar shop a visit after work on Thursday.  he H-530 sounded great both clean and dirty, and playing it confirmed that the neck (which I'd managed to find what dimensions for online before I tried the guitar out), while not a baseball bat in thickness, was still a Medium C, and had enough heft to it, to keep my fretting hand happy.  So, I bought the guitar, and on Friday bought the 3 guitars I wanted to get rid of, for trading towards the H-530, traded them in, and paid the difference, becoming the owner of a new, 2021 or 2022, black H-530.  ?

The guitar is in the shop at the present time, getting refretted with Jescar EVO hypoallergenic fretwire (I have a severe allergy to nickel), and Ernie Ball Cobalts (my electric guitar string of choice, due to them being hypoallergenic), will go in the '530.  I also e-mailed Heritage, to find out what the model/part numbers are for the hardware.  Heritage (like Gibson and Fender) seems to be one of the fans of "nickel for the vintage tonez", so at least the bridge (where I typically rest my hand when playing), and the buttons on the tuners, will have to be replaced, with their chrome plated equivalents (yay screwed up immune system!  ?).

Keep On Playing! - Ellen

 

A Photo of My H-530

 

[Gitfiddler]

@EllenGtrGrlCongratulations on your 'new to you' H-530.  Those are GREAT guitars.

Play it in good health.

[kennyv4]

Welcome aboard. A really nice guitar you just bought.  It must be killing you to have to wait till the work is completed to enjoy it.

[PunkKitty]

Great guitar, Ellen. Good to see you back.

[Genericmusic]

 

 

[bolero]

Congratulations!!

[rockabilly69]

Wow Ellen, that really is a nice guitar, and man what a bunch of work to make it hypoallergenic. But I'm glad you'll get to enjoy it soon!

[ElChoad]

Congrats! Sorry you have to wait to enjoy it. But it will be worth it!

[brentrocks]

Very cool

[DetroitBlues]

Being allergic to nickel must be a real problem for a guitar player.  You can't buy anything off the shelf.

Congratulations though, that is a sweet guitar!

[Gianluca]

Congrats ?

[chico]

that is one bad ass guitar. Dibs if it doesn't work out (but I know it will

 

congrats!

[JayLo]

Congrats on your new H-530, Ellen.

I recently bought my first Heritage guitar, also a 530 (see my post H-530 Customized).
This is my go-to guitar now. Does everything I want it to do. I'm very pleased with it and I hope you will be too once the conversions are done.

Please share the info you'll receive from Heritage about the parts, if you could.

[EllenGtrGrl]

Sorry for the delay in responding back to everybody.  I had to change my e-mail address for my account (the e-mail address I had listed was no longer good - the ISP that supported it, no longer supports my neck of the woods fir Internet), and wound up with my account locked!    You have to unlock it via an e-mail that is sent to your new e-mail address, and for some reason or another, it never went through to my Spectrum e-mail address, despite numerous attempts to have it resent, and messages that were sent to the admins for this forum, stating the confirmation e-mail was NOT showing up in my Spectrum e-mail account. 

I'm not sure if the problem was forum related, or if Spectrum was just blocking it.  Out of frustration, I ended up reviving an old Gmail account of mine (I'm not the biggest fan of Gmail), and had the forum confirmation e-mail sent to it (it showed up in my Gmail account), which finally unlocked my forum account.

My H-530 is still in the shop being re-fretted.

JayLo - I'm at work (I'm eating lunch).  I received an e-mail from Heritage, to my inquiry about chrome parts.  I saved it, and when I get home, I'll look at the info, for what chrome plated replacement parts I can use.

Ellen

[EllenGtrGrl]

I quick reply while I'm getting ready for work this morning - with regards to chrome replacement parts for my H-530.  Mike at Heritage told me that the Grover 102C tuners are direct replacements for the nickel plated ones that are currently on the guitar.  I'm not sure if I want to go the route of complete tuner replacement, or do like I did with the H-535 I had a couple of years ago, and just replace the buttons on the tuners, with chrome plated Grover buttons.

As for the bridge - Mike mentioned using a chrome plated Nashville tune-o-matic bridge (which Stew Mac sells).  He also said that the posts would have to be replaced, due to the posts the H-530 comes with being locking posts (???????).  Hmmm, that's news to me, I didn't know bridge posts came in a locking variety,  I don't feel like having to pull studs/posts out of a guitar top.

[JayLo]

Thanks, Ellen.

Have you thought about replacing the tuner buttons with black ones? (Might look nice with a black guitar.)
I thought about replacing my tuner buttons with tortoise ones (for my sunburst H-530.)

Mike is right about the bridge and for that reason I decided to leave the bridge as is. I had written to TonePros several times but, sadly, never gotten a response.

J

[EllenGtrGrl]

1 hour ago, JayLo said:

Thanks, Ellen.

Have you thought about replacing the tuner buttons with black ones? (Might look nice with a black guitar.)
I thought about replacing my tuner buttons with tortoise ones (for my sunburst H-530.)

Mike is right about the bridge and for that reason I decided to leave the bridge as is. I had written to TonePros several times but, sadly, never gotten a response.

J

Hi Jay,

With regards to the tuner buttons - hmmmm, that IS an intriguing idea!  I just might do that!  I'd get buttons for the black chrome version of the Grover 102s.

As for the bridge - weeeellll, I'll have to think about that.  I have the immune system from hell.  When I was diagnosed with my nickel and chromium allergies (chromium is a major component of stainless steel), I looked like a burn victim, with a mega rash/skin breakouts all over my body - everywhere, but my hands (where I touched items that contained nickel and/or chromium).  When I brought this up with the dermatologist who diagnosed my nickel allergy (I had to have a patch test, to determine what was causing my skin issues), he told me the reason that I have this happens to me, is because unlike typical nickel allergy sufferers, my immune system goes bonkers over nickel.  It makes sense to me, considering that I'm also an asthmatic.  In short I have the immune system from hell.  I rest my hand on the bridge when I play, and I pick from the wrist, so I have concerns about my hand contacting the nickel plated parts of the bridge (mainly the upper face, and the saddles).  I can tolerate nickel and chromium for limited amounts of time, but I would prefer to just leave the studs in, and replace the part of the bridge, that has the saddles on it, with a chrome plated part.

Ellen - Still waiting for my guitar to finish being refretted.

[JayLo]

Sorry, Ellen. Forgot about your severe allergy.

Check out Philadelphia Tools & Luthier Supplies. They may have what you need or point you in the right direction. Just make sure to measure the bridge post diameter. (My 530's post is 4.14mm):

https://reverb.com/shop/philadelphia-luthier-tools

Good luck.

J

[EllenGtrGrl]

5 hours ago, JayLo said:

Sorry, Ellen. Forgot about your severe allergy.

Check out Philadelphia Tools & Luthier Supplies. They may have what you need or point you in the right direction. Just make sure to measure the bridge post diameter. (My 530's post is 4.14mm):

https://reverb.com/shop/philadelphia-luthier-tools

Good luck.

J

Thanks for the info Jay, I'll look into them. 

Ellen

[TalismanRich]

Do you have a gold allergy?    I would be looking to avoid both the nickel and chrome if you have allergies to both.   It might mesh well with the gold toned EVO wire.

[EllenGtrGrl]

11 hours ago, TalismanRich said:

Do you have a gold allergy?    I would be looking to avoid both the nickel and chrome if you have allergies to both.   It might mesh well with the gold toned EVO wire.

Hi Rich,

No I don't have a gold allergy, and surprisingly, I do not have an allergy to chrome, despite it having chromium in it - I discussed my concerns about chrome with the Dermatologist who diagnosed my nickel and chromium allergy (I was concerned about the chrome plated hardware on the faucet fixtures in my apartment), and he told me that he had no concerns about chrome allergy-wise with me.  This is probably due to the fact that chrome doesn't contain hexavalent (chemically) chromium, which is the main culprit for cause chromium linked dermatitis.  Yep, chrome has never caused me problems.

Ellen

[TalismanRich]

Ah... that makes sense.   Hexavalent chrome materials are used for a lot of chemical processes.   Testing for hexachrome was standard for many pigments that we evaluated since it is also carcinogenic.     I worked in the printing industry where a lot of chrome plating was done and most of it was done with Chromic acid, which is hexavalent.    It's pretty well controlled by OHSA.  

Once it's plated on a surface and washed,  the plating won't contain any hexa or trivalent chrome.  

Still,  I think the gold hardware might look cool with the EVO wires!  (I like the gold hardware...  got it on two of my Heritages)

[EllenGtrGrl]

6 hours ago, TalismanRich said:

Ah... that makes sense.   Hexavalent chrome materials are used for a lot of chemical processes.   Testing for hexachrome was standard for many pigments that we evaluated since it is also carcinogenic.     I worked in the printing industry where a lot of chrome plating was done and most of it was done with Chromic acid, which is hexavalent.    It's pretty well controlled by OHSA.  

Once it's plated on a surface and washed,  the plating won't contain any hexa or trivalent chrome.  

Still,  I think the gold hardware might look cool with the EVO wires!  (I like the gold hardware...  got it on two of my Heritages)

I'll think about it Rich.  As for Jescar EVO Gold fret wire - strangely enough, it loses its gold color, when it is polished during installation and set up.  It actually looks like staineless steel in a way.  As a matter of fact, despite it being an iron and tin alloy, the luthier who does my refrets told me some time ago, that it feels about as tough as stainless steel does.

F.Y.I - my H-530 is done being refretted, and bougnt it home today.  Woo hoo!  

[chico]

On 6/10/2022 at 9:54 PM, EllenGtrGrl said:

I'll think about it Rich.  As for Jescar EVO Gold fret wire - strangely enough, it loses its gold color, when it is polished during installation and set up.  It actually looks like staineless steel in a way.  As a matter of fact, despite it being an iron and tin alloy, the luthier who does my refrets told me some time ago, that it feels about as tough as stainless steel does.

F.Y.I - my H-530 is done being refretted, and bougnt it home today.  Woo hoo!  

congrats!

let us know what you think.

 

btw im a madison wi hOc'r

[DetroitBlues]

Hope you get it soon.  Has to be tough waiting for it.  Curious thought, have you  considered wearing fingerless glove on your picking hand when you play?