Latest Heritage purchase

[ironmike]

Just bought another 555 .ever seen a white one before? Couldn't pass it up. I think I have about a dozen golden era heritage guitars now..

[big bob]

Are you sure it’s not a #2?

[bolero]

That's f'n nice Mike! Congrats

[ironmike]

i bought one here some years ago, had to put some work in it to make it right, new schaller roller bridge and a tp6 , some alinco2 pro seymores, but a good guitar..the seth loiver pickups dont do well in these guitars  for my way of playing.I set them up with heavier thomastic beebop strings..11 or 12 guage..    this new one looks to have the schaller classics which may be HRW ,dont know yet..but its easy to make an HRW..and schallers are a good platform...with the Bigsbe it aughta be quite interesting to play..That extra string lenghth behind the bridge will add more tension to the strings and that increase distance from the bridge to the string bar will likely add a harmonic improvement in terms of overtones and simpatico....I know from my Luthier days, that the ideal distance for that is 1/6th the overall string lenght ,so a bit over 4" is where the magic is...looks close to that..And I dont yet know the  year of mfg...might be a mohogony neck, might be a three piece maple, might be a one piece maple...either way for under 3k I  had to buy it..will let you all know more when it gets here...curious to see what i can do with it through my Hendrikson bud ten, hoping to get it  somewhat close to an archtop sound and i think that extra string lenght behind the bridge will help it as long as I dial it all in on the flat side of EQ....I have a lot of archtops, but looking for the convienience of the thinline along with the comfort for those long sessions.Time will tell!

[MartyGrass]

16 hours ago, big bob said:

Are you sure it’s not a #2?

I had asked the seller the same question.  It's not the one given away years ago.  At least the seller didn't see a 2 on the back.

When the "2" guitar was about to be given away, I was at the factory for another reason.  They built a couple of them, which they often did when making a custom instrument.  One of them had checking, if I recall right.  Two of the Heritage guys were talking about what to do with it, probably Ren and Marv, but it could have been Bill.  They decided to give it away by lottery at the PSP.

That's my memory.

[TalismanRich]

Our friend  Tulk won the white 535 in 2010.  No Bigsby was seen.

[Millennium Maestro]

1 hour ago, TalismanRich said:

it's a 555 with HRWs... An absolute favorite in my stable! She literally sings

[TalismanRich]

My bad.... I know... I know.   Block inlays,  headstock inlay,  although it has chrome hardware.   I posted the darn pic.  Maybe I should have looked at it!!!  🤪

[ironmike]

Ren told me only two were made, one special order for sure that the one I have...I own 55 guitars, 12 of them are Heritage from the golden years, and they are all my A list guns..

[ironmike]

13 hours ago, TalismanRich said:

Our friend  Tulk won the white 535 in 2010.  No Bigsby was seen.

Mine is a 555

[ironmike]

10 hours ago, TalismanRich said:

My bad.... I know... I know.   Block inlays,  headstock inlay,  although it has chrome hardware.   I posted the darn pic.  Maybe I should have looked at it!!!  🤪

That a 535..mine is a 555

[ironmike]

14 hours ago, MartyGrass said:

I had asked the seller the same question.  It's not the one given away years ago.  At least the seller didn't see a 2 on the back.

When the "2" guitar was about to be given away, I was at the factory for another reason.  They built a couple of them, which they often did when making a custom instrument.  One of them had checking, if I recall right.  Two of the Heritage guys were talking about what to do with it, probably Ren and Marv, but it could have been Bill.  They decided to give it away by lottery at the PSP.

That's my memory.

Not a 535, mine is a 555

[TalismanRich]

 The PSP guitar was a 555, just custom ordered with chrome hardware, which apparently is a common request and  block inlays.   I happen to like gold hardware, which I have on my H157 and 2000 Millennium.

I seem to remember the guys talking about how white guitars were very hard to spray correctly.   Any imperfection was easily seen.   There aren't a lot of white ones out there.  

[ironmike]

i oh , didnt know that. mine is a 96'..is that about when that picture was taken?  Ren said he only remebers two every being made that color. should arrive soon. I imagine  it has a three piece maple neck but who knows? have to wait till it arrives to figure that out.

[ironmike]

On 1/1/2025 at 7:58 AM, TalismanRich said:

Our friend  Tulk won the white 535 in 2010.  No Bigsby was seen.

Mine was made in 96' so unless it sat around the factory for a while..don't know.

[TalismanRich]

MM,  I didn't know you had the Tulk's PSP white whale.    Maybe you could answer a question.  Looking at the guitar in the pic,  do I see a pair of mini switches, ala VIP switching?   The original pics in the gallery are gone from that PSP, and all  I have is from the video.  

Being that there were 14 years between Iron Mike's '96 and the 2010 PSP,  I'm guessing they were not made at the same time.

 

[ironmike]

2 hours ago, TalismanRich said:

MM,  I didn't know you had the Tulk's PSP white whale.    Maybe you could answer a question.  Looking at the guitar in the pic,  do I see a pair of mini switches, ala VIP switching?   The original pics in the gallery are gone from that PSP, and all  I have is from the video.  

Being that there were 14 years between Iron Mike's '96 and the 2010 PSP,  I'm guessing they were not made at the same time.

 

 

[ironmike]

It looks like my guitar might be a different kind of white

 

Like a pearlescent look...hard to say as from the photo...probably gonna dress  and crown the frets, usually had to do that on the ones from back then. Which I don't mind because I can do it my way

 

 

[Millennium Maestro]

On 1/1/2025 at 9:18 PM, ironmike said:

That a 535..mine is a 555

It truly is a 555. I own it

[Millennium Maestro]

12 hours ago, TalismanRich said:

MM,  I didn't know you had the Tulk's PSP white whale.    Maybe you could answer a question.  Looking at the guitar in the pic,  do I see a pair of mini switches, ala VIP switching?   The original pics in the gallery are gone from that PSP, and all  I have is from the video.  

Being that there were 14 years between Iron Mike's '96 and the 2010 PSP,  I'm guessing they were not made at the same time.

 

2 coil taps. The story on this guitar is Wolfe ordered it and the customer declined it for some reason so they built ands delivered another, this was a very specific guitar probably easier to gift than find another buyer.

[TalismanRich]

I would hate to load the wiring harness into that thing.   A plain jane 535 is hard enough.