Custom H575 review

[groovin]

My Heritage experience began back in 2005 when I first became aware of the companies existance in a history of guitar book by Mark Knopfler. I was just starting to learn jazz guitar and I thought it would be good to get a 175 style guitar but one built to a higher standard than the usual G brand. At this time there were no 575s in Sydney that I could try as the dealer had only just been appointed and was awaiting his first consignment.

 

I read all the reviews and everything else I could on the web about Heritage and 575s in particular and decided to place an order for my "ultimate" guitar. This was basically for a 575 "with the lot" - upgraded wood, amber finish, VIP switching, tap tuned, fully bound etc. A couple of weeks later the dealer called me and said that he had received an email from Ren about the order and that we should discuss. The quote for my custom order was nearly $10,000 Australian! Ren had suggested that not go with the D-VIP as this was more suited to solid body or the semi hollow guitars. He also was against tap tuning as the maple top was not a suitable timber for this process. After some discussion I decided to reduce the cost by going for a standard OSB finish, single HRW pickup instead of two, and dropped the custom wood, tap tuning, D-VIP options. I kept the bound F-holes and "fingers" tail piece. This brought the cost down to a more managable $6000 and so the order was confirmed. Delivery time was quoted as six months. Nine months later I received a call from the dealer to say that it had arrived.

 

The first thing I noticed when I got it home was that it arrived with the usual compensated rosewood bridge instead of the TOM I had requested. No big deal - I went out and bought a replacement TOM bridge. The second thing that struck me was how light the guitar was. Remember I had not had the opportunity to handle a 575 beforehand.

 

The third thing that struck me was how bright the guitar sounded and how easily it would feedback. Whenever I played Ab to A# the string would take off like rocket. This took some getting use to and I still have to be on my guard when playing. Its a bit like a wild beast in your hands, you never feel like you can relax your guard. I also have never been quite satisfied with sound of the pickup. I think this is in part because of the TOM bridge which will tend to make things sound brighter and a warmer, more balance tone is obtained with the rosewood bridge. It is not so much the brightness of the pickup but the lack of sweetness. There is a stridence to the sound like it emphasises odd order harmonics rather than ever order. This can be compensated for somewhat by rolling off the tone a bit.

 

On the positive side I am impressed by the amount of transient punch each note has. It has also been my good fortune that neck is perfect and has not needed any adjustment since it was made. The build quality is superb as expected. I notice now that the volume pot is staring to get scratchy, perhaps I got one of the mexican pots but I don't have the skill myself to have it changed so it will stay for the moment.

 

The "fingers" tailpiece is interesting. It alters the "break angle" between the tailpiece and the bridge. This affects the string tension and therefore the feel of the strings. It also changes the harmonic resonance of the strings and has allowed me to somewhat "tune out" the wolf notes that feedback.

 

Anyway I thought I would let you all know of my thoughts and experiences in case someone is considering ordering a 575 and what options to request.

 

As is mandatory, I have attached a pic of the beast.

 

Best regards to you all.

 

Groovin'

[barrymclark]

That is a beautiful pic.

 

Congrats on the guitar. Custom stuff is always difficult. Things that just sound like such a good idea sometimes just aren't with regards to what you really want. Believe me... I know. haha.

 

I have yet to play a guitar with the HRW pickups but I can tell you I am absolutely in love with the standard Schaller Golden 50's that my 140 has. From what i have read, the HRW's are quite hot. Might be contributing to some of the issues you have been having. Read a couple of times folks have had to back off the volume on the guitar to tame it.

 

Love the single pickup.

[SouthpawGuy]

I have HRWs in a couple of guitars, a Millie and a VIP2, and I find them to be both hot and bright. In both guitars I have the pickups lowered below the top of the pickup mounting ring which has greatly helped to tame the tone. I also have a TOM bridge on my 575 which is fitted with Duncan 59s, and I find them to be warm and full in sound. Btw when I received the 575, bought used, the neck pickup was way louder than the bridge and had to adjust it away from the strings, I can only imagine how loud the HRW would be if set close to the strings.

[Steiner]

groovin - that's a sweet custom H 575 Custom.

 

Feedback can be curtailed by changing your location and orientation to your amplifier. As for the sound of the HRW in the 575, there is no finer - IMHO.

 

I'd welcome you to the club but it appears you've been here longer than I...

[blueox]

"On the positive side I am impressed by the amount of transient punch each note has. It has also been my good fortune that neck is perfect and has not needed any adjustment since it was made. The build quality is superb as expected. I notice now that the volume pot is staring to get scratchy . . . but I don't have the skill myself to have it changed so it will stay for the moment."

 

Interesting insights on your custom Heritage, which appears to be very attractive and highly playable, as we've come to expect. Sound wise, it seems that everyone is searching for their personal tone. It appears that you are satisfied with your H-575's tone to a point. Since it originally came with the usual compensated rosewood bridge, you could reinstall that to see if it would improve the tone, and therefore discover if the factory was right in providing it. Otherwise, of course, the pickup could be changed out when the volume pot is taken care of, if you wanted to go that route. While I'm groovin' with the two HRW pickups in my H-150, the solid body H-150 is a different animal indeed from the H-575.

[Ray]

Fantastic looking guirtar. Thanks for your review.

[jrfreed]

Great looking guitar! Congrats!

 

I went the custom route also and ordered a model I had never played...its a bit spooky but have been really pleased with the way it worked out. Being a jazz player myself, I'd maybe swap out the HRW. I think they are just too bright, couple that with a TOM bridge and its probably pretty brassy.

 

Simple little fixes to get her dialed in

 

Congrats again!!

[FredZepp]

Very Cool Guitar there, groovin'....

 

A beauty to look at and excellent quality.

 

I too have had some success with lowering the pickups to soften the sound and increase the sustain, if you haven't tried that.

 

Nice detailed post there.. thanks.

[LH575]

I found that a block of foam about 6" X 2" and as deep as needed killed the feedback on mine. I put it directly under the F hole on the bass side, so that when you look in the F-hole, all you see is foam. Acoustically, it was not as loud, but it worked great. This was suggested by Ren.

 

They say a soundpost kills the feedback also.

[ronalr]

Great looking guitar ...congratulations and thanks for the review.....I have a 575 that I bought used and it would feed back on the lower string also until I had a complete set up and the pickups were adjusted ...now it is fine.....

[jazzbo]

I agree with the comment about the HRW being too hot for jazz.. on my 550 , with TOM, I found the neck pickup too hot for the stuff I play..lowering it gave me the tone, but with serious volume loss. Turning up the pot was not a solution, because a quick downstroke strum in between single line playing was just too jarring with the pot turned up. I finally got a wonderful custom 12 pole built by Kent Armstrong..and boy, it has classic humbucker tone, and its loud at low volumes..and does not break up with a hard strum..turning it up gives it a little edge and bluesy rasp.

 

I did the same on my Sweet 16, swapping out the stock floater with Kent's custom floater humbucker.

 

On the 550, the next step is to find the right wooden base to go under the TOM bridge, so that is on a wood base..(and does that make it a Tal Farlow ? !) see G -word 550 ?

[groovin]

Thanks folks for all your excellent suggestions and positive comments. On a couple of the points raised...

 

With the 575 there is very little allowance to lower the PU. It can be adjusted upwards but I already have it lowered as far as possible. It came from the factory with the body of the PU almost level with the end of the fretboard. I have tried adjusting the height of the pole screws but this didn't really change the overall hard character to the sound.

 

I think it is important to remember that any guitar is the sum of its parts. The HRW is a good match for the rosewood bridge and the reason I haven't gone back to this is that I use 11 - 52 strings while the bridge was compensated for 13 - 56s. Because of this I can't get the intonation as precise as I like - I'm quite obsessive when it comes to this.

 

I failed to mention that I use one of two amps - a Fender pro twin which imparts a degree of warmth to the sound. The other is a Fender stage 160 which is very clean for a transistor amp but the 575 can tend to be a bit too hot for the input of this amp.

 

I haven't tried stuffing the body yet as I thought it might take away some of the punchiness of the sound which is one of the reasons for choosing a carved body rather than laminate in the first place.

 

I'm surprised that no one made mention of the large difference in price between the USA and OZ. I know you guys are suffering after the global financial meltdown but you still enjoy a few perks.

 

Anyway, nice talking to you all. Hope the discussion is of benefit to someone.

 

Keep Groovin'

[blueox]

"Delivery time was quoted as six months. Nine months later I received a call from the dealer to say that it had arrived."

 

You originally only mentioned your city, Sydney, but not the country. I was thinking Australia, but you just mentioned OZ, so now I'm thinking Wonderland, with Alice and the Wizard. While the price for your H-575 was in Lala Land, I was taken aback by the long delivery time of six months, and to have that extended to nine months is hard to fathom. It would seem that Heritage is very adept at foreign sales, as one of the owners mentioned during a 2009 tour that the factory sells 80% of its output beyond the U.S.A. borders.