I have a question about the H575

[peteraltongreen]

Hi Granpa Larry,

Part 2 :

I see where some of the answers to your question are going as to acoustic sound.The archtop guitar was invented,to my mind to play,primarily within a big band situation.If you ever went to a Count Basie concert,Freddie Green ( no relation,unfortunately ) was never electric.He found the sweet spot on stage,with his 18" Stromberg or later his Gretsch Eldorado,both carved tops.If you closed your eyes,you could still hear him,and he drove the band.The sonic bandwidth of the guitar fitted exactly where is should in the rythmn section.The Flat top,steel strung guitar,in think,was an extension of the classic Spanish guitar,with a variety of differences through the years,i.e.,Neck to body at 14 th fret,varying body sizes for tone & volume differences etc.If you listen to Eddie Lang,with his 16" L5,you can hear how the archtop works,without pickups.Any of the great jazzers,Kessel,Farlow,Hall,Montgomery,show us how with pickups.Joe Pass,shows us both ways,on his own !

[Windstring]

I'm a new member who recently purchased an H535. I've always loved ES335 style electrics, to a large extent because some of my earliest guitar heros played them. Danny Kalb and Mike Bloomfield, were just 2 of the guys I really admired. I actually got to strum Danny Kalb's red 335 backstage at a Blues Project gig back in 1965!!

 

I'm really happy with my axe. I believe it has a lot in common with Danny's axe. Still, I do have a long standing prejudice in favor of solid wood guitars for their obviously superior acoustic tone.

 

That being said, I'm hoping to acquire an H575 at some point. My question to all of you out there who play one of these concerns your opinion of this axe's acoustic tone.

 

Could I get a few opinions from some of you about the 575's unplugged tone?

 

Hello Sir,

Like many others, I'm a big fan of the 575. You have already received much information and I will try not to repeat it. But I'd like to give another take on the matter: 575s, like many other fine Heritage instruments, can come in a variety of "flavors". The classic configuration is with a carved maple body, including the top, with dual humbucking pickups. This version, which I own, sounds excellent amplified but is a little muted acoustically due to the fairly thick carved maple top. This is, of course, intentional as the Heritage folks were trying to make a fully hollow guitar that did not feedback as readily as an archtop with a thinner, more resonant, top. But, of course, there are a number of 575s out there which have a spruce top, usually with a built-in single humbucker (often a nice HRW pickup) and a mahogany body...this model is mentioned on the Heritage website as the HRW-MH model 575. Now, I have also seen other variants of the 575, sometimes maple tops with single mounted humbuckers, or even maple or spruce tops with single floating humbuckers, often with a maple body. All of the single pickup variants are likely to have a nicer, and louder, acoustic sound than the dual mounted humbucker variants. The HRW-MH model, being X-braced with a spruce top, really sounds quite marvellous acoustically, even to someone like me who is paying the price for having played too loud in my youth (ie I am rather deaf). I hope this adds to your "knowledge-base" on these excellent guitars.

Cheers.

[Ned]

Hi, at my last lesson, my teacher played a 575 with a solid spruce top with a floating pick up and I played my sweet 16. Both X braced, both had 12s, both maple bodies and rims. His had a mahogany neck to my maple. We played acoustically. we traded back and forth a couple times.

 

They sounded different - wonderful - but different. I wish I could give better descriptions, but, the 16 was darker, and had a richness in in the middle range (undertones?) that was great. it purred. Maybe sustained a bit longer. maybe. A rounder tone?

 

the 575 seemed to be a bit brighter, more of a bell-like ring in the higher overtones. The sound was closer (by only a little bit) to a standard flat top round hole acoustic. I glanced at the previous posts. If someone said "crisp" I agree.

 

I am a firm believer in psycho-acoustics and so, I will mention that my guitar is a dark sunburst, the 575 is a natural blond. I can't assure you that this made no difference. I probably had fresher strings.

 

I played both, and, in the words of a former president, I lusted in my heart.

 

If I had the 575 and the 16 next to each other at the same price (assuming equal resale), I would have a very hard decision.

 

Ned

[Flat]

"my 575 has a fair bit of vibrations you can hear buzzing around the finger rest & pickup rings"

 

 

I used to have a bit of buzzing on my 575 that was created by the edge of one pickup rattling against the pickup ring. I fixed it by sliding a half-inch strip of a wide, flat rubber band in between the pickup and the ring.

 

There was probably a smarter way to fix it, but this worked for me. FWIW.

[peacemaker]

"my 575 has a fair bit of vibrations you can hear buzzing around the finger rest & pickup rings"

 

 

I used to have a bit of buzzing on my 575 that was created by the edge of one pickup rattling against the pickup ring. I fixed it by sliding a half-inch strip of a wide, flat rubber band in between the pickup and the ring.

 

There was probably a smarter way to fix it, but this worked for me. FWIW.

 

Cool. Thanks for the advice!

[Jazzpunk]

Cool. Thanks for the advice!

 

Hey peacemaker, sorry I didn't see this sooner. When I first got that 575, I remember some buzzing that I attributed to the tailpiece. If I'm recalling correctly, the culprit turned out to be the bridge pup. All I did was adjust the height a bit and it went away.

[peacemaker]

Hey peacemaker, sorry I didn't see this sooner. When I first got that 575, I remember some buzzing that I attributed to the tailpiece. If I'm recalling correctly, the culprit turned out to be the bridge pup. All I did was adjust the height a bit and it went away.

 

No worries, man! I play plugged in 98% of the time and honestly don't notice it at all. I just tried to make it buzz again and it won't happen. Go figure . . . I guess it comes and goes. No big deal really.