Heritage H-575

[tonedeaf]

I thought 575s have maple tops(?) That looks like a carved spruce top(?) If so, nice alternative to a vintage 16" L5!

I have a 575 with the normal shape but a single set-in Seth Lover and a spruce top. It has a great trans black top with trans cherry body. Love the guitar.

[gspirro1]

The guitar is a 2005 custom order with the #3 pickup, carved spruce top, and ebony fretboard pickguard and bridge. I guess the block inlays are non-standard?
Hey, I don't know much about Heritage guitars but it's got all the right stuff that I was after : solid carved top & back, 16" non-cutaway, classic good looks (IMHO not sure about that tailpiece!) AND it's made by a great company!

Plus it's a great visual compliment to my other new guitars:


I can't wait to play it!!

[jazz.fred]

Beautiful instrument!

Did you buy brand new or pre-owned?

Enjoy!

Afterthought: Wouldn't it be great if the new owners of Heritage made a genuine commitment to building high quality instrument s at reasonable prices. Love my H575 Custom.

[Greentone]

Great Heritage 575. Wolfe Guitars orders some pretty special stuff from Heritage. The non-cut 575 with carved spruce top looks like just such an instrument. It just HAS to be a winner...and you cannot beat that finish.

Enjoy!

[gspirro1]

Beautiful instrument!

Did you buy brand new or pre-owned?

Enjoy!

Afterthought: Wouldn't it be great if the new owners of Heritage made a genuine commitment to building high quality instrument s at reasonable prices. Love my H575 Custom.

It's a pre-owned 2005. And I agree about new owners keeping with the Heritage tradition. I've always liked their guitars, I just never had a chance to get one that I really liked, until now.

[Marty Grass]

There are a lot of signs this will be fabulous.

1. It's truly a custom build. Non-cutaway H575s are rare. So when the bodies are built, there is more attention paid to them.

2. Jay Wolfe would not be selling this if he didn't stand behind it. He's a fussy man who knows archtops.

3. Whoever was the first owner probably treated the guitar with great care. The fretboard markers, the ebony board, the custom tuners, the spruce top, the ebony pickguard, and the non-cutaway body added up to a substantial set of additional charges. The guy knew what he wanted.

This guitar will likely sound bright. The woods predict that as does the 2.75" depth. From what I've read, the lack of a cutaway doesn't seem to enhance the lower frequencies. This style of guitar was designed from the beginning to be bright. That's not a problem. It's actually a solution that pushed the banjo out of jazz.

The pickup is often criticized as if it was poorly conceived and built. Nothing could be further from the truth. Heritage worked on getting a suspended pickup that produced a sound more like an amplified archtop than an "electric" guitar. To keep the clear, articulate, airy sound, they used a low output design. After trial and error they came up with the Floating, now known as Floating #1. Over the first few years producing their archtops they made improvements on it until they achieved the Floating #3. These are hand wound in Kalamazoo by Ken Rambow, someone who knows his stuff.

Here's an example. It sounds to me that the treble has been rolled off a bit on the amp. But you'll get a good idea of how the pickup sounds.

I predict that you'll find this H575 a joy to play. The size is comfortable and it should sound loud acoustically. Plug it in and you'll have a giant tonal playground. I wouldn't change a thing.

[mad dog]

Beautiful guitar. My 575 is a 2004 blue burst, a true joy to play and to look at. I hope yours is the same for you. They make some really fine instruments.
MD

[gspirro1]

Marty - Thanks for your highly informative comments! While I am in no way knowledgeable regarding Heritage Guitars, I did assume that this was a bit more expensive as a custom model due to the extra features and wood choice. I figured whoever ordered it knew what he wanted. Fortunately for me, I'm wanting the same thing! ;-)

I did communicate with Jay Wolfe regarding the pickup. It's attached to the pickguard and wired to an rca connector for easy removal as a unit. He also said the pup was really warm sounding and would be his first choice for that guitar.

Man, I'm getting really excited to get this thing!
Thanks again to all, for the great info and positive comments.
Happy Holidays to Everyone!!

[rpguitar]

I've been flirting with the brand for quite some time now, but hadn't found the magical cost/value combination yet. Lots of Golden and Super Eagles and Sweet 16s passed before my eyes. I even contemplated a custom order, but just couldn't justify the spend.

Then by serendipity, I stumbled across this:



It's... an H-575? We all know they are carved 175s... maple all over, usually two pickups, chrome hardware, usually simple dot inlay fingerboards (often unbound). Not something I was drawn to or had searched for.

This one has a spruce top, single inset pickup, block inlays, gold hardware, and an upscale inlaid bridge. It's like an L-4CES WesMo in Heritage clothing. Or a short scale Sweet 16. And the price was really good! After a few days of looking at it - leaving the page - going back again - this morning I added it to the Cart.

Some of you may look upon this with lustful glee, and I can at least promise that - if I don't keep it - I will flip it at my cost to the next worthy JGF enthusiast. So, let's see what happens...

Happy New Year!

[jazz.fred]

A beauty! I know you'll be as happy with her as I am with my H575 Custom. They are such fine guitars and play like a dream.

Enjoy!

[barrymclark]

There's usually a label on the inside that'd note the actual model but this one appears to be an H575 Custom (block inlays and gold hardware are usually the giveaway) with upgrades on the Eagle bridge and spruce top. Heritage models with custom modifications are about as as common as 'standard' versions of the models. Haha

[rpguitar]

The neck carve might be a shallow D. The only chunky neck Heritage I've ever held was a 335 type.

I hope it has that profile! I have begun to care less about what is popular and just let my fingers and brain do the talking, and when I do that, I notice that I enjoy the slender necks (front to back). Narrow nuts, not so much. But slim and gently curved, yes. My '63 Joe Pass era 175 has that kind of neck.

[Jim Soloway]

My Heritage also has a Spruce top as did an H575 Custom that came through the company as a trade in. I think it makes a big difference and very much on the positive side. At least to my ears, the spruce top seems to give it a warmer sound with a less percussive attack. Congratulations.

[barrymclark]

Thinline... well, spec on a 575 is a 2.75" rim depth. So yes, it's going to be thinner than a 175 (3 5/16"). The photos look right - I think. We'll see I guess!

I have been coming to terms with my affinity for the 24.75" scale length. All but one of my favorite guitars to play are that scale. It really suits my fingerstyle and chord melody stuff.

Any idea what kind of pup would have been standard on a 575 in 2002?

I believe they were still shipping with Schallers back then unless spec'd otherwise. The giveaway is usually the 4 pickup adjustment screws although Schallers can also be set to use the more common 2. In this case, because it custom ordered, I'd suspect they aren't Schallers. The only way to know for sure is to pull the pickup and look at the back of them. Duncan 59's and Duncan Seth Lovers are common upgrades. These days, the Duncan 59's are the standard pickup for Heritage.

[Flat]

Very elegant! Congratulations! I'm looking forward to hearing more about it down the road.

FWIW, I think the 575 that Mimi Fox plays is a spruce top.

And yeah, I say swap in some bonnets for those black speed knobs! That's what I did recently on my partially-customized (blocks, neck binding) all-maple 575. Pulled my pickguard too. For visual reference:

[Woody Sound]

My Heritage also has a Spruce top as did an H575 Custom that came through the company as a trade in. I think it makes a big difference and very much on the positive side. At least to my ears, the spruce top seems to give it a warmer sound with a less percussive attack. Congratulations.

Absolutely on the spruce top. Better full-range tone, less mid-honk.

[fws6]

Looks a lot like a blonde 175..... ;-)

i hope it is a great guitar for you !

[mad dog]

That's a beautiful guitar, so pretty. Not sure what that pickup is, but the stock p/us in my 2004 H575 custom are just fine by me. Especially the neck sound. Mine has the solid maple top, would love to hear how a spruce top changes the sound.

[Marty Grass]

You are getting a fabulous guitar at a great price. The H575 series is about the best value Heritage offers.

There's a very good chance it doesn't have the stock Schaller pickup. It has the Schaller pickup ring but only one screw per side. That generally means there's a pickup change.

You should be very happy with this one.

[rpguitar]

If it's a short scale you like, did you see the Golden Eagle that hasn't found a buyer in a year because it lacks a 25.5 scale?

I most certainly did see that Greg, and it's a real beauty - I had actually bookmarked it - but I figured that the scale length mention was a typo! Well, let's get through this first Heritage before we take further action. I'm not ruling anything out.

It's always fun mentioning an NGD around here... Thanks to everyone for their supportive comments! Looking forward to actually getting the guitar in my hands this coming week.

'til then...

[tonedeaf]

I have a spruce top, single PU H575 that I got from Brent. Tone, baby tone!!

I have played it through a PRRI, a Loudbox performer, a henrikson 10 and a henriksen 12. The henriksen 12 is the best.

[Frank67]

Dear Roger,

great! A spruce top H575 would also be my choice! I hope the guitar is everything you want it to be. At least the Heritage archtops have more acoustic presence than their Gibson counterparts and I recall that you enjoy that. I actually really like the thick, silky Gibson tones as well as the somewhat more acoustic Heritage tone - both great in their own right, just two different flavors. Enjoy! This is a great way to end a year :-)

[medblues]

Congratulations! I know this is a guitar designed to be played amplified but I am still curious about your assessment of its acoustic sound. I will look forward to the recording.

[rpguitar]

Got my 575 about four days ago and have been doing the usual new guitar dance of string changing, setting up, tweaking, and hand-wringing over whether this instrument fills a niche in my sonic palette. I think it does! I'm still not 100% sure.

This H-575 is very lightly built, probably just north of 6 lbs (haven't weighed it yet). It has a medium C neck profile, definitely not super slim. And thankfully, the frets have no perceptible wear, so I can skip my usual re-fret expense and actually consider the guitar's out of pocket cost at face value.

The pickup turned out to be a Benedetto A-6. It is quite powerful, and matches the guitar well. A very light, bright, thin body (2.75") instrument needs a punchy pickup to balance the sound. The acoustic sound is not terribly loud; it has a bright spruce character with some warmth but not nearly as much as a deeper guitar. I can certainly play it acoustically and it is louder than my L-5CES in that regard. It is a similar volume to my 1963 ES-175, which - to be fair - is an extremely lightweight guitar at 5 lbs 10 oz, and it has a very usable acoustic character.

Here are a couple of clips; one is blended between the pickup and a condenser mic. The other is just the pickup. Strings are D'Addario EPN21 (12-51) nickel wound. Playing is fingerstyle on these samples. These became a bit quiet when they uploaded to Soundcloud, and I'm not sure why - sorry about that.

https://soundcloud.com/rpguitar-1/he...om-pickup-only

[mr. beaumont]

Sounds good. I'm a big 575 fan, but I like smaller, more compact instruments generally anyway. This one definitely seems to have a place in your collection, from what I remember of it, at least.

Enjoy it!