New but second time around Heritage H-576

[Marty Grass]

This is a 16" hollowbody with a 2.75" depth. The scale is 24.75" and it has 20 frets. It's laminated with a mahogany neck. It was made in 1998.

I got it about two years ago from a west coast shop. I traded it to Rhoadsscholar maybe a year ago or a bit more. His son Jason knows all of our history and is a guitarist himself. After Rhoads died Jason asked me if I wanted to buy that back as well as a couple of others. Rhoads had 40 guitars at the time of his death, more than I knew of for sure.

Today I opened the case and checked it out. The headstock veneer has a lot of beautiful checking. There is very little elsewhere.



Rhoads had put a very nice pickguard on it. The old cream plastic one is still in the case.

Most of the metal is chrome, but the Grovers were nickle and oxidized. I put chrome Grovers on it to match since I had a set handy.



The pickups were changed to Heritage HRWs at some point. Commonly the guitars were sent back to Heritage for installation. I don't know when these were installed.



I put Optima Flatwound 12s on it, filed the nut slots a little, adjusted the bridge and truss rod. It's all good.

The neck feels like a medium D.

So why did Heritage make the H-576? It's a laminate hollowbody with a partial floating center block for a TOM bridge and a stop tail. So it was purported to be feedback resistant and versatile in tone. These both seem true. But it's a compromise between a semi-hollow and a true lightweight hollowbody. The partial center block is pretty large, as is the neck joint block. This is not a light guitar, weighing about 8 lbs.

I had one years ago that belonged to a friend of Larry Coryell. Larry had used it in some gigs in the late 90s I'm told by the guy I got it from.

So that's the story.

The guitar plays well and handles heavier strings without a problem (.12-.56s). The pickups suite it well. I have found that HRWs do best with heavy strings and have nice frequency response.

Heritage used nicely figured maple and mahogany. The goldtop finish has been one of the harder finishes to get right. Floyd Newton was a spray guy at Gibson for a very long time and was about the only one allowed to do goldtops at Heritage, the only exception being Marv Lamb. The gold finish is famous for checking over time. I don't know why.

The 576 was replaced by the Heritage Roy Clark. The 576 wasn't a big seller anyway. The Roy Clark is similar in many concepts but had different dimensions.


Here are some gratuitous pics.

[neatomic]

nice guitar...good backstory...great you well enough to appreciate and enjoy!

stay good

cheers

[deacon Mark]

Wow a nice one. Now you have to keep isolating just to make double sure no covid passes. This means you can play the puppy for hours on end, daily before you need to face anyone..............because the guitar cannot get infected right?

[citizenk74]

That is a beautiful instrument! Gold tops have an allure all their own. Congratulations, and play it in good health!

[Gitfiddler]

I remember seeing that sweet looking H-576 before, always wanting to take it out for a test drive. Its finish (top and back) match my H-535 to a tee. And yes, Floyd Newton (RIP) was the man when it came to beautiful spraying at Heritage. I believe his son has worked there too.

[Hammertone]

I approve of this finish.

[Marty Grass]

I recently remembered the first time I saw a guitar that was similar in a goldtop. Rhoads had a H-575 not only in a goldtop but with gold hardware. He was selling it. I met him in a mall in Detroit. I checked out the guitar the bought it. That was about 13 years ago, and that's when I met him.

The most natural looking goldtop is the LP. I'd say the same for the opaque black finish, too. I don't know if that's because Gibson just got it right in the 1950s or because I've seen these guitars all of my life and look flashy but normal. The White Falcon strikes me the same way.

Jazz players tend to be conservative. I'm one of them but not as rigid as some. For example, a cherry archtop doesn't freak me out. But nothing beats a nice natural or a traditional burst.

I find the H-576 goldtop to be slightly edgy even though it's 22 years old. As soon as you play the first few notes, the cosmetics vanish from consciousness and it is just a very good guitar.

[2bornot2bop]

Is that a Gibson Pickguard? Definitely not a Heritage Pickguard. Beautiful guitar!

[arielcee]

Nice one there! Good acquisition. I love the look of the sharper florentine cutaway
Perfect body dimensions in my book too.

[Greentone]

I like Heritage guitars...and that's a nice one.

[Marty Grass]

Is that a Gibson Pickguard? Definitely not a Heritage Pickguard. Beautiful guitar!

The original pickguard is a single ply cream colored LP style. Rhoads picked up the tortoise shell pickguard at some point off of eBay. It may be a Gibson. It's a good quality and adds to the aesthetics.

I made a misstatement in the thread earlier. I said that the H-576 was replaced by the Roy Clark model. While these two models have some similarities with the center block, the Kenny Burrell Groovemaster is what really bumped the H-576 off the Heritage line. The Roy Clark is basically a fancy ES-330 with a single cutaway and humbuckers. The Groovemaster has the dimensions of the H-576 and the same build design for the most part. A difference is that the Groovemaster has a finger tailpiece. That guitar comes with one or two pickups.

Kenny Burrell worked with Heritage in the design of the Super Kenny Burrell. The Groovemaster bumped the H-576 about the time of the SKB release. Kenny referred to the Groovemaster as his "student guitar".

The Groovemaster has definitely sold more than the H-576 despite being almost identical guitars. This is what an artist endorser can do I suppose.

Here's an interesting video about the Groovemaster.