Guitarists Anonymous - Semi-Hollow but full of life, my old Heritage H535

Update notes: Just wanted to say that I sadly needed to sell this guitar are few years back now (2016 / early 2017 I think) but still wanted to leave this article up as it highlights a really cool guitar I was lucky enough to own and enjoy for some time. So some of it now reads a little strange and contradictory considering that I had to let it go! (business was growing in it's early stages and needed to make some important investments resulting in some of my guitars having to go to new homes.) but nonetheless, Thanks for reading!

Here's a spotlight on one of my old guitars, a 1995 Heritage H535.



I'll start with how I came to own this guitar, and why it has stuck around for much longer than the 'short lived guitar indiscretion' I talked about early on in the last blog. This guitar is one that stayed in the honeymoon stage the entire time I've owned it.
I'd spent time around Gibson's growing up, like my old man's Les Paul Custom that came back into our family when I was about 12 for example, but I'd never really connected with them like I had with some of Leo Fender's finest. I'd try them out in the big local stores and sure, they look and sound beautiful, but something didn't sit right with me at the time. But being a huge fan, as we mostly all are, of Mr Riley B King, the ES-335 was like the crush I never got to meet. I knew I had to play one but that time didn't come until I was about 17/18 I think. We took a trip down to Vintage & Rare Guitars in Bath, they carried a plethora of beautiful vintage instruments in stock, but what grabbed me most was a mid nineties blonde 335 dot reissue they had there. My time had finally come to play one, and this wasn't a 'never meet your hero' moment I was glad to say.

 

Despite being a different scale length of course to the Fender's 25.5" I was so at home with, something about the 335 sat so comfortable in my hands. The general feel of the guitar felt worlds apart from the Les Paul I'd been used to at home, it felt like an old friend. Being 17/18 years old though there was no way I could afford that guitar, but believe me, I tried to come up with some grand schemes to get back down to Bath and leave with it, but non prevailed. So let's fast forward a few years, I was earning more at work and keen to capture that 335 magic I'd experienced that day in Bath so proceeded on the path to Semi-Hollow perfection. I was about 22 I think.
Back to trawling the internet and all of the Guitarists Anonymous haunts saw me find a few nice Gibson examples but non captured that vibe the blonde in Bath had. I even found myself checking out ES-330s too, but again, no magic on those occasions. 



I'd heard of Heritage back when Gary Moore was using them on the Blues Alive album era, and it sprung back to mind to perhaps look down different avenues rather than just Gibson. I didn't expect to find one, let along one for sale but low and behold, there was a mid nineties, dot neck, blonde H535 much like the Gibson in Bath than stuck so firmly in my mind. Fated? Perhaps, so I certainly couldn't pass on the opportunity to play it. I headed up to Preston, Lancashire to meet the Jazz player who was selling this beautiful instrument. He was a well known player actually, and I'm rather embarrassed to say I can't remember his name after all these years! But as he was well known, there were a rather helpful amount of videos of him using this guitar live on YouTube. He was a seriously light touch, a superb Jazz & Blues player, so I knew this one was well looked after and sounded great, it was worth the 100 or so mile drive to see it. 



The moment he opened the case it had me. A beautiful yet subtle top caught my eye, and from the few first notes I picked at, it felt just like that magic one that got away. If not even nicer. Needless to say, it returned home with me. It was completely standard, as it left Kalamazoo in 1995. It had Grover tuners, Seymour Duncan '59 pickups, a matching flamed maple pickguard and a schaller bridge and tailpiece. It was beautiful, but the pickguard shape didn't suit my tastes so I removed it and left it like that up until this year I think. 



Despite it playing incredibly well, the rather cumbersome looking Schaller roller bridge and slot tailpiece didn't sit well with me. It worked well, but seemed dated. I decided to change to a more traditional bridge set and favoured the Tone-Pros Tune O Matic product which I have to say are superb. The look is timeless and vastly improved the aesthetics of the guitar, and certainly didn't lose any practicalities over the well designed Schaller system previously. Overall resonance improved I feel too, which is never a bad thing.



The craftsmanship of Heritage guitars is second to none. They really feel like old Gibson's, and that, if you're not familiar with Heritage, is because it is owned and run by a handful of guys that worked at the Kalamazoo Gibson factory before the big re-location to Nashville. So these are made by the same hands that crafted some of the finest and most famous Gibson's ever made. Heritage has a real family feel among it's owners, something I've yet to experience with any other guitar brand. I bought this guitar along to The Guitar Show back in February 2016 to use as a demo instrument, and I simply couldn't believe the attention it received, and the amount of offers I had for it! People are excited to see one, excited to play one and those that own one already just want to talk to you about the name, their own guitar and hear all about yours. It's a real cult thing, a connection between their owners. There is good reason for that, the guitars have a personality. Guitars built by luthiers who were proud of what Gibson were at Kalamazoo, and wanted to continue flying that flag.



Because of that close Gibson connection, there are of course details that make the H535 a close sibling of the ES335. The body shape of the H535 features very symmetrical 'Mickey Ear' horns, the top and back contours are subtle and comfortable and spruce central brace construction the same as it's Nashville and now Memphis, counterpart. The top of this guitar is about 5mm thick, which produces a wonderful tone and resonance. It also has a full mahogany neck and rich rosewood fingerboard. This guitar actually attracted the attention of well respected British Luthier, Jeff Guilford of JJ Guitars. He was building a Semi Hollow 335 inspired guitar for Bluesman Matt Schofield, and actually made some notes about the specs of this very H535 to take into the construction of his guitar, which was a pleasure!



Electronics remain original on this guitar, with it's CTS 500k pots, vintage 22AWG braid covered wire, .022uF Caps, Switchcraft jack and toggle. They're quality components and if they're not broke, why change them? I did remove the complete harness when I came to swap the pickups, which I'll come to in a moment, they were a little dusty but all the connections remained solid. So I cleaned it up a bit and re-fitted as it was. I installed control knob pointers, as I'm forever messing with the pots so it helps know where everything is set to. I kept the gold bell type knobs fitted, but did pop an amber switch tip on their for that '59 Dot vibe. I also retrofitted a short length ES-335 style black pickguard. As the mount hole by the fretboard was in a slightly different place, I really didn't want to fill and re-drill just for a small cosmetic change. So I sanded the part that fits around the neck pickup so it sits very tight on there keeping it in place firmly enough to not require the screw. The main support screw is in the usual central place on the guard, with a little felt washer keeping it away from the body, no need for the elongated bracket which would fit to the body edge.



Although this guitar sounded okay plugged in, it wasn't that great. It came to the point where I didn't enjoy plugging it in. With the wiring consisting of all quality components, it only had to be one thing. It's Seymour Ducan '59s. They were muddy and lacked the detail I like, so it was time for them to be removed. All of them might not have these characteristics, but this set definitely did. I needed a guitar to demonstrate the McNelly Stagger Swagger P90s I offer at the shop, so the H535 stepped up to the plate! The guitar absolutely came to life! What a sound, they brought out the tonality of this aging Heritage, brought out the Semi-Hollow character beautifully and felt like the missing piece all along. The eagle eyed readers would have noticed the top wrap bridge also. I feel that on this guitar the slightly less tension that top wrapping gives, makes this guitar feel incredibly easy to play. 



The neck is a very comfortable C profile, not a huge neck by all means, but with it's 42.9mm nut width, it fills your hands and suits a lot of playing styles very well indeed. The 'L' Serial number denotes it leaving the factory in 1995, and the way the Grover tuner's finish has patinated I think it's beginning to show it's ace nicely indeed.



I used the guitar for this demo video showing off it's pickups, but I think it shows off the guitar just as much. (I urge you to skip to 1:22 to skip my talking!) It's such a pleasure to play this guitar and it's one I'll own for the rest of my days I think. Hope you've enjoyed reading about it today.

James