NGD!!! Heritage H-555 Semi-hollowbody

[duhvoodooman***]

You may have noticed me selling a couple of things here in the past few days, and here's the reason why. I'd been thinking about upgrading my Epiphone Dot for awhile and had started looking around for a good deal on a used ES-335. That prompted me to start considering Heritage's version of that guitar, the H-535--from everything I'd read, at least the equal of the Gibson in quality, and generally about 20 - 25% less expensive. I remembered that Tio Kimo here owns one of those and raves about it, so I asked his opinion on a couple that I'd come across on eBay and Reverb.com. Turns out that he's quite active in the Heritage owner's forum and came across an H-555 (basically the H-535 with some added bling) offered there. He hooked me up with the seller and we made the deal over the weekend.

The guitar arrived today, and she's a beaut! I've always loved cherry red ES-335's, and this guitar fills that bill and then some. Needed a little clean-up and a new set of 10's, and she's good to go. I haven't checked the intonation with a tuner yet, but the action on the guitar is great. It has Duncan '59s in it, and they sound just flat fabulous--wonderful clarity when played clean, and a nice growl when the gain is dialed up. The body is flame maple all around with a nice, tight pattern. The photos below don't really do it justice.

So Tio Kimo is my hero right now....even though my wife says he's an "enabler".

Specs from the Heritage website:

Neck: 17 degree peghead pitch; one-piece curly maple neck; single white bound mother of pearl and abalone inlaid head veneer.

Fingerboard: 24 3/4” scale ebony single white bound fingerboard with 22 frets; mother of pearl and abalone inlays.

Body: Double cutaway semi-hollow body with laminated arch curly maple top and back; multiple white bound top and white bound back; solid curly maple rim; single white bound pickguard; with f-holes.

Body Size:

Rim Thickness - 1 1/2”
Body Width - 16”
Body Length - 17 7/8”

Electronics: Two gold humbucking pickups; with two volume and two tone controls; selector switch.

Hardware: Individual gold plated machine heads; gold plated stop bar tailpiece and adjustable bridge.

[marnold***]

Very handsome guitar there DVM! I guess I didn't realize they said "The Heritage" on the headstock. The flame on that is down right amazing.

[kidsmoke*]

Glad to hear you're happy with it Bob, and glad to hear the transaction went so smooth. You went straight to the head of the class with this one. As the owner of so many other builds, including your R9, I'll be very interested in your take on this axe.

Rev, common comment, folks don't realize it's actually "the heritage". Bob's axe has the inlaid pearl logo with bound headstock, an option for any guitar they build, and standard on the 555. Here's the standard decal on the pedestrian 535 and 150, which are the guitars I own. This is the "default".

[Tig***]

Excellent!
I love Heritages and would rather have one than most Gibsons, thanks to their inconsistent quality.

[kidsmoke*]

Excellent!
I love Heritages and would rather have one than most Gibsons, thanks to their inconsistent quality.

I echo that, as I've found many 335's in GC's prior to my purchase that I found inferior even to my Washburn HB-35 that I owned at the time. In all honesty however, Heritage are made by people working on benches, using fingers and eyeballs, and things do happen. I wouldn't say i've seen shoddiness ever, but more like mistakes that were missed at final inspection. Point being you're never guaranteed perfection, but they're damn fine guitars, handbuilt by real nice folks, and well worth the cost, relative to other "custom shop" domestic builders. And mistakes hitting the market are like hens teeth.

And you can see from this post...this is not a custom appointed guitar. This is a catalog 555, and the workmanship is stellar.

edit to add...i've never seen a metal switch like this one has, so perhaps it has a bit of custom elements after all.

[kidsmoke*]

in the event a little "street cred" would help

for many THE iconic 335 is Alvin Lee's 1958 Red one. incidentally, the man who rolled the neck on DVM's beauty here, was working in the shop rolling necks when that guitar was built (Marv started there in 1956, and he's still there today)

well in this photo, this IS Alvin Lee, and that AIN'T a Gibson.....

[tjcurtin1]

I think that 'swanky' is the word that applies here! Nice snag, DVM!

[otaypanky***]

Nice score, enjoy

[Monkus]

congrats!!

[Brian Krashpad]

Congrats DVM! I've never played a Heritage before. Would!

[Robert****]

Sweet as honey!


Sent from my Macintosh telephone using Tapatalk

[DetroitBlues]

Ah yes! The 555! Perfect Heritage guitar. Congrats.

[yuominae]

Very very nice! Red as well, that's really the full package
Congrats!!