Price Paid for Fender Heartfield RR-58: $500.00 CDN (used)
Description of Fender Heartfield RR-58: Two humbuckers - five way switch Mahogany body Rosewood fretboard non-tremolo bridge
Tone of Fender Heartfield RR-58:
Comments about Fender Heartfield RR-58: fairly dark, fat sound nice rich jazz tone in neck position hard to get a real "classic rock" sound
Quality of Fender Heartfield RR-58:
Comments about Fender Heartfield RR-58: humbuckers, so the pickups were relatively quiet. workmanship seems quite good. neck straight as an arrow... no intonation or fret buzz problems ever. I got the guitar used, so the instrument was already set up properly. Don't know how it came from the factory.
Overall Opinions of Fender Heartfield RR-58:
Pros: Nice tone wide neck feels comfortable price is right nice looking guitar, and it's not a common instrument.
Cons: Not extremely versatile. You won't get a truly vintage blues or classic rock sound out of this guitar. I ended up adding a mid-boost tone control to the guitar, and added two EMG's I had laying around. Worst mistake I ever made. Wish I never made the change.

Submitted by:
Dan Cross (guitar.guide@about.com)
Playing Experience:
over ten years
Musical Tastes:
blues classic rock folk jazz pop

Price Paid for Fender Heartfield RR-58 : $225.00 USD (used)
Description of Fender Heartfield RR-58 : This is a hardtail.. all RR58's are the hardtails of the Heartfield RR series. I think they were all built in the Fugi-gakki plant (not sure of spelling there) where Ibanez came out as well.. at least that is where the Talons were said to be built. 58's come equiped with a 24 3/4"" scale neck (Gibson length), 3 tuners per side (Gibson style) 22 fret rosewood fretboard w/ mop dots (all RR style models are 12 degree radius fretboard). The bridge is similar to a standard Fender hardtail..chrome painted stainless steel w/6 independant saddles fully adjustable with two adjustable allen per saddle and a screw for intonation, no trem of course, strings are thru body. They made a couple different versions of this body style, it's similar to a melody maker, offset double cutaway. (the EX is similar to a PRS and is an entirely different line) I have many of the RR series, the RR59 are the trem versions with a 25.5 scale. Most are the slant mount single pickup version wit! h bolt on necks, however I have seen these in set necks, two humbuckers as mentioned in the previous review, those have the 5 way switch, whereas most have the 3 push button on/off circuit that entails an acoustic/split coil sound (coils in parallel), a normal humbucker sound(coils wired in series w/ variable buffer) & a distortion circuit which are all adjustable on the circuit board in back via a phillips (there's a slot in the backplate). The 3 push button models require a 9 volt to run the curcuit and require a certain voltage level in order to work well.. you can see the led's dim and sound quality greatly diminish when it starts to go. Some of these models actually carry the Fender name logo on the headstock as mine does, others just say ""RR"" sometimes with a sticker on the back to identify it as Heartfield.. licensed by Fender.. etc.
Tone of Fender Heartfield RR-58 :
Comments: The single pickup version is suprisingly versatile. It's a little difficult with the rubber push button, they're so close together that I went for a clean/single coil and ended up blasting with a distortion, some are touchier than others. The LED's for the circuits are difficult to read in the onstage lights and if you need a quick change, you have to really get used to this or look. However, the sounds are good and quite impressive..I got rather hooked with the acoustic/single coil circuit (the coils are wired for parallel operation instead of series as the humbucking mode is) , I rarely used the boost/distortion, but it is adjustable and can offer sustainer type feedback to a mild grind. The set neck models seem to be built with what I'm going to guess is mahagony, these are a little richer in tone whereas the bolt ons seem to be of basswood/alder/ash..probably basswood as the Talons are built of this. The Heartfield manuals I've seen don't go into anything other than the fretboard materials.
Quality of Fender Heartfield RR-58 :
Comments about Fender Heartfield RR-58 : I find most Heartfields to be very well made with good consistancy in manufacturing/materials and are Japan quality, better than average. The finish is well done. The body is about an inch thick and the neck feels very playable with easy bends.
Overall Opinions of Fender Heartfield RR-58 :
Pros: Fender quit making Heartfields in the early nineties which makes them a good find. I'm not sure if the Fender logo's were manufactured b4 the RR logo's but as with the Talons, some say Fender Talon made by Heartfield, some just say Heartfield by Fender.. I don't know which were made first. I've seen RR's go for really low and faily higher dollar.. from 125.00 to over 300.00 depending on condition. The set necks RR style I've seen every once in awhile on Ebay from low 200.00 to 300.00. These guitars are a good value, they play, look, and sound good.. offering a decent palate variety of sounds for a single coil model. I thought about changing to an EMG 89, but the pickup isn't a problem as it sounds pretty good.. if you want spend 50.00 on a used emg 89 to try a different sound, it would be a likely choice as it has the split coil and output to be compatible. These guitars have more mid/top end tone and remind me of Fender's version of a bolt on Melody Maker. I've never ! seen a set neck version of the RR58, just the RR59.
Cons: Some of the design is cool and unique, some of it could be better (as in the three rubber pushbuttons which mimic a mini toggle. For me a three position gibson style/Tele style would've been more suited for stage situations where quick switching for sounds is needed. The trem versions (RR 59's) stay in tune really well with the right gauge..(they seem to like ex-light .009-.042, other wise the nut binds and heavier gauge throws the return off) I went to a .009-.046, the trem would return out of tune on the heavy use of the bar no matter how I tried to set it up, whereas before on a .009-.042, no problems. Try different gauges, string brands.. modify only if you exhaust string and gauge options first. There are many different types of the same guitar, even tho similar, they have some variances.

Submitted by:
Tom Schulz (charvelguy@juno.com)
Playing Experience:
one to two years
Musical Tastes:
blues classical classic rock

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