Price Paid for Heritage 535: swap
Description of Heritage 535: electric hollowbody. 2 pickups, built in 1987, natural.
Tone of Heritage 535:
Comments about Heritage 535: it's a guitarist's dream..i've had many offers for it..had it set up for 10's...i use a fender stereo chorus
Quality of Heritage 535:
Comments about Heritage 535: i can't say a bad thing about it
Overall Opinions of Heritage 535:
Pros: i prefer it to the same model as gibson makes
Cons:

Submitted by:
Joe Desiderio (jdleathercraft@aol.com)
Playing Experience:
over ten years
Musical Tastes:
classic rock jazz

Price Paid for Heritage 535: $960 USD
Description of Heritage 535: Built in 1998 at the old Gibson plant, Kalamazoo Michigan, by the same craftsmen that built the classic Les Pauls and ES 335s of the 50s and 60s.I found this guitar at a well stocked college town music store where it amazingly went unsold for 4 years. other than a few minor dings and scratches from normal shopwear, its basically A stock unused. All hardware is chrome, 2 Schaller humbuckers,tailpiece, and Schaller roller saddle, Grover tuners.Body, front sides and back are of a very nicely figured maple, and one piece mahogany neck all finished in emerald green nitro.Body is the classic ES335 style.
Tone of Heritage 535:
Comments about Heritage 535: For my tastes I have to rate the tone a 10. The sound is full and resonant,and the tone controls are very responsive on both pickups. The bridge position is fairly bright, but not as sharp and twangy as a Fender. If you like that sweet singing violin like tone and sustain, you will love this guitar. The bridge pickup is very smooth and mellow, great for jazz and blues work.I understand they are available with a vari-phase pickup option that gives just about any tone you might desire. I'm currently playing it through a Fender Princeton Reverb, and a Pignose G60vr,and it souds great through both.
Quality of Heritage 535:
Comments about Heritage 535: Sorry, but I have to give it another 10 for quality. Nicely figured maple on front sides and back, heavy chrome hardware, slim taper neck, it even has a bound flamed maple pickguard which is a real nice touch.Oversize strap buttons are real nice too. The only durability question would be the nitro finish which needs a little extra care due to its inherent fragility. The initial setup was a little too low for good note bending, plus it came with 11s with a wound 3rd. A little too heavy for me. I raised it up, put on a set of 10s, made a couple of adjustments,and now its about perfect. for my tastes.Almost forgot, the dot inlays on the board are REAL mother of pearl, not plastic!
Overall Opinions of Heritage 535:
Pros: As far as I,m concerned this is a no brainer.I looked at Gibson 335's, and the Heritage looks better, sounds better,at about 1/3 the cost of a Gibson with the same quality of woods and finish. It was built by the same men who built the classic 335's that are so coveted today, in the same building, at the same address, with the same equipment. Its high quality at a FAIR price.
Cons: Its not a con to me but I'll mention that the face of the headstock and the logo are painted on with no inlay, but very well done just the same. If a pearloid inlay is worth $2,000 more to you, then go for it. The only real con I have is it was hard to find one to look at, or play. There are a few dealers around me, but they only custom order them, with about a 7 month wait. I personally would not order something as personal as a guitar without trying one out somewhere. Now that I have, I'm thinking about custom ordering another!

Submitted by:
BluesDawg Bob Griz
Playing Experience:
over ten years
Musical Tastes:
blues jazz

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