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What to do with my H-535?


CraigT

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I bought a used Heritage H-535 with Duncan Seth Lover pickups two years ago and am not entirely happy with it. The action is fantastic and it looks awesome with a kind of cherry sunburst finish. Unplugged it sounds fairly bright and mid-rangey I guess. Not good to me anyway. Plugged in it sounds bright and mid-rangey and not very good. I play it through a Crate vintage series amp and have tried others but haven't found a good match yet. Also, FWIW the previous owner swapped out the stock volume/tone pots and resistors and had the controls wired in series like "vintage" instruments. I use 10 guage strings.

 

So, I would like to either make this thing into a blues ax ala BB King or a warm sounding jazz ax. I figure the options are:

 

1 - rewire the Seth Lover with original controls and see what happens

 

2 - send it back to Heritage for the HRW pickups

 

3 - contact Bill Lawrence for some p/u's to make this into a jazz ax. Swap out the 10's for 12 guage strings.

 

BTW, rewiring the controls on the beast is a fairly major undertaking since access is limited to f-holes and by removing bridge pickup.

 

Thanks if you have any advice :)

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I'm having a hard time imagining the pickups now in it sound bad, and I'm wondering if the pots may not be compatible. On the Les Paul site, there's a clique of guys really into pots and caps. I bet one of them will have an idea. :)
Never a DUH! moment! Well, almost never. OK, OK! Sometimes never!
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The acoustic coupling between the body and the pickup should be fantastic on that instrumet. Everyone I have ever played was! I think you are correct, the rewiring that was done must have upset this delicate balance. Yes, have it rewired to it's stock configuration and I bet you will fall in love with the sound! That Crate amp should sound great with that instrument OR with any full range amp...those are a VERY sweet guitars, it's a keeper for sure. Good luck.
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Now, first-

 

- Did you like the sound of this guitar before the wiring and component changes were made?

 

- What is your "reference", your "bench-mark" of dual-humbucker, Gibson/Heritage style tone? What guitar, with what pickups, have you actually played yourself that gave you the humbucker tones that you did like? As a point of reference to go by here.

 

Tell us that, and we've got a lot more to work with.

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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Well, I took a chance on this one. I bought it used on harmony central without ever playing a Heritage...never saw one in a store. From what I read on harmony central I thought it had potential to be either a blues or jazz ax depending on string guage and pickups.

 

On the blues side I like the tone of BB King and Freddie King who both use(d) the Gibson semi-hollow. On the jazz side I really am not sure what the potential sound is for a semi-hollow versus full-fledged jazz box. I dig Grant Green, Mark Whitfield, old George Benson tone-wise and none of them use(d) semi-hollows.

 

It sounds like I should get the controls changed and see what the result is. This is something I would attempt myself on a less delicate instrument but I'll have to shell out the $ for a tech on this one. Can anyone compare the sound of a H-535 with Seth Lovers to a particular artist's sound?

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Since there are a truckload of variables, known and unknown, comparing and referencing by a recorded name-artist's examples is kinda dodgey, nit unlike your going by HC reviews in the first place.

 

Again, what guitars- and with what pickups in 'em- have you played that sounded the way you want to sound? If we know that, we can make much better suggestions here.

 

Reif (Bluesape) is right about the Les Paul Forum being a place to check on this; I'd do some searches there for "pickup", "pickups", "humbucker", etc., there's been a lot of discussion on that stuff there. I haven't been there a lot lately myself, but I know that there's a lot of interest in humbucking pickups there. (Don't let the occasional snobby attitude of some LPF folks bother you, ignore it, it's not worth letting it bug you.)

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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I can understand what you are saying about going by an artist's sound or harmony central reviews but I think going by guitars I've played can be iffy as well. I once played a Lone Star Strat and fell in love with the tone and playability. I later bought one and have never come close to acheiving the same sound as the one I fell in love in. So, then you start getting into the variablilty of one guitar to the next of the same make and manufacturer...as well as how it's matched to the amp you're playing. Which is why I will never buy another guitar that I have not had in my hands.

 

So, I have a G&L F-100 with Bill Lawrence L-500C's that sounds really good. I've played bunches of guitars without really knowing what pick-ups are in them. I've really liked some Les Pauls. I guess this is why I refer to artists and their instruments because I have limited personal knowledge of the many permeatations of guitars/pickups.

 

I guess there's no hope for me :)

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I'm just wondering if maybe those Seymour Duncan Seth Lover humbuckers aren't a good match for you; I'm guessing that maybe the brighter, leaner, clearer tone that vintage-style humbucker fans want is not for you, you may want a darker, slightly hotter humbucker. Some of the vintage P.A.F.-styled humbuckers available now as new pickups are even made to be slightly microphonic, without any wax or other potting in them. That's what some people want, but it's obviously not for everyone.

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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i would say that Caevan is on the right track here.

vintage style HB's like the Seth Lover and Seymour duncan 59 are clearer and brighter than most standard modern pickups.

head on over to the seymour duncan website and listen to some humbuckers and see if you can hear a difference in some models.

you can even play with your tone by using different strings (nickel wound or stainless steel) as well as the type of pick you use. i use a Dunlop big stubby that is 3mm thick and it does make my tone fatter.

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If you go to the SD 'site like 'Zan suggests, note that they use little bar-graph representations of the low, mid, and high frequency responses of their various models for comparison.

 

Also, after you've sorted out pickups, pots, caps, and wiring for once and for all, try DR Pure Blues round-core, solid nickel-wrapped "elevens" on their for a versatile warm, vintagey tone; or if you really want a classic jazz sound, try some flatwounds in "twelves".

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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Bright pickups in an acoustically bright semi-hollow...I was wondering if this was the case. Maybe the Seth Lovers would sound better to me in a heavy solidbody. I have been trying to sort out the different factors that create a guitar's tone but I'm not there yet. Plenty of things to try now.

 

Thank you for all the suggestions.

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Originally posted by CraigT:

2 - send it back to Heritage for the HRW pickups

I have an H150 with the HRW pickups and they're really awesome. Tons of character in the tone from those things. I've never heard them on an H535 (I've actually never heard an H535 at all), but I'll bet their tone would go very well with one.

 

The guitar tech who does all the work on my guitars is also a Heritage dealer. He's found that the HRWs sound much better than the Duncans.

 

Tom

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