Crafted at the historic 225Parsons Street factory, these instruments are a testament to Heritage Custom Shop's unwavering commitment to quality, blending advanced performance features with the most exquisite tone woods available.
Heritage Custom Shop (heritageguitars.com) is proud to announce two exceptional additions to the flagship Core Collection - the Custom Core H-535 Semi-Hollow Body and the H-530 Hollow Body electric guitars. Crafted at the historic 225Parsons Street factory, these instruments are a testament to Heritage Custom Shop's unwavering commitment to quality, blending advanced performance features with the most exquisite tone woods available. Each Custom Core guitar represents Heritage's passion and pride in their craftsmanship and storied history.
The Custom Core H-535 is a masterpiece that blends vintage charm with modern prowess. Crafted with meticulous attention to detail by master artisans, this semi-hollow electric boasts a laminated premium curly maple top and back and is available in three captivating colors. Its solid curly maple rim enhances resonance, while the rosewood fretboard ensures a comfortable playing experience. The 50s C-shaped neck profile offers comfort, and the Heritage Custom Shop 225 ClassicHumbuckers deliver a versatile tonal spectrum. Premium components like CTS 500K potentiometers and a locking bridge guarantee quality and tuning stability.
The Custom Core H-530 is a blend of tradition and innovation. This fully hollow, double cutaway features a laminated premium curly maple top and back, and solid curly maple rim, and comes in three custom colors. The Custom Core H-530 is fitted with the recently released Heritage Custom Shop225 Classic Dogear P90 pickups, delivering resonance, sustain, and a broad spectrum of tones. Every detail, from the Holly veneer headstock to the rosewood fretboard, is crafted for a world-class playing experience.
Heritage Custom Shop pickups are designed and wound in-house at their iconic facility in Kalamazoo. Versatile to the core, the 225 Classic P90s capture the essence of the P90 single coil chime and body, with a dynamic range that can transition seamlessly from shimmering cleans to robust distortion. The 225 Classic Humbuckers produce a warm, full-bodied tone with pronounced sustain and clarity, offering a versatile sound that ranges from smooth jazz nuances to crunchy rock overdrive.
Custom Core H-535 Key Features:
- Pickups: Heritage Custom Shop 225 ClassicHumbuckers
- Body Construction: Semi-hollow
- Body Woods: Laminated Premium Curly Maple(Top & Back) with Solid Curly Maple sides
- Neck: Mahogany; 50s C (.8910"– .9805")
- Bridge: Locking Bridge and Tailpiece
Custom Core H-530 Key Features:
- Pickups: Heritage Custom Shop 225 Classic Dogear P90s
- Body Construction: Hollow body
- Body Woods: Laminated Premium Curly Maple(Top & Back) with Solid Curly Maple sides
- Neck: Mahogany; 50s C (.8910" – .9805")
- Bridge: Locking Bridge and Trapeze Tailpiece
Both the Custom Core H-535 and H-530 electric guitars are available in Dark Cherry Sunburst, Antique Natural, or Trans Cherry and come complete with a Heritage Custom Shop hard case.
The Heritage Custom Core H-535 and H-530 models are available at $4,799 (US MAP).
For more information, please visit heritageguitars.com.
Heritage Custom Core H-535 Semi-hollowbody Electric Guitar - Trans Cherry
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The MXR Layers Pedal blooms with rich, organic sustain that imbues every strum and pluck with resonance and depth. With a versatile suite of controls, this pedal can be as simple or complex as you need. Whether you want to lengthen single notes or generate multi-layered soundscapes rich with ambience, the MXR Layers Pedal will extend the creative potential of your instrument. Pull off chord voicings you never thought possible, compose transcendent melodies, orchestrate harmonic ensembles, create lively stereo pads, and more—all from a standard MXR housing.
MXR Layers Pedal highlights:
- Versatile suite of controls opens new frontiers to plug-and-play maestros and tonal tinkerers alike
- Up to three layers of sustain, each with its own status LED
- Trigger layers with footswitch or playing dynamics
- The Mix knob adjusts the wet signal level; in other words, the volume of your layers
- Trig knob sets the sensitivity of auto-trigger function
- Attack knob adjusts the fade-in time of each layer, while Decay knob sets the fade-out time
- Sub Oct switch adds fat subterranean vibes
- Advanced features such as expression pedal and tap switch control or additional parameter tweaks offer even more intricate customization
- Build richly detailed soundscapes that elevate musical expression to new heights
The MXR Layers Pedal is available now at $219.99 street/$314.27 MSRP from your favorite retailer.
For more information, please visit jimdunlop.com
This vintage Tele’s neck and frets show lots of road wear, but it’s straight and dry.
This was not something that could be seen at the point of purchase. But at some point, that company wasn’t drying the wood, because my experience with instruments built around 1964 is that they didn’t have this problem. I’ve never seen a vintage Fender built before 1964 where the frets were sticking out the side of the neck because they hadn’t dried the fretboard well enough, and it shrank.
For the most part, there’s an extraordinary amount of trust when you’re buying an instrument. For example, customers trust that the frets are installed in the correct positions without checking each fret position with a tuner. This trust is mostly deserved, as most frets are generally installed in the right places. What’s sometimes not installed in the correct place is the nut. This controls how open chords play in tune down in the first position. I’m going to make a list of the things I believe you cansee when you buy a guitar, and the things you can’t. My hope is that it helps you make your next purchase with confidence.
Tuning pegs are among the easy-to-inspect items when shopping for a guitar. The peg at far left has clearly seen better days.
In general, here’s a list of what you can see:
- Tuning pegs and how they operate
- If the nut was cut well in terms of string height over the frets
- The neck shape as regarding how it is comfortable in your hand
- How the truss rod adjusts
- How well the instrument was inlaid in the fretboard
- How the side dots look
- How professional the binding is
- If the neck angle is generally acceptable
- If you like the shape and comfort of the body
- The beauty of the finish
- Overall aesthetic quality
- The sound of the pickups
- The electronic controllability
- Comfort of the bridge
- If the guitar intonates at the 12th fret
- How well is the guitar set up
The “skunk stripe” on this old Tele’s neck remains well-seated.
In general, here’s a list of what you can’t see:
- Are the woods wet under the finish
- How well are the woods dried?
- Will the fretboard shrink so the frets stick out of the neck over time?
- Are the tuning pegs deadening the tone?
- What’s the nut made of and how well it is glued on?
- Are the nut slots too narrow, creating tuning problems?
- Are the frets level?
- Is the truss rod deadening the neck?
- Do the pickups squeal at really high volume? (You may not know this until testing the guitar in a live setting.)
- How thick and how soft is the finish?
- Will the finish last a lifetime?
- Will all the glue joints hold up over time?
- How well does the instrument record?
- Will the frets move over time from reactions to things like sweat?
So, it comes down to trust. Did the guitar-making company tend to all the things that you can’t see when you buy the instrument?
“My goal, as a guitar maker, is that you can take the guitar out of the case and play a gig or a recording session without a repairman working on it first.”
The best way to tell if you want to buy a guitar is to play it! If an instrument is built really well, your experience of playing it will give you a good indication of how well the things you can’t see were done. If the instrument is really trebly and has no bass or midrange, maybe you should walk away from that purchase. If you strum the instrument and go, “Oh my god, that sounds great,” and then you plug it in, and it sounds beautiful—buy it. By the way, online shopping has made this process fairly painless as well, so you can play guitars in stores as well as shop as on the internet.
My goal, as a guitar maker, is that you can take the guitar out of the case and play a gig or a recording session without a repairman working on it first. That said, my personal guitars are often in our PTC (tech center) because of little tweaks that I want done. To tinker, in my mind, is normal. To have to pay for a setup on a brand-new guitar is not. Happy shopping.
Squier Affinity Starcaster Deluxe
The Starcaster broke the mold of semi-hollow guitar design with its offset body shape when it was introduced in the '70s, offering versatile sound and out-of-this-world styling for the most adventurous players. The Affinity Series Starcaster Deluxe features several player-friendly refinements such as a lightweight semi-hollow body, a slim and comfortable “C”-shaped neck with familiar Stratocaster headstock, an adjustable bridge with stop tailpiece for solid tuning stability and sealed die-cast tuning machines with split shafts for smooth, accurate tuning and easy restringing. Loaded with a pair of Squier humbucking pickups with 3-way switching for genre-defying sonic variety, this model is ready to accompany any player at any stage.
Squier Affinity Telecaster Thinline
A superb gateway into the time-honored Fender family, the Squier Affinity Series Telecaster Thinline delivers legendary design and quintessential tone for today’s aspiring guitar hero. This Tele features several player-friendly refinements such as a thin and lightweight chambered body, a slim and comfortable “C”-shaped neck profile, a string-through-body bridge for optimal body resonance and sealed die-cast tuning machines with split shafts for smooth, accurate tuning and easy restringing. Loaded with dual Squier single-coil Tele pickups with 3-way switching for genre-defying sonic variety, this model is ready to accompany any player at any stage.