heritage guitars

[vikingrat]

ive been trying to find out about heritage guitars and how they sound and compare to a gibson.the guitar dealer ed roman seemed to have a very high regard for them at one time.does anyone out there play one and i mean a everyday player that is not just trying to hype product that they are trying to sell

[BillWelcome Home Studios]

I've played many Heritage guitars, though I don't own any. Beautifully made, sound great.

 

The story is that it is the Gibson employees who did not want to leave Kalamazoo when they closed the kalamazoo plant and moved to Nashville. I don't know how true that is, but they make a great instrument, and some pretty cool amps.

 

Bill

[Philip OKeefe]

Like Bill, the story I've heard is that they're made in the old Gibson Kalamazoo factory, by former Gibson employees who, for whatever reason, didn't want to make the move to Nashville. They definitely have a Gibson-esque vibe, and are very nice guitars.

[fantasticsound]

Originally posted by bpark@prorec.com:

I've played many Heritage guitars, though I don't own any. Beautifully made, sound great.

 

The story is that it is the Gibson employees who did not want to leave Kalamazoo when they closed the kalamazoo plant and moved to Nashville. I don't know how true that is, but they make a great instrument, and some pretty cool amps.

 

Bill

It's absolutely true. (Coming from an ex-Gibby Customer Service rep.)

 

The craftsman who refused to move to Nashville did, indeed, buy the equipment that was left behind and used it to create Heritage Guitars.

 

I've only played a few of their instruments, but each was wonderful. And from what I gather here, prices on Heritage instruments are competitive or lower than those of the mass produced Gibby's.

 

My first exposure to Heritage was in a small, near-north side shop in Chicago. They had a few incredible jazz boxes on the wall, including a $5,000 Heritage in translucent pink. It was gorgeous!

[Corner Pocket]

Heritage guitars are definitely "Gibson-esque" as opposed to "Fender-esque". I've never played a bad one. The best reason to try them is that they are the ONLY North American guitar manufacturer to use this:

 

http://www.plek.com

 

Some repair shops have a Plek, but Heritage is the only Manufacturer.

 

They ain't Gibson, but they are worth a good look.

 

Paul

[vikingrat]

i have fallen in love with a sky blue les paul heritage and its only 1200.dollars.i have mostly g&l and fender guitars but really want a paul for that jimmy page thin lizzy sound.

[Gabriel E.]

One of their archtop hollowbody models (the Eagle?) actually has a real carved top and back. It's less than $4k which is a steal for anything with a carved top.

[Funk Jazz]

i've played a couple, they are really nice guitars. built with a real love of the craft.

 

$1200 sounds reasonable for the LP, i'd grab it up if it speaks to you.

[kad]

I own a Heritage H-535, which is very similar to a Gibson ES-335. The Heritage is simply fantastic! It's by far the best sounding and best playing guitar I've ever owned. These guitars are every bit as good as the hype suggests...

 

Kirk

[Sean Eldon]

Heritage offers more options than Gibson, and in many cases are cheaper. Not cheaper made though, that's for sure.

[tld]

Here's my H150 ....a 50th birthday present from my best friends who are, by the way, the best friends a person could have. Trust me...the picture doesn't do it justice at all. In person you'd gasp audibly.

 

I'm mostly a Fender guy, and hadn't owned a Gibson or similar since my 74 Paul was stolen. They knew I was toying with getting a Heritage and shocked the crap out of me with that.

 

It's simply unreal...sounds much better than my 74 Les Paul Standard did actually. Real fat woody sound with a lot of character. It has the HRW pickups, which I can't say enough about.

 

I can't recommend them enough.

 

Tom

[Philip OKeefe]

Beautiful guitar Tom.

[fantasticsound]

Did you hear my jaw drop?!?

 

That's a gorgeous instrument, Tom!

 

Those are great friends.. and don't you let them forget it!

[zeronyne]

There's a dealer about a half mile from my house, and they have a goldtop that is unlike any I've ever seen before. More like a Latte. Plays like a dream.

 

The guy who works there raves about going to the shop.

[tld]

Originally posted by Philip O'Keefe:

Beautiful guitar Tom.

Originally posted by fantasticsound:

Did you hear my jaw drop?!?

 

That's a gorgeous instrument, Tom!

 

Those are great friends.. and don't you let them forget it!

Yup...these guys are the best....my drummer/co-songwriter and his brother actually. And they don't make a ton of money either...lotta hard earned bucks there. I've done a ton of stuff for them over the years but never in my wildest dreams saw that coming.

 

You should see that finish in bright light...the grain's like a 3D hologram or something. I actually have more pictures of it here .

 

Tom

[Darklava]

http://www.heritageguitar.com/models/Images/H-150%20CM%20VSB.jpg

 

Now dat what I'm talkin about.

[doc taz]

Originally posted by tld:

Here's my H150 ....a 50th birthday present from my best friends who are, by the way, the best friends a person could have. Trust me...the picture doesn't do it justice at all. In person you'd gasp audibly.

 

I'd believe you. Just don't let a guy with the nick jeremyc look at that! He'll stalk you, then snag the ax from you while you're in the can!

 

(kidding... it's just that jeremyc usually goes gaga over any well made guitar or bass that's blue colored. Seems to be a fetish of his.)

 

He's one of the well-respected bassists over at the Low Down bass forum.

[Dave da Dude]

Originally posted by Sean Eldon:

Heritage offers more options than Gibson, and in many cases are cheaper. Not cheaper made though, that's for sure.

Not REAL cheap though

 

I priced them a coupla' years ago at Ed Roman's and found them (H535 model to be around $1,200 to $1,800 with all the "bells and whistles". That's still a good price compared to Gibson, but not cheap

 

I haven't seen any in any guitar shops though. Does anyone know if Music Center (aka Guitars R Us) carries them?

[Dave da Dude]

rockincyanblues,

Some repair shops have a Plek, but Heritage is the only Manufacturer.

What does the Plek do? I couldn't tell from their site.

 

Also, Heritage is one of the minority of the manufacturers to use the Buzz Feiten tuning system for its superior(?) intonation.

[hard truth]

Kad wrote: I own a Heritage H-535, which is very similar to a Gibson ES-335. The Heritage is simply fantastic! It's by far the best sounding and best playing guitar I've ever owned.

 

I have one also and love it. Got it for $900 used. When I was buying I compared it to Epiphone and Gibson's cheaper versions of the ES-535 and it was obviously much better.

[Dave da Dude]

Bump

 

Would someone please tell me what the Plek does?

[Dave da Dude]

Originally posted by Dave da Dude:

Bump

 

Would someone please tell me what the Plek does?

PLEASE

[zeronyne]

It's right in their FAQ:

 

What exactly does the Plek do?

The Plek is a computer controlled machine tool that scans and dresses an instrument as it is, strung and tuned to pitch. The scan generates many graphic images, complete with extensive dimensional data regarding the neck, fingerboard, frets, strings, nut and bridge. In other words, it allows you to choose and view any aspect of the neck, frets and strings in detail while providing measurements of everything. The technician can then do a virtual fret dress on the computer monitor, applying any of the usual preferences and styles that go into an ideal fret dress for that instrument. Then, when this virtual fret dress is ready, the loosened strings are moved to the side of the neck so that the Plek can dress and shape the frets. The Plek then does that exact fret dress extremely accurately and referenced to its original scan so that, when restrung, the fret plane is level, the relief is ideal and the finished fret shape is very consistent. All of this is done to tolerances as tight as .0004in., far more accurate than manual work and consistent every time.

and

 

What is the difference between the Plek fret dress and the usual fret dressing procedure?

Precision: The Plek sands to the nearest .001mm (1/100mm) or .00039in.. Work done by hand has a precision of approximately .1mm. Differences in fret height of ca. 0.03-0.04mm or more can be felt by a guitarist (as buzzing). Making this possible is extensive research into the physics and theory behind strings, sound and instrument design.

Guitar-friendly processing: This precision also allows minimal material removal because it is so accurate. With the Plek it is possible to perform more fret dress procedures before it becomes necessary to replace the frets. Thus the service life of the instrument is extended.

Individuality: The Plek Profile is a "customized" solution, adjusted to the personal style of the player, not an arbitrary "one size fits all" approach.

Balance: "Low", for instance, not only means that the saddle and nut are set lower, but also that the curve of the neck is reduced. The neck curvature or relief, is more pronounced along the length of the lower (thicker) strings than the higher (thinner) strings.

Standard: We guarantee a consistent standard. Any setup will be reproducible with precisely the same quality in three months or three years.

Clarity: Since it is possible to know beforehand what the result is going to look like, the player can see this and be involved in determining the final specs. The measurement graphics clearly show how the neck relief, fret height and string action will have changed.

The entire FAQ is HERE

[Dave da Dude]

zeronyne, thanks for the info. I didn't look there, or even see the FAQ's

 

I apologize for my hasty perusel(sp) of their site, and for wasting this thread's space because of it.

 

[edit] I had a feeling that it was something like that. I just wanted to understand it better. The engineer in me.

 

2nd[edit]

Plek says, The PLEK sands to the nearest .001mm (1/100mm) or .00039in.

.. commonly called a micron. In my experience, and imho, this is unlikely. I worked for a Tier 1 ISO 9001 manufacturer in Eastern Tennessee for five years that needed similar tolerances on several features of several different machined steel parts. The difficulty to hold a tolerance of a plane, flat feature to within one micron (0.001mm) was clearly pointed out by their need (and the need of their counterpart in Japan) to *Selectively Assemble* the parts. This means that the parts were cut (fabricated) and then measured (automatically w/ a repeatibility of 0.0005mm, 0.5 micron over thirty different parts ten different times) and phyically (automatically) separated the parts into *ranks* of 0.001mm *width* in tolerance.

 

This measurement machine was my direct responsibility as the Manufacturing Engineer in charge of that machine. The parts were then assembled according to their measurements (i.e. *Rank # 1* part 'A' with *Rank # 1* 'B' parts and *Rank # 2* part 'A' with *Rank # 2* 'B' parts. Five (5) *Ranks* were required to accomodate the 'lack of precision' of the manufacturing process.

 

The short version; *State-of-the-Art* equipment in a *World Class* ISO9001 manufacturer on a plane, flat feature could only hold a simple linear measurement (parallel surfaces, no curve, etc.) to within 5 microns (0.005mm).

 

I find it hard to believe that any equipment could hold a tighter five times closer on a radiused, softer material. This is even further supported by the fact that another feature of the part (a "ring"), the internal hole, was an ellipse and the tolerance of that feature was something like ±0.010mm, 10.0 microns, or TEN times what Plek is claming.

 

Sorry for the long rant. But I hate inaccurate statements

 

I'm sure that the Plek machine is very accurate, maybe even "within microns", but ONE micron, I don't think so

 

btw, the Eastern Tennessee take on a micron was "You know how your hands smell when you're through muckin' a stall? .. Yeah .. Well, after you wash your hands three times, rub your fingers together (doing it with your thumb and index finger as you tell this) smell your fingers. That smell is a micron!

 

Sorry, one more example: The average human hair is something like 7 to 12 *thousanths* of an inch in diameter. Expressed in decimal, this is 0.007 to 0.012 inch. One *mil* (0.001 inch, or one thousanth [of an inch]) used to be (in the 1950's) the *standard* for close tolerance work, with 0.1 mil (or *tenth*), 0.0001 inch becaming the *standard* for even closer (Tool & Die) work in the 1960's/1970's. One micron, 0.001mm, is 0.00004 inch NOT 0.00039 as Plek states! Yet ANOTHER inaccuracy!!

 

Lesson is over

[bluesmain]

i want to pipe up about heritage guitars...i've been playing them since 1989 or so...i now have several ....for the millenium , heritage came out with a chambered les paul style guitar called the millenium...amazing tones....woody...sweet...still get the grind on command...their regular les paul is awesome as well...and the 535/555 / roy clark family of instruments is spectacular too...i have seveal..i highly recomend that you try a heritage guitar...beautiful work...awsome sound...bluesmain(bruce m boney)

[bluesmain]

re/heritage guitars.....p.s...the 20th anniversary of heritage is coming up.....there will be a 150 and a 535..available as 20th anniv. models...i've already ordered...a quilt top h150.20th anniv.....i love custom orders with heritage...you can have it just the way you want it....tell em i said hi...write me for pix of my 16 or so...

[Beermouse]

Another inaccuracy: 0.001 mm is not 1/100th of a millimeter, it's 1/1000th.

[Dave da Dude]

Originally posted by Beermouse:

Another inaccuracy: 0.001 mm is not 1/100th of a millimeter, it's 1/1000th.

oops

 

my bad

 

btw, trivia time:

 

"Oops" used to be an undo command for AutoCAD. It has been taken out of the code on my AutoCAD 2004 LT. It now uses "U" for Undo.

 

0.001mm = 1.0 micron = 1.0μm

[zeronyne]

I was at my local Heritage dealer today and played a a few 335 copies. Absolutely stunning. Fit and finish were absolutely impeccable. It was strung with thirteen to fifty sixes, and it played like nines on a Jackson Dinky.

 

The best part? They quoted me $1600.00 or so without any haggling. Their LP Standards are the same price. I'd never buy a Gibson after playing one of these.

 

They will customize like crazy. I'm going to bring in some specs and see what the cost will be. Stay tuned...

[bluesman69]

Originally posted by Gabriel E.:

One of their archtop hollowbody models (the Eagle?) actually has a real carved top and back. It's less than $4k which is a steal for anything with a carved top.

This one has a tuned solid carved spruce top. Awesome Jazz box!!!

Heritage H-575 MH

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/bluesman69/Guitars/H-575MH.jpg