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Quoted from nuke's post: "CNC machines today can churn out identical copies of stuff at mass scale, and there's lots of those in China. But wood is not like metal or plastic, it is organic and it moves with age, temperature and humidity. It might have been perfectly shaped out of the CNC line, but will it be by the time it gets built?" (Sorry, thought this would appear as a quote!) The reality that a guitar can be built in China, of woods from around the world, transported to the US and sold --(by some likely complex) calculation at a profit or at someone's advantage-- says a lot not only about advances in the technology of production and transportation but also about the impact of globalization. There's an unique and very interesting recent book, The Guitar: Tracing the Grain back to the Tree, by Chris Gibson and Andrew Warren (2021). (They visited Heritage). The focus is exactly the wood issue that Nuke emphasizes, and not only the impact on the quality of guitars, but also on the long-term sustainability of the wood that guitars are made of. They show the enormous difference in outlook between those wood buyers who increasingly take a long and responsible view of sustainability, and others who play by a completely different rule book and exploit corruption and ignore regulation to grab and use whatever wood they can, mostly from developing nations where responsible harvesting and marketing of wood might really contribute to people's quality of life, but usually doesn't. (I have a lot of respect for Taylor's ebony project, which tries to make a difference in this international trade.) The book also makes the point that this is not simply "China," the Eastman factory they visited was very much in function and ethos like American and Japanese guitar factories once were. Not being self righteous. For example, I wanted a solidbody electric mandolin so I could practice with headphones and make very little noise, but, have no interest in ever performing with a solid body mandolin. I found one online, and available reviews said the model had remarkably good fit and finish and fret work for the price (and crappy electronics). Fit the ticket, and I bought it --$179. Might have come from the same factory as this "The Heritage." (...and, I'd read the book, so, had reason to know why it could be so cheap, but, great deal, so I didn't let that stop me.) As Pogo said ... "we have met the enemy, and he is us." I've never made it to the factory in K'zoo, but I remember calling up and having an extended conversation about the cool, and not so cool, features of Gibson guitars in the course of pricing out custom features on some guitars I was thinking of ordering for myself and at a moment when I thought I had convinced a friend to become a dealer. I think that's when I learned the term "cupid's bow." That was maybe 25-30 years ago ... and a different world.

I guess my fondness for Heritage has always been in part that they are a bit off the beaten path, and, since that was part of the appeal, seems logical so many of mine were one-offs or someone's custom orders. I guess my favorite model is a custom order... First was a 550, bought used, but with a "custom" truss rod cover and with gold hardware and grover imperials and harptone case. Second was my 535, custom-ordered from Wolfe based on his custom configuration of the time (bound headstock, sperzels, more Gibson-like but still wood pickguard, antiquities) but with an ebony board. (I wanted, but didn't get, a real black to yellow burst. Oh well...) Third was an Eagle Classic, but with split blocks (ala the Super 400 I once owned) and a floating pickup. Fourth was a 140 (or maybe 147?), but with classic LP-shaped body, traps, ebony board, and bound headstock* Fifth and Six (came on the same day) were my employee-one-off Eagle, with spruce top and ebony board with no markers and bound golden-eagle inlay headstock, and Leon Rhodes prototype mahog tele style with set neck. These are all in my estimation custom versions of great models. 550 is pretty unique with veneer construction and plate, so feedback resistant. Eagle Classic is a little thinner than classic Gibson 17" carved guitars, and therefore more manageable for me at 5'7". Eagle with mahogany back has a little different sound I think that maple-backed guitars. Leon Rhodes is unique combination of features --still a project since I want to reconfigure the pickups. 535 is a little smaller and thinner than a 335, but the real advantage to me was that I could custom order one with dots on ebony, which I could never have afforded from Gibson. *Here's the funny thing. I don't think I've played a LP-style guitar in public but once I remember in 40 years. I've always played semi's, or, a semi + a strat or a tele, or, for a run of years now, the Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion, which works well for me as a one-guitar gig instrument. But, I've probably had the Heritage custom 140/147 in my hands as much or more than any instrument I own. My wife has developed a real sensitivity to sound, and so practicing at home has involved compromise. I get a couple of hours a day of loud, and, then for the rest of the time that we're awake, she gets to not hear me practice. Even a semi is loud enough to be a significant distraction for her. Especially since I've taken up saxophone, that, or an acoustic, usually gets my two hours of loud. My other guitar time is usually spent on the 140/147, playing through headphones. It's the perfect guitar for that, esp. lounging on the couch -- not too big, not too heavy, but feels like a classic-era Gibson, which is still my home base.