Special Invitation To New Members

[Gitfiddler]

Hello and Welcome to all of the new folks who have chimed in and joined the Heritage asylum, otherwise known as the HOC.

 

You obviously have great taste in guitars, as well as a good value for your hard earned money.

 

Enjoy yourselves posting your thoughts, wishes, concerns, hobbies, and other guitar stuff. We are a friendly group and even welcome threads about other brands (as long as it is in the Family Section or For Sale) of guitars.

 

Thanks for posting and remember...

[gary0313]

A big shout out to all of you HOC members that lurk in the background but don't post much!

 

You know who you are!  But we don't. 

 

The sole purpose of this thread is to send out a special HELLO!  And to ask if you'll drop in and say something about you or your Heritage guitar.  Consider this a kind of online HOC meet and greet...or even a Heritage-Aholic group hug.

 

OK, I'll start..."Hi, my name is Tim, but my friends here call me Gitfiddler.  My favorite Heritages are (in no particular order):  Sweet 16, Golden Eagle, H-555, H-150 and of course the H-157.  I'd love to own a Millenium, but cannot spell it or afford one yet. 

 

Alright guys and gals, YOUR TURN!

 

Who are you...and tell us something about you and your favorite Heritages!  Let's see how many newbies or oldies will say HELLO!  8)

[gary0313]

Hi, my name is Gary. I ordered my first Heritage(535) last Tuesday and have gone to sleep thinking about it each nite since.

I've gigged playing drums since age 13 alongside folks playing what are now vintage Fenders and Gibsons and always was fascinated by their look and sound. Now I've been taking guitar lessons for 2 years and i decided that since the price of a vintage 335 is way out of my reach, why not have a new guitar made by some of the same guys who made the originals. Makes perfect sense to me! Look forward to having it in my hands next time I post.

[FredZepp]

Hi, my name is Gary. I ordered my first Heritage(535) last Tuesday and have gone to sleep thinking about it each nite since.

I've gigged playing drums since age 13 alongside folks playing what are now vintage Fenders and Gibsons and always was fascinated by their look and sound. Now I've been taking guitar lessons for 2 years and i decided that since the price of a vintage 335 is way out of my reach, why not have a new guitar made by some of the same guys who made the originals. Makes perfect sense to me! Look forward to having it in my hands next time I post.

Welcome to the HOC

You expressed some sound logic there. The instruments coming out of Kalamazoo are amazing, I'm sure you'll be well pleased.

 

Please post some pics and comments after you receive your 535... we love to hear of new Heritages.

[skydog52]

Hi, my name is Gary. I ordered my first Heritage(535) last Tuesday and have gone to sleep thinking about it each nite since.

I've gigged playing drums since age 13 alongside folks playing what are now vintage Fenders and Gibsons and always was fascinated by their look and sound. Now I've been taking guitar lessons for 2 years and i decided that since the price of a vintage 335 is way out of my reach, why not have a new guitar made by some of the same guys who made the originals. Makes perfect sense to me! Look forward to having it in my hands next time I post.

Welcome aboard Gary. You are going to love your H-535. You'll be able to play a variety of genres with it.

Just remeber we crave pictures here!

[ThePushMan]

Hey my names jon, or whatever you wanna call me, and recently I came in contact with something I've never felt before... my other half . I was all and and but I had no money and that really sucked... thankfully I found a way to get it anyways and now I own an 04 heritage prospect classic and couldn't be happier . Gonna try and add some pictures somewhere down the line but this thing is straight up love . Now I just got to figure out what to get rid of to get that precious bill money back :-P hahaha.

 

 

tpm

[FredZepp]

Welcome to the HOC , Jon.

 

A Prospect is a wonderful Heritage, no doubt. There is a lot to like about them. Enjoy the site and show us some pics of that Prospect when you can.

[ThePushMan]

I've always been partial to semi-hollows but seriously this one rivals all my others no doubt and it was like an immediate connection, not something I experienced with my 335 (which I sold) or my 339 (went the same way as the 335). Ill post some pics up after I get home from vacation, I would of brought it with me but I don't trust air planes hahaha. Has anyone ever owned a prospect classic? I know like nothing about this model besides that its awesome hahaha, anyway to tell pickups?

[FredZepp]

I've always been partial to semi-hollows but seriously this one rivals all my others no doubt and it was like an immediate connection, not something I experienced with my 335 (which I sold) or my 339 (went the same way as the 335). Ill post some pics up after I get home from vacation, I would of brought it with me but I don't trust air planes hahaha. Has anyone ever owned a prospect classic? I know like nothing about this model besides that its awesome hahaha, anyway to tell pickups?

There are certainly other Prospect owners around here... As to the pickups, the pictures may tell us some things.. and it's always good to check the label inside for any clues.

[ThePushMan]

Interesting well hers some pics of it, sorry for the crap shots I only own a cell phone camera now gotta love when someone doesn't tell you they broke it and waits for the surprise I like the light flame on the top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

tpm

[FredZepp]

That is a Sweet Prospect there... a great example of Kalamazoo craftsmanship.

 

The pickups are Seymour Duncans, which is why yours is called a Prospect Classic.

They'd be the '59 model or Seth Lovers.

[ThePushMan]

thanks I assumed they were SD because of the screw set up and such (not sure if that always works but so far its been good), forgot to check under them however when I changed the strings. I wish I could of taken better pics of it the partial flame is awesome but my 3DS takes some weird "3d" pics and my cell is well crappy lol. Thanks a lot, already looking into getting a new heritage just don't know what and whether or not to go custom, we'll see in the future lol.

 

tpm

[bluwoodsman]

Thought it might be useful for me to join, seems like a good group!

 

Played off/on as a hobby for years than took a break of nearly 20 years. Decided it was high time for a good mid-life crisis and what better way to start than get into a nice guitar, so I dumped my old japanese lawsuit-era strat an am actively looking.

 

I've always been torn between fenders and gibsons, so naturally these days I'm kinda torn between G & L and Heritage...

 

Just missed out on an older single cut (long story of an auction gone BAD but will withold to give the company a chance to make it right), still looking...probably have a number of questions as things go on so go easy on me!

[koula901]

Welcome Bluwoodsman

This is a really great group, and happy to have you aboard.

There's a solution to your quandary as to whether you should get a G&L or a Heritage. The answer is you need one of each. They're like apples to oranges, very different, each will add something different to your tonal pallet.

If money's an issue, buy used, you can get great deals on Heritages.

[guitarsr]

Wolfe Guitars is fantastic. Plenty of homework led me from a search for a Les Paul to a Les Paul Custom and finally an H150. And to Wolfe. Why? It would have cost several times as much to get a Les Paul of any flavor - from anybody - that would be on a par with the H150.

 

When I started my search, I had never heard of Heritage. Now, when a guitarist thinks they want a Les Paul, I tell them,

"Unless you have GOT to have the word 'Gibson' on the headstock, and don't mind paying a LOT for that, play an H150, then try whatever else you please. Unless you're nuts, dumb, or a Gibson groupie, you'll buy the Heritage. Consider one more thing: cherry red has always been a popular Gibson finish color. Gibson doesn't call it that. Gibson calls it "Heritage Cherry". You don't suppose they put 'Heritage' in their to make it a little tougher to find Heritage guitars on the Internet? Could they be that concerned? If I were Gibson, I would be."

 

I've owned a lot of guitars and played even more during the past 35 years. I have 2 Gibsons - the newer one is a '73 335 - so I don't hate Gibson. I write my own stuff - everything from lullabies for friends kids to instrumental classical/New Age/Whatever to Zeppelin-style rock. Add it all up, and you'll see the advice that I give other guitarists is not just my humble opinion - it's experience.

 

How's that for a 'Hell, I'm new here"?

[FredZepp]

Wolfe Guitars is fantastic. Plenty of homework led me from a search for a Les Paul to a Les Paul Custom and finally an H150. And to Wolfe. Why? It would have cost several times as much to get a Les Paul of any flavor - from anybody - that would be on a par with the H150.

 

When I started my search, I had never heard of Heritage. Now, when a guitarist thinks they want a Les Paul, I tell them,

"Unless you have GOT to have the word 'Gibson' on the headstock, and don't mind paying a LOT for that, play an H150, then try whatever else you please. Unless you're nuts, dumb, or a Gibson groupie, you'll buy the Heritage. Consider one more thing: cherry red has always been a popular Gibson finish color. Gibson doesn't call it that. Gibson calls it "Heritage Cherry". You don't suppose they put 'Heritage' in their to make it a little tougher to find Heritage guitars on the Internet? Could they be that concerned? If I were Gibson, I would be."

 

I've owned a lot of guitars and played even more during the past 35 years. I have 2 Gibsons - the newer one is a '73 335 - so I don't hate Gibson. I write my own stuff - everything from lullabies for friends kids to instrumental classical/New Age/Whatever to Zeppelin-style rock. Add it all up, and you'll see the advice that I give other guitarists is not just my humble opinion - it's experience.

 

How's that for a 'Hell, I'm new here"?

Welcome...

It seems that you have a K-zoo made 335 also..

 

You understand the magic of Parsons St. and it is in that 150 also.

[thetubedude]

Hi Everybody. My name is Larry. I got my first Heritage yesterday.

I had posted my 2006 Dr. Z Mazerati 2X12 combo in Craigslist here in the San Francisco north bay area for a price of around $1200/or a Gibson es335. A guy emailed me and said he wanted to trade straight-up. He proceeded to tell me the basics about who Heritage is. He said he had a used H-535 in almond burst (s/n U06403). I could hardly believe it. Short version story:

He is a gigging musician; Has others guitars; Has owned the 535 from new; Has some very nice/hi-end amps; Really wants the Mazerati. We met yesterday. We made the trade and we both are delighted. I had never played any model of Heritage. In 1969 I got my first good guitar. It was a new 1968 Gibson ES-335 dot in that classic red from Angelo's House of Music on Geneva near Mission in San Francisco. It was a great guitar. In the past 10 years I have owned two Gibson custom shop ES-335s. I currently own around 40 guitars. Since I lost that '68 around 40 years ago, I have never had or played a 335 type that gave me the feelings of my '68 335; Until now. I have been playing since I was 11. I retain more than my share of fine guitars. The H-535 I have now is what I remember about my '68 335. It's more than a feeling; It's the acoustic sound. The unplugged volume. The vibrations at the body-to-body contact points. I could go on but I won't. However, I am wondering if someone who is at Parsons Street today might of had a hand in my old '68? I took several photos of my new Heritage 535 which I will post later today.

[mars_hall]

Hi Everybody. My name is Larry. I got my first Heritage yesterday.

I had posted my 2006 Dr. Z Mazerati 2X12 combo in Craigslist here in the San Francisco north bay area for a price of around $1200/or a Gibson es335. A guy emailed me and said he wanted to trade straight-up. He proceeded to tell me the basics about who Heritage is. He said he had a used H-535 in almond burst (s/n U06403). I could hardly believe it. Short version story:

He is a gigging musician; Has others guitars; Has owned the 535 from new; Has some very nice/hi-end amps; Really wants the Mazerati. We met yesterday. We made the trade and we both are delighted. I had never played any model of Heritage. In 1969 I got my first good guitar. It was a new 1968 Gibson ES-335 dot in that classic red from Angelo's House of Music on Geneva near Mission in San Francisco. It was a great guitar. In the past 10 years I have owned two Gibson custom shop ES-335s. I currently own around 40 guitars. Since I lost that '68 around 40 years ago, I have never had or played a 335 type that gave me the feelings of my '68 335; Until now. I have been playing since I was 11. I retain more than my share of fine guitars. The H-535 I have now is what I remember about my '68 335. It's more than a feeling; It's the acoustic sound. The unplugged volume. The vibrations at the body-to-body contact points. I could go on but I won't. However, I am wondering if someone who is at Parsons Street today might of had a hand in my old '68? I took several photos of my new Heritage 535 which I will post later today.

 

Welcome Larry and glad you feel the magic.

[Gitfiddler]

Welcome to all of the latest batch of HOC newbies.

 

From reading your praises about your Heritage guitars and your knowledge of guitars in general, your future posts should be a great addition around here!

[popeyedoyle]

A big shout out to all of you HOC members that lurk in the background but don't post much!

 

You know who you are!  But we don't. 

 

The sole purpose of this thread is to send out a special HELLO!  And to ask if you'll drop in and say something about you or your Heritage guitar.  Consider this a kind of online HOC meet and greet...or even a Heritage-Aholic group hug.

 

OK, I'll start..."Hi, my name is Tim, but my friends here call me Gitfiddler.  My favorite Heritages are (in no particular order):  Sweet 16, Golden Eagle, H-555, H-150 and of course the H-157.  I'd love to own a Millenium, but cannot spell it or afford one yet. 

 

Alright guys and gals, YOUR TURN!

 

Who are you...and tell us something about you and your favorite Heritages!  Let's see how many newbies or oldies will say HELLO!  8)

[lvjmusic]

L.V. here - lvjmusic on this and many other forums

 

Playing guitar since I was barely in my teens and have never been able to find a cure for G.A.S but marriage did slow down the onset as it can be particularly distressful to the bank account.

 

Currently proud owner of several of the early solid body models. I have two of the STAT models - one was 'bmg' stamped at the factory and arrived in my music store from the Heritage rep back in 1990 with a H U G E (and ugly) Schaller boat anchor for a bridge. It was a good guitar in most other ways so I added PJ Marx pups. Roland hex pickup and controller and Kahler top-load bridge. This is now one sweet ride. The second one I got on eBay several years ago and is stock in all ways. A previous owner tried to add a pickguard to it (!) and left remnants of the screw holes on the top.

 

I also have a bolt on VIP-1 (eBay) and an H140 goldtop (direct from Kalamazoo). The STATS are my main go to guitars but don't use the Roland rig much anymore and the VIP is a great single pick up axxe for just sitting and picking.

 

Ages and details are in my sig below. Happy pickin'!

 

LV

[mars_hall]

L.V. here - lvjmusic on this and many other forums

 

Playing guitar since I was barely in my teens and have never been able to find a cure for G.A.S but marriage did slow down the onset as it can be particularly distressful to the bank account.

 

Currently proud owner of several of the early solid body models. I have two of the STAT models - one was 'bmg' stamped at the factory and arrived in my music store from the Heritage rep back in 1990 with a H U G E (and ugly) Schaller boat anchor for a bridge. It was a good guitar in most other ways so I added PJ Marx pups. Roland hex pickup and controller and Kahler top-load bridge. This is now one sweet ride. The second one I got on eBay several years ago and is stock in all ways. A previous owner tried to add a pickguard to it (!) and left remnants of the screw holes on the top.

 

I also have a bolt on VIP-1 (eBay) and an H140 goldtop (direct from Kalamazoo). The STATS are my main go to guitars but don't use the Roland rig much anymore and the VIP is a great single pick up axxe for just sitting and picking.

 

Ages and details are in my sig below. Happy pickin'!

 

LV

 

Welcome LV. I have a Stat Dlx, which was my first Heritage guitar, and I love it.

[Gertcarl]

Hi, my name is Gert, living in Denmark, the little country i Scandinavia some people think is the capital of Sweden. Well, we are not, actually the capital of Denmark is Copenhagen. This is my first experience with HOC, I just joined today. My first experience with a Heritage was the 150 model(Les Paul type). I stupidly sold it and regret it almost every day. Yesterday I bought a used Prospect std made in 1994. It has been stored in the guitarcase for some years, with full tension on the strings, but it is in good shape. Good player and nice sound comming out of my Laney combo. It has been broken where the head meets the neck, but it has been this way for several years, so I guess it will last. No problem with staying in tune, so the guy that glued it must have known what he was doing.

I would like to know what kind of pickups are in this particular guitar, they must be the originals, but I can't find anything about this on the Heritage webside. I will start with searching HOC for info about this, but feel free to contribute if you have information. I could, off course, pull them out of the guitar to see if there is any information there, but I'll start here first.

Also, I would like to know if there could be any improvement to change the Schaller tailpiece and the rollerbridge to another type or brand. Any comments will be welcome, thanks.

Well, that's all for now, folks, thanks for reading.

GertCarl

[FredZepp]

Hi, my name is Gert, living in Denmark, the little country i Scandinavia some people think is the capital of Sweden. Well, we are not, actually the capital of Denmark is Copenhagen. This is my first experience with HOC, I just joined today. My first experience with a Heritage was the 150 model(Les Paul type). I stupidly sold it and regret it almost every day. Yesterday I bought a used Prospect std made in 1994. It has been stored in the guitarcase for some years, with full tension on the strings, but it is in good shape. Good player and nice sound comming out of my Laney combo. It has been broken where the head meets the neck, but it has been this way for several years, so I guess it will last. No problem with staying in tune, so the guy that glued it must have known what he was doing.

I would like to know what kind of pickups are in this particular guitar, they must be the originals, but I can't find anything about this on the Heritage webside. I will start with searching HOC for info about this, but feel free to contribute if you have information. I could, off course, pull them out of the guitar to see if there is any information there, but I'll start here first.

Also, I would like to know if there could be any improvement to change the Schaller tailpiece and the rollerbridge to another type or brand. Any comments will be welcome, thanks.

Well, that's all for now, folks, thanks for reading.

GertCarl

Welcome to the club , Gert.

It is likely that your Prospect has Schaller pickups ( these would have two screws on each side of the pickup) , but posting a photo of your guitar may help us identify the pickups. If your pickup selector switch has a "dot " on the end of the plastic part ,then you have HRW pickups.

You are right that a good headstock repair is very strong and should not give you any problems.

Opinions about the hardware vary, it has certainly been discussed here before.

Enjoy your Prospect, those are great guitars.

[Gertcarl]

Welcome to the club , Gert.

It is likely that your Prospect has Schaller pickups ( these would have two screws on each side of the pickup) , but posting a photo of your guitar may help us identify the pickups. If your pickup selector switch has a "dot " on the end of the plastic part ,then you have HRW pickups.

You are right that a good headstock repair is very strong and should not give you any problems.

Opinions about the hardware vary, it has certainly been discussed here before.

Enjoy your Prospect, those are great guitars.

Thank's for the reply FredZepp. The pickups have two screws, so it must be Schallers. I am not sure I will change them, time will show. Thank's for the info. Also there is no dot, so no HRW. And, just for the record, I realy like the Heritage guitars, very fine instruments. Actually I have 11 guitars at the moment, but I am not that skilled I can play more than one at the time, including two Finnish guitars made by Juha Ruokanges, ruokangas.com. These are also very fine instruments, so I guess I am a lucky guy.

Gert