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How did Heritage amps get with Heritage guitars?


fxdx99

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Posted

I meant to ask this at the tour, but forgot...  how did 225 Parson's hook up with Heritage amps, which are in Tennessee?  I understand the connection with Lane from the Heritage amp site (Sales and Marketing for Heritage), but what's the background of the amp/cab makers?  Did they make amps under another logo prior to establishing Heritage amps in 04?

 

Nice looking line - I especially like the Victory model.  Haven't seen any live up in Minnesota...

Posted

Heritage guitar and Heritage Amplification have no ties together. Vince told me they are completely different and share no profits what so ever.

 

Maybe there was an original partnership that split?

 

Maybe Heritage Guitar sold the rights of "Heritage" name to them?

 

Sorry don't know more but Kenny Burrell also endorses Heritage Amps.

Posted

I always thought that Heritage amps were the successor to Holland Amps, but I found the following on the Gear Page.  Hope it helps...

 

(this post was in reply to a post that said Heritage Amps "walk and talk" like Holland amps...

Paul Cochrane  (head designer for Heritage Amps)

11-12-2004, 08:55 PM

Nope - no ducks here! And Heritage WILL NOT deny any past with Holland. There is a tie in - but it was on the biz side of things only. I'm the design guy for Heritage amps, and here's the REAL story behind the deal...

 

The owner of Heritage amps used to be a partner of Mike Hollands. They had a company called L&M (Lane and Mike). Mike made the amps, and Lane sold them. A little over a year ago that deal ended with the two guys going different ways. As far as I know Holland is still making amps. Lane wanted to keep going with a new line of amps, and formed a new company with another partner. The guys that worked with Mike stayed with Lane. The first few Heritage amps looked a bit like Hollands because that's how they knew to build things. They were using the same cab shops and such. I was brought on as the design guy back in May of 2004. Since then we've changed everything about the company. The amps are not reworked Hollands, but circuits I've been putzing around with for years. We've got some monster guitar players working here, and everybody has an input into the amps (but I am the most headstrong about it to be honest). Also we now have an in house cab maker that used to make cabs for Mojave/Carr/Barber etc... The new amps don't look or sound anything like Hollands. That picture of the Heritage amp shown is one of the old amps made before I came on and changed everything up . The new amps don't look like that, and the circuits are very different.

 

 

The tie in with Holland was on the biz side of things. That ended, and this is something new. Nothing underhanded about any of this. It's just about two guys ending a deal, and both going on with something else. The Heritage amps are about as far removed as you can get from Hollands and still have tubes in them!!

 

 

the Kenny Burrell amp is the same in name only. The new model is a totally different circuit and cab made for him. Holland made a model for him before, but Kenny decided to go with Heritage after the split, and we made him a new signature model. It's blue because that's what he wanted!!

 

I'll stop now before it gets to look like spam.

 

PaulC

The "Lane" mentioned is Lane Zastrow, who was a VP for sales and marketing for Gibson and then for Heritage Guitars.  He seems to be the tie in.  His partner in Heritage Amps is Malcolm MacDonald, according to the Heritage Amp site ...I have no idea who that is.

Posted
I always thought that Heritage amps were the successor to Holland Amps, but I found the following on the Gear Page.  Hope it helps...

 

(this post was in reply to a post that said Heritage Amps "walk and talk" like Holland amps...

PaulC

11-12-2004, 08:55 PM

Nope - no ducks here! And Heritage WILL NOT deny any past with Holland. There is a tie in - but it was on the biz side of things only. I'm the design guy for Heritage amps, and here's the REAL story behind the deal...

 

The owner of Heritage amps used to be a partner of Mike Hollands. They had a company called L&M (Lane and Mike). Mike made the amps, and Lane sold them. A little over a year ago that deal ended with the two guys going different ways. As far as I know Holland is still making amps. Lane wanted to keep going with a new line of amps, and formed a new company with another partner. The guys that worked with Mike stayed with Lane. The first few Heritage amps looked a bit like Hollands because that's how they knew to build things. They were using the same cab shops and such. I was brought on as the design guy back in May of 2004. Since then we've changed everything about the company. The amps are not reworked Hollands, but circuits I've been putzing around with for years. We've got some monster guitar players working here, and everybody has an input into the amps (but I am the most headstrong about it to be honest). Also we now have an in house cab maker that used to make cabs for Mojave/Carr/Barber etc... The new amps don't look or sound anything like Hollands. That picture of the Heritage amp shown is one of the old amps made before I came on and changed everything up . The new amps don't look like that, and the circuits are very different.

 

 

The tie in with Holland was on the biz side of things. That ended, and this is something new. Nothing underhanded about any of this. It's just about two guys ending a deal, and both going on with something else. The Heritage amps are about as far removed as you can get from Hollands and still have tubes in them!!

 

 

the Kenny Burrell amp is the same in name only. The new model is a totally different circuit and cab made for him. Holland made a model for him before, but Kenny decided to go with Heritage after the split, and we made him a new signature model. It's blue because that's what he wanted!!

 

I'll stop now before it gets to look like spam.

 

PaulC

The "Lane" mentioned is Lane Zastrow, who worked in distribution for Gibson and then Heritage Guitars.  He seems to be the tie in...

 

Jee, Do you think the new Heritage amps sound like Holland amps?  :rolleyes:

 

I couldn't tell from that post :P

Posted

Ah, thanks 'ebg'.  Nice research/discovery.  Makes sense - there is a Paul C on the Heritage amp site and that would seem to be the GP poster.

Posted

Kuz:

I made the connection between Holland and Heritage amps based solely on the fact the cosmetics of early Heritage amps were almost identical to Holland and on the fact that the same dealers tended to carry them.  When a "Heritage" amp appeared, I noticed ... and couldn't help but notice the similarity to the Hollands that the same dealers often still had in stock. 

 

I've never played either a Holland or a Heritage amp, nor, to the best of my knowledge, have I heard either amp.  Pretty esoteric for my very isolated neck of the woods.  All my post intended to point out was the Lazar/Lane Zastrow/Heritage connection. 

Posted
Kuz:

I made the connection between Holland and Heritage amps based solely on the fact the cosmetics of early Heritage amps were almost identical to Holland and on the fact that the same dealers tended to carry them.  When a "Heritage" amp appeared, I noticed ... and couldn't help but notice the similarity to the Hollands that the same dealers often still had in stock. 

 

I've never played either a Holland or a Heritage amp, nor, to the best of my knowledge, have I heard either amp.  Pretty esoteric for my very isolated neck of the woods.  All my post intended to point out was the Lazar/Lane Zastrow/Heritage connection. 

 

I'm sorry please don't take my post the wrong way. I thought Heritage amps were direct decendents of Holland amps as well. I just that it funny the qoutes from Paul C. He says like 4 times Heritage amps a complete different beast from Holland amps. He must REALLY want to hammer home that point. I just found it funny how many times he stressed that, thats all. :)

Posted

No problem at all, Kuz.  I just thought you were asking me for a comparison based on tone, which I couldn't give.  Thought the post in question was mine, rather than Paul C's, and thus missed your sarcasm towards Paul C's effort to distinguish his work from Holland's. 

 

I wish I did get to play more boutique stuff, and could give some tone reports, but I'm just not in a location to have much chance. 

Posted

Great job of sleuthing. And something alot of us wanted to know. Think most of us knew the two companies weren't related - biz wise. But seeing Lane in the equation makes the connection seem logical. I have got to play one, however briefly it was. And don't remember the model. What I do remember is that 150GT sounded great thru it.

Posted

"PaulC" on the Heritage website (?) and The Gear Page is Paul Cochrane, creator & builder of Tim and Timmy pedals and designer of Heritage amps.  look for "paulcaudion" on MySpace.  get a userid on TGP and search for more Heritage-related items & info.  pLane is indeed the connection, having been the distributor/marketer of the guitars and either owner or co-owner of the amp company (i'm not sure of present status).  each Heritage amp model is distinctive in features and are & sound way diffrnt than any Hollands i've heard or tried.  i have the Colonial, Briton II, and Victory heads and three cabs by Peter Mather (Heritage Amps cab builder, now owner of MatherCab.com). 

 

great stuff...

8)

 

TGP:  hawkeyeinexile

  • 2 months later...
Posted

funny, when they first appeared I didn;t think they were associated with Heritage gtrs....then after a while I figured they were....esp after seeing them on Jay Wolfe's site

 

 

and now I find out they aren't after all  :P

 

 

even that page that sells Heritage guitar swag sells Heritage amplification shirts etc alongside the gtr stuff 

 

 

confusing for the layman!!

Posted

Paul Cochrane left Heritage Amps in 2/08 to build his pedals full time (he has built them part time for 11 years while designing and building amps for various people). He also has plans to build amps under his own name starting this winter sometime. I'll be talking to him today and see how that is going. I'll find out about Heritage Amps also and get back to you. I use a Victory as one of my test amps for guitars. It is really good. The Heritage name on amps is even lower on the radar than Heritage Guitars. Not an easy amp to sell. Which is really too bad considering how well made and great sounding they are.

  • 1 month later...
Posted

Forgot all about this thread. Heritage Amps has closed down for an undetermined time. Maybe for good. I've had people here play the Heritage Victory, various Suhrs, Fender Vibro King Custom (Fenders best), and other misc. amps and ask if they can buy the Victory. It is the perfect demo amp and makes every guitar sound it's best. I hope Heritage Amps is resurrected someday. I'm not selling the Victory.

Posted
Forgot all about this thread. Heritage Amps has closed down for an undetermined time. Maybe for good. I've had people here play the Heritage Victory, various Suhrs, Fender Vibro King Custom (Fenders best), and other misc. amps and ask if they can buy the Victory. It is the perfect demo amp and makes every guitar sound it's best. I hope Heritage Amps is resurrected someday. I'm not selling the Victory.

 

That's bad news indeed, they look like really great amps.

  • 8 months later...
Posted

From Paul himself!!

 

Yeah - the amps are done for now. The factory shut down of the guitars in the summer of '07 killed us. We didn't see that coming, and we went from selling a couple dozen amps a month to nothing overnight. None of our dealers wanted any amps until they were sure they'd get their guitars. That dragged on for so long that I decided to bail in Dec '07 to do pedals full time, and the amp company closed up shop in March of '08. I don't know if the owner will get things back up. Everybody there has moved on, so he'd need a new crew to do it.

 

anyway - that's about that.

 

Later, PaulC

myspace.com/paulcaudio

Posted

I've always found it a bit strange that Heritage Amps couldn't sell amps if Heritage Guitars didn't produce guitars. They aren't the same company. Granted, Lane Z distributed both. But I guess I never realized how dependent HA was on HG. Some of the underlying symbiosis you never really see until after the fact.

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