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Heritage Owners Club

Collectible Heritage Guitars...Is There Such An Animal?


Gitfiddler

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Posted

OK, everyone knows that Heritage has an amazing Kalamazoo pedigree, and build some of the best instruments around for working musicians and hobby players.

 

But let's discuss, just for fun...not too serious...the following question...Are there any collectible Heritage guitars?

 

 

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Posted

Parsons Street with Gumby headstock... exceptional instruments and rare. With a big fat neck and a comfortable body style.... will be legendary one day.

 

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Posted

Fred~ That Parsons Street is funky-cool!

 

Hey, speaking of collectible, your '99 EAGLE CENTURION would also be a candidate.

Posted

Just for grins, how about somebody define "collectible." You can collect anything. Seems like when people use the word for guitars they mean the market value tends to go up over time - is that what we're talking about?

Posted

I'd say a guitar becomes collectible when it becomes sought after among guitar collectors, not just among the usual brand devotees like us HOC members. The market value will then rise as a result automatically.

Posted

All Heritages are worthy, wonderful, soulful, custom guitars.

 

But the only one I would think that possibly could be collectible for an investment would be an unaltered Gary Moore.

Posted

It always struck me that the Centurion shows a hummingbird on the headstock while it should show a really majestic eagle. That makes it kind of weird and less collectible. :icon_blackeye:

Posted

The American Eagle comes to mind.

 

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Posted

All Heritages are worthy, wonderful, soulful, custom guitars.

 

But the only one I would think that possibly could be collectible for an investment would be an unaltered Gary Moore.

 

 

Mr. Wolfe' GARY MOORE!

 

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Posted

It always struck me that the Centurion shows a hummingbird on the headstock while it should show a really majestic eagle. That makes it kind of weird and less collectible. :icon_blackeye:

As the last instrument to be made in the twentieth century at Parsons Street .. it's more about commemorating the plant and it's history. It's a nod to the F style mandolins and early archtops made there.

Posted

I like to think of Heritage owners as guitar players, not collectors. If it too pretty or expensive to play, what's the point. Guitars are tools, not works of art wasted behind a display case... Just my opinion.

Posted

As the last instrument to be made in the twentieth century at Parsons Street .. it's more about commemorating the plant and it's history. It's a nod to the F style mandolins and early archtops made there.

 

I know, I was just kidding. They couldn't have built a nicer guitar to honour just that! To me, the Centurion still is one of the nicest and certainly most special Heritage guitar that I've ever seen.

 

 

I think my American Eagle Qualifies (#19 of 25). The craziest quilted maple I have ever seen on this ....

 

Sure does!

 

 

I like to think of Heritage owners as guitar players, not collectors. If it too pretty or expensive to play, what's the point. Guitars are tools, not works of art wasted behind a display case... Just my opinion.

 

I've read that opinion often before. In my opinion it leaves very little space for reality, at least for my reality. Pro musicians may use guitars as tools to make a living, collectors see them as works of art and display them with pride in their glass cabinets. But there is also a huge area inbetween, full of music lovers that really appreciate the handicraft of luthiers and the beauty of their products, which they like to play and treasure just the same.

 

Maybe you've meant those guys who buy '59 Lesters for a quarter of a million bucks and put them away in humidity controlled safes. Yeah, I hate those guys, too. But even they are doing something good - they preserve those precious instruments for generations to come. I'm glad we still have a few original Stradivaris around, maybe people in a few hundred years from now will say the same about those Lesters. Oh well, I don't know, it's early in the morning here, I'm tired and starting to babble. I'll better leave it at that. Have a nice day everyone!

Posted

I wouldn't expect a single guitar made anywhere in the past thirty or forty years to increase in value at even the rate of inflation in the future.

 

When the Boomers die, even the Lesters and Strats will be worth less.

 

By the time the Gen Xers retire, all but the rarest and most important guitars with specific provenance will be priced like everyday cars in fully restored condition from the Thirties and Forties are now: cheap, cheap cheap.

 

I don't expect to see it, but I expect the day will come when most guitars are taken apart and the wood in them is re-used for other things. We are not far from a day when the koa, mahogany, rosewood, and other materials will be worth more to people out of a guitar than in it.

 

Imagine the luxury home of the year 2150. It's been a hundred years since any "exotic" wood was available at almost any price due to scarcity and international treaties. When Mrs. One Percent wants a polished mahogany table, or a koa lamp, or steam-bent rosewood arms for her couch, where do you think they're going to get it? Hint: run a couple dozen Les Pauls through a bandsaw and a planer then glue it up.

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