Edwin Wilson getting involved with Heritage?

[Hfan]

Is this old news or just a rumor? It's news to me that's for sure.

He was big with the Gibbie Custom Shop until recently. He may have run it and he got credit for much of the good stuff they did. I stumbled on a thread on the LP Forum that said he was getting involved with Heritage (and Harmony). The guys there were upset when he left the CS, he has a good rep for sure. I only made it through the 1st page but this could be huge in a positive way for Heritage. Here's the link from the other forum, there is Heritage content too.

http://www.mylespaul.com/threads/had-a-chat-with-edwin-wilson-at-namm-today.404914/

 

[Millennium Maestro]

Not a  rumor. 

 

[DetroitBlues]

Interesting....

 

[pressure]

Does he know how to build a Millie? Inquiring minds want to know.

[Steiner]

4 hours ago, pressure said:

Does he know how to build a Millie? Inquiring minds want to know.

Les Paul Supreme...

[Kuz]

7 hours ago, pressure said:

Does he know how to build a Millie? Inquiring minds want to know.

Sure he does, just plug in the CNC machine and hit the start button.... oh, wait this isn’t Gibson???!!!

Yea, there might be a learning curve.

[JeffB]

On 2/9/2018 at 5:26 PM, Hfan said:

Is this old news or just a rumor? It's news to me that's for sure.

He was big with the Gibbie Custom Shop until recently. He may have run it and he got credit for much of the good stuff they did. I stumbled on a thread on the LP Forum that said he was getting involved with Heritage (and Harmony). The guys there were upset when he left the CS, he has a good rep for sure. I only made it through the 1st page but this could be huge in a positive way for Heritage. Here's the link from the other forum, there is Heritage content too.

http://www.mylespaul.com/threads/had-a-chat-with-edwin-wilson-at-namm-today.404914/

 

thread about Edward Wilson went straight to being a thread about the heritage head stock  in 3 posts!!!

 

 

[Spectrum13]

41 minutes ago, JeffB said:

thread about Edward Wilson went straight to being a thread about the heritage head stock  in 3 posts!!!

 

 

Even Bolaro and his eagle 157 could not stop it.

[TalismanRich]

I guess that's the reason I don't bother with the LP forums.   I read the whole thread, and it got SO tiresome.   I guess they just need to justify their choice in headstock, and no others can have a valid opinion. 

 

[Steiner]

+1

[JeffB]

thread about Edwin Wilson turned into a thread about a thread about Edwin Wilson which turned into a thread about Heritage  head stocks.

Wonder if Edwin Wilson will mess with the Heritage headstock?

 

[PunkKitty]

17 minutes ago, JeffB said:

thread about Edwin Wilson turned into a thread about a thread about Edwin Wilson which turned into a thread about Heritage  head stocks.

Wonder if Edwin Wilson will mess with the Heritage headstock?

 

Why should he? There's nothing wrong with it.

[Hfan]

9 hours ago, TalismanRich said:

I guess that's the reason I don't bother with the LP forums.   I read the whole thread, and it got SO tiresome.   I guess they just need to justify their choice in headstock, and no others can have a valid opinion. 

 

Glad I only read the  first page. Sour grapes maybe on their end, there was a lot of wailing when he left, Henry had something to do with that.

[JeffB]

12 hours ago, PunkKitty said:

Why should he? There's nothing wrong with it.

Thats right.

Kinda perverse sense of humour, making two threads about Edwin Wilson to be about Heritage headstocks.

I dont even know who Edwin Wilson is, I had to google his name.

[Spectrum13]

6 hours ago, JeffB said:

Thats right.

Kinda perverse sense of humour, making two threads about Edwin Wilson to be about Heritage headstocks.

I dont even know who Edwin Wilson is, I had to google his name.

I thought he was from New Jersey and fronted the Cruisers crashed his blue 57 Chevy and moved to Montreal.

[PunkKitty]

7 hours ago, JeffB said:

Thats right.

Kinda perverse sense of humour, making two threads about Edwin Wilson to be about Heritage headstocks.

I dont even know who Edwin Wilson is, I had to google his name.

I did too. Now I understand why this is big news.

[Gitfiddler]

Here's a 7/28/17 article quoting Edwin Wilson back when he was in charge of Gibson's Custom Shop...

http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Gear-Tech/en-us/Collectors-Choice-and-Signature-Guitars.aspx

 

[Steiner]

Nice marketing fodder.

Given the claims in the article, why can't we all own a '59 Les Paul.  G was one of the first companies to mass produce guitars.  Certainly they can objectively mass produce '59s.

[DetroitBlues]

I think the only thing that is happening here is a return of models that we assumed were discontinued and this gentlemen will help organize the Heritage Custom Shop.  Assuming that's the game plan.

I don't think anyone will argue that Gibson standard production is so-so in quality.  But most of the custom shop stuff is really well made, especially with all the painstaking efforts into making those historics as close to exact repro's of the originals.  What better place to continue such efforts in the original building using the original tools and methods?

[kidsmoke]

I won't waste my time commenting on the thread at that other forum. But what I see with this move, more than anything, is a ballsy claim of integrity, legitimacy, and most of all, continuity. 

Nowhere in anything I read anywhere is there any hint that Mr Wilson has, could or should get involved in (re)design. What he brings is an extension of what gives Heritage it's name,  (Marv, Bill, JP, Jim) which is a legitimate claim to knowing and understanding the intricacies of handbuilding electric guitars true to the golden era, in that building, in the mid 20th century. Outside of Heritage guitar, he (by virtue of being THE CS shop for it's entirety, and responsible for all research, development of methods, and training of people to produce at a volume level unprecedented at Heritage, while maintaining high quality) lays authoritative claim to knowing most what goes into these instruments. (yoslate gonna kill me for that run on ) And by all accounts, being highly successful building them. Heritage going out and getting him, in my mind, says a lot.

For all the wailing and gnashing of teeth I hear about Gibson during Henry's tenure, I've never heard anyone say a CS guitar wasn't a fine, fine instrument. Furthermore, If I want to appeal to the corksniffing headstock centric buyer who's already been convinced to spend $9k on a Memphis build, based on it's authenticity, how far do I have to go to get that same buyer on board when the same builder has taken his tool box home to Parsons street...and will rub elbows, for a time at least, with the boys who were there in 56-7-8-9...... Their sales claim that THIS guitar is in fact CLOSER to the grail than any Gibson R-whatever has legitimacy and can be made with integrity. 

The continuity claim is that as the old guard does in fact cease to ply their craft at 225, someone with both the knowledge of the craft, respect of the knowledge base, and ability to manage production remains in place. 

Couldn't it be stated that if you took the Memphis Custom shop and said, kids, lets make this a wee bit bigger, a lot more authentic and true to it's, um, Heritage....you effectively do that by remodeling and improving 225, and making Wilson part of the mgmt team? In other words, he's not there to organize the Heritage custom shop...Heritage IS the custom shop. Size wise it's probably not much larger. 

i'm rambling...

 

 

 

 

[kidsmoke]

interesting little side note....when the custom shop has gotten overwhelmed with service requests...they were known to load guitars in a trailer and bring them to Pete Moreno. Jus' sayin'.

[Gitfiddler]

Wilson was in charge of the CS during the Johnny A. Signature and CS356 model design and production, two of the my all time favorites...and very similar in basic body design as a Millie.

I'm glad to see him on the Heritage team. 

[kidsmoke]

10 minutes ago, Gitfiddler said:

Wilson was in charge of the CS during the Johnny A. Signature and CS356 model design and production, two of the my all time favorites...and very similar in basic body design as a Millie.

I'm glad to see him on the Heritage team. 

He's the only manager the G****n custom shop has ever had....

[bolero]

On 02/11/2018 at 9:50 AM, Spectrum13 said:

Even Bolaro and his eagle 157 could not stop it.

Actually its worth noting that the two most adamant headstock haters in that thread approved of the Bolero H157

A while ago, when I posted a pic on the other LPF, I also had pm's offering to buy it

Want to sell guitars to the conservative crowd, who currently aren't interested?

If I owned a guitar shop I know what I'd be trying to order

I also admire the original headstock though!

Its great that we had the custom options at Heritage to build our own dream instruments. This H157 replaced a 57 RI LPC I once owned. And it "owns" the Gibson

Hopefully we will be able to custom order again, soon

Best of luck to Edwin, I hope they give him a nice welcome back to where it all started

 

[Hfan]

On 2/12/2018 at 2:19 PM, kidsmoke said:

I won't waste my time commenting on the thread at that other forum. But what I see with this move, more than anything, is a ballsy claim of integrity, legitimacy, and most of all, continuity. 

Nowhere in anything I read anywhere is there any hint that Mr Wilson has, could or should get involved in (re)design. What he brings is an extension of what gives Heritage it's name,  (Marv, Bill, JP, Jim) which is a legitimate claim to knowing and understanding the intricacies of handbuilding electric guitars true to the golden era, in that building, in the mid 20th century. Outside of Heritage guitar, he (by virtue of being THE CS shop for it's entirety, and responsible for all research, development of methods, and training of people to produce at a volume level unprecedented at Heritage, while maintaining high quality) lays authoritative claim to knowing most what goes into these instruments. (yoslate gonna kill me for that run on ) And by all accounts, being highly successful building them. Heritage going out and getting him, in my mind, says a lot.

For all the wailing and gnashing of teeth I hear about Gibson during Henry's tenure, I've never heard anyone say a CS guitar wasn't a fine, fine instrument. Furthermore, If I want to appeal to the corksniffing headstock centric buyer who's already been convinced to spend $9k on a Memphis build, based on it's authenticity, how far do I have to go to get that same buyer on board when the same builder has taken his tool box home to Parsons street...and will rub elbows, for a time at least, with the boys who were there in 56-7-8-9...... Their sales claim that THIS guitar is in fact CLOSER to the grail than any Gibson R-whatever has legitimacy and can be made with integrity. 

The continuity claim is that as the old guard does in fact cease to ply their craft at 225, someone with both the knowledge of the craft, respect of the knowledge base, and ability to manage production remains in place. 

Couldn't it be stated that if you took the Memphis Custom shop and said, kids, lets make this a wee bit bigger, a lot more authentic and true to it's, um, Heritage....you effectively do that by remodeling and improving 225, and making Wilson part of the mgmt team? In other words, he's not there to organize the Heritage custom shop...Heritage IS the custom shop. Size wise it's probably not much larger. 

i'm rambling...

 

 

 

 

No not a ramble at all. Very good thoughts Kip. Kind of like what I was feeling when I read about the situation but wasn't eloquent enough to put into words. I have always wondered what would happen when the founders of Heritage were no longer involved in the production. This may be like a bridge to the future and help with a continuation of the brand we all love. If it is true it will be interesting for sure. And the headstock will keep all those guys on the other forum from running up the prices ha ha. Assuming they would even consider anything without a G on the headstock.