Heritage: Early days & Fender connection

[FredZepp]

 If you happened to visit the old prototype room at the Heritage plant in previous years, you saw many interesting Heritage prototype guitars and one particular oddity.  There also was a 1980's Fender AVRI Stratocaster there.  You might have heard the story of the help from Fender that Heritage received during the period of lawsuits from Gibson.   Fender helped with the legal problems and also shared space at a guitar show to help them introduce their new company.  They offered to help with Heritage distribution , something Jim Deurloo said he regretted not doing with them.  Also, there were discussions about Heritage crafting some Fender models in the Parsons Street plant.. which is why there was guitar from Fender in the prototype room. 

Here's some of the story...  From the beginning and some later history.  (excerpt from MLive article..link below)  

 Having already passed on offers to relocate to Nashville, Lamb and Deurloo started a woodworking business in a pole barn belonging to fellow Gibson employee J.P. Moats, who'd later helped found Heritage and remains a part owner after retiring and moving back to his native Alabama a few years ago. The business, Dimension Wood Products, originally made mostly clocks and van parts, Deurloo said. Building guitars was never the intention. "We weren't even thinking about making guitars," Deurloo recalled.

But after Gibson announced in February of 1984 that its Kalamazoo plant would close in June of that year, the three partners considered starting their own guitar-making business after the idea was raised by Bruce Bolen, another Gibson employee who decided not to invest in Heritage. After moving the business to a couple of different locations, the partners received an offer to move back into the hallowed ground of the Parsons Street factory. "We had a forklift at the time that we agreed to trade for the first six months' rent," Deurloo said. "We figured that was a fair deal."

In 1985, Heritage began producing prototypes of its models at the former Gibson factory. By November, the three partners had pumped $150,000 into the operation, according to Nov. 17, 1985 edition of the Kalamazoo Gazette. Heritage showed prototypes of its instruments at a guitar show in New Orleans the following year after Fender Musical Instruments Inc. agreed to share its booth, a gesture Lamb said spread the word that Kalamazoo was again producing high-end stringed instruments. "Fender was good to us," Lamb said of Gibson's long-time rival. "They were very good friends to us."

Deurloo said his only regret during those early years was not accepting an offer from Fender Musical Instruments Inc. to let the company distribute Heritage guitars. After turning Fender down, Deurloo said the two companies then discussed Heritage handling some of Fender's production before that deal fell through. "They wanted us to make their American-made products for them, but that fell through," Deurloo said. "We had a contract and everything, but their lender wouldn't let the production leave California -- that's what we were told anyway."

Advertising has never been Heritage's forte, but it was especially difficult during those initial years due to legal battles between Gibson and Heritage. "At first, Gibson was friendly to us," Lamb recalled. "They had us in, wanted to hire  us, wanted to buy us, wanted us to make instruments for them and then they wanted to sue us."

"They seen us as competition, and they were right," Deurloo said.

 

Link.. MLive.. Heritage Guitar :Kalamazoo   <<< LINK  

[RhoadsScholar]

Thanks for posting Fred. Great distraction from Friday, 2/24/2018's happenings. Awesome history lesson here.