Which guitar to choose

[Metalheart]

Thank you everyone for the advice on which guitar to choose. 

After arriving at Better Music in the ACT Canberra, Australia, I went to the room with the nice guitars and played the H-137 and H-150. The salesman kept handing me Suhr guitars for some reason, so I though, why not have a go of them. All the guitars were played through one of those new Mesa Filmore amps. The Suhr guitars were nice, however, they are not vintage voiced, are more modern/less dynamic and did not even compare sound wise to the H-150 when playing a blues style. The H137 also sounded great and had a nice middle range but, as others have said, for a bit more money I think the H-150 was the best quality and value.

When compared to the Gibson guitars in the shop, especially the equivalent les paul standard, the H-150 was slightly thinner but much heavier. I like heavy guitars so that was a plus for me. I didn't play the Gibson custom shop guitars and they were about 10 000 Australian dollars anyway, why bother.

I do own a 1981 les Paul custom in rough condition, so a pre Gibson relocation guitar. The heritage feels much closer to the les paul custom than any of the Gibsons I played in the shop. Which is also a nice surprise since I love the way my 1981 model feels.

So, I purchased the vintage cherry burst H-150 and I'm pround to be a new heritage guitar owner. A brand I never thought I would see in person let alone purchase one of their guitars.

Thanks again everyone and there are some pictures below.

Mark.

[Metalheart]

[Metalheart]

[Metalheart]

[Metalheart]

It won't let me upload anymore, I will try again tomorrow.

[High Flying Bird]

Good for you. 

[Gianluca]

congrats, nice H150

enjoy it :-)

[Gianluca]

On 4/8/2019 at 2:17 AM, rockabilly69 said:

Here's some blues riffing on my H150 where you can hear the different pickup tones....

nice tone, thanks for sharing that one

 

[Conneazoo]

6 hours ago, Metalheart said:

Very, very nice. I believe that you made the correct choice. I know you wanted a blues guitar, but judging by your screen name, you'll have the heavier tones covered as well. 

Great guitar!!! I hope that you play it in good health for years and years to come. 

[TalismanRich]

That one's nice and flamey!   The shading of the cherry is more subtle than many.  Tasteful.

Enjoy!

[Vanschoyck]

Nice guitar and quite a looker too.  I'm glad that worked out for you.

 

[Gitfiddler]

Excellent H150! 

Congratulations. 

[Metalheart]

[Metalheart]

[Metalheart]

[yoslate]

Well played!  That should scratch the itch for a bit!  Beauty!

[PunkKitty]

Very nice! Congratulations!

[High Flying Bird]

13 hours ago, TalismanRich said:

The shading of the cherry is more subtle than many.  Tasteful.

Very tasteful. 

[Hfan]

Excellent, I was going to advise to make that long trip and bring home what spoke to you. I was leaning towards the H 150 if you had to choose one and all else was equal. Big congrats.

BTY, the new Heritage cases are nice.

[Spectrum13]

Can we have a tone and playability report please?

[Buckyrock]

Metalheart - cool new Hertiage!

 

By the way - it's my understanding that Gibson opened the Nashville plant in 1974, and most Les Paul production moved there - so it's possible that your Les Paul Custom was built in Nashville.

[rockabilly69]

On 4/8/2019 at 9:54 AM, rwinking said:

Hey Rockabilly, Loved your tone. That amp had a nice break up with the H-150. What was it?

That was a stock VoxAC15, the cheaper circuit board one, not the hardwired.

[rockabilly69]

On 4/20/2019 at 4:57 AM, Gianluca said:

nice tone, thanks for sharing that one

 

thank you

[DetroitBlues]

Wow, congratulations.

That is a real looker too.

I think you made the right choice over Gibson or Suhr.

[Metalheart]

Tone and playability

To be honest, I've only been learning the blues for around a year. I've been playing for a fair while but never bothered to learn the pentatonic scale haha.

So after liking Joe Bonamassa's playing, I set out to try some blues. Long story short, it's something I should have done a long time ago.

Tone is excellent, very pleased at how the 59 pickups sound. As I mentioned, The Suhr guitar was noticeably less dynamic, and, so are my Jackson guitars. Of course  the Suhr and Jackson guitars excel at modern styles, however, that is not why I purchased the Heritage. As far as tone goes, all the pieces fall into place. The way lower output pickups react to tube distortion and slight overdrive cannot be replicated on higher output pickups (in my opinion). Even when cranked with overdrive there are huge dynamics. The guitar has awesome classic rock tones and has a liveliness that you might expect from a strat. I listen to death metal and stuff like that (check out the new Aephanemer album, it rules) but the subtle richness of the guitar makes me want to turn the gain down. I mean, some gear simply cannot reproduce certain styles credibly. finally, it has that bass response only found in the likes of well-built les paul style guitars. It has the feel of quality.

Playability was average but I sent it my luthier to be setup and Now it is perfect. I can shred the pentatonic scales if I want with ease. There is nothing about the playability of the guitar that will limit my ability. I attribute the original setup to the music store messing with the guitars, as they mentioned they altered the H-137 when I was there. My luthier said that the neck was too straight and he relieved it, which also allowed him to lower the tail-piece. All the pieces falling into place.

The guitar has no flaws that I can see and is a keeper.

Thanks for all the information provided by everyone, I am not really up to date on the history of guitars.

cheers.