A real-life comparison of Heritage archtop.

[dvnmjc]

You might find this interesting. I change the strings on the Heritage Johnny Smith I got been almost a month. This was Jay Wolfe's person Heritage.  It had flatwounds but they actually sounded good I just decided to give it a set of Daddario 1/2 rounds. I like the lower finger noise and they get close to a roundwound. This guitar really sounds nice and warm has a wonderful depth of sound. So, I then got out the Gibson Legrand ( 2001 )and the Gibson L5 ( 2003 carved to be totally acoustic by custom shop) to have on the carpet to look at and then make some sound comparisons. In addition to sound comparisons, I want to just get a feel and look at the aesthetics.  Frankly it is a tossup I will give the L5 a bit of a winner here for output sound and I think some of it has to do with the bigger body. Between the Legrand and the HJS I think they both sound great in a blindfold test I bet it would be spread all over which one sounder better.

Here is the real way I look at this. The Legrand is worth I suppose twice as much as the HJS but purely from the looks of each I cannot say which one stands above the other. They both look great, and sound wise I say it is a tossup. What this tells me is that a good Heritage Guitar is right now a sleeper in terms of value. Probably won't make that much difference in our lifetime but 30 years from today I think they will stand out quite nicely. I remember when you could not give away a D'angelico non-cut guitar back in the 1980's and even into 90's. Now they are basically seen as getting out of reach for a nice one and no one is worried that it is a non cut only that it is a D'angelico. That is Heritage stuff today. I hope Heritage realizes this in the company and keeps at it.

I have other guitars to compare to also but right now I will take these Heritage Johnny Smiths are the cream of the crop with anything. Way better than the 2 previous Gibson Johnny Smiths I had years ago.

[TalismanRich]

Its good to hear about someone else who has discovered the 1/2 round or groundwound strings.   I agree with you.  You get most of the roundwound sound, with a smooth feel.

 

 

[dvnmjc]

GHS roller wounds will do the same thing too.