Heritage Sighting

[Genericmusic]

Which Heritage is this?

 

[Dick Seacup]

The ultra-rare Heritage DB-140 double bass!!

You can tell by the ever-so-slightly asymmetric headstock scroll and the slightly flattened upper bout to c-bout transition. There were only a couple built, and both (possibly three, depending on who you believe) were handmade by the heretofore silent partner in Heritage, Hymie Manischewitz. A gifted accountant and master luthier, he hand-scraped and tap tuned the front/backs of each of the stand up basses to perfection, carved the necks himself (including headstocks, and even the bridges and, some say, the endpins, but I have never been able to verify this) and did the finishes and buffing himself. Nobody, as far as I know, has ever mentioned if there was a case included, which I have always found odd. 

Hymie grew up in the Parkview Hills area of K'zoo, graduating from K'zoo Central High in 1952. While he attended Western Mich U, studying Accounting, he worked part time at the (then) Gibson plant, initially as a shop hand (sweeping, emptying trash/waste, etc), before moving in to the office as a junior bookkeeper, and eventually being promoted as a supervisor in the accounting department. What most didn't know, however, was that our man longed to--as he explained it to a mutual friend one time--"actually create something with my hands, not just perform miracles for the front office with my mind." Thus, he started hanging out in the shop after hours. This being the heyday of Gibson guitars, he had plenty of opportunity to get hands-on experience in the actual craft of building an instrument. 

Over the course of three or four years, he worked on acoustics, he worked on solid bodies, he worked on guitars, basses, banjos. Learning the ins-and-outs of each manufacturing step, he once said, informed his decisions on how to handle various accounting 'tricks.' Whether that's true or not, nobody really knows, other than he allegedly said it. What we do know, though, is that he worked for Gibson in both Accounting and, at least unofficially, in Production for many decades, and he excelled in both arenas. When ol' Gibson decided to abandon Michigan for the warmer climes of the South, Hymie just couldn't stomach the idea of going along. He'd managed to sock away enough money to "retire comfortably" as he mentioned to a fellow patron at Rum Runners one night (if you never caught the dueling pianos at Rum Runners...you really missed out! Did you know that American Idol contestant Matt Giraud used to play there?!), but he really wasn't ready to 'hang it all up' (as he supposedly termed it).

Enter the "Fabulous Five" who launched Heritage. Except, they knew they needed someone to cook manage the books. One thing led to another and an offer was extended to Herr Manischewitz. He was totally on board, but his only requirement was, "You have to let me build a few instruments of my own choosing." Agreements were drawn up, signatures were scrawled, and the rest is history. Or, well, history if you know it...is it really history if nobody knows it? Regardless, now you know.

In the early 80s, he toiled away by day, balancing the books, doing what he could to make the enterprise profitable. By night? Well, by night, he'd drift down to the workshop and lose himself in his only true passion, sanding on a giant slab of flamed maple. Slowly carving a neck. Turning an end pin out of ebony. I don't know when the HM-built DB-140s were completed, but I do know, for a fact, they were completed. The logs don't record them, nobody knows where they went (until now, because that one in the video is definitely one of them. Ask me how I know...hint: it's not just the headstock and c-bout to upper bout transition). 

Such a shame he passed away in the early 90s and virtually nobody even knew his story. Have you seen the (one and only) DB-147 with the over-the-top accoutrements? It's incredible! As I understand it, he had some help on the inlays and hand-rubbed French finish (spoiler alert: not going to tell you from whom, but you'll never guess). 

Anyway, now I'm curious how that dude in the back ended up with one of the rarest stand-up basses ever built and how you even found this video. 

 

Also: The fact this video is auf Deutsch amuses me to no end. Love it!

Edited November 6 by Dick Seacup

[TalismanRich]

[DetroitBlues]

DOh, you had me looking hard at the double bass....I believed you for a hot minute!

The other guitar looks like a Super Eagle?  Older one with the gold H tailpiece....

[TalismanRich]

I thought the guitar looked like a "stripped" Groove Master.  No inlays, no Kenny Burrell signature,  2 knobs, 1 pickup.

[rwinking]

That band is really......white sounding......

And there is something kind of fishy about her first trumpet solo.....She has a straight mute in and it sounds unmuted......