MartyGrass

First, I'm glad you are working with Gary. He's the best. Second, I haven't found much difference practically from no inserts, dot inserts, and blocks. I do wear contacts though.

Super guitar. I like the H-140 thickness and heft. Gorgeous.

I would reject it also. We get guitars that we should cherish a lifetime. This one is not up to their standards. It may play well and sound good, but it is not reminiscent of the 225 Parsons heritage.

Here's my philosophy. I guitar should look good, maybe great. You will hold it near your body in your most creative and even emotional states. It should also not fight you with your playing. It should seem natural. It also should fit your body. Lastly, it should sing to you. This guitar, as well as others, does this in spades.

Contact Gary Hines by messaging him. Great work.

Heritage did custom headstocks in the early years.

Alvin Lee knew how to use such a guitar. The middle pickup was not just to fill a space.

Very, very nice.

I got what I believe is the final prototype of the David Paul. The first couple were thinline H-550s with the toggle switch where a Les Paul has it and a master volume pot next to the toggle switch. David rejected them because of poor sustain. Mine has a full center block like a 535. He returned it to Heritage. David was happy with it and approved it. The final version has his signature on the headstock and pickguard. I got the prototype a few weeks ago. I had Pete Moreno buff it out and set it up. I picked it up 3 days ago. It definitely is a beauty and is well made. Pete said it was difficult to run the wiring through the f hole and through the center block.

It is. It also has a saddle pickup system.

Yes

Brent always makes it happen. Beautiful!

Time. It's not for sale. They've had one hell of a ride. I hope they know that they've changed the lives of many thousands for the better. They should know they are loved by us. They are characters who gave us stories over the years and and made are lives more interesting. They deserve the best.

What more could you want?

I wish.

Well said.

That's amazing. The cupid's bow is a work of art.

The story of Heritage is for many of us a journey. The original company owners were not sophisticated businessmen and marketers. I have the sense that Gibson saw them as no threat and sold them the factory and much of its contents. Decades later, Heritage is taking market share away from Gibson. Of course almost everyone involved in the decision to sell 225 Parsons to them is retired or dead. Heritage broke it's own rules back in the day and did a lot of one-offs without heavy fees. They were wild men (and a few women).

They lost me here. Everything was fine until the "over 30 years, known for its attention to detail and quality". I would go along with beautiful. The wood sourcing was really good. The concepts also were excellent (maybe not Little One). But for a long time detailed work ranged from perfect to out of specs. The quality now seems excellent. I've known a number of people who worked at Heritage in the lean years and who stayed until better paying work opened up elsewhere. Some of them filed frets, put on hardware, masked for stingers, did routing, binding scraping, and soldering. They were decent laborers but not committed craftsmen, and some said they were under time pressure. If we are to be honest, it was common in the earlier years to have tuners not lined up, filing marks on the fretboard (often abundantly), stingers off center, binding not fully scraped, and sloppy soldering. I've had several guitars, very good guitars, that I had Pete Moreno straighten the tuners because they were weirdly rotating in a few of them. I had him recut the routing on a Super Eagle because the pickup routes were cut at an angle compared to the fretboard. Ren Wall was telling me one day at Heritage that he would inspect the Jay Wolfe rack of guitars with a close eye because of the high rejection rate by Jay. I saw some of the rejects with Jay's comments on why he was sending them back. I don't think it is disloyal to speak the truth. Heritage has come a long way in terms of great consistency. Having said all of this, all of my Heritages are from the earlier days. They are among the most beautiful instruments out there. The archtops equal or best Gibson and Guild from any era. So I'm posting this knowing some will take offense. Those who were around in the first few decades will recall the growing pains Heritage had. Yes, it is true they made some flawless instruments, many of them, during that era. But it is deceptive messaging to imply that Heritage was known in the earlier years for attention to detail. It was better known for the shape of its headstock, no long tenon, great value, and traits of being handmade (in other words minor flaws). To pretend otherwise negates the efforts of the older HOC members to support Heritage in its early years.

There's some truth there. He does a great job though and takes enticing pics. When I joined the forum many years ago I wondered who this Brent is and when will he run out of guitars. I know the answer to both questions now, and he'll never run out of guitars. He is a magnet and gets good stuff.

I bought a Florentine single pickup Golden Eagle about six year ago. I was made in 2010. I kept it for about a year then sold it to a friend. I got it back last year and have been playing it. Recently I got another GE back with a 1 3/4" nut. I posted about that very recently. I wondered if the wider nut translated to a wider neck all the way down. So I did a bunch of measurements. Two Heritage Johnny Smiths had a 1 3/4" nut like the GE I recently got. To contrast, I measured the Florentine GE. To my surprise it also has a 1 3/4" nut. I measured my G&L with a 1 3'4" nut to check reality, and it was 1 3/4". Then I measured several other Heritages, all with verified 1 11/16" nuts I had been playing the Florentine all this time and never noticed the wider nut. I have two theories on why I didn't. First, I never expected it and adjusted to it like picking up any other Heritage. Second, the neck carve is a full C, which is what really felt different. My theory on where this Florentine came from goes back to Kuz. Years ago there was a duplicate of my Florentine on Wolfe's website for a long time. It has a 1 3/4" nut. The finish was different but still beautiful. I could not afford the instrument. The Kuz bought it and probably still has it. Heritage likely made two of these instruments for Jay. One was for a customer and one was for his shop. The one I got had a very strong custom case, so that was probably the customer's initial preference. It also had some custom knobs and tuners and Doug's Plugs. Here is the NGD from the guy I sold it to, 2bornot2bop. https://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/guitar-amps-gizmos/84817-heritage-golden-eagle.html

Today is the first time I've played this in years. It sounds as good as it looks. The feel of the neck came back to me in an instant. It has a full C carve that fills the hand. I will restring it and spray out the pots when I have more time. All is well.

This one was built in 2011. Some of you may remember Patrick, the New York Heritage rep from that time. This was his once. Patrick made fairly frequent trips to Heritage for business reasons and to have some custom builds for himself. I usually had dinner with him and played instruments during those visits. Sometimes Heritage had guitars they'd sell him at a discount. This was one of them. A customer ordered an antique natural GE with a 1 3/4" nut and a single mounted pickup. He wanted cross bracing and a solid fretboard extension like the D'Angelicos and Johnny Smiths. Lastly he wanted split block inlays. Heritage built two of them, as was often the case in custom orders like this in case something happened during the build. This one was the leftover. The neck is a nice C shape. Patrick had the finger tailpiece replaced with one of the last Heritage fancy ebony block ones. He sold it to me on his return trip to Heritage. I sold it or traded it about a year later. That is one I regretted losing. There was a striking picture Patrick had of it face down on his bed that showed dramatic flame. I don't have that anymore, but it is rare to see such a thing. Today I got the guitar back from a HOC member. He can post if he wants to be known. The guitar is in the same shape as when I had it. Shipping was done as well as I've ever seen. The box took a little bit of a pounding, but the guitar was packed like a pro.

I have 2 H-530s. No issue with neck dive.