Jump to content
Heritage Owners Club

Which guitar to choose


Metalheart

Recommended Posts

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 52
  • Created
  • Last Reply
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

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Metalheart said:

3.jpg

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. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, TalismanRich said:

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

Very tasteful. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.




×
×
  • Create New...