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All Mahogany Eagle history


Frankhond

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Hi all, new member here. I recently got a Heritage Eagle from 2002 with a floating pickup. It looks like all mahogany. Sounds and plays great, but this is my first archtop and I’m kind of a noob when it comes to archtops in general. I can’t help noticing that all mahogany archtops are not that common.


So my question is, for Heritage, what was the idea behind an all mahogany archtop? A particular sound, reimagining some previous Gibbons model?

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Um, I have a feeling everyone here will know exactly what you meant to type.

And editing a post only seems allowed for several minutes after it appears,  after that it's cast in stone. 

 

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On 4/8/2020 at 10:54 AM, Frankhond said:

Hi all, new member here. I recently got a Heritage Eagle from 2002 with a floating pickup. It looks like all mahogany. Sounds and plays great, but this is my first archtop and I’m kind of a noob when it comes to archtops in general. I can’t help noticing that all mahogany archtops are not that common.


So my question is, for Heritage, what was the idea behind an all mahogany archtop? A particular sound, reimagining some previous Gibbons model?

:this_thread_is_useless_without_

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The Mahogany body Eagle was one of the first archtops made available by the founders.  It appeared in their original catalogues. (see below).

It was the Heritage builder's take on the former Kalamazoo built, post 1934 L5, mimicking its 17" body, adding a floating Heritage branded pickup and having less ornate features than the more upscale Golden Eagle.  The all Mahogany body tends to have a more mellow overall tone, compared to the Spruce top, Maple back/sides models.

They are GREAT archtops and a great value.   

  http://kalimusic.com/2001HeritageCatalog/IMG_0003.jpg

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Thanks Gitfiddler, that puts it in context. Still curious about the rationale why an all mahogany L5.  It’s a very well built archtop and has a big fat electric sound through the Zoller pickup that some previous owner installed. The bridge is a tune-o-matic but the catalog shows wooden bridge so it’s probably aftermarket. Here is a photo as requested.

 

B3D9E988-EADB-47AD-ACAD-7215C52AF0AE.jpeg

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11 hours ago, Gitfiddler said:

The Mahogany body Eagle was one of the first archtops made available by the founders.  It appeared in their original catalogues. (see below).

It was the Heritage builder's take on the former Kalamazoo built, post 1934 L5, mimicking its 17" body, adding a floating Heritage branded pickup and having less ornate features than the more upscale Golden Eagle.  The all Mahogany body tends to have a more mellow overall tone, compared to the Spruce top, Maple back/sides models.

They are GREAT archtops and a great value.   

  http://kalimusic.com/2001HeritageCatalog/IMG_0003.jpg

I just noticed all four models have different scale lengths.... That’s justification enough to buy all four!

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