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Paragraphs are your friend. Just saying.

It's funny, I don't see that when I look at a guitar. I see a slim waist and a round bottom.

You are really out of touch with today's Heritage Guitars. This isn't 4 old Gibson employees anymore. Two are still alive, two have already passed. Does anyone expect that guys who started working in the late 50s should be building guitars today? These guys are in their 80s. Today, it's a different company. First point about giving them an F for not innovating.... Poppycock. By Jim Deurloo's own admission at PSP last month, when they opened they were making just about anything anyone thought of. Look back at catalogs from 1989 or 1993. Stat, Little One, H-110, SAE and SAE custom, HB1, HB2 and HB IV bass, H-140, Mandolins, banjos, Academy, Prospect, Mark Slaughter, H-574, H-480 acoustic, Parsons Street III and V, Millennium. They tried making unique guitars... they didn't sell. Guitarists wanted the traditional models, 150 and 535 are the bread and butter. The various jazz boxes were well received. I suspect Heritage sells more hollow bodies guitars today than Gibson, who don't even list a traditional jazz box in their current lineup. It's the same reason Fender sells a dozen Strats and a dozen Teles for every Jazzmaster or Jaguar. How many Coronados do you see them sell today? Gibson sells Les Paul, SG and 3xx variants by the truckload. How many Covus, Marauder, Victory or RDs do they sell? They're in the catalog. I don't see many on the Guitar Center wall. As for not having endorsed artists and heavy advertising, that costs money. They simply didn't have the budget to put full page ads in every guitar magazine every month. Perhaps if they had been charging exorbitant prices, they could have bought more ads, but they also might have sold fewer guitars. Gibson, Ibanez, Fender, probably spend more on their annual advertising budget that Heritage made in a year! As for nobody knowing Kenny Burrell, Mimi Fox, or Henry Johnson, you must be looking from a rock perspective. They are well known in the jazz world. Gary Moore had a signature, Alvin Lee did as well. David Paul had the blue jazz box. I've seen Buddy Whittington playing a stock H-140. Alex Skolnick? Having name on the guitar doesn't automatically mean that fans flock to buy them, especially when you have limited production capacity. How many variants of the Stratocaster do you need? Clapton, Beck, Eric Johnson, Jimi Hendrix, Yngwie Malmsteen, Jimmy Vaughn, Stevie Ray, Robert Cray, Cory Wong, Rory Gallagher. That's just part of the artist models. The same goes for Les Paul variants. Reinvent the wheel.. .over and over and over again. Finally, I think you are looking at past history. Today, you can find Heritage guitars at Wolfe, Daves, Eddies, Sweetwater, Chicago Music Exc, Cream City, Jimmy Wallace. That's just the bigger US dealers selling US made guitars. They have an import line, akin to Epiphone, Fender Mexico, Squire or PRS SE. It's not to everyone's liking, but its brand building. And having played samples of the Ascent+ guitars, they actually played quite well. I would have no problem walking on a stage with an Ascent+ 150 or 137. Heritage is doing just fine. They are shipping out guitars by the dozen, not 2 or 3 a week. It's a different company.

I’m not sure I’m sold on the idea. Here’s the beauty of being in America: We all can form our own ideas AND we’re free to go out and start our own guitar company.

Yeah, it's the horn that's going to make or break a guitar. You simply can't play a guitar if the horn doesn't have the exact dimensions of that someone drew up 70 years ago and endorsed by a Youtube personality. Sorry, I don't get your point other than trying to start a pissing match. Oh yeah, that horn of which you speak has changed numerous times over the years at that "other company". Personally, I think it's the silly poker chip that is holding back the Les Paul player from being successful. Seriously, if the stupid guitar player has to stop, look down at the front of his guitar and decide if he's playing rhythm or "treble", he needs to find another occupation. Speaking of which, how exactly do you play "treble"? Does that mean you can only use the notes on the treble clef?

The early 150's had the same horn and Heritage was asked to change it. If your next post is about the headstock, it works better and Heritage was not sued over it. Most of us on the HOC appreciate function over form.

I had that same issue on my 575 and that was on an aftermarket saddle and bridge. It was resolved with a second curly washer bottoming out on each of the studs. What is happening in that photo is "rocking torque" That is not a good thing. It needs to be corrected.

Looks like a setup problem.

I'll keep this really brief. What's electric guitar really about? Well, it's a male dominated genre of musical instrument that delivers POWER and FORM to ALL types of popular music. Yes, it has a few really talented female artist do come to mind. For instance, Jess Greenberg. She is really exceptional! An amazing talent. But 6 string wizards like her, are few and far between. So, the world of lead electric guitar giants is dominated by dudes. Dudes. Sling a a guitar around some guy's neck and he will likely wear it down low with the neck somewhat pointing skyward. That's what dudes do. So, please share your honest opinions. Of the these two horn shapes, which one looks like it's ready for business? I think you know I am getting at. Dear Heritage, you have, and always have had, a HORN problem. Do you see the issue? It's rock thing mainly. Most of the rock guys out there like to rock hard, not semi-hard. End of story. Don't take me word for it though, reach out to Jess and ask her which one she prefers.

And what year would this guitar be?

About That Quality Control Thing.....

Dunning Kruger Effect That explains it!

Well now........this post seems to have the potential to stir up a hornet's nest. Popcorn anyone?

I absolutely love Heritage Guitars. I currently have a Sweet 16 and a H575 and they are both very impressive in every category. Are there some minor issues? Yes, of course there are, but nothing that prevents me from playing the daylights out of both of them. So, if they make such great guitars, why are they struggling so hard? On my 16, the low E tuner is not straight and points toward the top of the head stock. The ebony bridge is also crooked. The bridge posts were not drilled straight so they sit at and angle. Other than that it sounds breath taking and plays the same way. All guitar manufacturing from the last century had lots of issues like that. They were hand made by humans, specifically American humans. In that time we were and still are, a culture of" it's 5 o'clock somewhere" it's just the way we are. So, stuff inevitably comes off the line flawed. So, the notion that the problem is the fit and finish QC is the primary reason that they struggle is, in my opinion, flawed. I think real reason for their astonishing lack of success has more to do with their lack of innovation, artist product endorsements and lack of of a powerful outside sales force. Let's address these one at a time. When it comes to innovative guitar design, you have to give them an F-. Since this companies beginning, they have really done nothing but mimic the old designs of the previous tenant. To their credit, they really made them better in so much as offering things like solid carved tops on Gibson models that had laminated tops and offering tap tuning etc. But at the end of the day, they are just making Gibson's with a different head stock. This is of course has been a tried and true method for a start up , but at some point you have to get the attention of the market by offering new designs. When it comes to artist endorsement deals, who did they get? Kenny Burrell? Henry Johnson? Mimi Fox? Hey, they are all three great artist, but nobody knows who the are. Okay the had Roy Clark at one point, but it was a little late in his career to make any impact. In the meantime, the folks from Ibanez approached Pat Metheny, George Benson, John Schofield, Joe Pass and several others. Ibanez came to those guys during the period that Heritage was getting started and the fact that at least one of those guys didn't have a deal with them is nuts. Especially Joe Pass and Barney Kessel. Kessel was playing an old Gibson with the logo painted over. What an opportunity that should have been. Instead, Ibanez design a Barney Kessel model. It's inexcusable that opportunities like that were missed. Okay, what about the hair band endorsements? they got some of those right? No. See issue number one, innovation. They simply failed to produce something those guys might of really liked. And finally, the lack of any aggressive outside sales staff. This last one is purely a guess as I have no inside knowledge of how the Heritage Guitar Company approached this. As a sales person myself, I just go by the results of what you see for sale in most music stores, and it is not The Heritage Guitars. The fact that Jay Wolfe is their largest dealer speaks volumes. Wolfe guitars, while somewhat well known(online), is a smallish little facility tucked away in an industrial park in Jupiter Florida. They offer really great service, expertise and repairs, but if you are in the business of selling production guitars, then you would be very wise indeed to get your instruments into a larger venue. For decades they were a cedia presence that nobody bothered with because of the lack of all three of the aforementioned, innovation, endorsement and sales. How difficult is it to simply look around you at what everyone else is doing and create your on innovative take on it? It can't be that difficult as every other company in the industry has done exactly that. PRS, just came out with the Silver Sky and a very interesting take on an Ibanez S body in the form of the specialty model, the Chelo, which was made for Herman Li. They just up and stole that guy. Why, I am really not so sure, but it is a very cool guitar. Dear Heritage Guitars, I love what you do, but if you want to keep on doing it, you need to address the obvious and take corrective action NOW. if you don't that proud tradition of hand crafted fine guitars is going to end a final chapter. Chapter 11.

If you listen to the second video I posted, Pete clearly says that they prefer to use Maple/Basswood/Maple for their laminate, although sometimes they use Poplar for the inner sheet. FWIW, the H-525 is a full hollow body, but uses a laminate top and back. While thicker than the H530 (also hollow and laminate), at 2 1/4" it is thinner than the H-575.

The used to be sponsored by True-Fire. I've been really interested in those lessons, particularly since 2 of my favorite guitarists now have their own videos. Davy Knowles and Greg Koch have lessons there now. Both are monster players.

There you have it. The idea for the laminated top of spruce and maple was designed for less movement when playing to help reduce feedback that were a common issue guitarists had playing archtops though loud amps. If I remember right, Heritage also makes sure the grain of the middle piece goes in the opposite direction of the top and bottom pieces to help keep the top rigid. Heritage follows the original Gibson recipe for making their semi-hollow bodies. There could be some out there that are solid tops, but those would be custom orders.

Let's not forget the discontinued Heritage Johnny Smith or the new H-717. Spruce, Spruce baby.

yeah & it's not anything like the plywood you buy down at home depot either

Rich is right. Only the full hollowbodies at Heritage are non-plywood (Eagles, 575s and 16s).

The 535 is laminate on the top and bottom. The sides are solid, which is different from the ES335 spec. On our tours of the factory, they have shown us how the actually make the laminates from thin sheets of wood, and then how they steam press the arch into the sheet vs how something like the 575 is carved. I can't remember wood layers they use for the laminate.

Following my opuchase of a 1988 H535 last week (see previous post) I was browsing through old Heritage sales leaflets that i have and found a disparity. One(1989 Heritage leaflet) says that the H535 has laminate top and back and solid rim.The other (U.K.Barnes and Mullins) says that the H535 has curly maple top but solid curly maple back and sides. Is the back on a H535 solid or laminate?

Youre being Awfully generous bolero.