Greetings from Washington State.
You can call me Mike. I am 64 years old and have been actively
playing guitars since I was 16. Started playing professionally at
18 and continued to play non-stop until I was forced to retire by
nerve damage in my hands. Once upon a time I could pick the
livin' daylights out of a guitar, but alas, time has taken it's toll and
now I can't pick for #*@% these days. Also, I had a small stringed
instrument repiar shop where I did all sorts of repair and restoration
work on guitars, banjos, mandolins and the like. Not much fiddle
work except to re-hair bows. By my count I have owned and sold
over 125 guitars in my guitar filled life.
The last guitar I obtained was a Heritage Eagle Standard with the
Custom Solid Spruce top. The story that came with this guitar was
very interesting to say the least. It seems that someone in San Diego
ordered this guitar as a Custom build. After two years of no-show
the customer insisted the down payment to be applied to one of
those solid wood archtops from China. When the Eagle Standard
finally arrived at Buffalo Music, they put the guitar out for sale.
No takers because the price was too high and it was too Plain Jane
for the 'Very Sophisticated Jazz' scene in San Diego. Little more
than a year later the Eagle Standard was one of twenty guitars traded
to Phil's Used and Vintage Guitars in Bellingham, WA. The next time
I visited Phil's shop, which usually happened twice or three times a
week, I saw this beauty and it was love at first sight. Being primarily
a country picker, I was attracted to the 'early gibson' look of this beauty.
Well, being poor but never-the-less poverty stricken, coming up
with the $2000.00 asking price was out of the question. I did
however have a guitar that Phil had been trying to weasel out of
me for some time. This was a Martin D-18 Special, made before
the advent of all the D-18V's, Authentics and such boutique guitars.
This was one of my favorites for many reasons, not the lease of
which was that I really had no money tied up in this one. I got
this Martin by selling an HD-28 to one of my students for $1800.00,
which I had only paid $800.00 for. The extra $1000.00 paid for
the D-18 Special.
To cut this story short I traded my D-18 for the Heritage Eagle
Standard Custom straight across. I was and still am a very
happy camper. I called Heritage and they confirmed I was
the "Original Owner" and all warranty stuff was valid for me.
So, here are a few pictures of my favorite guitar. OK, a tie
with my HD-28.
Ya'll can see that I put some ebony tuner knobs on this guitar.
Kinda classy me thinks, eh?
Here are some quick pictures. No, I didn't polish the guitar
for this photo op.
Mike in Bellingham, WA
