sllofoot

Ren's take was: "The finish on back of peg-hd is satin or 4-0 steel wooled. It may have been a second stamped #2 and maybe serial number and #2 was sanded or buffed off. Don't know but the back and entire finish should be hi gloss buffed and not dull as shown in the pictures. With no lable, no serial number and a dull finish, it looks like an original, was altered." I don't know that I 100% agree, seeing it in person, since the "Made in Kalamazoo" bit wasn't rubbed off at the same time and there's no discernible difference in the finish in that area vs. where the number should be, but I admit he's the expert and I'm not! I'll bow to his wisdom and chalk it up to mystery. A bit sad that I won't be finding out more of this guitar's history, but that's okay too.

I hope that's not correct, as it sounds suspicious to me that a refinisher wouldn't try to preserve the SN at all costs unless there was a (suspicious) reason not to, but your speculation could certainly be valid. I uploaded all the pictures I took during a recent clean/restring to a google doc if anyone is interested in seeing more. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1x8Jfy9AoEyBUWN9UUj2TACJMw7-GAwRh?usp=sharing I've also reached out to Heritage and am in touch with Ren Wall, so if we figure anything out I'll update.

Here's the back of the headstock. Any thoughts?

Hello, I've owned a Heritage guitar since the early 2000s that I bought on ebay. I'd not picked up a guitar in a lot of years until recently, but I've been playing as much as I can fit into my schedule for the last couple months and my go-to is this heritage and it's gotten me to want to know more about it, as it's a bit of an enigma. I can't find the exact date, or the details around the purchase because I don't have access to the college email address I used in those days, alas. The story the seller told then was that the guitar was a prototype that an endorsee was given as a gift, which I was dubious of then and remain skeptical today. I've recently started playing again and this guitar really thrills me so I'd like to try to unearth it's past.It has no serial number, and I can't see any physical reason to think a number was removed (I assume that would leave a sign, or discoloration of some sort?), although the idea that that might be the case scares me since it probably wouldn't have been removed for good reasons.It doesn't match the specs of an h140, but I think it must have been some variation of that? It's a light (7.8 lb), thin bodied Les Paul style guitar with covered pickups and wasn't ever drilled for a pickguard. The pickups are Schallers, the tuners are Grovers, and the bridge is stamped Made in Germany. I can't find any marking in the pickup or electronic cavities that would indicate a date or anything else of that sort to me. This guitar is a real beauty. I struggle to find a burst that compares (to my humble tastes, I'm not all that attracted to the excessively flamed ones), and it plays great (to my limited ability's ability to judge these things). I've attached a picture of the body- I've got tons more (and can take anything you'd like) of pictures if anything would help. Thank you for your time.