Unusual Heritage Story

[DetroitBlues]

Took my 535 in last week for a new pickup to be installed in the bridge position.  The Railhammer Hyper Vintage was a nice sounding pickup, but really bright.  I found myself constantly adjusting the tone controls.  I've come to realize that pickup design works best for people who tune down a lot and use lots of gain.  Not exactly the type of pickup commonly found in a semi-hollow body design.  So I had a custom-made Red Rock Alnico III humbucker made for the H535.  

Since this is a semi-hollow body, I don't trust myself to install it.  Instead I paid for an old tech of mine to do the work, to me, its worth the price paid.

However, the point of this thread is not about Red Rock pickups but more about the old tech I used.  

This gentlemen ran a very popular music store in Royal Oak for a couple decades that provided guitar tech services, gear rentals, and even lessons in guitar, bass, and drums. (Fun fact, his drum instructor at the store was Chad Smith right up until he was recruited to join the Red Hot Chili Peppers).

In those years, he has seen hundreds of Heritages guitars come through that front door.  While he sold the business/building years ago, he continues to work out of his shop in his basement.

He is rather amused how much I like Heritage.  He kinda of shakes his head about it but ended up telling me he's seen a lot of bad ones come through his door.  Recently had a 575 come through that had some weird pickups that were solid black (a lot like an EMG).  What was not noticeable until he did a pickup swap with a normal pickup with pole pieces, did he notice the bridge pickup was so poorly misaligned.  He said there was about a 1/4" offset to the pickup.  He's never seen one that bad but mentioned how many of the Heritages he's serviced have terrible quality controls. 

I agreed with him to an extent.  We all love our Heritages, but until they went under new management and manufacturing standards did Heritage's quality control improve. Heritage had its charms of being unique, custom, hand-made instruments from 1985 to 2015.  However the uncontrolled environment and build methods would sometimes lead to a varying degree of quality.  Just like Fender and Gibson in the 70's, Heritage also suffered from loose quality standards for many years.  There are a lot of gems out there but also there are some dogs...

So when people ask for the best years, its all subjective.  For unique finishes, appointments, and typically slim, fast necks, go for the older stuff.  For a consistent quality, choose newer stuff.  Just my $.02. 

[tsp17]

True that.   From the newer H guitars I’ve seen/played in the wild (full disclosure- i have not purchased one manufactured under new management), QC and consistency has improved with modern methods and technology.  They are very good guitars.  However….

Maybe I’ve just gotten lucky, but of the 10 or so Heritage models I’ve owned over time (i currently have three) and the dozens i have found in store or private hands and tried out of curiosity or thinking to buy, I have never  played or owned a bad older one.   Yes, even on the extra special ones and the keepers Ive spotted some inconsistencies or minor imperfections due to the nature of the process, or there might be a loose wire, faulty switch,  or other fixable issue, but I’ll tolerate that (to a point) for the craftsmanship and overall human quality of the instrument.  Maybe it is the appeal of the Heritage lore and history, maybe it is the community I’ve found with you all, but like most of us here at HOC there is something about the story and minor imperfections that come with the human artisan/craft touch that i love.   I know it sounds romanticized, but It adds something, a warmth, a life quality, or some other better word descriptor that one might imagine.  Besides, the more modern, slimmer necks are not for me.  

Maybe I’m just an old guy who prefers older styles. 

I have a Korean made Comins chambered/semi-hollow that is a superb instrument, flawless in many ways in terms of the fit and  finish (Bill Comins does the final set up and QC check himself- a very good guy based on my interactions with him), consistency of the neck carve, binding, etc. but that one too has had problems with selector switch, tuners, and pickup wiring.  

Bottom line is that the H’s get the by far most play in my house and gigs.  Plus i love telling the H story when people ask about the guitar - it happens at every gig.

All of my Heritages are from decades gone by.  None are made in the last 20 or so years.  Just one person’s story…

[DetroitBlues]

I've had many Heritages over the years, one had a twisted neck and one had a truss rod that was maxed out.  But that is two out of about a dozen I've had.   

[LK155]

My record is zero defects out of the five I've owned.  Nothing whatsoever.  All products of the previous management.

 

[Heritage1970]

I read a ton of stuff about the newer ones having better quality control and from what I've seen I guess that is true. But like others have said on here, I just feel a real heart and soul connection to the guitars that were built pre-2015. There's just something about that group of guys that came out of Gibson building those, and it's just a whole different thing. I'm not saying the new ones are bad. They're incredible actually. I have played several and every one of them is top notch and stellar! But the old ones definitely have more of a "hands-on" feel, versus a "automated, quality controlled" feel in 2025. Again, I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but everything pre-2015 just feels like it was more of a "hands-on" kind of a thing, even if there are some bumps and bruises along the way on some of them. I guess I'm calling that character! LOL. 

Kind of a different topic, but I am still upset that the "Ascent" line came out and has the full-on Heritage logo on it, just like all of them have for years. I totally get creating a line made overseas to compete with that market, but I wish "Ascent" would have been at the top of the headstock in big letters and maybe just put "By Heritage" on the truss rod cover or something. But it is what it is at this point.....

Edited July 16 by Heritage1970

[pressure]

I'm not sure if this is unusual or business as usual. When Marv wanted to show me how the figuring would look when my guitar was finished, he spit on the flame maple top and rubbed his spit in. Flamed maple top looked Fab, ha.

[tsp17]

1 hour ago, pressure said:

I'm not sure if this is unusual or business as usual. When Marv wanted to show me how the figuring would look when my guitar was finished, he spit on the flame maple top and rubbed his spit in. Flamed maple top looked Fab, ha.

That says it all!

[rockabilly69]

Unlike most people that have posted above, I have seen the quality issues on my own Heritages, and I've heard about many quality control issues wih pre bandlab Heritages. One of my good friends was a dealer for Heitage. and he told me some stories about how many bad ones came through his store. And of my 3 H150s that I own(ed), two of them had nut and fret issues that had to be addressed before I could get the action down low enough to where I like it. And I had to sand out more than a few file marks. When I see the term "Golden Age" referring to pre bandlab Heritages, I just roll my eyes. 

For the people that got good pre band lab ones, that's great, but for those us who have had to deal with the issues on the older ones, it was a pain. I originally got into Heritages, because I'm a serial modder with pretty good guitar repair skills, and I figured they were so cheap at the time, if I had to do a little work on one, it was worth it. And I really liked the wood on them, they sourced some nice Honduran mahogany, Eastern flamed maple, and Indian Rosewood. And if you were patient, you could find a good one with a decent low weight. But those low prices are history now, so if I was to buy an older Heritage, I would demand a return window. 

That said, the H150s I have now are good to go, and with the way I modded them, they are great guitars. And he H535 P90 that Kuz sold me was set up really great, and I knew it would be a good guitar, because it was Kuz, who's a straight shooter, and he would never sell me a guitar that was sub par.

Edited July 16 by rockabilly69

[MartyGrass]

I had my share of those issues in the early days.  There were also quite a few great ones.  Often there were a few flaws like overspray, binding scraping and excessive filing marks.  I had one with a neck twist.  The company struggled at times with their hires.  The profit margin for the company had to be low, creating staff turnover.