Inspection markings?

[curly]

Hey all, new to the forum. I have a 1994 H-140 coming in the mail as we speak. Getting into the Heritage lore through this forum.

Is anyone aware of whether Heritage guitars have any inspection markings (e.g. initials, or stickers showing QC dates, etc)?

Thanks

[ElNumero]

2 hours ago, curly said:

Hey all, new to the forum. I have a 1994 H-140 coming in the mail as we speak. Getting into the Heritage lore through this forum.

Is anyone aware of whether Heritage guitars have any inspection markings (e.g. initials, or stickers showing QC dates, etc)?

Thanks

Take the control panel off in the back, and it usually has a sticker behind it

[TalismanRich]

It won't have QC dates, but in that period,  the serial number tells you when the number was assigned.   1994 should have a K serial number.

The five digits of the serial number encode the day and order of manufacture for the guitar. The first group of three digits represent the days remaining in the year on the day the guitar was completed. The last two digits indicate the build order on that day.

For example, a guitar with a serial number of B35012 can be decoded as follows:

    B: Year built is 1985 (a rare find, indeed!)
    350: Built on the fifteenth day of the year (365-350=15)
    12: The twelfth guitar completed on this day

Unlike bolt neck guitars, you won't find dates in a neck pocket, or written in the pickup routes.

[DetroitBlues]

There are some quirky things on a real Heritage you might notice.  I don't think many here mention it though. After owning and playing dozens of Heritages from 1986 to 2023, I've notice a few things.

• The binding does not hide the maple cap at the cutaway unlike Gibson has over the years. 
• One curiosity is the dot inlays on the side markers in the neck.  One of them above the 12th fret sits slightly off center, making it obvious the same tooling was used for well over 20 years.  
• Headstocks have changed slightly, a little less narrow and the points a bit sharper
• Necks progressively (and I mean PROGRESSIVELY) got thicker and rounder since 1986.
• Hardware and pickups have changed.  Schaller pickups and hardware until early 2000's, then Seymour Duncan humbuckers and Tone Pros hardware, and now inhouse built pickups and Heritage embossed tuners.

Up until 2016 or so, every single Heritage was a custom order.  They were a boutique builder before the term was ever coined. Despite all the changes in the past ten years, the company is doing better than ever.  Their work is some of the best there is and overall, the history tells a tale of persistence, devotion, and generational craftsmanship that is hard to duplicate these days.

Edited 13 hours ago by DetroitBlues