Heritage Guitars - Current Status

Current Status

Heritage is a boutique manufacturer, making semi-hollow guitars, large jazz boxes, solidbody electrics. In these types of guitars, Paul Reed Smith Guitars and Gibson guitars are the closest nominal equivalents, though Heritage is a much smaller company making far fewer guitars.

In general, Heritage makes guitars that are similar to Gibson's products, but which the company's advocates and fans would say are constructed in a much more "hand-made" fashion, and with much greater individual attention to detail by the builders. Part of this increased attention to detail is a result of Heritage being a smaller operation than Gibson, and some of it is likely a reaction against the cost-cutting practices that developed at Gibson under Norlin's ownership. The design of the Heritage H-150 solid-body guitar is clearly modeled on the Les Paul Standard, while the H-575 resembles the ES-175 and the H-535 reinterprets the ES-335. There are differences between most of the Heritage models and their Gibson counterparts, however. For example, all Heritage full-body semi-acoustics have solid wood tops, while many of the Gibson guitars of this type had laminated tops after World War II. Both the 575 and the 535 are thinner than their Gibson cousins. Heritage has also introduced several new designs, most notably the Millennium models, which employ a "semi-solid" body that is more solid than a traditional semi-hollow design, but chambered, and thus less solid than a typical solid body.

Apart from the use of a Plek automated fret-dressing machine to grind the frets to the correct crown and intonation, Heritage guitars are largely hand-made, without the use of CNC machines for woodworking. Heritage, however, is clear about the fact that their guitars are indeed manufactured, with no claims that they are handmade. Such claims tend to arise from the company's fans and advocates, who are a comparatively small but nevertheless enthusiastic and loyal bunch.

During the first several years of the company, Heritage advertised its guitars in the usual guitar magazines. These advertisements made it clear that Heritage was making guitars on Parsons Street in Kalamazoo, without ever mentioning Gibson by name, and the company began to develop an image as the alternative to Gibson at a time when Gibson was going through a period of transition and rebuilding. But at some point in the 1990s, perhaps in an attempt to keep costs low or because orders were numerous enough, the company all but stopped advertising. This lack of an advertising presence significantly limited and even diminished the brand's name recognition among guitarists. The Heritage name has grown, partly due to word of mouth on internet forums devoted to guitars and guitar gear, including the Heritage Owners Club, which was launched in 2007.