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Includes Eagle and 575. Some delivery times are pretty far out.
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02-27-2019 10:31 PM
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I wish them luck with their newly expanded 'big box' retailer, Musician's Friend/Guitar Center sales partners.
Unfortunately, in the process of the ownership change and new marketing partners, they've totally screwed their loyal dealers, some of whom stuck with Heritage since 1984, including Jay Wolfe.
And yes, they will still build you a gorgeous archtop or your own custom dream guitar...but for a lot more cash than in the old days.
The good news is that you can still find some great custom archtops, semi's and solid body Heritage guitars on the used market for reasonably decent prices. Another irony is that some of the best prices on used Heritage is at Guitar Center!
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This is good for the company and, to a small degree, Kalamazoo. And it's a return to the Parsons Street roots.
Gibson did the same sort of thing in the Kalamazoo days. They made their popular guitars in large numbers and sold them to Gibson dealers. They also offered custom builds. Their quality was fairly consistent with the mass produced models because of the assembly line approach with a person doing the same thing repeatedly for each step.
Heritage previously had not marketed well and didn't process orders efficiently. But they built some great instruments.
The plant is now truly modernized.
The down side is the cost of a customized build, as Gitfiddler said. It's ridiculous now in terms of price and wait.
Here is an example of a Heritage custom build in the early transition period from where a bunch of great builders with few business skills and the guys they trained were making custom orders on half of their builds to the current time where it is almost unaffordable to have any customization. The dimensions of this Golden Eagle, the cutaway, the pickups, premium woods, the binding, the truss rod cover, and the Brockburst finish were all special order. If you don't like that, look at the Super Eagle they built with a body depth of 3 3/8" and a nut width of 1 3/4". These days are virtually gone.
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Here's the custom Super Eagle and a wild solid body.
Now we will have more consistent builds with less dazzle. That's the trade off.
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They need to let me design and make there pickguards...............they just don't look all that great.
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:-) I too am not crazy about the single or even worse DOUBLE pointed PGs, but I'm just about certain that whatever anyone changes whether it's the PG, the head, "F" holes, Fret markers, "mickey mouse ear" cutaways, logo or whatever... players will crab it about it rather than play them :-)
Originally Posted by deacon Mark
It's a losing battle, always was (with the exception of the volute Gibson bailed on due to user design committees) and likely always will be.
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I'm just glad I have my pre-shakeup Heritage...I'll be keeping it too.
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Aren’t Musicians Friend and Guitar Center members of the conglomerate?
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It depends on which conglomerate you're thinking of. They were owned for many years by Bain Capital but the debt got so high under their management that they were unable to service it or refinance it. In 2014 it was all taken over by their primary creditor, Ares Management. Originally Posted by TedBPhx
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Do they share buyers? Will we see Heritage at a GC near me?
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14 Heritage Guitar Workers off the job as company heads in new direction | WWMT
This site has lots of pics. Click on "Gallery".
Firings of craftsmen take heart out of Heritage Guitar, workers say - mlive.com
Originally Posted by Wildcat
Last edited by Marty Grass; 03-01-2019 at 04:51 PM.
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Great photographs that captures the former essence of "The Heritage". Note the intended point of company name "The Heritage "at its origin. I fell in love with this uniquely American story/dream. And now the irony of that name with current ownership. God help us all as the last remnants of a true American dream dies.
Originally Posted by Marty Grass
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hopefully the new company will off a deeper depth archtop at some point. I remember asking for a custom 575 that was the full depth of a 175 and was told that they don't have molds for the gibson depth archtops.
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Considering musician's Friend/Guitar Center is on the ropes.. I question the wisdom of Heritage's relationship with them.
It may not be long term.
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Its official both Musicians Friend and Guitar Center are selling Heritage guitars.
Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
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Where are you seeing that? I could't find anything about it. On the GC website, all I could find from Heritage were a few used guitars. Originally Posted by Wildcat
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The sad part Jay Wolf who designed and championed this guitar is selling the first of this model with P-90s. This model was considered the second incarnation as the "First" with the same body, but had humbucker was sold briefly around 2000.
See attachments below for documentation. I bought this model from Jay in 2006. What's interesting the new owners make no reference to the history of this model.
Heritage H137 Second Edition no.1 2005 Cherry Translucent | Reverb
Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
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Interesting. I get that listing on Musician's Friend but not on Guitar Center. I wonder if it's because I'm in Mexico?
As for the history, nothing is forever, especially when the people involved change. It may not seem fair but Jay did get a 13 year run on this guitar in return for his efforts and that's a really a pretty good run. As I understand it, Heritage is now basically a different business with new investors and by definition that means new objectives and priorities. If that's the case, then this sort of fallout is pretty much inevitable.
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I agree Jim. In many ways this as very much an emotional response on my part.
The interesting thing is the guitar H-137 listed in the GF and MF links are selling $49 more than the price mentioned in the order letter from 2005.
Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
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