Heritage Guitars
Encyclopedia
Heritage Guitars is a guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 manufacturer in Kalamazoo, Michigan
Kalamazoo, Michigan
The area on which the modern city stands was once home to Native Americans of the Hopewell culture, who migrated into the area sometime before the first millennium. Evidence of their early residency remains in the form of a small mound in downtown's Bronson Park. The Hopewell civilization began to...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

History

Heritage Guitars was founded in 1985 by former employees of the Gibson guitar
Gibson Guitar Corporation
The Gibson Guitar Corporation, formerly of Kalamazoo, Michigan and currently of Nashville, Tennessee, manufactures guitars and other instruments which sell under a variety of brand names...

 factory. In the early 1980s, Gibson, faced with excess production capacity and, some claim, a difficult relationship with its labor union, closed its historic Parsons Street factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan
Kalamazoo, Michigan
The area on which the modern city stands was once home to Native Americans of the Hopewell culture, who migrated into the area sometime before the first millennium. Evidence of their early residency remains in the form of a small mound in downtown's Bronson Park. The Hopewell civilization began to...

 and relocated much of its production to its factory in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

. Some of the Gibson employees who did not want to move their homes and families to Tennessee started production of guitars under a new name, "Heritage," which was likely meant to stake a claim to their guitar-making tradition. The company set up their new factory in part of Gibson's former Kalamazoo premises, but produced instruments in much smaller numbers than Gibson had.

The Heritage line initially consisted of electric and acoustic guitars, electric basses, mandolins, and a banjo. The line was eventually narrowed to electric guitars only. Although most Heritage guitars were, and continue to be, based on Gibson designs, a few of their early electric guitars were based on modified Stratocaster and Telecaster designs.

Current status

Heritage is a boutique manufacturer, making semi-hollow guitars
Semi-acoustic guitar
A semi-acoustic guitar or hollow-body electric is a type of electric guitar with both a sound box and one or more electric pickups. This is not the same as an electric acoustic guitar, which is an acoustic guitar with the addition of pickups or other means of amplification, either added by the...

, large jazz boxes
Archtop guitar
An archtop guitar is a steel-stringed acoustic or semi-acoustic guitar with a full body and a distinctive arched top, whose sound is particularly popular with blues and jazz players.Typically, an archtop guitar has:* 6 strings...

, solidbody electrics
Solid body
A solid-body instrument is a string instrument such as a guitar, bass or violin built without its normal sound box and relying on an electric pickup system to directly receive the vibrations of the strings....

. In these types of guitars, Paul Reed Smith Guitars
PRS Guitars
PRS Guitars is an American guitar manufacturer headquartered in Stevensville, Maryland. PRS Guitars was founded by guitarist and luthier Paul Reed Smith in 1985. The company is one of the leading manufacturers of high-end electric guitars.-Materials:...

 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 the instrument 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 during the Norlin years (practices that Gibson would later work to remedy as well). 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. Recent years have seen a growth in the Heritage name, in part due to word of mouth on internet forums devoted to guitars and guitar gear, including the Heritage Owners Club (launched in 2007).

Johnny Smith

In 1989, jazz guitarist Johnny Smith
Johnny Smith
Johnny Smith is an American cool jazz and mainstream jazz guitarist.-Early years:...

 withdrew his endorsement from Gibson and awarded it to Heritage, which began production of the Heritage Johnny Smith. The Gibson model continued in production as the Gibson LeGrand.

Smith has since moved his endorsement from Heritage to the Guild Guitar Company
Guild Guitar Company
The Guild Guitar Company is a USA-based guitar manufacturer founded in 1952 by Alfred Dronge, a guitarist and music-store owner, and George Mann, a former executive with the Epiphone Guitar Company...

.

Alex Skolnick

More recently, guitarist Alex Skolnick
Alex Skolnick
Alexander Nathan Skolnick is an American jazz and metal guitarist. He was a member of the San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal band Testament from 1983 until his departure in 1993...

, of the band Testament
Testament (band)
Testament is an American metal band from Berkeley, California, formed in 1983. They are often credited as one of the most popular bands of the 1980s thrash metal scene...

, had begun endorsing Heritage Guitars, as opposed to his older Ibanez
Ibanez
is a Japanese guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki. Based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in import guitar sales in the United States and Europe, as well as the first brand of guitars to mass produce...

 models. He is known for his jazz-oriented playing. For jazz, Skolnick plays an H-575, but for playing rock he plays a H-150.

Roy Clark

]
Country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

ian Roy Clark
Roy Clark
Roy Linwood Clark is an American country music musician and performer. He is best known for hosting Hee Haw, a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969–1992. Clark has been an important and influential figure in country music, both as a performer and helping to popularize the genre...

currently endorses Heritage guitars, which makes a signature model.

External links

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