Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

[Evan Skopp]

Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

I own a 150. If you ever saw the advert of Seth and Seymour called "Master & Mentor," the guitar SWD was holding was my 150.

Mine has Seth Lovers in it, but I also like the SH-11 / APH-1n combination for a guitar with a thick maple top.

Jay Wolfe is a great guy. Enjoy the axe.

- Evan

[kaknight]

Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

Well, I got ahold of Jay Wolfe and got a custom quote. I listed EVERYTHING that I could want and the price came out to a little over $1,500................SCORE!!!! I'm so glad I saw this post.

Sweet! Maybe we should start the Heritage Forum!

[kaknight]

Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

Well, I got ahold of Jay Wolfe and got a custom quote. I listed EVERYTHING that I could want and the price came out to a little over $1,500................SCORE!!!! I'm so glad I saw this post.

BTW, what is it that you want to order? I would love to see your specs!

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

I've been wanting one of the Gibson ES-336's, ever since they came out a few years ago, but the price is not a part of my equation. I should invent my own burst color, and have it come with aluminum hardware and Antiquities. Or....I should just slap myself and go play my other guitars! Ha Ha.

[Frantic_Rock]

Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

Kaknight.
I'm knocked out by that top and color.

What you're describing almost causes me to not believe ya

Could you describe the sound to us please? You mentioned it was even sounding, smooth and helped cure a brightness problem with the pickups, but how is the playability, action - most importantly, intonation, and sustain?

What are the frets 6130s? How's the binding on it? Whats the headstock shape (traditional gibson style? - cuz the pictures don't show it).

You say the mahogany is south american?
What do you call that flame maple type again? (the wood and style...)

Thats a 24 3/4 inch neck obviously right not a 25 ?

I really like what i'm seeing man, and I wanted to get a 3 pickup warmoth LP, but the look of that thing kills man

I wanted a 535 jazzbox from heritage - i didn't know they make pauls that good

[kaknight]

Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

Kaknight
I'm knocked out by that top and color.

What you're describing almost causes me to not believe ya

Actually it's a fake. it's a photoflame japanese copy that I spraypainted to look darker Seriously, I am as blown away as you by the quality. I think that Heritage is the best deal on the market now.

Could you describe the sound to us please? You mentioned it was even sounding, smooth and helped cure a brightness problem with the pickups, but how is the playability, action - most importantly, intonation, and sustain?

I played a lot of Les Pauls before I decided to buy this guitar, so I'll give you my best run down. I found that many les pauls sounded like a characature of a Les Paul if that makes sense. You know, you plug some 11lb standard in and you get this buzzsaw sound that sounds kinda harsh. Almost like someone had taken that great tone of the Les Pauls you here on old recordings and made an artificial version of it. On the other hand some LP's, particularly those with some of the more powerful gibson pickups didn't sound much like LPs to me at all. They had huge bass, and no top end. When I ordered this guitar, I said "I want a guitar that sounds, feels, and looks like something that people really played back in the 60's". I wanted to get something that had that warmth of the Allman Bro's type tone, and the crunch of Aerosmith, and the top end of Jimmy Page.

This is that guitar.

It is very warm sounding, and it has an unmistakeable LP growl. I think that a some of the mellowness comes from the pickups (AIIPro, and CC), and a lot comes from the woods. My best buddy has a very nice LP Standard from 2000. We A/B'd the two of them last night, and even he was pretty upset about his guitar's performance. My guitar was much less sterile and had just a great warmth to its tone.

Playability - Great! Well, it was a custom neck request, so I got what I was looking for. My neck actually isn't too different from their standard (mine is just a hair deeper and slighly asymetrical. The normal neck on these guitars for me is still very nice. It's between a big baseball bat 58 and the slim neck 60. their standard neck is a C shaped neck.

Intonation and Sustain - This is really good too. I attribute this a lot to the PLEK system that Heritage uses at the factory (it's a computerized system with lasers that helps them decide how to do the final fret dressing work and such) as well as a great setup by Jay at Wolfe guitars.

(continued)

[kaknight]

Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

What are the frets 6130s? How's the binding on it? Whats the headstock shape (traditional gibson style? - cuz the pictures don't show it).

I don't know my fret sizes by number unfortunetely. they are medium frets, bigger than your standard MIM strat and not as jumbo as my MM Stingray frets. The headstock is the Heritage headstock. some people don't like it, but it has grown on me. BTW, that headstock is at the original 17 degree angle that LPs used to be made at, but no longer are, and is made of one peice of wood instead of most modern mahogony guitars being made of three.

You say the mahogany is south american?

What do you call that flame maple type again? (the wood and style...)

Yes, the mahogony is south american (you can call it SAM if you want to ask for it). Jay Wolfe orders every LP from Heritage made out of this wood. It's far better tonewize, what the original LPs were made out of, and much lighter. As I found out, the African stuff that Gibby uses is really really heavy and doesn't sound as warm. As a consequence gibson carves holes into the top of the mahogony before putting on the top to try to counteract that. On LP standards I think it is 13 holes, and in the custom shops and reissues its 8 (they choose the lightest possible peices for the better guitars). My guitar with no chambers weighs about 9.3 lbs so it feels great on my shoulder. When weighed, most of the original 58 and 59 gibbys weighed about that much. None were the 11lb behemoths that we see today.

If you want the real maple top of old LPs you want Eastern Maple. This stuff usually doesn't have really crazy zebra flames on it, but it is a denser wood than the western. I requested a custom paint job - dark almond burst. almond burst is a custom paint job that they regularly do, and I asked for one that was a bit darker and had a bit of red to the tone.

Thats a 24 3/4 inch neck obviously right not a 25 ?

Yup, with the exception of the headstock shape, grover tuners, and the custom mods that I asked for, it's pretty much exactly what a les paul was.

[dr.barlo]

Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

Do you mean Willcutts Music in Lexington KY?

Farkus

Yes,

http://www.willcuttguitars.com/brand.asp?choice=Brand&mfr=30

When I had my tax return and major gas, I was almost gonna buy one. But instead I ended up with a 04R7 paying $500 more. I gotta add that I could not be happier with that R7.

B

[AmpliFIRE]

Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

Beautiful axe!!!

[Norman_T]

Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

Congrats and great looking guitar. A lot of guitar for the money and well worth the wait.

Thanks for the pics and sharing.

[Evan Skopp]

Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

Ponder this...

No one can deny that a Heritage 150 is a great guitar for the money. But some players just have to have a Gibson. Fine.

Here's the question...

Given what you get for the money with a Heritage, how much are you actually paying for the Gibson headstock and brand name?

$100?
$500?
$1,000?
More?

I guess there's a way to figure it out if you compare a $1,600 custom guitar like kaknight's to something out of the Gibson Custom Shop. Anyone wanna hazard a guess?

[kaknight]

Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

well if you look on ebay for custom shop guitars that are not true custom orders (ie they don't have weird finishes, neck carves, etc) they seem to be selling for 2500+ used. here is one that has two days to go:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...729190897&rd=1

I think that mine has it beat on finish, mine is brand new, and that one is already priced (with more than 2 days to go on the auction) at what I paid for mine. Also mine doesn't have buckle rash or dings as this one does.

So I figure that people are pretty much willing to spend around double, if not more what I did to get a Gibson logo on their guitar. That's an expensive little peice of plastic!!! I guess that there is some truth to the gibson resale thing, if you have an older gibson though. Newer ones don't seem to be going up in value but down. Probably because they are overpriced and lots of yuppies that buy them thinking they are going to learn to play guitar like Pete Townsend finally decide to eBay them flooding the market.

If I had a million dollars I think I would still prefer buying from a small company that allows me to personally talk to the guy who is carving my guitar's neck instead of some megacorporation. But that's just me. I don't intend on selling my guitar. It's a guitar built for me and I bought it thinking that it would be mine for the rest of my life. If I lose an arm in an accident, I will learn to play it with my feet using a butter knife wedged between my toes as a slide! so there!

[kaknight]

Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

Instead of buying a gibby: how about these

Custom Cherry Burst LP from wolf guitars so it has the South American Mahogony back!! (presently $750)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...729450692&rd=1

A DC Les Paul flametop (currently $575)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...729352319&rd=1

How about some big bodied guitars?

H575 for sale. this has carved top and back (unlike laminated Gibbys) presently $499


And if you like 335 style guitars, there are a couple right now under a grand:


I wouldn't mind one of those 335's to replace that old Sheraton that I had! But I am not feeling flush right now due to the thing that started this whole thread. Maybe next year!

[Jeff_H]

Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

I had to resurected this thread. I want an LP as my next guitar, but as I read the 50 Years of the Gibson Les Paul, I want one that sounds like the classics of the 57-60 years. I don't want to pay $10,000 for that. I like the thought of the Gibson logo, but the sound is what ultimately matters. It would be great to have a LP style guitar built buy the same craftsmen who built the originals.

I've bookmarked Jay's page, and will call him when I'm ready to order.

[Frantic_Rock]

Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

I had to resurected this thread. I want an LP as my next guitar, but as I read the 50 Years of the Gibson Les Paul, I want one that sounds like the classics of the 57-60 years. I don't want to pay $10,000 for that. I like the thought of the Gibson logo, but the sound is what ultimately matters. It would be great to have a LP style guitar built buy the same craftsmen who built the originals.

I've bookmarked Jay's page, and will call him when I'm ready to order.

This is exactly what i'm doing right now. I've been trying to reach Jay already. His 1-800 number is 48 states only (I'm in canada ) and his other number has been busy so far. I've sent him a list of specs for my Paul and his estimate was 1540.

As soon as I can get a hold of him I'm placing an order and putting a deposit.

Mine is gonna be VERY close to Kaknights except for 50s fat neck, 2 Antiquity humbuckers, headstock binding, back binding. Other than that, same color - Dark Almond burst, same woods, and same bridge.

You pretty much got it perfect Kaknight!