Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

kaknight

kaknight

New member
Hey gang,
I saw another Heritage guitar came in today, and I thought I would post a couple of pics of mine. I ordered mine 3 months and 6 days ago as a custom order. It came in the post today and still smells of the fresh nitrocellulose finish.... (mmm brain damage)

I ordered a HC150 (that's Heritage lingo for Les Paul) through Jay Wolfe at Wolfe guitars with custom just about everything. Here are my custom specs:
  • Neck: Custom Profile - Assymetric SRV cut (peak is closer to thumb side - similar to EVH but wider)
  • Ebony fretboard
  • Custom paintjob - dark almond sunburst
  • Factory installed SD pups (AIIpro neck, CC bridge) both with Nickel Covers ;)
  • aluminum TonePros double locking bridge and tailpeice
  • custom body wood - south american mahogony (original Les Paul spec) that sounds better than the african mahogony now used in Les Pauls without the stupid weight cutting holes that ALL LP's and normal Heritage guitars have
  • real mother of pearl inlays (unlike plastic on most LPs)
heritage_longview.jpg


heritage_outdoor.jpg


heritage_outdoor_full.jpg



heritage_nametag_000.jpg


When I took off the back plate of the guitar, I found this handwritten note statine that mine was a special order, and in a custom color.

Total Cost of guitar, ordered custom, shipped to Jay Wolfe guitars in FL, and then across the country to my house in hard case: $1600!!!

If any of you out there want a Les Paul, I recommend getting a Heritage!! This guitar has my own neck carve, all of the best woods, factory installed Duncans of my choice, and it's perfect. If you get a Heritage, get it from Jay Wolfe at Wolfe Guitars. He is great, and every guitar that he orders, he orders custom made with special body woods that are better than you will get through other dealers. On top of that, his price was easily $350 better than I could get from anyone else for all of the options I wanted.
 
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Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

Here's a blurb that Jay Wolfe puts out about the Heritage guitars he orders the woods used in LP's and why a good LP shouldn't weigh a ton.

The best of the Les Pauls historically are the late 1950’s versions, which all had bodies from the very resonant & toneful “South American mahogany”, or “SAM”. This wood is lighter, less “wet”, harder to obtain & more expensive. The popular substitute, which is used by Gib. AND Heritage, is an African variety mahog., which is way too heavy & sonically inferior. In a recent Vintage Guitar Magazine article, a Gib. Expert & Board member stated that Gib. has been “routing” cavities in bodies of “all” Les Pauls to lighten them to an acceptable weight. He further said that they take the lightest 10% of this (cheaper & inferior) wood to their Historic/Custom shop for those high priced guitars. This means that when you think you’re buying a “solid body” guitar, you’re actually getting a “semi-hollow” body guitar! I believe they should disclose this, but they don’t.
Heritage also uses this inferior wood for their H150 series guitars……………but NOT for those going to Wolfe Guitars. We pay them extra for, and specify SAM wood for “all” our 150’s & 157’s. We give them a weight limit, and actually purchased a scale for them to use on “our” guitars only. This fine tonewood renders a guitar that weighs similar to 1950’s LP’s….WITHOUT body “holes” , sounds better,
Sustains better, is worth more & is much more stabile. The old “saw” that heavier guitars sustain better is rubbish, and there is a wealth of proof to the contrary. Late 1950’s LP weighed between 8 & 9.5 pounds.
 
Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

Yeah, the best 59-60 LP standards were the ones with less figure to the top and lighter overall weight.

By the way, that is one beautiful guitar. And GREAT value.
 
Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

thanks mucho! It took me about two weeks worth or emails and phone conversations to get the color and the neck specs conveyed properly to the team, but it was a lot of fun. the guys who make those guitars are the original makers of the custom shop LP guitars from way back. The guy who carved my neck is over 60, and most of the people who did worked for Gibson since the 60's. From what I have heard, if you want a Les Paul made by the guys who did it way back when, you only have a couple of years left before the senior guys at heritage retire.
 
Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

nice ax, man!

like a friend of mine says, "guitars are like sex - it's all about the wood" ;)

I actually like the way the flame is less prominent on that guitar ... much like it was on many of the classic LPs

I've heard that Heritage's new humbucker's sound pretty good. 'Course, I'd probably order SDs, like you did.
 
Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

HUH HUH, you said wood!! HUHUHUHyeah, I had to specially request a northeastern maple top with classic style flame instead of the crazy zebra stuff out there now. Again more to original LP specs than what is made now.
 
Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

as an another Heritage owner (H-147) I am very proud of my guitars quality over new factory crap Gibson Les Pauls...Your guitar has an amazing value over those Gibsons priced at 2000-3000$ only for their brand name and not for their quality!My H-147 is 90' made slim black body with Schaller gold hardware and Golden 50 pickups,maple over mahogany body,mahogany neck with ebony fingerboard featuring rectangular real inlays.I bought it for 650$ but wherever I take it people ask me if I intend to sell it.they even offered me prices up to 1200$!!!but I won't sell it cause I believe I can't get another great quality guitar like this one even if I find a Gibson...
 
Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

Awesome axe, bro! I was thinking about adding a Les to my collection...but Heritage is looking quite a bit better at this point...your axe is WAY cooler looking, has better options and has SD's for $1600? I'm thinking Heritage maybe getting a new customer!

Farkus
 
Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

Wow, that is really nice. Sounds like a custom shop build, at a good price. Enjoy the new axe.
 
Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

I"m a big believer in Jay Wolfe as well. I've known him for a couple of years now. I bought my 535 from him. Couldn't have been nicer. Jay is the largest heritage dealer in the world. There is a reason for that. He's just a good guy.

What's funny is that when I got my 535, it had this little card with all the signatures of the Heritage people that had worked on my guitar. Well, when a guitar gets to Jay's shop, he gives it a worldclass set up. Then he signs the card as well. When I first saw the card and his signature, I thought, Man, that's kinda ballsy. Then played the axe and realized how much time he spent on setting it up. I've never played a guitar that was set up perfectly when I got it before.
 
Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

So was it worth 96 days of waiting? :yeah: :bigok:

That is absolutely gorgeous, and based on my experience probably sounds even better! :D

Chip
 
Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

Yeah. Above all Jay was a great guy. I think that he was able to steer me down the right path in terms of options without an ounce of hard sell. And his setup was really nice. I have had to deal with so many crappy people over time, (PRS, Fender, many pushy guitar salespeople) and it has really been a problem in getting what I want. It's nice to get someone who really seemed to be on my side after all this time. It was Jay's suggestion to go with the "vintage woods" thing on my guitar. He also spent about 5 emails worth of time making sure that I got the exact color that I was after.
 
Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

Beautiful!

So how does Heritage get away without being sued by Gibson for copying a Les Paul, and PRS does get sued for thier single cutaway model? That doesn't make any sense at all! Nice guitar tho...good score! Lew
 
Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

Kaknight ... you've just sold me on Heritage ...

That note they put there was a really nice touch
 
Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

When I was a kid I used to take the Greyhound bus from Detroit up to Kalamazoo and visit the old Gibson factory at 225 Parsons. They were usually pretty nice about letting me in to look around. This would've been about '66. The smokestack still has GIBSON inlayed in it...even tho that building is now where Heritage Guitars are made. Lew
 
Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

they also gave me a hang tag signed by the builders. It was just a class act deal. I think that Heritage has permission to make em (just my guess). They are a very small production company owned and run by people who have more experience working at Gibson than probably anyone else. My guess is that they are either "buddy buddy" with Gibson because of their roots or that they pay a licensing fee to the company. They are so close to the company, and I am sure that Gibson is keenly aware of them, and yet they keep going. they must have sort sort of understanding. I think that PRS, being Gibby's biggest competitor in the mahog body maple cap guitars represents a threat to Gibby if they can get a LP from them. If I were Gibby, and I saw that PRS was making something that is very similar to what I was making, I'd be worried. Tokai is a large scale producer of guitars that compete with the epiphone market, and therefore also represent a threat. Heritage, for who knows what reason, hasn't really caught on yet. They make their guitars by hand, and they consider all guitars custom orders (hey I didn't pay a penny more for a custom order, I just had to pay more for each option I wanted and even that was cheap). In spite of all of this, they are still about $400-800 cheaper than a regular ol gibby standard (if I ordered mine to be exactly the same construction and materials as a standard, it would have been only about $1200).
 
Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

Oh, one more thing.

Thanks Scott_F for the great pup recommendations on this guitar!

They are perfect for my tone! The AII mags make the sound really warm and musical, and the combination of the different pups gives me a lot of versatility. I highly recommend this combo to anyone looking for something to tame a bright rig.
 
Re: Heritage Les Paul Arrived Today! *PICS*

So you're liking the CC bridge? I use the CC bridge and Seth Lover neck in my Hamer Monoco...love it! Very similar to what you're using...

Lew
 
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