Product: Heritage Academy Standard
Price Paid: US Trade
Submitted
10/06/2001
at
06:46pm
by
Anonymous
Features
:
9
The Academy is similar to a 335 by design(semi hollow), but has a smaller and thinner body, single cutaway, and thinner neck. Mine has been retro fitted with two Rio Grande Bastard P90 pickups. Like most Heritage guitars it has Grover tuners and a tunomatic-stoptail piece style bridge. My only complaint is the stop tailpiece design is not as attractive as the classic Gibson design, and I'm not crazy about the shape of the pickguard.
Sound
:
9
What a beautiful sound! This is my first semi-hollow, so it has taken a little while to get used to. My other guitar is a tele, so at first this one seemed a bit muddy, but with some slight eq tweaking it sounds full and open to slightly bright from neck to treble pickups. A very versatile guitar that goes easily from jazz-blues-rock and sounds fantastic at all three. It really sings on the lead channel on my Boogie...I don't know how else to describe it...it's powerful. I took it to a jam session and it just ate up the other guitarists. I'm sure some of the bite has to do with the Rio Grande's, but it's definately the guitar that projects it so well.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
10
One piece top and back, with a sunburst finish that resembles all those old Les Paul Standard photos. No flame, but nice woodgrained texture and to my eye a flawlessly applied finish. Creme binding, rock solid construction throughout. This where this guitar really stands out, especially when side by side to a compareable Gibson that cost two to three times as much! I've owned Gibsons in the past, but I will not again after owning a Heritage. I'd rather pay for the guitar than the marketing campaign!
Reliability/Durability
:
10
This guitar will last longer than me!
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
10
I've been at this for about 7-8 years and my additional gear includes a Tacoma acoustic(another bang for buck champ), a Fender American Tele with Harmonic Design pups(highly recommended) and my main amp is a Mesa DC-5. I've played, but never owned another guitar similar to this, so I don't have much to compare it to, but I love this guitar. The only thing I might try to add are some Harmonic Design pups, simply because I like them so much in my tele.
