Heritage H-140CM

This is a Heritage 140CM, 2008 or 2009 model. Antique sunburst, flame maple, Grover tuners, Seth Lover pickups, 2 volume, 2 tone. Chrome tune-o-matic bridge. Mahogany body and neck, carved maple top, rosewood fretboard. Neck is fairly slim and very fast - super comfortable. Came with solid SKB case. I give it a "10" not because it has tons of features, but because the features are perfect for this a guitar - a Les Paul.

The sound is amazing. I've played for 25+ years, professionally and for fun, live and lots of studio work. I've played many, many guitars (strats, teles, 335, other les pauls, BC Rich, Ovation electrics, G&L, other Heritage 535s and Les Pauls) and this is the absolute best guitar. I was recently using a Mike Stevens guitar ($10K custom built guitar) in the studio. I was blown away by the guitar and decided that I needed to head in a Les Paul-ish direction. This Heritage absolutely matches and even beats the sound of the Mike Stevens. The pickups are clear and warm, with pretty high output. The guitar can sound incredibly sweet and clear, but can go as dirty as you want. It plays incredibly well. MOST important note - this guitar does everything a Gibson Les Paul will do and a lot more. I would say it has all the tone, but the feel is better and the notes are clearer. The other great guitar I had was a G&L Bluesboy - I loved that tele snap with a little warmth. This guitar, even though a shorter scale, has all the low end tightness of a tele - but incredibly warm and articulate. I can't get over how sweet and tight the bass is, while the top end is shimmery and clear.
The 140's are 1/2 inch thinner than the 150 or a standard Gibson LP. I think this is a huge benefit. I have avoided LP's because they could get flubby on the low end. Not so with this guitar. I cover country, hard rock, alt-rock, pop, etc... with this guitar. AMAZING>
I will also mention that I play high end amps (Dr. Z and Reign Amps - all handwired, etc...). This guitar really sounds wonderful on every possible setting. If you are musician's musician, then you know many of these reviews must be taken with a grain of salt: i.e, "I love this guitar and it sounds awesome through my Crate amp." REALLY - this is a great guitar, trust me. :)

Guitar was set up nicely. Out of the box I tuned it and was immediately playing and comfortable. No need to adjust anything to get a great tone or feel. I may lower the pickups a bit when I have time to experiment, but this guitar is perfect as is. The other guitar I compare it to is my G&L Bluesboy, which had Buzz Feiten tuning. The 140 plays even better and I don't think it even needs the Buzz Feiten system - the Plek fret system is super high quality. This guitar is perfect.

There's not really anything to worry about on a guitar like this. Time will tell, but I don't see any problems.

Don't know yet - have not needed to talk to the boys at Heritage. Though I will say that all past emails (last 10 years) when I tried to contact them were unanswered. but they weren't customer service related questions.

This guitar is a 10. The finish is beautiful, the sound is warm and clear. The action is perfect. I can only say that this made all of my other guitar irrelevant.

Made in Kalamazoo in 1994.

The pickups are amazing. They do just what they should. I expected that I'd have to switch them out, but I will leave them in forever.

The electronics are standard Paul style, just wnat you'd expect.

Grover tuners are the best! They work perfectly.

The bridge/tailpiece are not much to look at, but they seem to do their job as far as intonation and sustain.

Solid mahogany body and neck with maple top. All of the woods are well-matched, and the construction is top-notch.

I love the feel of the neck. It's slim, but not too skinny. I have big hands, but I still love slim necks, and this one is perfect.

As features go, it's nothing fancy, but it's exactly what it should be.

I was blown away by the stock pickups. I planned on throwing in some Duncan pickups when this arrived, but the stock pickups are awesome. They really nail that Les Paul sound, in my opinion. I didn't think they were at all weak. Really nice "squeal," if that makes sense, in the bridge position. Nice and warm at the neck. The neck may be a little too warm, but it creates a nice balance with the bridge. Also, great sustain thanks to the set neck, solid (albeit ugly) bridge, and quality construction.

This is a 95, and I just purchased in 2006, so I have no idea what the initial setup was like. However, the setup now is really nice. I'm a tough critic when it comes to action, and I'm pleased with the Heritage. It could be a just a bit lower, but this is an 11-year-old guitar that needs a professional setup.

This guitar had been gigged for several years, so by the time I got it, it had several battle scars. Pervasive nicks and dings, really dull (and in places, actually sticky) finish, and a repaired headstock that had nearly broken off at one point. Though, none of that can be blamed on the guitar.

The maple top has a very nice medium flame to it, and the cherry sunburst (though I've never liked cherry sunbursts) was well-applied. As you have probably guessed, I wasn't going for a wall ornament when I bought this. I was able to buy it cheap due to the damage, and since I only paid $450, I was willing to live with a finish I didn't like. However, I can say that this probably would have shined out of the workshop.

Well, this guitar seems to have already lived through a pretty bad nosedive, as the headstock has a significant crack. But, it was repaired (cheaply, but effectively), and works fine.

This thing it built like a tank. Even though it's thinner than a Paul, it is far from insubstantial. Mine still weighs in at over 8 lbs. The work done at Kalamazoo was first rate.

The finish has taken a beating over the years, but as I've said, that's not the guitar's fault. It's as solid as I've seen.

I'm not a professional, but I've been playing badly for many years... I've gone though many dozens of guitars over that time, always looking for those guitars that just "felt right." For years I tried, and failed, with Fenders. Frankly, I've never really had the cash (or the back muscles) for a Gibson. My instructor plays a Heritage, and I had never seen one before. It had the ugliest headstock, and worst logo, that I'd ever seen. But, he told me the company history, and I was intrigued. So, I went to their website (which at the time of this review is even more disapointing asthetically than the headstock or logo), and got a little more background. I coudln't find anything locally, so I kept an eye out for a deal on eBay. This was an ugly duckling that nobody seemed to want, so I snatched it up for what I think was a great deal. Since I received it, I can't put it down. Just the right size, not too heavy, perfect-feeling neck, nice sound and solid electronics. Yeah, the finish is rough, the binding is cracked, the headstock is repaired, but it plays and sounds awesome. If it were stolen, I'd look for another great deal on one. You can really tell that these were made with care.

As for my other guitars, I've got a 94 G&L Legacy (which kicks the crap out of USA Fenders), several Dillion guitars (made in Korea, but really great value), and a Washburn HB-35 (also Korea, but hangs with every 335 I've played). These days, most of my playing time is shared between the Heritage and Washburn, though I try to play them all for variety.

This guitar was made in 2002 I think. The local music store had it about a year before I bought it. I have been using it for about a year now so the honeymoon is over and I can give a good review of it. I think the reason no one bought this guitar is because of the color. They call it Rose Natural. I call it pink. I got a good price because of this.The translucent rose color was just on the front face of the guitar. I went to Walmart and got some brown paste shoe polish and went over it like I had read about on the internet. This went through the clear coat or what ever it is and turned the guitar the most beautiful amber color you have ever seen. DON'T do this to your guitar. I may have just been lucky but I could not live with a pink guitar especially down here in Red Neck Country. The guitar body is two piece mahogany with a fine flamed maple cap on it. It's got two humbuckers and two tone and two volume controls.It also has a three way switch. I usually like to play in the in between position so I did a little mod to it where by the rhythm volume is now a master volume. Works like a charm. The maple cap has some flecks in it so I am assuming that it is good Eastern Maple. The neck is mahogany. The case that came with the guitar is first class. This guitar is all I need and is now my Number One. That says a lot about this fine guitar whose owner has had probably 30 guitars in the almost 40 years of playing.

To me this guitar is the perfect Les Paul type guitar. It offers a rich and full tone. I get a nice crunchy rhythm sound and a smooth lead tone. I was very pleased after hearing about the HRW pickups to discover that I had them in my guitar. These things are just so fine that I can't say enough about them. Every place I have played, I have had people come up and wan't to know the score on this guitar. These pickups sound like a hot PAF. Like I said, I did the little rhythm volume master mod. Now I can set the master volume at about 7 for rhythm and turn up to ten for leads with my little pinky. I have quit using my Analog Man modded Tube Screamer. It's great but don't need it. Another good thing about this guitar is the weight. It weighs in at about 7 pounds so you can play it all night with no shoulder or back pain. And you can move around with it pretty good.

Plays like a dream.
I raised the pickups a little because I love that hot humbucker sound.
The top was perfectly matched. Very beautiful.
I did not like the schaller tail piece because the windings around the strings were cutting into my palm which I like to rest in that area. I just took an epiphone tailpiece and ground it down on the bottom so it would fit on the schaller tailpiece studs. Problem fixed.
I was going to change the bridge to a Les Paul type but the way it was mounted, I could not cut the string grooves in the center of the saddles because I think the bridge studs are not exactly centered on the guitar. I just went back to the schaller roller saddle bridge which you can adjust all over the place.It's kind of a pain in the butt because every time you change strings, those little rollers move a little and change the string spacing and you have to re-adjust it. The controls were a little scratchy but I called Heritage and they told me to spray some contact cleaner in there and I have not had any ploblems since.

This guitar is made so good that it will stand just about anything you throw at it. The harware is OK. The finish seems to be tough but not so thick as to kill the tone.
I can depend on this baby and have no problem gigging without a backup which is probably foolish but I have a lot of confidence in this guitar.

I have called and emailed these people several times and have got instant response from them. I had a pickup ring crack and they sent me a new one. I had the scratchy control problem and they responded quick. It was under the one year warranty. They read their emails even on the weekends and answer them ASAP.

I have been playing for almost 40 years. Right now I have one amp. It is a Dr. Z Maz Jr. 18 extremely loud watts of pure classic tone. I believe that this guitar and amp were meant to live together. Perfect match. The tone is my favorite feature. This is the guitar that all others will be judged by. Nothing else I have heard is even close. I also like the look of this guitar. The one sharp cutaway is really nice looking and as I already mentioned the maple top is beautiful. I chose this one because everytime I went in that store for a year, I would pick it up. It just got to me and I had to take a chance on her. My pet name for her is Pinky even though everyone else knows her as Amber. Inside the pickup routes she is still blushing pink but only I get to see that on occasion.

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This is an update to my earlier review. I replaced the Suhr humbuckers with Seymour Duncans, adding a 59 in the neck, and a JB in the bridge. I'm much happier with this setup. Also, the ENGL Screamer 50 has been replaced by a Germino Lead 55 Standard. Big improvement there also.

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1I have a '94 goldtop H-140CM and this hand ccrafted work of art reeks of quality. I went the extra light year and held off for one that had the V.I.P mod that splits the coils with 3 mini toggle switches. I've owned Les Pauls from the 60's 70's and 80's, and this little gem kills them all. You poor snobs who think Gibson equates with quality have alot to learn. Heritages are built in the original kalamazoo MI factory by dedicated craftsmen from Gibson's past, and other luthier genuises who still believe in quality control and exotic materials. You can see the actual guitar model on their website. Log on and drooool snob.

If you don't know that a guitar's tone and volume controls actually dso something relative to the tone output, you're a true dumbshit who needs to stay in the bedroom, livingroom, or garage, and out of the studio and stages of the world, 'cause YOU'RE STUPID. Everyone else, welcome to true bliss and guitar tone nirvana. Since my H-140CM has the VIp mod, I can dial in typical humbucker AND P90 tones!!! If you own a heritage without this factory mod, you're really missing out on extra tonal aspects, but still own a guitar that's light years ahead of the recent Gibson trash. This pickup config gets bell like cleans, slight quack, and bridge treble in both Humbucker and P90 tones. AAWESOME!!!!

My Goldtop is Flawless. 1 piece mohagany neck with 1 piece mohagony body and 1 piece carved maple cap. oooooohhhh so sweet! Beautiful creme pickguard and pickup rings. Beautiful gold top with creme bound edges, thinner than les paul body for all night gigs. Check out the website dude, you'll see what I mean.

This axe is rock solid, but I always make sure that I take the utmost care of it during gigs, and while it's on display. You could probably drop it from your roof onto your front lawn then tune it and gig with it, but I wouldn't push it.

I will be contacting them soon to ask a bunch of relavent, but maybe to them, stupid questions. I'll let you know what happens.

I've been playing for over 30 years and have owned Fenders and Gibsons from the 60's 70's and 80's, and this beautiful goldtop Heritage is just as good if not better and more functional than any of them. The added VIP coil splitting feature just brings these hand made U.S. modern classics to life. Check out ebay. Some Heritage models sell for over $2000 dollars. You might say that other classic guitars sell for upwards of $10,000, but many of those don't even play and sound as good as the heritages. Open your minds and choose one of these hand made American modern classics. You won't be disppointed. I'm not. Peace.

Mid-90s model, cherry sunburst, coil tapping.

This is a very good guitar to begin with, and I made a number of modifications that made it an excellent guitar. Bridge and tailpiece were replaced by TonePros bridge and tailpiece. Pickups were replaced by John Suhr DSV humbuckers (if the guitar had Heritage's high end HRW pickups, which I haven't heard, this may not have been done). Tuners were replaced by Sperzel locking tuners. This guitar will deliver the classic SG Standard sound. In a way, it is an SG Standard with Les Paul styling, as the body is much narrower than the standard Les Paul width. As far as I'm concerned, that's a plus, because the much lighter weight is easier to deal with over long time frames. Coil tapping is a big boost, as it enables you to get the clean "Strat" sound from a humbucker.

First class fit and finish.

Quite reliable so far.

I bought some pickup covers for this guitar from Heritage. They were great to deal with.

Playing an ENGL Screamer 50 head into a Marshall 1936 2x12 cab loaded with Tone Tubbys. Great for blues and rock with the Heritage guitar. Also play an SRV Strat.

My guitar is a late 90's les paul type...Two Schaller humbucker pickups with 3 way switching...Pretty much like a paul but with a thinner body...It's considerably lighter than the average les paul...I haven't noticed any significant difference in tone due to the thinner body, but it's nicer to play as it's lighter...My guitar has a really nice flamed top with a thinnish neck with a pretty flat radius...Dot fingerboard...Grover tuners...It came with a nice case...It's sweet...The bridge is way adjustable...Maybe too much so...I might replace it with a Nashville type, but I probably won't ..It's well made and uber functional...

This thing sounds real good...I was going to replace the pickups but after a/b ing them with the pickups that I put in my Epiphone dot neck (Genesis, by pickup guru Joey Palmieri) I probably will leave them alone...The Genesis pickups sounded a little fuller (and I really only compared the clean sound), but the difference isn't that significant...It's pretty much the typical paul sound, but not dark and muddy like some can be...

This is a perfectly built and finished instrument...World class by the guys who defined the original idea...It was set up perfectly, plays flawlessly...It's also drop dead gorgeous...

I wouldn't gig without a backup...But if I had to, this would be the guitar I'd choose...NO PROBLEMS .

I've got a bunch of guitars, G&L, Gibson, Epiphone, Gretsch...This thing is the best I've ever had...It's the real deal...I've been playing a long time (close to 40 years) and have had a lot of guitars...But this is one I'd never want to lose...This is the third Heritage I've had and all them have been real good...This model sometimes gets dissed, but noone who's ever played my guitar has had anything to say other than "Wow"...Maybe I got lucky...This is the only one of this model I've played...I had an ALL GOLD h150 that I traded for this one...It was nice, and ofcourse I wish I'd kept it, but this plays better and sounds better, too...Plus I really like that these things are made in the original Kalamazoo factory by the original craftsmen...As I bought it new and so forth, I paid alot for it...But I don't regret it one bit...These things are an INCREDIBLE value and if you want a paulish guitar that's a bit lighter in weight, there isn't an alternative that I know of...

I presently have two H-140's, a 1987 emerald green translucent top with custom added active EMG pickups and a stock 2002 Chestnutburst. Both are 90% hand made in Kalamazoo, Michigan in our great USA. From this point on, this review will be on the new Heritage H 140CM. The neck has 22 medium frets in a rosewood fingerboard on a solid mahogany medium neck set into a mahogany body with a maple cap. Schaller pickups are passive open coil dual humbuckers with 2 vol/2 tone controls and switched by a 3 way selector switch. All hardware is chromed including non locking Grover tuners, adjustable Tune-o-matic bridge and stop tail piece, both pickups have creme bezels or pickup rings which go well with the nicely flamed custom chestnutburst finish. This came direct from the factory in a well padded custom fit Heritage case.

This guitar fits me perfectly and being lighter than a Les Paul, you can play it all day without getting tired of holding it up. I use few f/x's mainly the tube type amp's reverb and tremolo. I want to hear every note played and I want to hear the guitar and tube amp not a bunch of f/x's. All settings are grave yard quiet, the neck hummer gives a thinner sound as compared to the bridge hummer, but putting them together gives a nice full and well balanced rich hummer sound. This fits my country, early rock-a-billy and rock-n-roll nicely. Good bottom thump with full mids and brilliant hi's.

This guitar was set up for me by the factory thru Jay Wolfe, the dealer. The neck was straight, action was low for easy fingering. Everything was set up fine and I thank the Heritage factory and dealer Jay Wolfe for going the extra distance for me on this. The hummers were well set up, there were no flaws at all. The new fretwork was great, real pro-like. I cannot find anything but "Made with American Pride Here." The top has a decent flamed and matched top that shows thru some nice wood grains. Strictly pro!! I'm very pleased!!

This is a solid, nicely put together guitar of top quality woods, metal parts and professional know-how. This will last well into the next century, very dependable with a finish that will last. Just give this guitar a little TLC and watch it last and last. Strap locks have already been put on, I never play without them. No backup needed here!! Top notch quality thru-out. My many thanks to the Heritage people.

I've emailed the factory different times asking different questions and they always emailed back. I've never had any problem with any of my 3 (a H-535 and 2 H-140) Heritage guitars and never had to have any warranty work done. New warranty is 1 year I think. If properly taken care of, these guitars are built well enough to last a few lifetimes.

I've been playing 50+ years and play only Heritage or top-of-the-line-Peavey guitars thru Fender, Peavey or Traynor amps. This guitar is perfect as is. Being top grade and well put together is my fav feature, it is a special sounding and playing guitar in it's own right. Yes, I'd order another instantly. Great guitar and custom case for a great price.

Made in 1994, goldtop Les Paul model with gold plated pickup covers over the Seymore Duncan PAF's Gold finish with creme colored binding and pickguard. Maple top is straight grained and the grain is barely visible under the rich gold finish. Gold Schaller roller bridge that appears to have quality construction and alot of adjustment, very solid mounting. This guitar has alot of the fine points of a quality Les Paul, plus has the same neck like a Les Paul TV Special, not the "Fretless Wonder" block inlay style, While those are nice, I find that I must pay more attention to exact finger placement, the dot inlayed rosewood fingerboard Les Paul Special style neck is a little more forgiving and I love to play rythum on it and the leads are really good feeling also. The guitar has gold Grover tuners and seems to stay in tune pretty good. The case is the high quality "The Heritage" lettered case.

I play in a band called "Shoeless and we play some sixty's hard rock & Psychedelic and some female vocal alternative. I am playing through a 1965 Fender Pro Reverb and the sound is awsome. I have not found a distortion sound that I really like with it yet, currently using a Ratt stompbox, and the guitar will do nice violin sustains with the tone turned all the way off, but has alot of crunch, pretty noisy, to me when the tone is turned up any, I liked the distortion on my Dean Markley K-75 better, way cleaner sustained notes, but if I use the crybaby wah pedal as a filter the neck pickup really sings with the current setup. I am also using an Ibanez Flanger and Boss Chorus, and they sound good, I am looking at some rack or floor arrays, but am gunshy on some of the prices I've seen. I recently had my Dean Markley shoot craps on me, hopefully it can be fixed, but maybe the distortion side can be salvaged and I can preamp to the Fender with it, my amp guru is checking it out.

Damn fine on all points, changing strings is easier than some other guitars I've owned, making playing bar gigs much easier if a string breaks

I installed a set of Schaller strap locks on it, which sure makes me feel better avout it, otherwise this thing will work for a living as needed

I called Heritage for some Info, they did not make too many Gold tops since their classy looking flame and quilt tops are more in demand, but the guy I talked to was very helpful and commented to me that there is already some collector interest in some of the Heritage early production, he said that he liked the goldtop becaus everybody and their dog has a flamy guitar these days, so true,

I have been playing for about 35 years, I have never been able to afford gear of this quality before, and the current vintage or new Gibson prices did not help, My current other ax is a custom built utilizing an older Peavey for neck & body, a great sounding guitar, but not as good sounding as the Heritage. If it were lost or stolen I would sure be very upset, and would definately look at Heritage for a replacement. Heritage makes a 335 Gibson style guitar that I want to try out, if the fit and finish of the goldtop is any indicator then those guitars should be great also, I shopped for a long time, was actually looking for a Les Paul deluxe with P-100 pickups, but got disappointed in what I was able to find and the stupid high prices that people and music stores thought that they were worth. The owners and management of Heritage refused to sell out their values to move to Nashville and turn out mass produced crappy playing guitars with pretty looks but poor QA/QC I hope that people support Heritage, let people with more money than common sense keep the Koreans at Samick in business, Support American made guitars folks!

This guitar was made in 1997 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It has 22 frets. It has a 12 3/8" solid carved body; solid curly maple top; solid mahogany back; cream bound top. The top has a moderate flame figure in the wood. The controls are standard Les Paul type, 2 volume, 2 tone, 3-way selector switch, passive electronics, 2 German Schaller humbucking pickups without covers. The neck is made of mahogany and it has a rosewood fingerboard, 24 3/4" scale. The bridge is the Schaller adjustable roller type. Tuners are Grovers. A Heritage hard shell case was included in the purchase price.

This guitar has a very nice sound overall--it is a versatile guitar for playing many different types of music. It is really at its best when using the the neck or "rhythm" pickup, or in combination with the "treble" pickup--you can create some very appealing sounds this way. The sound in the "clean" state (no distortion) is wonderful. I find it hard to put this guitar down because strummed chords ring so nicely! The bridge pickup sound is a pretty much average humbucker sound, useful for solos.

The action was set by a technician at the place of purchase, and it was set perfectly. This guitar plays easily and this adds greatly to its appeal. When I changed strings a while back I adjusted the string scale length at the bridge saddles to maintain intonation at the 12th fret. This was done easily in 10 minutes with a small screwdriver and an electronic tuner. Since this guitar has a thin body, it weighs less and therefore is very comfortable to play for long periods while standing up. I would rate the amount of flame figure in the wood at the "plus" level, a nice feature for a guitar at this price.

This guitar is only 2 years old and it is in good shape. I have had no problems with it at all and it is reliable. I would not expect it to fail so I would have no problem using this for a performance without bringing a backup. By the way, the lacquer coating on the finish appears to be thicker than on most solid body guitars, it improves the appearance of the maple top--it is very shiney when polished up.

I have not used customer support for this guitar.

I have been playing for 21 years and I have owned many guitars. I usually play with no distortion effect--or occasionally just a slight amount for blues, country or rockabilly. This guitar has earned a high rating because it is a good quality instrument when compared to others. I would buy a replacement if it were lost. By the way, I know there are plenty of glowing reviews in this database but that is probably because people are motivated to review their favorite instrument rather than the piece of junk stored in the attic.

This guitar is made in the United States in Kalamazoo(The Original Gibson plant). I just go this guitar but it plays great! It has a one piece flame maple top and a cherry sunburst finish its beautiful! 3way selection of 2 humbuckers and has Grover tuners It came with the case pics, capo, 2 straps, and earplugs.

Incrediable sound beats the crap out of my old Fender Squier strat! Pickups are very hot and holds sustain for a long time........ Great for playing Guns and Roses, Metallica, Iron Maiden, power chord songs in general, and any soloing!

Action is great, intonatoion is perfect no flaws that I can see on the guitar Action is almost as fast as my Strat, though switchin between chords take more skill if you wanna switch really fast!

This guitar is great! I use it to play for friends, girls, and once in a while the neighborhood thorugh my Marshall Stack!Strap buttons are solid the finish is amazingly beautifull eveything is done by hand! Heritage bought the plant Gibson used before they added automation! THis is the main guitar you'd use while playing LIVE!

Haven't had the Pleasure.

If I ever lost this guitar I would have to say that I would find the person who stole it beat him to a bloody pulp and take it back! The only guitar that I've played that matches up to this guitar would have to be the Jimmy Page Gibson Les Paul(They even look the same!) This guitar has a beautiful tone which you can change to your liking! works great with both my Marshall Stack and Crate 65watt amp.