Heritage H-150 Special

2004 Made in Kalamazoo, where the great Gibsons were once made, same plant, a lot of the same machinery, a few of the "old-timers" with 130 years of guitar design and building to their credit, etc. You know the typical Les Paul drill...22 frets (jumbo, in this case), maple cap over a mahogany body (1-3/4" body width) with set mahogany neck of probably the 59' profile, rosewood fingerboard w/real MOP dot inlays, 2-V, 2-T controls with 3 way selector switch, dual nickle covered HRW pickups. Mine is finished in a deep, beautilful ebony with cream binding on body, neck and pickup surrounds, tune-o-matic bridge with stopbar tailpiece, Grover Sta-Tight tuners. TKL hardshell case provided. I'm giving it a 10 beacuse it fits my needs.

WOW!!! This is how a LP is supposed to sound like. I play a heavy blues based rock based on such greats as Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page (early days), Eric Clapton (especially his SG & LP weilding days...think "Beano" and Cream), SRV, Robin Trower, Allman Bros., ZZ Top (the early days), Peter Green, etc. No Metal Head here. I get all the overdrive my style needs by my set up below noted below.

I play all my guitars through a Gibson Goldtone GA-15RV (15 class A watts of greatness) linked to a modified Fender Blues JR., both with JJ Electronics tubes from eurotubes.com. GREAT TUBES!!! Believe me, this rig is LOUD. No, not a 100 watt Marshall with a 4-12 cab, but I can compete easily with my friends' 45 watt Fender Bassman LTD re-issue. The class A boost of the Gibson Goldtone is unbelievably loud.

My 150 SPL is dead quite for the most part. The neck pickup gives great clean headroom through my set up and never seems to get muddy even when driven hard with natural tube overdrive. The bridge pickup really cuts through when driven hard and never too brittle or harsh. I drive both my amps volumes to 10, set my EQ to the room and use the guitars volume and tone controls to suit my taste and how the situation dictates. The mid position yeilds some really sweet creamy tones as well.

I am mostly a plug in and play kind of guy. I always have my Morley Pro Wah hooked up, not my favorite wah pedal, but what I have at the moment. I prefer a Vox wah actually. I do use and occasional chorus and vibrato box when the situation calls for it.

This is another area where Heritage has got Gibson beat, hands down, at least until you get into the Historic lines and other Custom Shop creations. The binding and finish are flawless. I cannot find anything in the fit and finish that is the least bit other than immaculate.

Great fret work. I especially like the larger frets. Pickup adjustment seems to be okay. The action is a little on the low side for me, but that will soon be remedeed, then I'll put on my favorite 10-46's, Regular Slinkys, and recheck the intonation, which is perfect as she came from the factory.

Hey, it's a LP style guitar built like they used to be made....solid as a tank. I did replace the strap buttons with spraplocks, as I do on all my guitars. Finish should last; but I'm a fanatic about wiping my guitars down and polished.

I feel that I can depend on this guitar for many years and pass it on to a lucky relative one day. I would never gig without a backup guitar or tubes. You just can never tell what might happen.

All I've heard about Heritage's CS has been good but I personally have no experience in this area.

I have been playing for 35 years now and have went through my share of good, bad, and ugly guitars and amps. Have always been a tube amp man....nothing else but tubes for me! I also have a Gibson ES-135 LE with Classic 57 pickups, an American Standard Strat w/ custom shop vintage noisless pups, an American Highway 1 Tele with custom shop vintage noisless pups and Sperzel locking tuners, a Reverend Rocco (great guitar....give the Rev a try), an old Gibson Sonix 180 Deluxe (from my early years), a 1976 Martin HD-28 acoustic, a Tacoma M-2 mandolin, and a Rickenbacker 620-12 string.

If it were stolen or lost, I would definately be saving for another Heritage 150....maybe the Ultra. What I like most about the guitar is it's fattness of tone without being muddy or having any loss of clarity through the tonal spectrum I put it through. After playing Fenders for the last 18 years, I longed for that good old LP tone to further expand my tonal abilities....plus a resurgance on my part on getting back into some Cream and early Zep type of stuff with the good old Rev. Billy Gibbons thrown in.

If you guys are really wanting a great LP style of guitar, get over the Gibson name and save yourself almost half of what a Gibby LP Standard will run you. The only difference between my 150 Special and a Gibson LP Std. is dot inlays of real pearl, as opposed to trapazoid inlays of plastic on the Gibby, and gobs of great TONE by way of the Heritage. You can get a 150cm (like the aformentioned Gibby LP Std. for around $1200, as compared to around $2200