Heritage H-150CM CL-L

Mine is a 96, great guitar. The reviewer below covers all the points nicely with one major error. He states "this is a Les Paul Classic. Period." Well in terms of appearance and neck profile he's right. Most would agree the construction quality is better on the Heritage though. The main difference is in the pickups. The Heritage CL or Classic comes with Seymour Duncan 59 pickups which are ALNICO magnet humbuckers modeled closely after the old Gibson PAFs of the late '50s and early '60s. Wonderful pickups, they are reviewed extensively in the pickup section of this great site. The Gibson Les Paul Classic however comes with CERAMIC magnet humbuckers, a 496R at the neck, and a 500T at the bridge. These pickups are hotter and produce a very different sound than the Duncan '59s. Again, reviews can be found in the pickup section. Which is better? That's a matter of taste. I like both actually, I have a '93 Gibson Les Paul Studio Lite with the ceramic humbuckers and a '96 Heritage H150 CM Classic with the Duncan '59s.

Absolutely fantastic through a '93 Marshall 8040 combo.

Beautiful, 2 or 3 notches above Gibson. Unless you're talking Custom Shop at 4-5 times the price of a Heritage.

Solid.

No experience.

Read all the other reviews, they're great guitars. Stone bargains.

2001 Heritage 150CM-CL. The CL stands for "Classic" which differs from the 150CM in that it comes standard with Duncan '59 pickups front and rear. If you want one, then you already know what it is -- it's a Les Paul Classic. Period. From the headstock down it's nearly identical to a Gibson Les Paul Classic Plus except the neck is a tad wider and the cutaway is ever so slightly more rounded and not quite as upturned as on the Gibson. I say it's nearly identical to the Gibson Les Paul Classic Plus, but the fact is, in terms of overall quality and features (better hardware), the Heritage 150CM-CL kicks the crap out of any new Gibson LP Classic Plus you're liable to
run across. Why do I keep repeating Gibson LP Classic, LP Classic?
Because that's what the 150CM-CL is. If you want a Gibson Les Paul
STANDARD, you might not like this guitar. The Gibson Standard is a Gibson Custom without the upgraded cosmetic features (5-ply binding, MOP block inlays, etc.) So in the interest of a fair comparison, let's keep it to the Gibson LP Classic. I was fortunate enough to get my Heritage with the "Nashville" hardware I wanted which was the tune-o-matic bridge/stopbar tailpiece combination. The guitar also has Schaller rather than (the standard) Grover machine heads. It has a beautiful, bookmatched flamed maple top finished in a comely transparent Antique Cherry Sunburst nitrocellulose finish. I would call it a "working man's" flame, striking, but not so extravagantly figured that you want to put it in a glass display case and never touch it for fear of getting a fingerprint on it. Still, under the right light, the top catches fire, the flame runs from edge to edge, and it MOOOOOVES! The fretboard is a very high-quality rosewood, dark with unbelievably tight grain. I hit the fretboard with some Dr. Stringfellow's Lem-Oil, and it turned nearly black (too cool, since the darker the fretboard, the better I like it) The guitar
came snuggly wrapped in a black, "California Girl" style hardshell case with black fuzz in the interior and "The Heritage" in gold on the outside. There are five brass latches to keep that sucker closed nice and tight.

Let's face it, people buy H150CMs because they love Les Pauls and the
Heritage version delivers everything you want from this style of guitar. It sounds like a Paul and it plays like one. It's basically a rock machine. It rages and it weeps. It's in your face and it's subtle and complex. Can you play Jazz on a Paul? Al DiMeola seemed to do alright with them. How about some Reggae? I seem to recall seeing Bob Marley playing one. This is a top quality instrument and it will do whatever you can make it do. If it doesn't "sound" good it's either because you're trying to make it do something it wasn't designed to do . . . or maybe you just suck (I'm not being an A-hole here, because I suck quite a bit, myself.) My thing is basically melodic hard rock and I like a lot of effects, but even straight into the amp, this guitar does the trick for me. It sizzles and it sings. The Duncan '59s are a little edgier than the stock pickups Gibson uses in their guitars. The Duncans have great clarity and definition in all three toggle positions. The electronics are responsive to variations in the volume and tone control settings (It's funny that so many players I know never really utilize the controls on their guitar to vary tonality - it's always "everything on 10"). Over the years, I've been partial to Seymour Duncan pickups, but it's really just a matter of taste. I'm sure the 150CM-CL would sound good with just about any quality pickup installed.

Set-up is a subjective thing. On Les Pauls, I like the action a little on the high side so I can really "dig in". The action was too low for my taste and the stopbar was set a little deeper than I like. It took me two minutes to adjust it to my liking, so factory set-ups are not really an issue. The pickups were well-balanced across the pole pieces and the output was even between neck and bridge. The guitar's finish was flawless, not a glitch to be found in the binding or the paint. O.K., that was the good part. Now the bad. The top nut was as poorly cut as any I've ever seen. Every string popped when tuning or bending strings. A little
graphite in the slots cured this, but the spacing between the 4th, 5th, and 6th strings was uneven. Worse yet, It looked to me like someone at the factory saw this, but rather than fix the problem (new nut) opted to correct it "visually" by moving the low-E string out of the notch in the bridge saddle piece to make the spacing appear more even. Very uncool. Even with this poor piece of workmanship the guitar's playability is negligibly impacted. I'm gonna have to dock Heritage a few points for not detailing the headstock a little more, too. This guitar deserves better than the lousey plastic nut they put on them. Also, an engraved truss rod cover (like on Gibsons) would be a visual improvement, as would the addition of some kind of headstock decal (again, like Gibson). Finally, I was a little
disappointed to find that "The Heritage" on the H150CM's headstock was
silk-screened on rather than inlayed. If you can buy a Korean-made
'whatever' with the company's name inset in the headstock, Heritage oughtto be able to do the same. As far as this complaint goes, other Heritage models do have the company name inlayed, and I believe even on a 150CM-CL you could have this done for an additional fee. Because of the goofed-up top nut, I have to give them an overall "8" in the Action, Fit & Finish category.

As I said earlier, this is a top-quality, professional instrument. It was obviously built to last a long, long time. I get the distinct impression that the folks at Heritage are interested in building "heirloom" instruments. As with all set neck guitars with pitched headstocks, it's going to be a little more delicate than a strat-style guitar, but I wouldn't have any reservations about playing live with it. Like Gibsons,the Heritage has a nitrocellulose finish that requires a little more attention than some cheap "dipped in urethane" guitar, but if you wipe them down after you're done sweating all over them, use a good quality cleaner,and wax them every once in a while, you'll be rewarded with an instrument that doesn't get older, but better with the passage of time. As far as gigging without a backup guitar, I never have and I never will.

My only dealing with Heritage was when I called them for the UPS tracking number and Bill Paige, one of the owners, got me the information,literally, in about 15 seconds (try that with Gibson). As far as the nut problem I mentioned, I haven't called them about it, but I'm sure they would fix it under warranty without quarrel if I wanted to go through the hassle of shipping it back to them. I would like to say something about the dealer I bought the guitar from. If you don't have a Heritage dealer in your area, and have to go to the internet to find one, I would recommend a call to Jay Wolfe at Wolfe Guitars in Jupiter, Florida. Mr. Wolfe is one patient man, I know because I tried his. He sent me tons of pictures of what he had in stock, he returned my emails immediately, and spent a good amount of time on the phone with me. When we determined that
there wasn't anything in his current inventory that suited my needs, he put a call into Heritage to have them finish a 150CM-CL they were building for him to my specifications. It was about a week away from being done when he called, and he had them drop-ship it to me with no delays. And he did it all for a great price and no bull. I know who I'll be buying my next Heritage from.

In the 30 years I've been playing, I've bought and sold more guitars than I can remember. Again, I'm not being an A-hole, it's just the truth. Along with the 150CM-CL, I currently have a Gibson Les Paul Custom, a Gibson Les Paul Standard, an Ibanez S520-WML, a Jackson SL-4, a Hamer Studio Custom, and a Burney (old Japanese, Fernandez subsidiary)knockoff of a '59 Les Paul. I bought the Heritage sight unseen on reputation alone and I am not disappointed. Barring any unforeseen financial disaster, I'm pretty sure this one's a keeper, and before it's all over, I may end up with a few more in my collection. If a HEADSTOCK with the name Gibson on it is worth
a thousand extra dollars to you (I paid $1250 for the Heritage, try getting a Gibson LP Classic Plus with all the same features for under $2300) then don't buy a Heritage. If it's quality and sound for an unbeatable price in a Les Paul-style guitar that matters, then your only choice is what color 150CM would you like.

1998 Les Paul Type Guitar Left Handed. 22 Frets with a flamed maple top and mahagony body and neck. Mother of pearl trapaziod inlays with rosewood fingerboard. Typical Les Paul configration. Two duncan 59s. Finish is nitrocellulose vintage sunburst. Tune-o-matic bridge with their stop tail. Grover tuners chrome. Hard shell case included.

I was a little dissapointed at first but after being set up to my liking and setting my amp properly I have forgotten to pick up my other guitars. I am using a AX2. The sound is a little brighter than my les paul studo but I have rolled back the tone knob 2 stops and it sounds great. Good for blues and rock. The neck pickup is better sounding than my Gibson. It has that round sound but wit a little more clarity.

The set up was a little dissapointing. I had to have some of the frets filed but once that was completed it played great. Everything else is great. The finish is beautiful. All the hardware seems to be of good quality and feels solid. Barring the frets it was great.

It is not that old but as I have stated I really play this guitar only. It feels great and substantial. All is solid and dependable so far.

No dealings yet

If it were stolen I would purchase the guitar again. I wanted a New Les Paul but couldn't see paying the price and lefties are hard to find. My next purchase will be a heritage.