Heritage H-170CMSM

My Heritage is a 1986 I purchased used in '91. 22 frets, honeyburst flame maple top, rosewood board. Two volumes, one tone, push/pull on both volumes. Original pickups were Schallers, but it also came with a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge. I put spertzel gold tuners, and gold bridge as well as a Schaller fine tuning bridge and it's SOOOOO sweet!

I can get ANY sound with this by a combination of push/pull and the very dynamic tone control. Bridge out of phase and neck in gives me a totally woody Clapton woman tone, switch it around and it needs to be slapped it so twangy. Both HB on full and it has the sweetest '58 LP tone you've ever heard. Very good acoustic tone- when you play it without plugging in you can hear the wood. You can hear it sustain just by looking at it...(thanks for the line, Nigel). I've currently got two old Gibson 16 watters with single 12", one from the 40's and the other from the 50's and running them stereo with the Heritage is tonal heaven. Just bought an early 60's Gibson with a 15" and it'll give you a sonic orgasm.

Look, the guys that made this guitar are also responsible for some of the finest guitars ever made. They were made by the same craftsmen and machines that made all the great Gibsons before the company went pychotic and forgot it's roots. Heritage are the best guitars Gibson never made.

I've been playing this guitar as my main ax since '91. It's so versatile, solid, warm, gorgeous....what other superlative do you have?

Whenever I've called Heritage, I've always had first class service. More often than not, I'll get one of the owners and have a chance to shoot the $#%# about the old days at Gibson. I bought a STAT once without a case and the guy ended up finding me a case that had been hidden away in the shop after about six months. The guys are great.

I've been playing since '74 and I do love my guitars. I drove from Taos to Boulder (about 8 hours) because I thought it was a Gibson Heritage series. Never heard of Heritage guitars. Guy wanted $450 so I bought it anyway. Best deal I ever made. I've had a ton of guitars over the years, including my '56 Strat, numerous LP's, etc, but I find I always play this guitar when I want to really sit down in the groove. As much as I love the Strat, I play the Heritage WAY more. The fact that Heritage guitars haven't become the premiere production guitar and overtaken Gibson is absolutely a mystery to me. I've had a number of different models; a couple STATs, a 535, and I'm dying to get a Golden Eagle. If I were to buy a new guitar, it would have to be American. Without discussing the boutique luthiers, who have wonderful instruments, these are the finest American guitar currently in production.

2000 heritage double cutaway les paul type 6 string. Little thinner than a les paul but still weighs 8.5 pounds....it is right in between a les paul and an sg but better than both imo.
22 frets with a solid 1-piece mahogany back and neck and a see-thru goldish-yellow curly maple top which is over 1/2" thick.. beautiful hand crafted guitar.
came with 2 schaller paf type pickups which I did not like at all but I knew if i changed them out, it would sound amazing. I ended up trying some rio grande bbq humbuckers and i gotta tell ya, they are by far the best pickups in the world.....sound like a seymour duncan jb except for a little warmer and 10 times the TONE!!!!
I got a steal on it for 600.00 brand new with a hardshell case only because where it hangs on the hanger in the store it had rub marks on it.........i saved about 500.00 so i could care less about the back of the headstock....
finish seems kind of soft (i already put a little dent in it when changing pickups) oops!!!!.. don't matter to me though because i will keep it forever.....
i have owned gibson les pauls and sg's and this is definately as good or better.

I use a Demeter 100 watt head and a vintae 30 marshall cab with only a holy grail reverb through the effects loop.... there is no noise at all except when it is cranked all the way up.
sounds creamy like a les paul but more versatile and 1 pound les....
I play all kinds of music but this guitar is best at anything from late 60's through the 80's and some newer stuff like soundgarden, stp, alice in chains, tool, and with the pickups, i can even get a Real good srv and kenny wayne sheppard.....how cool is that....cant get that fender twangy spank though.....i wish there was a guitar that sounded like this heritage on the dirty channel and a great old strat on the clean side?!!! how cool would that be?
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factory set up needed a little neck adj. but the intonation was dead on....flaw on back of headstock like i said but other than that i just had to polish the neck and change the strings and pickups. I have never in my life bought a new guitar and not have to set it up....i was disappointed when i payed 1600.00 for a gibson les paul and had to set the intonation, bridge and pickup height, and file a couple frets......never again for me unless someone sells it to me when they are desparate and i get it cheap.....

i always put staplocks on.
seems to be very dependable.

didn't even ask about the warranty, i should be able to fix anything that goes wrong....i wouln't worry about it...

been playing for 17 years and still going. i wish all guitars that are expensive came to you ready to play and have a choice of pickups, strings and action height for no extra charge.
this heritage truly is the best sounding guitar i've ever owned but the prettiest was a red schecter h-1000 deluxe, too bad that guitar didn't have better woods and a little more beef to it.

This guitar was made in Kalamazoo Michigan at the old Gibson
plant in 2003. It is a double-cutaway solid body with a solid Mahogany back (one piece) and neck, 22 frets, 24 3/4" scale (like a Les Paul), 17 degree pitch
headstock, two volume and one tone control knob, three way toggle switch, Maple top finished in Nitrocellulose, chrome Grover tuners, Seymor Duncan
Stag-Mag humbucker pick-ups with coil splitting on both. I had mine upgraded with the following features:
- Ultra Top
- Translucent Blue Color
- Ebony fretboard (Rosewood is standard)
- Cream binding on neck and headstock
- Chrome Tune-o-matic bridge (instead of Schaller)
- Left-handed (strung righty)
- Custom truss rod cover
- Black speed knobs
Oh yeah, I also ordered a case with it.

The first guitar I bought was a lefty Les Paul Custom custom
ordered (#777) in 1977 for $777.00. In a momentary lapse of reason, I sold it in 1986 and regretted it ever since. This Heritage has all the tone that my Custom had and more. Remarkably rich
and powerful Les Paul tone, and with the coil split on the bridge
pick-up it sounds just like a Telecaster. The Duncan pick-ups
provide amazing clarity of tone when clean, and when overdriven
they have punch personified. When played through my Marshall
Master Model 50 watt Mk II lead (also purchased in 1977) its got that Les Paul/Marshall tone that defines rock & roll. Shock and Awe baby...

This guitar is overwhelmingly beautiful. The Maple "Ultra" top
is a flame/quilt hybrid, the likes of which I have never seen before. The blue translucent color gives it a 3D quality, when
moved the depth of the quilt appears to change and the color will
have greenish tints to it. Just amazing. The set-up from Ed Romans was decent, although there were a few problems. The nut was cut too tightly, causing the G and B strings to pinch and pop when tuning. There is slight buzzing on the low E string,
but not sonically noticable when amplified. On one of the horns there is a minor discoloration where it appears to have been over-sanded when being made. I got a call from Bill Paige, one of four owners who had originally
worked for Gibson before Gibson moved to Nashville. He told me about it, and asked if they should proceed. I told him to go ahead with it. I rather enjoy the character of it, as it makes it obvious that this baby was made by hand. Also, there was no strap button
on the back of the neck when it arrived. I called Heritage directly
and spoke with Bill again. He wasn't sure why they don't put on the upper strap button, apparently
they don't put them on any of the H170's. He spoke with someone else while I was on the phone with him, and told me
that the placement of that strap button is left up to the customer
because some people like them on the horn, whereas some like it on the back of the neck. I thought that was pretty cool. Other than that , this guitar is meticulously crafted and beautifully finished.

Reliable and durable?
You betcha... although I hear that Nitrocellulose can be rather
delicate. Treat your guitars with respect and they'll last long after
that bag o' bones we call a body, our "vehicle of consciousness".

I ordered this guitar on June 6th, 2002. When I ordered it I was
told it would take around six months. It took one week less than a year. I ordered it through Ed Romans World Class Guitars out of Las Vegas. I didn't deal with Ed, my contact was Scott Krell.
Six months to the day I called Scott, who called Heritage. My
guitar was going to take another eight to nine weeks. No problem. I called Heritage directly nine weeks later, and was told
they make runs of ten or so guitars of a particular model at a time, and the run of the H170's was nearing completion... just
another six weeks or so. No problem. Six weeks later I got the call from Bill about the horn discoloration... there was finally some definitive progress. Soon after that I got an e-mail from Scott that my guitar had shipped. Scott was nothing but kind, courteous and professional throughout the entire process, as was Bill Paige at Heritage. I would sometimes call and Ed would answer, and if Scott wasn't available he would ask if there was anything he could do to help.
I would kindly refuse, as there is no reason to involve more people in a process such as this. More people = more opportunity for confusion and mistakes. For those of you who have had difficulty dealing with Eds candor, I strongly suggest
dealing with Scott. A true professional. As for warranty, Ed doubles the one year offered by Heritage... but I'm sure that
if a problem arises past the warranty period that is truly a manufacturing error, Ed (Scott) will make it right. Just one more thing... when dealing with the fine folks at Heritage remember that they are luthiers first and foremost, and business people
second. It may have taken twice as long to get my guitar as originally stated, but it was well worth the wait. They got every one of my custom options right. Generally a great
experience. Where else can you call a guitar company and one of the owners answers the phone? Try calling Gibson or Fender...

Overall, this is a top notch high quality hand made instrument made in the U.S.A. I've been playing guitar since 1973, and I learned to play backwards on my brothers Gibson SG. Since then I have owned one lefty Les Paul Custom, and still own a 1991 Fender American Standard Stratocaster, a 1996 Fender Jag-Stang, a 1996 Fender Mustang, and a 2001 Fernandes Revolver Pro.. all left-handed strung right-handed. In hindsight, I wish I had asked more about the neck joint, as it is a little on the large side and makes reaching the upper frets somewhat tedious. However, this is nothing that I haven't dealt with before on virtually all guitars. The reason I went with Heritage is because I liked the fact that their guitars are made on the same equipment
my old Les Paul was, and that they offer left-handed models
of ALL their guitars, not just a paltry few. I love the Ebony fretboard, it feels so much better to me than Rosewood, and the 24 3/4" scale feels right at home for me. Plus, try getting any sort of upgrade or option out of Gibson, let alone a left-handed model
of something they don't already make. For most guitar companies, if you're left handed you're a second class citizen. Not at Heritage, and not at Ed Romans. The quality and craftsmanship of this custom instrument is second to none.