Heritage H162

Polyurethane finish on a strat style body. The bridge is part of a Kahler Spyder tremolo system, which includes a locking system behind the nut. Black plastic-like Grover mini tuners. A medium neck with 24 5/8 inches (628 mm) scale length. It came with a nice case, made to fit. Made in 1988, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA.
22 jumbo frets. Solid top. One volume and one tone control, 5-way selector for two single coils and one humbucker at the bridge. There's a coil tap for the humbucker. The pickups are Schallers and the electronics are passive. The neck is maple, with a glued on maple fingerboard . Mother of pearl position markers. Bolt on with four screws on the mahogany body. All top notch materials.

My style is fusion, bluesrock, pop. This guitar is versatile and gives acces to many Strat and Gibson sounds. I use a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 stomp box and a Boss DD6 echo pedal and play on a 'red knobs' Fender Dual Showman from the eighties.
The H162 is guiet (much more so than your average strat!). The Schallers are not that loud, but that's where your amp comes in. They sound warm. All the various in-between settings give vintage strat and tele sounds. The humbucker is really for rocking and screaming solo's. Using the excellent Kahler Spyder (a lot of people don't like these tremolos, but I just had to get used to it - now it is fine!) I get the Jeff Beck/Alan Holdsworth/Shawn Lane sound. It sings!

The poor thing had been hanging in an Amsterdam guitar shop since 1988, so it had to be taken care of. I took it to my guitar tech who at first glance thought it was some sort of unfinished proto type that never got into production. After he set it up he loved it!
Actually there's nothing wrong with this lovely instrument, except for its brand name that doesn't attract buyers. I know better (and many more Heritage players do so.)
Fortunately Kahler is back in business and I managed to buy some parts that had been screwed up during the H162's long existence in that shop. The tremolo arm was missing and although the shop promised to look for it, no one ever contacted me again. Also I had to pay for the case, which is unusual for a Heritage.

I treat this little gem with care. The body paint (which I named 'polyurethane', but maybe is something else) is not that strong. The rest of the guitar will last me a long time. I still have to try it in difficult live circumstances to hear what it really can do for me. Watch my site jacquesguitarsdotcom for updates and sound clips. I changed the straplocks to locking ones.On a gig I would certainly use a back up.

An email to Heritage was answered with the speed of light, like they always do. I wanted to know what the body wood is. No way I would ever go back to the factory with this 20 year old guitar.

I've played for over 35 years and have three more Heritages, two Fenders and a Parker Fly. If this one got stolen I could never get another one - they're extinct, I'm sure! What I love about this guitar is the sheer craftmanship I sense when I play it and look at it. Above that it sings for me. Compared to my other guitars it has its unique features like the combination of light rythm sounds and heavy humbucker soloing capacities. Buy it if you run into one - most probably hanging way in the back of the shop with plenty spider webs and dust covering it. Clean it and you wil lhave a gem.