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Heritage Lawsuit


Sgt. Pepper

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Anyone see that Heritage is counter-sueing Gibson and say they won't be bullied by them. I have 2 friends that have Heritage guitars and say they are top notch.

https://guitar.com/news/were-not-going-to-be-bullied-heritage-guitars-releases-statement-on-gibson-lawsuit/

Edited by Sgt. Pepper
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I feel Gibson is creating a lot of bad publicity fighting for their body shapes.  I say let whoever wants to copy a shape do it, it may be a great copy, or not so great copy of a Gibson, but it's a copy regardless and it's only a Gibson if it says it on the headstock.

Having said that, and although I'm not a great fan of the current publicity campaigns - with respect to builds and quality, i feel the new mgt has done a good job at making the line up more understandable, and the impression I have, mostly from comments on this forum is overall quality has been consistently high, which is most important.

Edited by billroy fineman
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I own well over 50 copyrights. I've known people who fought for patents. Never messed with a trademark, but looked into it once.

We do these things to protect our work.

Stealing other peoples work is not right.

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Didn't Heritage start after Gibson left Kalamazoo and left all their machines there cause Gibson did not what to move them. They have been making guitars with those shapes since 1984  and now 36 years later they have an issue with it?

Edited by Sgt. Pepper
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The current owners are not using typical daily business rationale to make their decisions.  Gibson is a warm body out of which they want to do only one thing, recoup the money they put into the company over long time to keep it afloat.  So any port in a revenue storm becomes something to project which creates a timeline that can bring an end to their stewardship.  They don't want a guitar company, they want their money back. 

rct

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20 hours ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

Didn't Heritage start after Gibson left Kalamazoo and left all their machines there cause Gibson did not what to move them. They have been making guitars with those shapes since 1984  and now 36 years later they have an issue with it?

basically yes, that's what happened when Gibson left town.

Since they were all out of jobs when that happened,   they pulled together and decided to continue on,  They got some funding which enabled them to keep  doing what they'd been doing all along.

I had a Heritage 575, (pretty much an ES-175)  it was a nice axe.  I wound up trading it for a Taylor acoustic.  I had a few techs tell me they thought the fret slots were a bit off from where they should have been...  no idea about that, they could have been right  It never intonated properly.

I've a buddy who has a real nice late 90s Les Paul, it's VERY nice.  Another pal with a mid 80s LEs Paul with a one piece top.. kind of unusual, also a great guitar.

Their Customer Service has always been incredibly good too.  They are still a proud bunch.

 

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53 minutes ago, kidblast said:

basically yes, that's what happened when Gibson left town.

Since they were all out of jobs when that happened,   they pulled together and decided to continue on,  They got some funding which enabled them to keep  doing what they'd been doing all along.

I had a Heritage 575, (pretty much an ES-175)  it was a nice axe.  I wound up trading it for a Taylor acoustic.  I had a few techs tell me they thought the fret slots were a bit off from where they should have been...  no idea about that, they could have been right  It never intonated properly.

I've a buddy who has a real nice late 90s Les Paul, it's VERY nice.  Another pal with a mid 80s LEs Paul with a one piece top.. kind of unusual, also a great guitar.

Their Customer Service has always been incredibly good too.  They are still a proud bunch.

 

My buddy has a 575 and says it kills. I have or ask my other friend what he has.  He told me a few times just can't remember. I've only ever seen one in my life. I think I plunked on it. It was used and I think is was whateve Heritage's model is that is comp to Gibson's 335. So maybe a 535?

Edited by Sgt. Pepper
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45 minutes ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

My buddy has a 575 and says it kills. I have or ask my other friend what he has.  He told me a few times just can't remember. I've only ever seen one in my life. I think I plunked on it. It was used and I think is was whateve Heritage's model is that is comp to Gibson's 335. So maybe a 535?

yes, you are correct..  the H535 is their "335".  I did really like the 575, If it would have been cleaner with intonation, I'd probably still have it.  The pickups were pretty good, rest of the hardware /Electronics was as good as any USA made guitar I've ever had.  The fit and finish was excellent    Highly flamed maple, in Natural finish,, it was gorgeous. 

One cool story about these guys:

I called their customer support about the intonation on my 575 as I was beginning to give up on it.

Once I started asking a few questions, the rep says "Hang on a sec.."   About 30 seconds pass and "Hi, this is xxxxx what can I do to help"...     That was one of the guys that builds those guitars.   Gave me some advice and options and even sent me a new bridge that he mentioned was a slight different cut from what I wound up with.  That was a bit better.  But it was never "right" to my ears.    Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool to call the company and instead of some customer service rep that is just working of a set of responses, get to talk to one of their build guys,,

Who would know the situation better than someone like that?    No one...

Edited by kidblast
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24 minutes ago, kidblast said:

yes, you are correct..  the H535 is their "335".  I did really like the 575, If it would have been cleaner with intonation, I'd probably still have it.  The pickups were pretty good, rest of the hardware /Electronics was as good as any USA made guitar I've ever had.  The fit and finish was excellent    Highly flamed maple, in Natural finish,, it was gorgeous. 

One cool story about these guys:

I called their customer support about the intonation on my 575 as I was beginning to give up on it.

Once I started asking a few questions, the rep says "Hang on a sec.."   About 30 seconds pass and "Hi, this is xxxxx what can I do to help"...     That was one of the guys that builds those guitars.   Gave me some advice and options and even sent me a new bridge that he mentioned was a slight different cut from what I wound up with.  That was a bit better.  But it was never "right" to my ears.    Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool to call the company and instead of some customer service rep that is just working of a set of responses, get to talk to one of their build guys,,

Who would know the situation better than someone like that?    No one...

Companies like that are great I remember calling Lindy Fralin to ask about some pickups and the guy who answered the phone said hang on let me transfer you to Lindy and I actually spoke to Lindy, and my buddy did it as well. When you take the time and you're the head of the company and you will talk to people about your product your for real and care.

Edited by Sgt. Pepper
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1 hour ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

Companies like that are great I remember calling Lindy Fralin to ask about some pickups and the guy who answered the phone said hang on let me transfer you to Lindy and I actually spoke to Lindy, and my buddy did it as well. When you take the time and you're the head of the company and you will talk to people about your product your for real and care.

I have heard the same from others who have his pickups.  Apparently Mr Fralin is very interested in direct contact with his customers.  That guy knows his stuff too.  It's awesome when guys like this do that.

 

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1 hour ago, kidblast said:

I have heard the same from others who have his pickups.  Apparently Mr Fralin is very interested in direct contact with his customers.  That guy knows his stuff too.  It's awesome when guys like this do that.

 

 

I showed up at Lindy's small shop in Richmond around eight years ago just to have a look around. I ended up sitting down with him for about an hour trying out and talking about his pickups while he wound pickups and talked with customers over his hands-free telephone... a very personable guy. I now have a set of his P-92s in an Epi Dot,  a set of Steel Pole 42s in an AS Tele, and a set of Jazz bass pickups in a MIM bass, and I am very pleased with them all.

As far as Gibson law suits, it seems to me they should concentrate on making quality guitars, and be thankful their brand and their history sells, not their value or their PR.

Edited by zigzag
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41 minutes ago, zigzag said:

 

 

As far as Gibson law suits, it seems to me they should concentrate on making quality guitars, and be thankful their brand and their history sells, not their value or their PR.

the builders are still building, and the lawyers are still lawyering,, dats just da way dis woiks...

 

(not that I disagree with your post.. )

Edited by kidblast
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I live in Newport News and one day when I go to Richmond I need to pop in. When your name is on it you better be proud of it and stand buy it. Whats the name of the guy who own that guitar company in Nashville and Bozeman? Last I checked no one is playing a Curleigh. He's just a dude in jeans and a leather jacket  who had the money to keep it going and keep suing. 

Edited by Sgt. Pepper
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