Roman on Heritage

Ed Roman was one of the earliest Heritage dealers. He helped put the small guitar company on the map. Roman's writings actually got me interested in Heritage guitars back in the late 1990's. Ed Roman is no longer a Heritage guitar dealer and is currently one of their most vocal advisories.

Ed Roman claims he dropped Heritage due to a lack of quality control in later years. Heritage claims they dropped Roman due to the fact that he was changing and re-arranging hardware on Heritage guitars in an attempt to market his own model names ("This Heritage model is an Ed Roman exclusive line since it features blah blah blah).

I have followed Heritage guitars for many years. I have played and sold many Heritage guitars and I have not noticed any decline in quality. Actually, given the introduction of the Plek machine Heritage guitars are better than ever, in my educated and honest opinion. However, it is a fact that Roman was marketing his own "exclusive" Heritage models.

Ed Roman puts his reputation on the line with statements such as "Heritage HRW pickups are about the same as cheap Chinese made pickups". I wouldn't dare say this about many mass produced pickups like Seymour Duncan or Dimarzio let alone a hand wound premium pickup that simply sounds amazing. An opinion is one thing, but it appears that these recent comments are biased, to say the least.

Here is what Ed Roman had to say about Heritage guitars before his dealership was pulled. You can also check the Nevada chapter of the better business bureau for more information on Roman. I found this in a newsgroup's public discussion forum's archive.

Heritage Guitars
Newsgroups: alt.guitar
Subject: Gibson 335 VS Heritage 535
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 1996 15:08:52 -0800

Heritage Guitars are made entirely in Kalamazoo Michigan in the Original Gibson Factory by the Original Gibson employees. They buy their wood from the same place Gibson did in the Golden years, They offer upgraded
pickups, upgraded hardware and much lower prices than the Gibson.

Recently I had a Customer ask me for a comparison between the Gibson 335 and the Heritage 535
Below is what I wrote him back.

>THE HERITAGE WINS BIGTIME.......

1 The Heritage generally has a flamier top even on their non upgraded models.

2 The Heritage costs a lot less in itself that makes it better.

3 The Heritage has a wooden matching flamed pickguard instead of the plastic on Gibsons.

4 The Headstock on the Heritage does not splay as much therefore the strings don't suffer as much from the compound bend syndrome that all Gibsons have.

5 Choice of 4 different Sunburst finishes 3 of them far nicer than Gibson. Also there are many other custom colors to choose from none of which Gibson offers.

6 Heritage is a smaller company they will take care of a problem a lot quicker than Gibson, They Have to try harder.

7 The Heritage comes Stock with Grover's The Gibson is 100.00 more.

8 The Bridge is upgraded from Gibsons, it uses rollers so you can also set string spacing.

9 The tailpiece on the Gibson is Pot Metal and the finish will come off eventually, The Heritage is Highly plated brass.. looks better sounds better.

10 The String Retainers in the tailpiece are hardened steel on the Heritage, The Gibson does not provide string retainers at all. Eventually the tailpiece needs to be replaced on the Gibson because the
strings elongate the holes slightly.

11 The Heritage binding work on the neck is far superior to Gibson's

12 The Fretwork is done by hand at Heritage under
tension, The Gibson's are done on a Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) Machine. There are pros and con's on this one but I always prefer handmade.

13 For a minor upcharge Heritage offers very nice flamey tops, Which will definitely increase the long term value the also offer Ebony as an upcharge, Variaphase, Fancy inlays Gold Hardware and more..

The Best thing about that is even if you get all the options and load the guitar to the max you still come in spending hundreds less than a Gibson.

I Presume you are aware that Heritage is actually the original Gibson Factory in Kalamazoo Michigan. I also presume you realize that the employees at Heritage are all the original Gibson people dating back to
the 50's and 60's. What you may not know is that all the original machinery and tooling that Gibson used to create the original 335's back in the old days is what Heritage uses to make their guitars today.

As you can plainly see this Is why I can confidently recommend Heritage.

Ed Roman