NGD Next Week - Heritage H137

I almost traded another guitar for a Heritag H150(?). Lighter than a LP, but the feel and tones were very good. I have 3 LP's so I didn't make the trade.

Different type of instrument, but I have a Heritage 535 I bought new. All the Gibson 335s I tried out were disappointing build wise. The exception was one particular ultra high end 335 but the price was outrageous. I have no regrets. I consider my 535 a great value for the money. Build quality is phenomenal. I did get a decent discount as the shop planned to no longer carry the Heritage line. Based on Reverb prices, I will never lose money on it, although I have no intention of selling it.

Those look so nice and play good too - I tried one out a few years back

No photos because I still haven't figured out how to successfully add them to this forum. It's a TV Yellow version, no pickguard, black P-90s. Images can be found easily with Google.

The P-90s are Lollar Soapbars with approximately 8.2K Neck and 9.1K bridge. They are awesome sounding; the bridge doesn’t have any treble spikiness and the neck is warm and rounded. They are well balanced and very versatile sounding, good from clean to heavily distorted. They clean up nicely when dialled back when used with overdrive or distortion (and fuzz). To me, they sound like low output P-90s when the volume is dialled back with no obvious affect on tone. The middle position with the bridge volume dialled back sounds incredible, warm and fat with adequate cut.

All-round the tone and volume controls are very responsive and taper well as they are rolled back. They are smooth and operate with what seems to be the right amount of resistance; not to loose, not to tight. The switch works well, no switching back and forth until the bridge pup is engaged like I have to occasionally do with all my Epiphones. The tuners are smooth and have a nice ratio. They are easy to dial in with no over-shoot as I tend to do with other guitars. All in all the hardware is quality stuff.

There is occasionally pinging at the bridge when I tune the high E string but not a problem for me. Tuning stability is good overall, there is no re-tuning after it's initially tuned even with aggressive string bending applied.

I have no complaints about intonation and set-up. There is no need to adjust anything because it is spot-on for me. It has a nice wide neck with not too much depth, fat but not overly. It's a dream to play.

It tends to be a little neck heavy, which suits me. I had a 2012 Les Paul Traditional that was heavy and had a tendency to want to slide of my leg when playing sitting down. Very annoying. The H137 sits on the leg nicely at a good angle and although heavy (but not as much as the traditional) sits very comfortably.

Fit and finish is to a high standard with no visible flaws and it's a nice solid chunk of mahogany. Frets are dressed well with no sharp over-hangs. No buzzing, no dead spots, plays in tune up an down the neck. In summary it's a fine instrument that sounds great and is a joy to play. It's not easy to put down once I get started.

Wow that looks killer!   Michigander here... having played top shelf Gibsons (I.e Les Paul Customs) in the late 1980s, just to have them fall apart in my hands... I just couldn't buy a Gibson ever again.. but a Michigan company like Heritage ... Oh yea!  (the neck angle design is much more stable and stronger than Gibson's too)    That's a nice looking Guitar!