Heritage Custom Shop Core Collection H-150 Artisan Aged – Aged to perfection?
Relic'ing done right
5,0 / 5,0 | 
The new Heritage Custom Shop Core Collection H-150 Artisan Aged takes the popular singlecut design and gives it a worn-in feel. So now you can get modern playability, but with a classic, aged look.
Heritage Custom Shop Core Collection H-150 Artisan Aged
Heritage Guitars has taken its premium singlecut model, the H-150, and let its Custom Shop subtly age the guitar to give it a worn-in feel and aesthetic. The new Core Collection H-150 Artisan Aged model still offers all the modern playability of the H-150. Except that now it looks like it has already seen a few miles on the road.
The core of these guitars is still the same, of course. You get a lovely curly maple top paired with an ultra-light mahogany back and a ’50s C profile mahogany neck. Then there’s the 12″ radius rosewood fingerboard, with 22 Medium Jumbo frets made from Jescar fret wire, and a proper bone nut. And, as ever, Heritage uses nitrocellulose lacquer throughout for the finishing. All very traditional stuff. The guitar comes loaded with a pair of Heritage Custom Shop 225 Classic Humbuckers, with CTS pots and Orange Drop capacitors. These are then wired via two volume and tone knobs, and a three-way pickup selector. Hardware includes a Tune-O-Matic style bridge and the company’s own in-house tuners, with a nice, realistic looking patina to the metal.
Heritage Custom Shop Core Collection H-150 Artisan Aged
Custom Ageing
Heritage Guitars is based at 225 Parsons Street, Kalamazoo, the site of the old Gibson factory, and was started up by ex-Gibson employees. In the years since, the company has gained a huge following from players looking for high quality, traditional-styled instruments. These new models are individually treated using proprietary methods, all done in-house at the Heritage Custom Shop. The ageing job is very subtle. Unlike many other companies, I think Heritage knows when to stop. Therefore, this ageing looks a lot more natural than some of its competitors’ efforts over the last few years.
Arianna Powell
Murphy Labs vs Heritage?
The new models are available in either a Dark Cherry Sunburst, Tobacco Sunburst or a Dirty Lemon Burst finish. In my opinion, considering these guitars are made by hand and often using original tools from the 1950s, they are very well priced. Especially bearing in mind that these are non mass-produced American-made instruments. By way of contrast, the Gibson Murphy Labs aged models start somewhere almost double this and, I suspect, are built in much higher numbers.
You can check out Arianna Powell take the Heritage Custom Shop H-150 Artisan Aged through its paces in the video below.
RRP – USD 4299 inc hard case
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Video
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- Heritage Custom Shop Core Collection H-150 Artisan Aged: Heritage Guitars
- Arianna Powell: Heritage Guitars
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