Guitaripedia

Every guitar has a story.

Heritage

H-150

Gibson left Kalamazoo. A few of the people who built its guitars stayed in the building and kept going.

225 Parsons Street, Kalamazoo, 1984. Gibson has made guitars in this factory since 1917, and now it’s closing the doors. The work is going south to Nashville. Jim Deurloo, Marv Lamb, and J.P. Moats aren’t.

Introduced
1988
Type
Solidbody electric
Class
Production
Read the story · 3 min

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The short version

  1. 1917

    Parsons Street

    Gibson’s Kalamazoo plant at 225 Parsons Street dates to this year.

  2. 1974

    Nashville

    Norlin, Gibson’s owner, opens a plant in Nashville.

  3. 1984

    The doors close

    Gibson shuts the Kalamazoo factory.

  4. 1985

    Heritage

    On 1 April, Heritage Guitar, Inc. is incorporated, in the old building. Its first single-cut, the H-140, is at NAMM that summer.

  5. 1988

    The H-150

    A carved maple top on mahogany, two humbuckers, and Heritage on the headstock.

  6. 2010

    Skolnick

    Alex Skolnick gets a signature H-150.

  7. 2016

    New owners

    New owners buy the company. BandLab comes in as a sales and marketing partner the next year.

  8. 2018

    A hard year

    Craftsmen say firings and a new direction took the heart out of the shop.

Side A

A1

The guys who didn’t go south

Gibson had been building guitars at 225 Parsons Street in Kalamazoo since 1917. In 1974 Norlin, which owned Gibson then, opened a new plant in Nashville. Ten years later the Kalamazoo doors closed.

A building like that doesn’t make guitars. People do. And some of the people who had made Gibsons there weren’t going anywhere. Jim Deurloo, Marv Lamb, and J.P. Moats, later joined by Bill Paige and Mike Korpak, incorporated Heritage Guitar, Inc. on 1 April 1985, and they set up in the old factory. Thirty years later, Lamb summed it up in one line:

We’re the guys that didn’t go south.

A2

Not a Les Paul, on purpose

Heritage’s first solid single-cut was the H-140, shown at NAMM in the summer of 1985. The H-150 came in 1988.

On paper it reads a lot like a Les Paul: a carved maple top on a mahogany body, a glued-in mahogany neck, two humbuckers, trapezoid inlays, a Tune-O-Matic bridge and stopbar, a 24¾" scale, 22 frets. That’s the recipe, and it gives you the sound that recipe has always given you: thick, warm, sustaining, with bite when you dig in at the bridge.

Look closer and it isn’t one. The treble horn is a little smaller and rounder. The headstock has straight sides. The pickguard is a different shape. The founders were clear that they wanted their own headstocks and their own dimensions. They’d spent years building somebody else’s guitar. This one was going to be theirs.

You’ll hear a story that early Heritages used leftover Gibson bodies. There’s no factory record behind it that I know of, so I wouldn’t repeat it at a party.

A3

Four to six a day

For a long time Heritage was small. A builder profile from the founders’ era put output at four to six guitars a day, across about 25 models, from about 20 people. That’s not a factory in the modern sense. That’s a workshop in a very big building.

The H-150 was never the only thing coming out of Parsons Street. Heritage also built big carved hollowbodies, like Kenny Burrell’s Super KB, an 18-inch archtop, and a semi-hollow, the H-535, its answer to the 335. But the H-150 was the solid one, the one you could plug into a loud amp without worrying.

In 2010 the H-150 got a signature model, for Alex Skolnick. It had a curly maple top with cream binding, a bound rosewood board with an “S” at the 12th fret, and Seymour Duncan pickups, at a list price of $3,970. It was also, apparently, hard to find. When Skolnick moved on in 2013, he said the Heritage signature had been “somewhat ‘locked in’ design-wise and extremely difficult to acquire, even for me.” When the guy whose name is on the guitar can’t get one, you’re not a mass-market company.

Flip the record · By the numbers

  • 1917

    The year Gibson’s plant at 225 Parsons Street dates to. H-150s are still built there.

  • 4–6

    Guitars a day, across about 25 models, from about 20 people, in the founders’ years.

  • 1988

    The year the H-150 joined the line, three years after Heritage opened.

  • $3,970

    List price of Alex Skolnick’s signature H-150 in 2010.

Side B

B1

New hands on the wheel

In April 2016 Heritage changed hands. In 2017 BandLab came in as a sales and marketing partner. Then, in February 2018, came the hard part. Craftsmen said a round of firings and a new direction had taken the heart out of the shop. BandLab’s Meng Ru Kuok said the goal was “stability and sustainability.” Both of those things can be true at once, and I’m not going to pretend I know which one weighs more.

Since 2025 there’s also an Ascent H-150, made in China. That one has the name and the shape. It doesn’t have Parsons Street.

B2

Still on Parsons Street

The Kalamazoo H-150 is still in production, in a few flavors. The Standard Collection uses Seymour Duncan ’59 pickups. The Standard II, which the factory calls the “evolution of the original Standard Collection,” has a weight-relieved body and Heritage’s own humbuckers, which are called 225s, same as the street address. Pull up on a tone knob and the pickup switches between series and parallel, which takes you from full, thick humbucker to something thinner and brighter without a second guitar. The Custom Shop Core is the upstairs version: pickups designed by Edwin Wilson, a holly veneer, Heritage’s Twin Arrow inlay, and a Bigsby if you want one.

The owners have changed since 1985. The building hasn’t. Gibson took its name south. The people who stayed kept the work, and the H-150 is what they built with it.

Put this on

You’ve read about it. Now hear it. Here’s what this guitar sounds like, and what to listen for.

  1. Heritage Guitars · Factory demo

    Core Collection H-150 demo

    A factory promo film for the Custom Shop Core H-150, not a record. It’s the plainest way to hear a current Kalamazoo H-150.

    Watch it on YouTube

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

  • 1985

    Jim Deurloo

    Co-founder

    One of the Gibson people who stayed in Kalamazoo and started Heritage in the old factory.

  • 1985

    Marv Lamb

    Co-founder

    “We’re the guys that didn’t go south.”

  • 1985

    J.P. Moats

    Co-founder

    The third of the original three. Bill Paige and Mike Korpak joined them later.

  • 2010

    Alex Skolnick

    Signature H-150

    Curly maple, bound, with an “S” at the 12th fret. He later said it was hard to get one, even for him.

  • Harrison Whitford, Mason Stoops, and Zane Carney

    Core Collection H-150

    The players in Heritage’s factory demo films. Promo clips, not album credits.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

Kalamazoo’s house single-cut after Gibson left 225 Parsons: maple on mahogany, two humbuckers, Heritage on the headstock — not a Les Paul SKU and not a Super KB.

Body
Curly maple top / genuine mahogany with weight relief
Neck
Set genuine mahogany, ’60s C (.847"–.922")
Fingerboard
Rosewood, 12" radius, 22 Jescar medium jumbo, trapezoid
Scale
24-3/4"
Pickups
Heritage Custom Shop 225 Standard humbuckers (neck and bridge)
Hardware
Tune-O-Matic, stopbar, Heritage tuners, chrome
Electronics
Two volume, two tone, 3-way; CTS; .022µF; series/parallel on push/pull tones
Finish
Nitrocellulose gloss
Nut
Bone
Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

*Current production typical = Standard II Collection H-150 (Kalamazoo, 225 Parsons Street; heritageguitars.com Chestnut Burst page, fetched 29 August 2026). Factory $2,599.00, case included. Standard Collection H-150 is still listed at $1,999.00 with Seymour Duncan ’59s and a Standard C (.8870"–1.00"). Custom Shop Core H-150: ultra-light mahogany (the Core page does not say “weight relief”), ’50s C (.8910"–.9805"), 225 Classic humbuckers, nitro vintage gloss, $4,299.00. Ascent / Ascent+ H-150 are China SKUs on this name — not this table. Sweetwater’s Standard Collection sheet lists nut 1.6875"; the live Standard II page does not.*

Construction

Heritage is the shop that stayed on Parsons Street. Gibson’s Kalamazoo plant at 225 Parsons dates to 1917 (Premier Guitar). Norlin opened Nashville in 1974. The Kalamazoo doors closed in 1984 (Blue Book; MLive). Jim Deurloo, Marv Lamb, and J.P. Moats, later joined by Bill Paige and Mike Korpak, incorporated Heritage Guitar, Inc. on 1 April 1985 and built in the old factory. Lamb, to MLive on the 30th anniversary: “We’re the guys that didn’t go south.”

The first Heritage solid single-cut was the H-140, shown at NAMM in summer 1985. Heritage’s archived model-history page (Wayback, December 2008 capture of heritageguitar.com) dates H140CM to 1985 and H150CM to 1988. This plate starts in 1988. A leftover-Gibson-body story is unpublished here as factory fact.

The H-150 is a set-neck, carved-maple-on-mahogany single-cut with two humbuckers, trapezoids, Tune-O-Matic and stopbar, 24-3/4" scale, 22 frets, 12" board, and Heritage on the headstock. MusicRadar’s Duncan-’59 Standard review notes a slightly downsized, rounded treble horn, a straight-sided headstock, and a pickguard that is not Gibson’s shape. MLive (2015) quotes the founders: unique headstocks, different dimensions. Factory inches are the table above. No millimetre conversions invented here. It is not a Gibson Les Paul Standard, Custom, or Historic. Different company, different factory, different headstock, different current pickups. Super KB is Kenny Burrell’s 18-inch carved hollow (Dream Guitars on a 2011 Super KB; Burrell, to Equipboard, comparing it to his Super 400). Heritage’s 335 analog is the H-535. H-157 and H-140 stay off this slug.

Living USA lines share the name. Standard Collection still ships Duncan ’59s and a non-relieved mahogany back. Standard II is the factory’s “evolution of the original Standard Collection”: weight relief, in-house 225 Standard humbuckers (42 AWG plain enamel neck / 43 AWG poly bridge, Butyrate bobbins, 2.5-inch roughcast Alnico 5), and series/parallel on the tones. Custom Shop Core is the upstairs spec: 225 Classics designed by Edwin Wilson, holly veneer, Twin Arrow inlay, locking Tune-O-Matic, optional Vibramate/Bigsby B7. P-90 and Artisan Aged Cores stay on this plate.

Ascent is a different factory. Guitar World, 21 March 2025: made-in-China Ascent H-150 $265, Ascent+ $699. Guitar.com the day before put the plain Ascent line at $195. The current Standard II related-rail lists $265 / $699. Ascent is not the Kalamazoo table.

After the founders, MLive in April 2016 reported PlazaCorp’s Archie Leach and Jeff Nicholson bought the company (terms undisclosed). MLive, September 2017: BandLab as sales and marketing partner. Live factory footers now read Vista Musical Instruments LLC, 225 Parsons St. MLive, February 2018: craftsmen said firings and a new direction took the heart out of the shop. BandLab’s Meng Ru Kuok said the goal was “stability and sustainability.” Factory unit totals are unpublished.

Players

Alex Skolnick. The one H-150 with a named factory announcement. Premier Guitar, 21 June 2010: Heritage Alex Skolnick Signature H-150 — mahogany body and neck, cream-bound carved ultra-curly maple, 24-3/4" / 22-fret bound rosewood with an “S” at the 12th, Seymour Duncan ’59 neck and JB Jazz bridge, MSRP $3,970, also a lightweight body at no extra charge. ESP’s 2013 announcement quotes him leaving: the Kalamazoo signature was “somewhat ‘locked in’ design-wise and extremely difficult to acquire, even for me.” His later ESP EC lives on the Eclipse plate. A dealer-side “20 built” figure circulates; the Premier Guitar release does not publish a run total.

Factory Core demo films name Harrison Whitford, Mason Stoops, and Zane Carney — promo clips, not album credits.

Do not steal Kenny Burrell (Super KB), David Becker (H-575), Johnny Smith, Roy Clark, Henry Johnson, or Mimi Fox. Those are other Heritage shapes.

Rarity

Kalamazoo H-150s are regular production. Heritage does not publish H-150 unit totals. None invented.

Premier Guitar’s builder profile — a founder-era snapshot — put output at four to six guitars per day across ~25 models, about 20 people. That is not a 2026 census and not an H-150-only figure. Ascent is import volume on this silhouette, not Parsons Street scarcity. The Skolnick signature is a short, unpublished-count run. Early H-140s are a different guitar.

Value

Informal estimate, 25 August 2026. Not an appraisal.

Asking prices are not sold prices. No clean 2024–26 H-150 sold median isolated this pass. No invented midpoint.

New street. Factory Standard Collection $1,999.00. Factory Standard II $2,599.00. Factory Custom Shop Core $4,299.00. Sweetwater Standard Collection $1,999.00 this pass (marked from $2,599.00). Sweetwater Standard II Ebony $2,599. Ascent factory rail $265 / Ascent+ $699 — China, not a Kalamazoo comp.

Used. Gear Exchange ask, 2024 Standard Collection Original Sunburst: $1,650.00. Price Advisor band, used Custom Core Dirty Lemon Burst: $2,235.00–$3,310.00. Reverb Price Guide was not captured as a live median this pass. The 2010 Skolnick MSRP is a list price, not a 2026 hammer.

See also

  • Les Paul Standard — Gibson’s current USA single-cut; not this factory
  • ES-335 — Heritage’s 335 analog is the H-535, not the solid H-150
  • Eclipse — another non-Gibson single-cut; Skolnick’s later ESP lives there

Sources

Guitars this one gets compared to, confused with, or descended from.