"You can't help but trip over the history here" was a recurring statement we heard on Friday as Pete Farmer, Master Guitar Builder for Heritage Guitars, led us (and a group of others) on one of the weekly tours (every Wed, Fri at 1:30pm; please call for reservations) that the company provides. Located in the legendary 225 Parsons Street building - known as the birthplace of Gibson Guitars - Heritage Guitars is proud to continue the tradition of hand-crafted instruments in the same environment. Founded in 1985 by a few senior employees after the aforementioned company left Kalamazoo, Heritage is now celebrating over 30 years of building, with no plans of slowing down.

Referring to themselves as more of a "large scale custom shop," Heritage Guitars crafts every guitar they make the only way they know how - by hand. Jigs are created out of wood, stencils are traced onto bare materials by hand, and guitars are buffed out using a wheel and a lot of patience. Their current inventory consists solely of solid, semi-hollow and hollow body guitars with plenty of options for the player to customize it to their personal preference. As we went through the production area, Pete was eager to show everyone current customer builds, which included inlaid names on fretboards as well as custom colors and finishes. 

We're extremely honored and proud to be a small part of the Heritage Guitar story. Heritage uses custom gauged sets of our Boomers in 10s (10-14-18-26w-36-46) and 11s (11-14-20w-32-42-52) on all of their guitars. 

For more information and to reserve your spot in a tour, please visit www.heritageguitar.com

Heritage Guitar Tour Pics

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