Heritage Eagle Archtop Guitar from 1997 Review

I’ve always wanted a Heritage archtop guitar ever since I read their story, but the local guitar shop just down the coast that specialises in such things charges a huge premium for Heritages and I just couldn’t justify the outlay.

Then came one of those odd epiphany moments that very occasionally happen to me. Although I love our closest local music shop, I hadn’t had any need to go in for well over a year. However one day someone or something seemed to be telling me to just go into the shop and have a look around. After telling myself not to be stupid, I did just that and for quite a while I saw nothing of great interest amongst the racks of guitars. Then suddenly a brown sunburst guitar caught my eye, hanging sideways half out of sight, right next to the old Hofners. I checked it over and it looked in reasonable condition and I then saw that it was a Heritage, but it didn’t have a price on it, and all the staff were busy with customers and someone was playing a distorted electric guitar badly and loudly in one of the side rooms.

I walked out and did the shopping I’d come into town to do, but the thought of the guitar wouldn’t leave me. I did some reading up to find out exactly what the model, age and construction was. Then I rang the shop to find out what the price was. It was half the price I was expecting!  I still didn’t do anything more at that stage and went home to think it all over and research some more as it was going to be a significant unexpected outlay. 

Having slept on it all, the next morning saw me at the shop first thing asking to try the guitar out. The shop was selling the guitar as part of a private sale of someone’s estate and it had literally just come in. They didn’t quite know how to price it because there are very few of these out there to give an idea of the value. Thanks to Heritage’s serial numbers it was easy to date the guitar to 1997, and to see that it was the first guitar manufactured that day in April! This one has certainly been well loved and well used, nothing to put me off: one of the tuning pegs is slightly bent, the nickel all has a well worn “patina”, there are quite a few dings on the front (but hey you pay a specialist hundreds to make a new guitar into a holey [sic] relic!), and there was a bit of fret wear.  I do like a guitar that wears its history and hasn’t just sat in a case remaining pristine for a collector to sit and admire it. The acoustic tone on this model is really lovely, even with the dead and sticky flat wound strings on it at the time. It chimed beautifully through the fender amp they gave me to test it out.

The shop I bought it from is one of those gems of a place that defies the odds and keeps going as a bricks and mortar store though with an increasing presence on the internet.  I’ve bought a lot of things there over the years. Before I pulled the trigger on buying the guitar we put it down on the guitar rest and the tech tweaked the truss rod to take some of the bow out of the neck for me, all smooth and good. Apple Pay and I was away!  

It’s so difficult to know what these guitars are really worth as there’s not a whole lot on the web to give a sense of value.  I think I got it for an extremely good price, but of course it is not in pristine condition.  Brand new Eagles go for eye watering sums these days. I think this has pushed up secondhand values in its wake, and meant I had to insure the new purchase for a huge new for old value…

It’s only as you delve fairly deep that you come across the truly excellent Heritage owners’ club forum: http://www.heritageownersclub.com. One reason why I’m writing this as there is very little out there on these lovely archtop guitars with floating pickups. 

I really recommend that you do a search on the history of Heritage guitars: https://heritageguitars.com/pages/about-us. It’s an inspiring story of entrepreneurship. In my mind, as a lover of good old fashioned archtop guitars, Heritage is a really important “Reformation” moment in the apostolic succession of Orville Gibson and Lloyd Loar’s genius. These guitars are still made in Kalamazoo in the old Gibson factory and, certainly in 1997 were being made by builders tracing their skills and experience way back into Gibson history.  We could debate for ages who are the true successors to the archtop faith!  I’m just grateful that both companies are still around (just) keeping the faith alive.

My guitar is a 1997 Eagle Almond Sun Burst with a Heritage floating pickup. It shares its dna with the Gibson L5, a slightly shallower body at 3” deep but sharing the same lovely acoustic tones and craftsmanship.  A lot of these Eagle guitars came with mahogany tops, but mine is an X braced spruce topped guitar with solid carved mahogany back, pickguard and sides and neck. The fretboard and bridge are rosewood, hardware is nickel plated. All is beautifully carved, and with a sunburst finish which makes any of my other guitars I stand it next to look rather one dimensional. Heritage clearly had some superb workers at this stage of their history. This is where Heritage guitars are a bit intriguing: they seem to have often built to different specifications according to the dealer or customer requirements. Mine comes from Wolfe originally, as I discovered when I took off the pick guard and found their sticker.  

There’s no bling on this guitar, and strangely that really adds to the look, no neck binding and only a single binding to the body. The wood is fairly plain. But what stands out is the tone. The 17” body gives it a lovely depth, with all the bark and projection you expect from an archtop.  I like the pickup too, but I haven’t played this away from home yet so there is a bit more to add into this account as time goes on.  I’ve made some adjustments to the action to get it where I want it, not too low to give the acoustic voice some authority. I’ve put DR Zebra 13 strings on it at the moment so I can enjoy the acoustic voice, and I do recommend these as one of the best compromises for an electric/acoustic like this. The action is so lovely I can’t believe these strings are 13s, they feel much lighter even with the relatively long scale of this guitar!  Once things open up again in the world and I can play out I will probably try micing and amping this to get the best of both worlds, the acoustic voice is too good to ignore.

These are lovely guitars. 

Alden Monte Carlo Guitar

I came across this guitar used. It was in excellent condition sold with good quality gig bag included.  I picked it up and had a good look, walked away and then after some consideration went back to the shop the next day and tested it out and came home with it!  It was in really wonderful condition, except for one slight ding which I have now repaired, still just visible, but smooth to the touch.  I gave it a clean, new strings and oiled the fretboard which was a bit dry, then set it up to play as well as any guitar in my collection.

Something about this guitar really appealed to me, I can't quite say what it is, but there are some times when you pick up an instrument and it seems to be more than the sum of its parts, even with old tarnished strings and badly in need of a clean and set up.  Suddenly against your better judgment you end up adding it into the family...




This guitar is an evolution of the the Epiphone Casino, and new is not too far off the price of that guitar.  However it has some important mods which I like.  The neck join is at the 19th fret which gives improved access to the upper neck.  The top, sides and back are in a very attractive flamed maple, not very highly figured, but good to look at.  This is not a hollow body guitar like the Casino but has a centre block which carries the pickups and bridge - this makes it a lot more feedback resistant.  That being said it is still a very light guitar to hold and play, very resonant, and very well balanced.  Mine sounds amazing unplugged and I think that is what attracted me to it in the first instance.  The maple neck is a comfortable profile and well made, using scarf joins at the headstock and heel.  The parralelogram block work is expertly done and the mother of plastic inlay has a deep quality and catches the light nicely. 

Plugged in through a Hughes and Kettner valve amp the sound has a very mellow single coil defintion to it.  People describe P90s as having something between a humbucker and a fender style single coil tone.  I have another guitar with P90s on a tele thinline body.  That guitar sounds more jangly.  I think the Monte Carlo is the next step on towards the humbucker sound but still very much a single coil with lovely bell like sounds using the neck pickup.  Maybe the semi-hollow body and metal pickup covers add to this.  I find it works extremely well with strumming open chords - giving an almost acoustic feel to the playing.  I like the trapeze tail which seems to change the responsiveness of the strings, but that might just be my imagination.

So what about the negatives?  A few cosmetic grumbles, but no deal breakers. The neck pickup sits rather proud of the body where the body is contoured around the neck.  The 18th fret was slightly high at the B string and needed filing to get the action spot on where I like it.  The flame top is not finished to the very highest of standards noticeable only where it meets the binding it looks as if the routing was done with a rather blunt tool (but you do have to really look close up to see this).  I had to tighten up the tuners, as when I took off the strings to oil the fretboard, they were rattling about, maybe due to slight shrinkage.

Would I recommend this guitar?  Well, it is a bit of a one off - no-one else is offering quite this combination, and it is fast becoming one of my favourites.  It has perhaps some of the appeal that attracted the Beatles to their Epiphones all those years ago, but addresses some of the issues of upper neck access and feedback inherent in that model.  It is reasonably finished for the price, there is nothing, in my mind, construction wise that rules it out.   The lightness makes it a joy to play standing up without getting back ache.  Certainly as a used guitar it is amazing value for money - I couldn't buy a kit to make my own guitar for that price, new it is probably not going to hold its value, but if you bond with it then it is a lot of guitar for the money.