“A new world of power and versatility”: Heritage overhauls its Custom Shop Core Collection with the H-157 – debuting all-new pickups in the process

Heritage Guitars has unveiled the Custom Shop Core Collection H-157, a Les-Paul style electric guitar headlined by its new hand-wound, vintage-style humbuckers.

Crafted at the famed Heritage facility on 225 Parsons Street in Kalamazoo, MI, the model’s new 225 Hot Classic humbuckers help take the template to new tonal heights, with the pickups supposedly excelling with distortion or heavier music.

Hand-wound and designed to “deliver more oomph and power while maintaining dynamics and touch sensitivity,” the all-new pickups are tailored to excel with heavier music styles. They’re also wax-potted to counter extraneous noises and feedback.

The guitar, available in a choice of Dark Cherry Sunburst and Ebony nitrocellulose finishes, features an ultra-light genuine mahogany body and – for the former finish –a selected curly maple top. 

The 25.75″ scale build also features a mahogany ‘50s-style C-profile neck, and an ebony fretboard bound and equipped with 22 Jescar medium jumbo frets and block inlays.

Gold hardware features include a Tune-O-Matic-style bridge with an aluminum Stopbar tailpiece and Heritage Custom Shop tuners. 

Heritage has made some visual enhancements here, too. Multi-ply binding features on the body and headstock, which has also been given a gold kite inlay.

Heritage believes its H-157 takes “renowned solid-body craftsmanship to new heights,” and so it arrives with a rather high-end price tag of $4,499. 

The H-157 succeeds Heritage’s Standard H-150 model, which Guitar World described as delivering the “thrills of a Kalamazoo-era Les Paul for a lot less bills”.

The original Kalamazoo factory was bought from Gibson by a breakaway group of luthiers, who would later become Heritage, following Gibson’s relocation to Nashville. 

Earlier in 2024, Heritage released the H-575, a high-end hollowbody inspired by one of the most popular jazzboxes of all time.  

Head to Heritage for more information about the new H-157 model.