Are Heritage guitars considered...

[83stratman]

... boutique?

 

[sksmith66]

who cares?

 

[hollowhero]

They are hand-built in America to order....that's good enough for me

 

[83stratman]

I'm just curious as to peoples perceptions of them. Was it not obvious? Why did you choose to wast the bandwidth?

who cares?

 

[mjgnyc]

Not in my view and I own 1.

I also own a Reverend and don't consider that boutique either.

Maybe because I didn't over pay for them?

 

[stevieboy]

Boutique when it comes to guitars refers to a small specialized shop with a minimum of employees putting out a small number of instruments. There aren't cut and dried guidelines for any of that, but I think Heritage is much bigger, has many more employees, and puts out many more guitars than what would be referred to as "boutique."

"Who cares" is not really a bad answer though. Some elaboration may have helped.

 

[sksmith66]

I'm just curious as to peoples perceptions of them. Was it not obvious? Why did you choose to wast the bandwidth?

ok. here is you awnser. by some people they are by other people they aren't. the rest of the thread will just be a debate on the definition of boutique. which is about the biggest waste of bandwidth I can imagine.

 

[Faraday]

I'm just curious as to peoples perceptions of them. Was it not obvious? Why did you choose to wast the bandwidth?

Why did you choose to use more bandwidth than he used to criticize a fair comment? Total bandwidth you both used < negligible. Total snark you used = more than the bandwidth used.

 

[Colorado Mac]

My vote is no, but YMMV.

 

[Presc]

I have one, and I don't really consider it "boutique". I think it's a really good guitar though.

I think you could easily make the case for it: they're a quasi-production line guitar, but made in fairly small numbers with a lot of craftsmanship involved in the build process. That doesn't sound much different than Suhr or Collings which I think most would definitely consider "boutique", and I wouldn't be shocked at all if Suhr put out more instruments per year than Heritage.

I think some of it is timing. Having been founded in the 1980s, Heritage was around long before the boutique guitar explosion of the last 10 years or so. So they didn't get lumped into that category with the new up-and-comers. And they don't really have much in the way of slick, hype-generating marketing other than basic photos and descriptions

 

[Dale]

My vote is they are great...the rest does not really matter does it?

 

[rummy]

Awful awful thread.

 

[lowenzz]

who cares?

This.

Bootique is where grandma gets her imported doily's.

 

[vds5000]

It really depends on your definition of 'Boutique'. They're well made guitars, but so are Hamers, G&L and a slew of other factory-made guitars. None of which I would consider boutique.

 

[samdjr74]

This is it. I own 2, they are great, equal to or better then Gibson's custom shop in my opinion. But as far as being boutique or not, well it never mattered to me.

My vote is they are great...the rest does not really matter does it?

 

[airportbar]

Yes, if your name is Brent.

 

[FredZepp]

Boutique when it comes to guitars refers to a small specialized shop with a minimum of employees putting out a small number of instruments. There aren't cut and dried guidelines for any of that, but I think Heritage is much bigger, has many more employees, and puts out many more guitars than what would be referred to as "boutique."

As far as number of employees... Heritage has 20.

Number of guitars per year.... maybe 1000 to 1,200 annual.

 

[Flyin' Brian]

Boutique is a word that people use when they want to be considered cool because of the gear that they have, and usually those people will use the term first.

I have occasionally been asked what gear I play. I have never been asked if any of it is boutique.

BTW I play Heritage. When they ask what it is I tell them, but I would never say "It's a boutique guitar".

 

[tnt365]

I'd say yes. There are criteria for "boutique" but they are very loosely followed. I tried to outline it but there are just so many exceptions, and I couldn't get over things like this: Say Heritage guitars were in huge demand all of the sudden and started making 50,000 guitars a year instead of 1,200, and hired 100 more workers. If they still kept the same manufacturing process, would they still be considered boutique? It's hard for me to wrap my head around, but my guess would be "no" because I'm not sure how you would train those 100 new employees in time to fulfill the demand. And if quality slipped because of "mass production"...ugh, we need a treatise.

 

[Flyin' Brian]

I'd say yes. There are criteria for "boutique" but they are very loosely followed. I tried to outline it but there are just so many exceptions, and I couldn't get over things like this: Say Heritage guitars were in huge demand all of the sudden and started making 50,000 guitars a year instead of 1,200, and hired 100 more workers. If they still kept the same manufacturing process, would they still be considered boutique? It's hard for me to wrap my head around, but my guess would be "no" because I'm not sure how you would train those 100 new employees in time to fulfill the demand. And if quality slipped because of "mass production"...ugh, we need a treatise.

Except for 1, the owners are all at or beyond 70 years old. They're not gonna change much, probably ever. I'm guessing that the value of the owner made guitars will rise when they're not there anymore.

Who cares about boutique is a fair question.