If you're looking for a place that can embody generations of musical instrument expertise, passion, and innovation, we've got one to check out: 225 Parsons Street in Kalamazoo, Michigan. For some, the mention of Kalamazoo might already ring a couple of bells. 225 Parsons Street is home to a factory. The factory in question, once occupied by Orville Gibson and his mandolins, has since blossomed into a veritable epicenter of fine musical instruments in more than one generation. Today's Heritage Guitars calls the Parsons Street factory home and it's here that some of America's finest custom electric guitars are produced.
New Kids on the Block
The 225 Parsons Street factory in Kalamazoo was once indeed occupied by Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Orville Gibson, opening the factory in the late 1800s, originally used the space to produce mandolins until the dawn of the electric instrument craze in the late 1910s. Nearly seventy years passed with Gibson being a leading figure in electric guitar production out of Kalamazoo. Nothing lasts forever, though. For nearly seventy years, Gibson's original shop stood and produced fine electric guitars until the company elected to move production to Nashville, Tennesse. Though the Gibson name left Kalamazoo, a few passionate artisans couldn't help but stay.
Heritage in Real Time
Heritage Guitars was formally founded in 1985 by a group of former Parsons Street employees looking to keep the tradition of crafting beautiful, high-quality guitars alive in Kalamazoo. The group purchased the factory space along with all its original equipment to continue doing what they did best – craft original, all-American instruments for passionate musicians. 1985 saw the debut of the first Heritage electric guitar at the NAMM Show and now with an outstanding line of original guitars, Heritage stands among the most celebrated names in electric guitars today. Heritage Guitars still operates out of the original Kalamazoo factory space, producing their classics and cooking up new designs all along the way.
The Heritage Guitars design ethos is framed around classically iconic solid, semi-hollow, and hollow electric guitar designs. Heritage incorporates classic specifications and modern appointments in their creations to strike a balance of familiar and fresh. Rosewood fingerboards and mahogany necks appear widely across the Heritage line to ensure playing experiences that cannot be beat. Alongside these familiar visual motifs and dynamic playing feels, the electronics on Heritage instruments are themselves cutting edge with Seymour Duncan pickups making frequent appearances with Heritage's own custom pickup designs.
The iconic styles and indispensable sounds of Heritage Guitars make for showstopping instruments – just ask their standby lineup of their solidbody H-150, their semi-hollow H-535, or their hollow H-530. Each of these reverent yet boundary-pushing guitars carries with them decades of refined design and inherent musical curiosity. Using high-quality materials and cutting-edge electronics, Heritage electric guitars remain classic, modern, and timeless all at once. The fine craftsmanship and handmade touches of Heritage cannot be replicated and are sure to impress. With a discerning eye and plenty of care, Heritage Guitars carries on in their own tradition of making guitars with style, substance, personality, and purpose.
The Heritage Guitars story is one the team in Kalamazoo are excited to share for years to come.
