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Now they are laying off at Heritage...

AirCap

AirCap

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https://articles-mlive-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/articles.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2018/02/changes_at_heritage_guitar_sou.amp

I understand upgrading to CNC stuff for the woodworking, but I think PLEK is dumb.
I truly hope they don't regret the loss of tribal knowledge.
 
uh oh - that's not good.  Don't think that that's a good move at all - the handcrafted nature of the product is essentially Heritage value proposition.  Making changes to that will reduce the value of the product.

I'm of the opinion that any upper level executive type should spend a few months in the trenches to get some knowledge of the core business before they are allowed to make any big changes.  I done this as a self-imposed rule wherever I've been employed and it's always made me a better boss.



... at least in my mind...
 
Come on, Heritage, your whole schtick is "Gibson didn't want to do it this way, so we decided we would do it without them".  Now you're following Gibson down the path of "putting people at the top who don't know or appreciate the core business and letting them make decisions".

You're becoming the thing you made a point to stand in defiance of.

"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain".  I guess it's true.
 
I was under the impression Heritage was going or had gone out of business. The dealer here has had trouble getting instruments from them for a while now.

That ancient factory has got to cost a mint to keep powered up, habitable, and legal. Most of the employees have been around a long time (read: expensive). Then, they want to do everything slowly by hand? Severely limited production is fine for bespoke instruments by noted luthiers, but you can't really run a factory that way.
 
I was under the impression Heritage was going or had gone out of business. The dealer here has had trouble getting instruments from them for a while now.

That ancient factory has got to cost a mint to keep powered up, habitable, and legal. Most of the employees have been around a long time (read: expensive). Then, they want to do everything slowly by hand? Severely limited production is fine for bespoke instruments by noted luthiers, but you can't really run a factory that way.
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If you remember, Heritage was originally an employee owned company. Many of the previous Gibson employees had retired or passed on, and they were looking for a buyer.

The new owners - PlazaCorp - are basically a realty company - nothing to do with musical instrument production. They sunk a buttload of money into new facilities, upgrading the shop and office areas, and buying new machinery. Anyone with a brain could have seen CNC production coming next. Heck, that's what I would do if it was mine!

So, all the hollering is by folks lamenting the passing of tradition (believe me - I'm an old school guy), but to compete these days you gotta get with the program to keep up. Also, correct me if I'm wrong - but Heritage was strictly build to order for the most part. Hardly any dealers who kept actual stock on the floor. Most music stores floorplan all their guitar lines through banks, I don't think Heritage rated that being a boutique maker.
 
I'm familiar with the Gibson/Heritage history. I actually lived in Kalamazoo for a while not too far from that old plant. Doesn't mean anything - just that I'm familiar with the area and that little chunk of industrial refuse. When you drove past it, it was difficult to believe there was anything happening there, and it wasn't the kind of neighborhood where you'd live or hang out. One of the more "war-torn" sections of that city, reminiscent of many formerly industrialized cities.

I don't know if all they were doing was custom orders, but the dealer here on the east side of the state usually had 5 to 8 of their instruments on the wall. New, not used, so unless Joe was custom ordering them based on clairvoyance, Heritage had to be making some "production" versions of their line. But, factories and dealers both change focus based on sales performance, so who knows?

I agree the company needs to modernize, and I wish Plaza all the best in their endeavors. If the employees don't like the direction the place is going, well, they were looking for a job when they showed up originally, so...
 
As too often in big corporate downsizing the cuts usually come from the wrong end of the horse. Most executives believe skilled labor can be replaced, most often times they're wrong. I too was a victim of such atrocity 6 years ago after working for a company for 25 yrs. They shut down our facility even though we were the most productive of all, put 600 people on the street with no type of severance at all. Afterwards I found out later first hand that most of the douchebags involved, gave themselves 170% raises...Yes, you read that right...170%...
 
Well, that's gonna be a big change. I wish the best to those employees and I really feel for set neck guys who are in a world of now mostly overseas manufacture. (not that you can't get a good instrument that way but I myself have a made-in-America commitment to the extent possible so I can understand looking for USA made) Hopefully something good comes from the various upgrades and changes at Heritage. If you like PRS or can pick a good Gibby from the used market more power to you. 

That said, I do believe at this point that the best guitars made in America are being made either by members of this forum or a handful of skilled and actually responsible custom luthiers. For off the rack at his point, I would personally get a Chapman if I was buying a new commercial guitar at this time and upgrade the pots and switch.
 
DangerousR6 said:
...Afterwards I found out later first hand that most of the douchebags involved, gave themselves 170% raises...Yes, you read that right...170%...
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They must have been worth it, look at all the cheddar they saved by laying off the people who did nothing but produce product! I mean, if you don't produce excuses that enable them to do as they please, you're pretty much a marked man....  :icon_jokercolor:

Anyway, 24 years ago my company went the same way. 16 years in, dual certified, and I found my name on "the list". I left before they had a chance to lay me off, changed careers entirely, never looked back.

(Good to see you landed on your feet too....)
 
But shirly, isn't the whole point of Heritage brand was of traditionally made guitars mostly making guitars the way Gibson used to, before they went all new fangled Pleq <sp> and CNC ruined everything©. Lose your Unique Selling point, and you might as well be a shell company making above average Gibson clones, and before long you know they'll be building the same guitars out of the same Korean/Chinese factories as everyone else.
 


 
Close as I can tell, the Koreans are turning out better Les Pauls than Gibson, both of whom use CNC machines and other modern appurtenances. Now the new owners of Heritage want to continue to turn out better Les Pauls than Gibson without using chisels, hamsters and prayer to do their routing/cutting/drilling so they have half a chance of selling what they make at a profit. So, what's the problem?

Back 100 years ago, when you wanted to travel faster, you whipped your horse's ass. Now, you press on the gas pedal. While I'm sure there are those who enjoyed whipping their animals, fortunately their number wasn't large enough to prevent the progress we've all enjoyed.

It's often referred to as "disruptive (or destructive) innovation". As technology improves, some jobs go away while other jobs are created. 50 years ago, automotive plants didn't have CNC programmers or electronics repair techs or many other jobs that are now necessary as technology replaced brain-dead grunt labor with automation. I mean, what would you rather do, get out a shovel and block off your calendar for a month this summer to dig a septic tank, or fire up one of these badass Caterpillar planet rearrangers and get that job done in a few hours?

caterpillar-new-excavators.jpg

Yeah, we killed some ditch digger jobs, but think of all the people involved with making planet rearrangers. And I'm pretty sure the holes those machines make are every bit as good, if not better, than anything that could be dug by hand.
 
amigarobbo said:
But shirly, isn't the whole point of Heritage brand was of traditionally made guitars mostly making guitars the way Gibson used to, before they went all new fangled Pleq <sp> and CNC ruined everything©. Lose your Unique Selling point, and you might as well be a shell company making above average Gibson clones, and before long you know they'll be building the same guitars out of the same Korean/Chinese factories as everyone else.
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Yep I agree.  The whole value proposition of Heritage was doing things the old way.  That's the only thing that made them unique.  If they drop that, then they may as well off-source the whole works.
 
Hey Cagey, saw your post just now.  Can't come up with a suitable rebuttal at the moment.  My excuse is I'm at work and should be, er, working  :)
 
In a world of JCBs sometimes you need call a spade a spade an old fashioned spade, to make your mark.


shopping
 
Well hopefully quality remains the same and they don’t go under.  I have an itch for a HM-530.  I like their neck join location much better than an ES330 or Casino. 
 
We still have these...I think they are still made in NYC.

https://dangelicoguitars.com
 
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