Author Topic: Heritage HRW Humbuckers vs a suitable BareKnuckle pup (Read 4339 times)

jms8250 · « **on:** June 16, 2006, 08:29:22 AM »

I just put cash down on a Heritage CM140 2nd Edition. For those of you who do not know, this is a Les Paul style guitar and Heritage is a company working out of the original Gibson factory in Kalamazo Michigan. Their guitars are all handmade and blow away any current model Gibson. The guys hand crafting the Heritage guitars are the same guys who hand crafted the 50's LesPauls and with the same tools. Anyway, my CM140 comes with HRW handwound pickups. I heard *great* things about these pups. Prior to buying this particular Les Paul I was going to get a cheaper Les Paul and replace the electronics with BareKnuckle humbuckers. Ouside of wanting a vintage LP tone in the neck and something beefy in the bridge I haven't decided which BareKnuckles I like. Indeed with the HRWs their may be no need to replace the the HRWs.

Does anybody have experience with these HRWs, and do BareKnuckle's blow them away like they do everything else? This is a most serious question because their are very few pickups I would put up against a set of BareKnuckeles. What BareKnuckels sound most like the HRWs? I have not heard them but they are described as a Hot PAF with tons of clarity. Very good clean tones and they overdrive well, rich and harmonic. They are also supposed to be sonically even accross the frettboard and are popular in a lot ofjazzboxes. I do not know the output.

Please let me know what you think.

steve · « **Reply #1 on:** June 16, 2006, 09:55:17 AM »

To be honest i have never heard of them. I think the general opinion from this forum will be that BK will come up tops, i like many others here have tried all the other makes of pickups and after trying BK have no need to try anything else.
Are there any reviews of these pickups on Harmony Central?

hunter · « **Reply #2 on:** June 16, 2006, 10:00:39 AM »

strange, on the heritage website they say that 140 CM is discontinued.

And I seem only to find heritage guitars with Duncan '59ers (which sound like BKPs connected through a 50meter cr@p cable :)

Skybone · « **Reply #3 on:** June 16, 2006, 10:37:15 AM »

Do Heritage still use Schaller pickups as stock?

Not bad pickups, but compared to BKP's, the BKP's are infinitely better.

If you want your good guitar to sound great, they're well worth investing in IMO.

jms8250 · « **Reply #4 on:** June 16, 2006, 11:44:04 AM »

The original 140 has been discontinued. New for 2006 is a 140 2nd edition which has the more familer body style (no longer using that sharp cutaway). Its hard to get that information off the webpage. If you go to the home page and select 2006 models you'll see the cm140 2nd edition at the bottom.

Heritage does still use Schaller pickups and these are definatly inferior to BareKnuckle, but premuim models come loaded with various Seymore Duncan pickups (also inferior to BareKnuckle). However, this guy Ren at Heritage (he's the dude who actually invented the Nashville style bridge for Gibson a long time ago) handwinds the HRW pickups. These pups are not Schaller and ge rave reviews. They cost $170 apiece and come stock on a few select models including the CM150 Deluxe and the CM140 2nd edition I have ordered. The HRWs aresupposed to be some very nice sounding pickups, better than the Duncuns. But to my knowledge nobody has done a direct comparison between the HRWs and BareKnuckle.

Actually, if you goto the 'New for 2006' section of the webpage off the homepage and scroll down to CM140 2nd edition, the 3 pics shown are my actuall guitar. This was the first 2nd edition CM140 made and it was featured at the NAMM show (as well as on the website). The color is burnt Amber. I bought the guitar from Wolfe Guitars is Florida who is a custom Heritage dealer with an outstanding reputation. All Heritage guitars are hand crafted and amazing instruments and I am really excited about owning numero uno of the new line of 140s. Since its te first one made I'm sure they went out of their way to make sure it is a well made guitar. It has a really nice looking curly maple top with a deep rich burnt amber finish. This guitar deserves the best sounding electronics I can stick into it.
I do not like the Scaller tailpeice and bridge howver. Wolfe guitar is changing them out for their vintage style stopbar tailpeice and tune o matic bridge. Although I'll still have the schaller hardware if I want to put the guitar back to original. The vintahe style hardware is said to offer more sustain.