Heritage Ascent+ H-150 review: “if you’re looking for your first serious Les Paul-style guitar, you need to try this”
Editor’s note: Heritage Guitars and Guitar.com are both part of the Caldecott Music Group.
$699/£549, heritageguitars.com
Heritage has long been a cult favourite of the Gibson-inclined guitar connoisseur – after all the guitars have been made in the former 225 Parsons Street Gibson factory in Kalamazoo since the 1980s, using many of the staff who opted to stay in Michigan when the company relocated to Nashville. The problem with being a small, boutique, USA-made guitar company, however, is that there are limits to how many guitars you can make, and how affordable they can be.
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A year or so back, however, Heritage decided to change that. The original Ascent collection was designed to create “modern, accessible guitars crafted with Heritage DNA”. In plain terms, that means making Gibson-inflected budget guitars in China, priced in similar territory as the very bottom of Epiphone’s range, or Harley Benton – but with some genuine US boutique bona fides to back it up.
Image: Adam Gasson
Heritage Ascent+ H-150 – what is it?
The aforementioned original Ascent collection was aimed squarely at the entry level of the market and priced/spec’d to match. The new Ascent+ range however, is pitching itself more at the ‘first serious electric guitar’ market currently dominated by Epiphone and PRS’s SE in the non-Fender end of town.
In the case of this Les Paul-inspired H-150, what that means is you get a proper mahogany body and neck, which have been contoured at belly and heel for comfort. You get a maple top – which depending on the finish is either flamed – and a proper nicely dark rosewood fretboard. You also get a 12-15” compound radius neck, bound body, a tune-o-matic bridge and tailpiece, a pair of Heritage’s own humbuckers and a classic four-control wiring setup – but one that’s actually hiding a push-pull pot for coil-splitting those pickups. And you get all that for under $700.
Image: Adam Gasson
Heritage Ascent+ H-150 – build quality
Unboxing the H150 I was immediately impressed by what a good-looking instrument it is. The ‘Dipped in glass’ high gloss finish gleams over the dark blue to turquoise burst quilted maple top, bringing to mind wistful days by the summer pool perhaps.
While the finish and quilt level may be an acquired taste – it’s a bit more PRS than Gibson – there’s no denying the quality of the workmanship and classic timber selection. For those of more traditional tastes, traditional cherry and lemon bursts with flamed maple tops are available.
One of the most common issues with more affordable guitars is the weight of them. Corners cut either in wood selection or drying time mean that, especially when melded with a thick poly finish, you’re stuck with a boat anchor for life – it was one of the issues raised with Fender’s Asian-made Standard range, for example.
A good way to get around this with Les Paul-style guitars is to add some subtle weight relief underneath that maple cap, and that’s what Heritage has done here. It makes the Ascent+ H-150 an impressively lightweight and resonant instrument in the hands – tipping the scales at just under 8lbs, it won’t leave you sore after a long set.
Image: Adam Gasson
The significantly contoured heel may be visually off-putting to vintage purists, but it undeniably aids slick ergonomic playability and ease of access to upper frets that has my regular single-cut feeling a bit clunky in comparison.
The nicely bound genuine rosewood fingerboard could do with a touch of oil, but it’s well done and adorned with classic crown inlays – a treat to see, especially at this price point.
The gloss-finished classic C profile neck with 24.75″ (628mm) scale length neck feels great in the hand, nicely polished jumbo frets atop the 12” -16” compound radius board and genuine Graph Tech TUSQ XL all lend a professional and fast playing feel to the Ascent+ H-150’s impressive feature set.
Popping off the rear shielded control cavity, we find tidy wiring of the two 500K alpha potentiometers for volumes and the two 500K split-shaft push/pull potentiometers for coil splitting the humbuckers – each one controls its respective pickup.
Image: Adam Gasson
Heritage Ascent+ H-150 – sounds
Giving the H-150 a strum straight out of the box I was pleasantly surprised by the excellent resonance of the guitar – it yields an airy unplugged tone with plenty of sustain, and bloom to single notes.
Plugged into my tweed combo, the pickups are nicely voiced with both reading around 8K in a traditional lower output PAF tonality. Okay, they may not quite have the articulation of a classic PAF from the 1950s – this is a $600 guitar, people! – but they are nicely musical. There’s plenty of snarl and honk at the bridge, smoother and darker at the neck and the classic middle position is always my underrated favourite on this type of guitar, offering perfect balance between the two.
Classic open chords and low-down riffs feel right at home, and as your solos take you further up the neck it’s easy to forget you’re playing a classic single-cut. That contoured neck joint really does disappear under your palm, facilitating speedy runs to the highest echelons of the fretboard, if only my playing could keep up!
The humbuckers offer a great range of classic rock tones, and while the coil split won’t turn your H-150 into a Strat, they are effective at adding a range of sparkly thinner tones to the available palette. I particularly enjoyed the middle position with both neck and bridge pickups split for funky rhythms and cutting country chicken pickin’.
And don’t overlook mixing a blend of one pickup in single coil split mode with one full fat humbucker, either. I think my favourite tone on the whole guitar was the combo of bridge humbucker with neck pickup coil split, producing a slightly hollowed out yet full bodied beautifully jangly rhythm tone and an articulate lead tone that slices through a mix brilliantly with a little fuzz. The opposite setting of a full neck humbucker and coil split bridge ups the midrange snarly and definition, perfect for those Andy Summers-esqe suspended chords and tight riffs.
The only gripe with the coil splits, is how tricky it is to actually access them. The gold bonnet knobs might look the part on a classic single-cut, but they’re very tricky to quickly pull up in the heat of battle – especially if you have large hands and fingers. If Heritage is determined to stick with these knobs, perhaps swapping the push-pull to push-push pots would make this less frustrating?
Image: Adam Gasson
Heritage Ascent+ H-150 – should I buy one?
This is a professional looking and sounding instrument – one that’s relatively lightweight and resonant with slinky playability that you could happily gig with tomorrow. Traditionalists may baulk at those quite extreme body and neck contours, but Heritage should be applauded for thinking outside the box a little – this is a great looking, superb playing and versatile single-cut for the more modern player.
The Ascent+ H150 develops the genre’s classic single cut DNA with some modern twists for increased comfort, easy playability and expanded tonal options all in a range of eye-catching finishes.
The one incongruity is perhaps the contrast here. Much of this guitar’s look and feel seems best suited to more technically-inclined, high-gain players – but the sounds on tap are much more traditional. Perhaps the next step for the Ascent+ is to add some options with higher output pickups to make a play for the heavy market? Regardless, this really is a lot of guitar for the money – if you’re looking for your first serious Les Paul-style guitar, you need to try this.
Image: Adam Gasson
Heritage Ascent+ H-150 – alternatives
The sub-$1,000 set-neck single-cut category is a hugely competitive one, and the biggest beast in this weight class is undoubtedly Epiphone. The brand’s Les Paul Modern ($699/£749) is clearly the target for Ascent+, sporting as it does a sculpted heel, compound radius and coil-split pickups. If you want to keep the single-cut vibes but lean into the rock mentality, ESP’s LTD Eclipse EC-256 ($599/£599) is a good option. And you can’t really talk about quality guitars in this price point without mentioning PRS – the SE Singlecut McCarty 594 ($899/£829) is an absolutely monster guitar for the money.
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