Re: Epi Fingerboard

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Norman Karin) 
wrote:

> I agree with Pat.  If you decide to trade/sell your Epi, you might have
> a look at Heritage guitars.  I just bought a customized Sweet 16 from
> Jay Wolfe (http://www.wolfeguitars.com/) and he will work with you on
> custom features, such as an ebony board with different inlay options.  I
> am very pleased with my Heritage so far (just got it a few weeks ago),
> and many (but not all) folks in this newsgroup speak highly of Heritage
> guitars in general.  The 575 model is very popular and less expensive
> than the Sweet 16 or Eagles.  Jay was great to work with and, like many
> other rmmgj-ers, I highly recommend him as a dealer.

Not a flame, by any means, but I feel it's worth pointing out that when 
the post's from Europe (the root of this thread was from a contributor in 
France) the suggestion of a Heritage isn't /that/ useful.

While Heritage has distributors in the UK and France, the guitars 
themselves are as rare as rocking horse droppings. For example the UK 
distributor is Front Runner. Their website looks like this 
http://www.frontrunnerguitars.co.uk/ and has done for ages.

As another example http://www.ivormairants.co.uk is the only dealer that 
I know of in London that _regularly_ stocks Heritage (if I'm wrong and 
there's someone else, I'd be /delighted/ to hear about them), and they 
currently have just *one* shopsoiled 575, for which they want the 
UKP equivalent of US$2,586.26 (and that's the only Heritage they've had 
for months).

I'm told the situation in France is similar, there's a distributor 
(Strings Music Import in Lyon) but you just never see the guitars on 
display.

I've heard Jay Wolfe is happy to do international mail-order, and all 
credit to him for making the effort. However if you're the sort of person 
who needs to play before you buy, getting your hands on a Heritage in 
large chunks of Europe is a major pain in the gluteus maximus.

Someone should tell Heritage just how poorly they're being served by some 
of their international distributors...