It projects a liveliness that compares to
a nice Les Paul. But it also contributes a
unique harmonic complexity and verve
to each note, making sustained arpeggios
especially satisfying.
bending fluid and natural. It’s a neck that
makes chord work at the lower frets a pleasure while inviting you to dig into the upper
frets for extended Dickey Betts-style blues
jams. Tuning stability is noteworthy, and it’s
no doubt aided in part by the straight string
pull over the nut, which helps prevent the
strings from binding in the nut slots.
The guitar is exceptionally resonant
when played acoustically, and when
plugged into a silverface Fender Champ, it
projects a liveliness that compares to a nice
Les Paul. But it also contributes a unique
harmonic complexity and verve to each
note, making sustained arpeggios especially
satisfying. Individual note articulation is
excellent, and string-to-string volume is
super consistent all over the neck—nice
when you spend an evening making your
way through the dense harmonies of a Ted
Greene-inspired chord-melody workout.
The guitar has a slightly springy,
punchy quality, which may be due to
its 25" scale, and this energy makes
it hard to stick with a clean tone for
too long. Pushing the Champ to its
limit had the Heartland kicking out rock
tones brimming with snarl and sizzling
sustain—the kind of thick, singing lead
tones Les Paul enthusiasts dream of. And
rolling off the Tone knobs served up a
cool—and rather uncivil—brooding
tone. On the whole, I was struck
by what a great match these
pickups are for the basswood-
and-maple combination.
toward creating a guitar that stands apart
sonically and visually while retaining the
familiarity and signature performance
qualities that have made this type of
guitar a legend. The Heartland exhibits
all the quality craftsmanship and individuality you want from an independent
luthier. It’s a guitar that can move between
progressive modern sounds and textbook
humbucker-equipped-solidbody tones
with style and ease. But it also offers real
playability improvements, from the lightweight body to the carved heel, that make
the ToneNation Heartland a real player’s
instrument worth a listen.
Rating:
Buy If...
a design that’s both classic and
evolutionary sounds like a recipe for
guitar bliss.
Skip If...
you’re reluctant to veer too far away
from tradition.
ToneNation Guitars
Street $3295
tonenationguitars.com
or use a mobile device to download
audio clips of the guitar at
CLICKHere…
The Verdict
As a longtime Gibson enthusi-
ast, I was happy to see the basic
construction principles of the
Les Paul refined and mutated into
something unique in the ToneNation
Heartland Standard. It goes a long way
