The electric guitars we consider classic
may be perfect in a lot of ways,
but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to
reinterpret the blueprint. After decades of
wrestling with what he perceived as the
limitations of traditional Les Paul guitars,
Chip Loew of ToneNation Guitars decided
to get to work on an alternative of
his own design. He now operates a two-man
shop in Copley, Ohio, where he has
been bringing this vision to life for just
over two years. This month, we received
ToneNation’s Heartland Standard—a
set-neck, dual-humbucker electric that
unites traditional construction principles
and more personal, player-oriented design
optimizations—for review.
A chat with Loew about his work
reveals a focus on interesting and unique-sounding
tonewood combinations and resonant,
acoustically live instruments with
superior articulation. But it’s also clear he’s
determined to nail the sort of playability
and tonal balance players crave.
Appealing Accents,
Fine Craftsmanship
When I removed the Heartland Standard
from its plush Cedar Creek case, the first
thing I noticed was an overall woody theme.
The look reflects the instrument’s functionality
but also Loew’s fascination with tonewood
as a design inspiration. The emphasis
on material leads to first impressions of
refinement and honesty in design. This is
not a flashy guitar, but the woods are one of
numerous subtle visual treats.
The carved, figured-maple top—which
caps a body of lightweight solid basswood
sourced from a southern Ohio Amish
mill—is crafted from two nicely matched
pieces and is finished in glassy nitrocellulose
lacquer. Loew calls this his Tigger finish
(named for the shop cat, who presumably
has a highly figured coat). The delicate
brown burst reveals a bit of wood grain even
at the darkest point along the perimeter—a
very nice touch. The body binding reveals
an attractive maple edge that leads your eyes
around to the 5-ply, flamed-maple-and-walnut
neck, while the headstock displays the
ToneNation logo in abalone and ivory-toned
inlays. The optional ebony knobs have a
wonderful, chocolaty grain and remind you
you’re playing a quality handmade guitar
with every Tone and Volume adjustment.
They also found me thinking that a matching
truss-rod cover and pickup rings would
have done a lot to complete the look.
Along with the traditional stop tailpiece
and Tune-o-matic-style bridge, the
Heartland Standard includes ToneNation’s
own PAF-style neck and bridge humbuckers—
which measure in at 7.9k and 8.9k
Ω, respectively—and have the sort of output
level you’d expect from vintage-style
pickups. Loew uses special Sperzel tuning
machines to achieve straight string pull
over the nut while retaining a traditional
Gibson-style headstock width—an inspired
design move. Electronics include matched
CTS potentiometers and hand-selected
Orange Drop capacitors, with a rugged
Switchcraft toggle and input jack.
The 5-piece laminated neck, topped
by a wenge fretboard, is inspired by the
famous stability and rigidity of traditional
Gibson jazz-box necks, and it’s carved to
a rounded, medium-thickness C profile
that feels a lot like slimmer ’50s Les Paul
necks. The bone nut is beautifully slotted
and the frets are smoothly leveled
and polished, though one more pass over
the fret ends with a dressing file would
have made the fretwork perfect. In an
effort to improve upper-fret access, Loew
developed a unique taper that carves
away much of the unnecessary mass from
the neck heel, while retaining structural
integrity. It’s a weight-saving and certainly
more comfortable design.
Balance and Tonal Complexity
The Heartland Standard was set up beautifully
right out of the case. Considering
that the shipping box was hot when I
opened, this speaks volumes about the
stability of the neck. A few days on a
delivery truck during a Midwest summer is
a cruel test of the stability of any wooden
instrument, and the Heartland passed with
flying colors. At around eight pounds, it’s
lighter than average for a Les Paul–style
guitar despite a slightly larger body (it’s
around half an inch wider than a Les Paul
at the waist) and it’s exceedingly comfortable
to play while standing or seated.
The guitar has a fast neck and low
action, measuring 3/64" at the 12th fret on
the high E string and 1/16" on the low E.
The medium-jumbo frets and 9.5"-to-12"
compound-radius fretboard made string
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.
The Verdict
As a longtime Gibson enthusiast,
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
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.
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.
Rating...
