Heartfield was a short-lived

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

manufacturing company, active from 1989 to 1993. The company was a joint operation between the American and the Japanese branches of

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC, or simply Fender) is an American manufacturer of instruments and amplifiers. Fender produces acoustic guitars, bass amplifiers and public address equipment, however it is best known for its ...

. Guitars were manufactured in Japan. Heartfield produced four models of guitars, each with various sub-model categories. The core models consisted of the RR, Elan, EX, and Talon. The RR series was one of the first to offer retro styling while the Talon was a more mass-produced line targeting metal and hard rock guitarists. Some of the models had active electronics, including built-in effects. The Talon line of Heartfield guitars is a '

superstrat Superstrat is a name for an electric guitar design that resembles a Fender Stratocaster but with differences that clearly distinguish it from a standard Stratocaster, usually to cater to a different playing style. Differences typically include m ...

' design (a portmanteau of ''super'' and ''

Stratocaster The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed from 1952 into 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuously ...

'') invoking a double-locking

Floyd Rose The Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo, or simply Floyd Rose, is a type of locking vibrato arm for a guitar. Floyd D. Rose invented the locking vibrato in 1976, the first of its kind, and it is now manufactured by a company of the same name. The Floyd R ...

Tremolo, a combination of

single coil A single coil pickup is a type of magnetic transducer, or pickup, for the electric guitar and the electric bass. It electromagnetically converts the vibration of the strings to an electric signal. Single coil pickups are one of the two most po ...

and

humbucker A humbucking pickup, humbucker, or double coil, is a type of guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out the noisy interference picked up by coil pickups. In addition to electric guitar pickups, humbucking coils are sometimes used in d ...

pickups, jumbo frets, thin

radius In classical geometry, a radius ( : radii) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The name comes from the latin ''radius'', meaning ray but also the ...

neck, and was aimed primarily at the heavy metal and

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

genre. Despite a reputable build quality for having been made in the same factory as the

Ibanez is a Japanese guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki. Based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in import guitar sales in the United States and Europe, as ...

JEM guitar line, the Talon series incurred high sale prices that discouraged overall sales. At the time, sale prices for the high-end Talon V guitar were listed at US$1169.99. The lack of sales was compounded by the failing value of the

Japanese yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar (US$) and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the ...

in the early 1990s compared to the US Dollar. Add to this the overall decline in popularity of superstrat guitars through the early 1990s, as non-metal genres such as grunge and alternative gained popularity. Heartfield was forced to end operations in 1993.

Endorsers

Notable musicians who have endorsed Heartfield models include: *

Vinnie Moore Vincent Moore (born April 14, 1964) is an American guitarist and a member of the British hard rock band UFO. Biography Moore was born in New Castle, Delaware. He began his professional career at age 12 after receiving a guitar as a Christ ...

(

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

) *

Russ Parrish Russell John Parrish (born November 24, 1970), better known as Satchel, is an American musician. He is the lead guitarist for the comedic glam metal band Steel Panther. Early life Russell John Parrish was born in Redwood City, California ...

(

Fight Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...

Steel Panther Steel Panther is an American comedic glam metal band from Los Angeles, California. They are known for their profane and humorous lyrics as well as their exaggerated onstage pastiche of the stereotypical glam metal lifestyle. History Metal Sh ...

) *

Jeff Pilson Jeffrey Steven Pilson (born January 19, 1959) is an American musician best known for being the bass player in the glam metal band Dokken and currently classic rock band Foreigner. He has also had an extended stint with Dio in the 1990s. He is ...

( Foreigner,

Dokken Dokken is an American glam metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1978. It split up in 1989 and reformed four years later. The band had several hit singles which charted on the Billboard Hot 100, such as " Alone Again", " In My Dreams", and " Burn ...

)

References

External links

Heartfield Guitars archive
{{Fender Guitar manufacturing companies of the United States