At this year’s NAMM, Guitar Messenger’s Ivan Chopik had a chance to hear from John Pirruccello of Chicago-based Hanson Guitars and Lakland Basses about the careful craftsmanship that’s made Lakland’s basses so well-received, and the years of experience in pickup-wiring and luthiery that prepared Hanson Guitars for developing their own line of instruments. In the process, John filled us in on two exciting new models: Hanson’s Ravenswood 12 electric 12-string and Lakland’s Geezer Butler Signature Bass.
Ravenswood 12
From HansonGuitars.com
The “Ravenswood 12″ by Ravenswood Guitars (a new specialty brand by Hanson Guitars) is a solid Mahogany, set-neck designed electric 12 string featuring a full 12-saddle tuneomatic bridge, compact headstock, and 3, ’60s era specific single-coil pickups with a 5-way selector switch. The neck width is 1-11/16” at the nut providing a familiar but un-crowded string spacing, making it one of the most comfortable playing electric 12-strings on the market today.
The pickups contain 44 gauge wire coated with heavy formvar wound to a 7.5K & 7.8K Ohm vintage spec; reproducing the classic “chimey” and “jangley” tone heard on so many great recordings from the ’60s through today. Tonally, this guitar occupies a sonic range that most electric 6-string guitars can’t reproduce, making it a very welcome and pleasing addition at a gig or recording session.
Since it’s a compact solid instrument with a non-extended headstock, the Ravenswood 12 will fit into a traditional gig bag or double gig bag so you’ll no longer have to decide whether or not to take it along. Behold, your new secret weapon! Play it clean, compress it, overdrive it, fuzz it up, crank it, no feedback issues here!
Ravenswood 12
Specifications
- Body: Bound Mahogany
- Neck: Set bound Mahogany
- Fingerboard: Rosewood with Pearl Block markers
- Scale: 24.75”
- Neck width at nut: 1-11/16″
- Profile: Vintage Slim
- Frets: Vintage Mediums
- Pickups: Single-coil 44 AWG 7.5K & 7.8K ohms
- Bridge: Tune-o-matic 12 saddle fixed bridge, large posts
- Controls: Vol, Master Tone, 5-way Toggle
Geezer Butler Signature Bass
After more than 10 years of exclusively playing Lakland basses, Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler teamed with the company to design his very first signature model bass guitar. Inspired by his favorite instruments of the ’70s, Geezer’s signature bass features an alder body, custom inlays, a black and gray striped anodized aluminum pick guard, and his signature vintage split coil GZR-P EMG pickups and the GZR-PJ Vintage J pickups in the PJ version of the bass.
Lakland Geezer Butler Signature Bass
Specifications
- Body Wood: Alder
- Neck: Quarter sawn Maple
- Neck Width: 1.75″ or 1.5″ at nut
- Fingerboard: Rosewood
- Inlays: Geezer Butler custom inlays
- Bonus: Custom Geezer Butler signature engraving on back of headstock
- Pickups: EMG vintage split coil and EMG Vintage J pickup (on P&J model)
- Pick Guard: Black and Gray striped anodized aluminum pick guard
- Bridge: Lakland dual access bridge
- Color: Black of course!
Lakland endorser and Guitar Messenger cameraman Alexander Pierce jamming at NAMM 2014!
[Special thanks to Chris Dingman and Alexander Pierce for their fantastic video work, and Chris’ additional editing assistance!]
