If this guitar were getting married and you were an usher, you might have trouble seating the guests appropriately. Yeah, you could put the Telecaster relatives on one side of the aisle and the Stratocaster kin on the other, but then where would you seat the Gibson cousins?
The 112 model from Hahn Guitars is a Tele/Strat mash-up. Except it has P-90s. Plus a gold-foil pickup, because why the hell not? That might sound like a 6-string platypus with identity issues. But the 112 is a superb instrument whose unconventional parts conspire to produce lovely and unique tones. (Luthier Chihoe Hahn reportedly developed the model in tandem with the late Walter Becker.)
Mr. In-Between
Fender fans will instantly feel comfortable with the 112’s neck, body, and wiring scheme. Meanwhile, the unconventional pickup choices yield far-from-Fender tones that will probably delight single-coil fans who find Stratocasters a bit thin and prickly, as well as Stratocaster/Telecaster lovers seeking fresh variations on those iconic sounds.
The double-cutaway alder body is handsome, with horns more rounded and shortened than a Stratocaster’s. There are S-style forearm and belly bevels. The solid sea-foam green finish and two-piece, single-ply pickguard have an easy, utilitarian vibe. Meanwhile, the pretty strip of unpainted wood that rings the body’s perimeter adds understated bling.
just another Whatevercaster.
The 112 uses a 25 1/2"-scale, and a 21-fret rosewood fretboard caps the bolt-on maple neck. The neck’s palm-filling D-shape has vintage-style heft. The headstock has a modified T-style shape, with an ornamental bevel that echoes the one on the body’s upper bout. The tuners are Kluson-style Gotohs. The T-style bridge has three brass saddles, and it permits either top-load or through-body stringing. (I reviewed and recorded the guitar with the strings running through the body.)
The 112’s workmanship is … pretty much perfect. The body and headstock finishes could make a mirror feel insecure. The medium-jumbo frets are masterfully installed, their ends sensually rounded. The neck joint could scarcely be tighter. The guitar arrived perfectly set up (and perfectly tuned, no less) in the included Mono gig bag.
Foiled Again?
Rob Banta, Hahn’s in-house winder, created the three pickups. They’re configured via a 5-way selector switch—your classic Stratocaster recipe. Despite their retro appearance, the pickups aren’t strictly vintage. The bridge pickup, a bright yet full-bodied P-90, comes closest to a traditional design. The neck P-90 looks similar, but uses individual rod magnets in lieu of the usual bar magnet, yielding slightly cleaner and brighter tones reminiscent of a Jazzmaster pickup.
“Gold-foil” can refer to several vintage pickup models and their modern replicas. For many, the first gold-foils that spring to mind are the rubber-magnet pickups from 1960s Teisco guitars. Most of today’s gold-foil reissues employ similar rubberized magnets. (That includes the Lollar and Mojotone versions, as well the Roadhouse pickups used in recent Supro guitars.) Hahn opts instead for NOS ceramic magnets, which generate louder, brighter tones.
Ratings
Pros:
Superb materials and workmanship. Fine, fresh-sounding tones from an unusual pickup array. Supremely comfortable.
Cons:
None.
Tones:
Playability:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$1,950
Hahn Guitars 112
hahnguitars.com
The Hahn/Banta gold-foil doesn’t have the idiosyncratic “acoustic-guitar-like” resonance of a rubber-magnet gold-foil, but it’s a fine-sounding single-coil that blends seamlessly with the custom P-90s. Also, avoiding rubber magnets sidesteps a quirk of Teisco-style pickups: Their tones tend to crap out rather than clean up when you roll back your guitar’s volume pot. Like the P-90s, Hahn’s gold-foil has wide dynamic range and gratifying touch response.
Cunning Coils
Unplugged, the 112 has the airy zing of a fine old alder-bodied Fender. Each pickup sounds lovely on its own and with its neighbor. (Hmm … makes me think about a neck-plus-bridge wiring mod. I bet the P-90s would sound awesome together.) The tonal relationships between pickups are roughly Strat-like, with fat neck tones, penetrating bridge tones, and attractively “hollow” sounds in the combined positions.
But the core timbres aren’t so Stratocaster-like. Compared to traditional S-style pickups, these carry more low midrange poundage. They distort more readily at lower levels. The quality of distortion differs, too. There’s more harmonic breakup of the upper mids, yielding a uniquely chiming yet “furry” jangle. There’s explosive treble energy: Notes and chords tend to land with a tough, authoritative clang. But overall, highs are more diffuse and less “icepicky” than on a traditional Strat.
Players sometime describe P-90s as more “rough sounding” than Fender-style single-coils, but there’s nothing lo-fi about the 112’s voice. Note fundamentals have etched-in-stone clarity. There’s excellent string-to-string separation. The range of tones is absurdly versatile. You can veer from rock wankage to suave jazz to punky chunk with uniformly fine results.
The Verdict
Today there’s no shortage of Fender-flavored guitars that swap in unexpected parts, à la Mr. Potato Head. But Hahn’s 112 isn’t just another Whatevercaster.It’s a superbly made instrument with a unique yet versatile voice. Fender fans will feel right at home. So will players who dig single-coils but sometimes wince at those extra-crispy Strat squawks. The $1,895 price is formidable, but fair for a handcrafted U.S. solidbody with largely custom hardware. (Two-pickup models sell for $100 less.) The 112 is an inspiring instrument with a voice of its own.
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Price unveiled her new band and her new signature model at a recent performance at the Gibson Garage in Nashville.
The 6-string was inspired by the J-45 she bought at Nashville’s Carter Vintage Guitars after she was signed to Third Man Records, where she made her 2016 ice-breaker album, Midwest Farmer’s Daughter. But her affection for Gibson acoustics predates that, going back to when she found a 1956 LG-3 in her grandmother’s home. The guitar had been abandoned there by her songwriter great uncle, Bobby Fischer.
“I played it for years before I found my J-45,” Price recounts. “At Carter Vintage, I tried a lot of guitars, but when I picked up that J-45, I loved that it was a smaller guitar but really cut through, and I was just really drawn to the sound of it. And so I went home with that guitar and I’ve been playing it ever since.”
“Having a signature model was something I had dreamed about.”
Of course, Price was also aware of the model’s history, but her demands for a guitar were rooted in the present—the requirements of the studio and road. The 1965 J-45 she acquired at Carter Vintage, which is also a cherry ’burst, was especially appealing “compared to a Martin D-21 or some of the other things that I was picking up. I have pretty small hands, and it just was so playable all up the neck. It was something that I could easily play barre chords on. I could immediately get everything that I needed out of it.”
If you’ve seen Price on TV, including stops at Saturday Night Live, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, you’ve seen her ’65. And you’ve also seen, over the years, that part of the soundhole’s top has been scraped away by her aggressive strumming. It’s experienced worse wear from an airline, though. After one unfortunate flight, Price found her guitar practically in splinters inside a badly crushed case. “It was like somebody would have had to drive over this case with a truck,” she relates. Luckily, Dave Johnson from Nashville’s Scale Model Guitars was able to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
After that, an alternative guitar for the road seemed like a requirement. “Having a signature model was something I had dreamed about,” Price says. Friends in her songwriting circle, including Lukas Nelson and Nathaniel Rateliff, already had them. Four years ago, a tweet asking which women they thought should have signature models appeared, and one of her fans wrote “Margo Price.” Smartly, Price tagged Gibson and retweeted. Codey Allen in Gibson entertainment relations spotted the tweet and agreed.
The double pickguard was chosen for Price’s J-45 because of its symmetry, as a nod to the Hummingbird, and due to her heavy strumming hand.
Photo courtesy of Gibson
“The neck is not quite as small as my J-45, but it is just a bit smaller than many J-45s fives, and very playable no matter what size hands you have.”
“And so we began our journey of building this guitar,” Price says. “I debated whether it should be the LG-3, which I still have hanging on my wall, or the J-45. I went to Montana and visited their [acoustic] factory and sat down with Robi Johns [senior product development manager at Gibson acoustic], and we ultimately decided that the J-45 was my guitar. Then we started talking about the specs. We did pull from the LG-3 in that the body of this signature guitar is a bit smaller. It still has a really loud, clear sound that rings through. The neck is not quite as small as my 1965 J-45, but it is just a bit smaller than many J-45s, and very playable no matter what size hands that you have.”
The pickup that Price selected is a L.R. Baggs VTC Element with a preamp, and she took a prototype of the guitar on the road opening for the Tedeschi Trucks Band. “I am used to playing with a really loud band, with drums and sometimes a couple electric guitars, and I wanted to make sure that this guitar just cut through,” she says. “It was really important to me that it be loud, and it cut beautifully. It’s got a mahogany body and scalloped bracing, which makes it very sturdy. This guitar is a workhorse, just like me.”
The Margo Price J-45’s most arresting characteristic, in addition to its warm sunburst finish, is its double-sided pickguard with an etching of a quartet of red-tailed hawks in flight. It’s practical for her strumming style, but it’s also got a deeper significance.
“We talked about all sorts of things that we could put on the pickguard, and I’ve always been a big fan of the Hummingbird, so what we did is a bit of a nod to that,” Price continues. “I’ve always been drawn to red-tailed hawks. They are supposed to be divine messengers, and they have such strength. They symbolize vision and protection. I would always count them along the highway as I’d be driving home to see my family in Illinois.”
Birds of a feather: “I’ve always been drawn to red-tailed hawks,” says Price. “They are supposed to be divine messengers, and they have such strength. They symbolize vision and protection.”
Photo courtesy of Gibson
With its comfortable neck, slightly thinner body, and serious projection, Price notes, “I wanted my guitar to be something that young girls can pick up and feel comfortable in their hands and inspire songs, but I didn’t want it to be so small that it felt like a toy, and that it didn’t have the volume. This guitar has all of those things.” To get her heavy sound, Price uses D’Addario Phosphor Bronze (.012–.053) strings.
Price says she and her signature J-45, which is street priced at $3,999, have been in the studio a lot lately, “and I have a whole bunch of things I’m excited about.” In mid March, she debuted her new band—which includes Logan Ledger and Sean Thompson on guitars, bassist Alec Newman, Libby Weitnauer on fiddle, and Chris Gelb on drums—in a coming out party for the Margo Price Signature Gibson J-45 at the Gibson Garage in Nashville. “I’ve been with my previous band, the Price Tags, for more than 10 years, and it’s definitely emotional when a band reaches the end of its life cycle,” she says. “But it’s also really exciting, because now, having a fiddle in the band and incredible harmony singers … it’s a completely different vibe. I’ve got a whole bunch of festivals coming up this year. We’re playing Jazz Fest in New Orleans, and I’m so excited for everyone to hear this new iteration of what we’re doing.”
With its heritage cherry sunburst finish and other appointments, the Margo Price Signature Gibson J-45 balances classic and modern guitar design.
Photo courtesy of Gibson
