PRODUCT REVIEW
Firenze T- 90
HANSON
BY MICHAEL ROSS
I had the pleasure of reviewing the Hanson
Chicagoan about a year ago and was delighted to discover a new guitar company that
seemed to have all of its ducks in a row from
the outset. That Bigsby-equipped, semi-hollow honey had me from the moment I spied
it at Summer NAMM 2009.
As it turns out, the Hanson crew has been supplying pickups and manufacturing instruments
for other brand names since the ’90s. That
helps explain why the Chicagoan displayed
none of the new-to-the-biz growing pains, such
as funky frets or finish. So when PG presented
me with a new Hanson model to review, I
jumped at the opportunity to test it out. I put
the Firenze T- 90 through its paces, running it
into Orange Tiny Terror and Egnater Rebel 30
heads, each in turn driving a custom 1x12 cab
with an Eminence Texas Heat speaker.
workmanship evidenced in the construction,
finish, and frets is indisputably on par with
the craftsmanship that gave us Florence’s
Ponte Vecchio and Boboli Gardens. There is
even a hint of flame in the maple neck. (A
hint is plenty—you don’t want too much, as
flame maple necks are notoriously unstable.)
The finish on the back of the neck is highly
glossed but smooth as silk, with none of the
stickiness that sometimes rears its ugly head
on heavily finished necks.
Ciao, Bella
As soon as I pulled the Firenze T- 90 from
its rectangular hardshell case (street $90),
I understood the “T- 90” part of its name.
The bridge pickup, bridge, pickguard, and
control assembly scream T-type guitar, while
the “ 90” part is an obvious reference to the
P-90-style neck pickup.
The “Firenze” part was not as quick to
reveal its origin. I deduced that it’s Italian
for the city of Florence, Italy, which is known
as a place of great beauty. So that part of
the name might symbolize the spectacular
splendor of the figured maple top, glowing through the awesome orange finish that
coats both it and the ash body. Still, the
name could just as easily hint at funky Italian
guitars—like Eko or Wandre—whose off-kilter
styling is reflected in the truncated lower cutaway and the Teisco-inspired headstock. (Yes,
I know Teisco is not an Italian make, but it is
funky.) The truth of the matter proved closer
to home and unrelated to guitar: Florence
was a grandmother in the Hanson clan.
Though the design might not appeal to all,
the fiery figuring of the top and marvelous
Lord of the Ring
Before plugging in the Firenze, I played it
acoustically for a while. Strumming open
chords produced a satisfying ring that I suspected would translate well electrically. In
my hand, the neck vibrated like the “Magic
Fingers” bed massager in cheap hotels. The
body’s modest weight sat easily on my shoulder, and as a longtime Fender player, the 25
1/2" scale length was right in my comfort
zone, too. The neck’s C-curve profile felt
solid, and the high, narrow frets contributed
to the instrument’s precise intonation, as did
the six-saddle bridge. The frets were nicely
rounded, which made it easy to slide into
notes. The flattish neck radius and the height
of the frets had me bending with the supple
ease of a yoga instructor. The tuners moved
smoothly and held their tuning well.
Attack of the Dark Twang
It was finally time to plug in, and the “T” in
the T- 90 moniker led me to start out by testing
the guitar’s twang factor through the Egnater’s
clean channel. The Firenze is equipped with
Hanson’s Broadcaster-inspired bridge pickup,
meaning it sounds darker and beefier than the
ice-pick cut of a standard Telecaster bridge
pickup. In part, this is to better match the
midrange punch of the neck-position Hanson
P- 90. Hanson’s version of that early Fender
bridge pickup delivers the iconic sound you’d
expect—plenty of meat, but with the twang
fully present. I often find that when I go for
chicken pickin’ sounds on a Tele, I have to
roll back the tone pot to keep from taking
people’s heads off in the front rows. But with
this pickup I could leave the tone control
wide open, because the Firenze gave me
plenty of cut without drawing blood.
Still in the clean channel, I checked out the
neck P- 90 and found it to be so hot and bass
laden that it was hard to get a totally clean
sound out of the normally pristine Egnater.
Lowering the bass side of the pickup helped
quite a bit, but if you want to get any bite
out of this baby through a clean amp, you will
have to crank the treble and roll off most of
the bass. On the plus side, I didn’t have to
roll down the tone control to get a warm, jazz
timbre from this pickup. Combined with the
