PRODUCT REVIEW
conventional P bass pickup with very little
noise. Checking out the setup with my little
steel ruler, I found the pickup poles to be
1/4" away from the strings (when fretted
on the last fret). A usual string-to-pole-piece distance is 1/8", and once you get
much farther away from the strings, bottom
end and volume start to diminish. Hahn
explained that this was a design choice in
the interest of getting more of an acoustic-like tone. I tested it with his setup, but then
pulled the pickup and added a piece of
foam under it to bring it up to a more conventional distance. The change in output
and bottom end was obvious.
Taking the Hahn into Action
I was fortunate to try out the Model 22 in
a few performance settings. At a moderately loud blues jam (with guitar, keys, sax,
harmonica, drums, and vocals), it needed
a little extra volume bump on an Ampeg
SVT-3PRO (with a 1x15 cab) to keep up.
I also found myself playing harder than
usual, but I was surprised that the Hahn
handled the extra attack without rattling
or going out of control. It was one tight-playing bass, and the highly focused tone
helped the Model 22 cut through the very
muddy acoustics of the club.
etc.—I can’t help but feel that the small tonal
loss from shielding would typically be offset
by the lower noise.
Plugging in, I noticed the side-by-
side Fralin pickup approximates a
Other than the pickup height, the bass
was set up just how I like it: Neck relief
was minimal and string height was about
3/32" at the octave. The 6150 nickel-alloy
frets were beautifully leveled, crowned,
and polished. And the 9-pound weight
was ideal.
In a small studio rehearsal (with guitar, harmonica, and vocals), the finer, more subtle
tone characteristics were more noticeable.
Running into my small Euphonic Audio
head and a 1x12 cab with tight low end,
the clarity and ringing, piano-like sustain
were very apparent. By adjusting the tone
control and varying right-hand technique,
I could coax loads of tones out of the
NOW COLLINGS, NOW CHASSON,
HUSS DALTON AND WEBER,
ON PHOENIX, ON MARTIN
ON TAYLOR, AND FENDER.
WOW SIX STRINGS, ACOUSTICS,
12 STRINGS AND MANDOS,
FINE TENORS AND
ARCHTOPS, ELECTRICS
AND BANJOS...
SANTA CRUZ WITH A WINK,
‘ERE HE DROVE OUT OF SIGHT,
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL
AND GOODALL A TO NIGHT!
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