Saw a couple neat basses today (Hohner and OHagan)

[daan]

Yeah I know I could just google about them, but I figure somebody on here has one, or had one, or knows all about them rather than wading thru a bunch of dead links and old ebay adds... Anyway on to the pix:



The Hohner. It had about 11-ty million finish cracks all over it, and the headstock looked like it was angled towards the strings-the opposite of "tilt back" headstocks, if that makes sense. It seemed to play OK, from what I could tell. It was pretty cool looking. I would have gotten more pix but the store guy came over and asked why I was photographing it (oops)
Obviously it was fretless, but had the cool marker inlays at the top of the neck. I've never actually played a fretless, and I sounded as bad on it as I thought I would     

THe Ohagan:





I'm a sucker for neck-thru instruments, I just love the way they look. Despite that it looks like something I should have right under my chin, playing "Level 42" songs on it... I thought it was really cool, if kinda out of style now. Of course I didn't have the $800 they wanted for it. It was kinda heavy, which I'm sure is because of the construction.
So if "shreddy" guitars are coming back in, (and they made more NR Thunderbirds, not that I could afford those, either) does that mean that EARLY 80's stuff will get popular again? Like pre-hair-band era gear?

[Dave W]

O'Hagan was a local (Minneapolis) company, they do pop up occasionally around here although what you'll see most often is the Shark model guitar. The builder was a guy named Jerry O'Hagan, he started building in the late 70s, eventually built up national distribution over the next few years, incorporated, got in debt over his head, went into default and had his assets seized for back taxes. Sad story but not unusual for a small business.

Every O'Hagan I've seen is neck through. QC is spotty but some are really nice. $800 seems high though. IIRC most I've seen have been about $500-600.

Jerry O'Hagan is still around, he has a big band orchestra that plays regularly in St. Paul. You should buy the bass then bring it to one of his gigs and ask to sit in. 

[gearHed289]

he started building in the late 70s

Never would have guessed.  Everything had to look like a cutting board back then.

Interesting and pretty nice looking bass, but not for $800. Looks like a real neck-diver.

[Dave W]

I looked closer and saw the Music-Go-Round tag, and there are only two of them here. It's been reduced to $600. Good news, Dan! Go get it!   

If I had known you had slipped across the border into town, I'd have popped over there and we could have had a bass-off. 

Here's the Hohner listing, called a Hohner/Bartell. Paul Barth of Rickenbacker and Magnatone fame owned Bartell, not sure of the Hohner connection.