LUCAS HANEMAN
Guitarist. Vocalist. Songwriter. Band leader of Maple Blues Nominee the LH Express (2023 #1 Album “Painting Stars”)
Endorsements:
I am extremely fortunate to have the support of a couple fantastic luthiers from Ontario who have built me gorgeous instruments to my specifications at a wonderful price point, as well as a master guitar builder from Thibodaux, Louisiana who I've started working with. I am also very lucky to have an endorsement from a great amp builder out of Florida, and an acoustic guitar pickup company out of the Southern Oregon Coast.
Three of my most prized possessions are handmade acoustic guitars by Kanata Ontario luthier Pat Hawley who is an extremely talented craftsman. I also own an amazing custom-made BrownBear telecaster style electric guitar built by Jesse Brown out of Toronto, and a few K&K Quantum Trinity Mini pickup systems for my acoustics.
My latest two endorsements include 2 Melancon electric guitars made by the brilliant Gerard Melancon from Louisiana, and a Vintage Sound "Vintage 20" amplifier, built by Rick Hays from Gulf Breeze Florida.
Both my Melancon Custom artist T (which I had built to my specifications in 2019), and my Melancon Classic artist (which I acquired in 2017) are some of the most stable electric guitars I've ever played.
My "Custom Artist T" is a Telecaster inspired design with a light weight Louisiana swamp ash body, AAA flamed maple top, 2 humbucking pickups, a pau ferro fretboard on a fat roasted maple neck, stainless steel jumbo fret wire, L H initials inlayed at the 12th fret, and a gorgeous golden brown finish Gerard calls "Aged Whiskey".
The Classic Artist on the other hand is a "strat" inspired design, and it features a light weight Alder body with a flamed maple top as well as maple binding, 3 SR single coil pickups made by Jim Wagner, a rosewood fretboard on a maple neck, Grover machine heads, and a beautiful deep red finish that Gerard calls "Boiled Crawfish". I can't say enough about these wonderful instruments. They are a joy to play, and Gerard Melancon is an upstanding individual.
Check out more of Gerard's brilliant work at:
http://www.melanconguitars.com/
When LHE was recording at Sun Studios in Memphis TN., I plugged into a Fender Princeton Reverb, and had one of the most amazing experiences recording guitar tracks through a small tube amp that was pushed much further than I could push my higher wattage amplifiers. From that day forward I was on a quest to find a slightly higher wattage Princeton style amp, to get that same kind of sound, but with enough headroom for club gigs. As a result I stumbled upon Vintage Sound Amplifiers, and certainly haven't been let down. In September 2016 I received my Vintage 20 amp from Rick Hayes in Gulf Breeze Florida. This is the lightest tube amplifier I've ever owned, it has enough power for any club or small theatre gig, and most importantly it oozes great tone.
*picture to come soon*
You can check out more on Rick and Vintage Sound Amps at:
View my gallery below for more details.
Hawley Classical Nylon String Guitar
The newest addition to my guitar family is this beautiful nylon string built by Pat Hawley. It has a western red cedar top and hormigo back and sides. As well as it's lush dark tone one of my favorite features is the spalted maple rosette around the sound hole! Though this beauty has not appeared on any official recordings yet, it does sound fantastic when micd up in a studio setting.
Check out the guitar in action here:
Wild 8 String Fanned Fret
In January 2013 I was delighted to take home this wild 8 string fanned fret monster from Pat as well. It was hand crafted in October2012- January 2013. It is a mind boggling extended range work of art with a low B and a high A on either side of what is often the normal 6 string tuning in the middle. Having an instrument like this was a dream of mine for a year or so, so I’m forever grateful that Pat was more than willing to bring this creation to life for me! This small jumbo body shaped instrument has a Lutz Spruce top, dark East Indian Rosewood back and sides, Bubinga binding, a Bubinga rosette, Got 21/1 gear ratio tuners, a black Ebony fretboard and custom inlays/sound hole shelled purfling. It is like no other guitar I have ever seen before, and I am thrilled that now it is one of my main instruments! It takes a lot of work to play a guitar like this properly, but after a couple years I feel like I am starting to at least scratch the surface!
Here are a couple of links of this
guitar in action:
A piece I wrote specifically for this instrument called "Full Circle":
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O4L66hDPUA
My version of "Get Lucky" by Daft Punk arranged for the 8 string:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfZtc8GDEmg
You can check out more of Pat’s wonderful guitars at: www.hawleyguitars.com
My custom made BrownBear
This very special telecaster-style guitar was hand crafted for me by Jesse Brown out of the Toronto area in the summer of 2012. It not only has a unique character in its looks, but its sound is full of attitude and life as well. Great for blues,jazz, country or even hard rock, this truly is an instrument that does it all. It features a 2 piece ash body, 2 Gretsch Filtertron mini humbucking pickups, Rosewood fretboard on a maple neck, 21 frets, 25.5 scale length, Goto tuners, a goto bridge, and 500 K CTS pots. After a few strong years on this guitar it has become my #1 electric! It can be heard all over the LH Express album and at literally all of my gigs with the project!
To see this guitar in action:
The LH Express performing my original song "Real Love":
www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1umMc_LI5Y
A guitar duo project I have with my great friend Marco Vezina from Montreal performing our version of Stevie Wonders "Master Blaster":
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFcHLYcvgbo
To see a demo of this guitar please visit:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FczUnEn1dzc
For more info on Jesse’s work please visit:
www.brownbearguitars.tumblr.com
The dreadnought
Finally, this dreadnought was built in 2008, and has become my most widely used gigging Acoustic-Electric instrument. With its Engelmann Spruce Top, Maple bindings, East Indian Rose Wood back and sides, Goto 21/1 gear ratio tuners, an Ebony fretboard as well as beautiful custom inlays and abalone, it both looks and sounds one of a kind. I truly cannot say enough about the craftsmanship, playability and warm tone of this instrument. I used this guitar for all of my 6 string guitar tracks on my new "Welcome Aboard" album, Go Long(!)'s “Strings Untied” album, for “New Beginning” and “Ohio”
off of my “this is What’s Up” album, and I have used it on countless other recording sessions as well. It gets played live at least once a week, and sounds better all the time.
See the guitar in action here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jb6sG7IaXs
You can check out more of Pats wonderful handmade instruments at:
All of my Hawley acoustic guitars feature K&K Quantum Trinity Mini pickups. These pickup systems are honestly by far the best systems I have ever found for replicating the natural sound of an acoustic guitar. Rather than featuring traditional piezo ribbons, the K&K pickups that I use feature an internal condenser microphone as well as sensors under the guitars bridge. With the Quantum blender (an external Preamp) the sounds of the two sources are blended to create an amplified guitar sound that is full of nuance and woodiness. Huge shout out to Don Ross for the recommendation!
More info on K&K pickups can be
found here: