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O'Hagan SHARK Explorer Guitar - Made in USA - Vintage and Rare
Estimated price for orientation: 795 $
Category: Electric Guitar
Class:
Description Condition: Used: An item that has been used previously. The item may have some signs of cosmetic wear, but is fully operational and functions as intended. This item may be a floor model or store return that has been used. See the seller’s listing for full details and description of any imperfections. See all condition definitions- opens in a new window or tab ... Read moreabout the condition Brand: O'Hagan Right-// Left-Handed: Right-Handed Model: Shark Country//Region of Manufacture: United States
O'Hagan SHARKMade in USA1980'sVery rare American made guitar from one of the States earliest boutique guitar makers. Apparently only 100-150 Sharks were ever made before the company shut down in 1985.SUPER RARE, super quality guitar Below is the spec for this guitar I got form the web;. BODY WOOD: SOLID MAPLE (Wings on through body neck)
. FINISH: Natural, Clear.
. NECK: Neck Through body construction
. NECK is MAPLE/WALNUT LAMINATE (three pieces)
. FRETBOARD is BRAZILIAN ROSEWOOD.
. FRETS: 22 Jumbo
. PICKUPS: 2x SCHALLER HUMBUCKERS
. CONTROLS: A three-way selector switch, one volume & one tone knobs
. TUNERS: GOTOH SEALED CHROME
. BRIDGE: SCHALLER-Wrap around "FINETUNE"The guitar is in good shape, the neck is straight and the frets have years of life left in them. Played very well and sounds great. I believe the case is the original sold with the guitar.
About O'Hagan guitars;The company owner, Jerry O’Hagan was a musician (played clarinet) who became a sales rep and then an entrepreneur. It was during this time, late 1970’s, that guitars made in Japan were beating USA guitars in terms of quality, innovation, and style. Jerry recognized that and started his own business building guitars in the USA that certainly equaled, and exceeded, those other brands being built in the USA and in Japan. He was one of the earliest “boutique” guitar builders. By the time his company closed in 1985, only 3,000 total pieces were built.O'HAGAN GUITARS BUILT BY JERRY O'HAGAN.
From the O'Hagan brochure: ".....the pride of workmanship is free, for that has its own rewards".
Another guitar brand my list of most undervalued "vintage custom" guitars.
My current collection of guitars and amplifiers now totals over 1500+ pieces. Within that collection are several brands of guitars that I consider to be unfairly ignored and undervalued as collectible instruments. These include Veillette Citron, Standel, Lado, O'HAGAN and others that I believe will soon attain the status of "collector guitars" and their increased value will be reflected in higher prices that they rightly deserve. The creation of the "collectible" guitar market initially came as the result of "word of mouth", magazine columns, and a lot of hype. The internet has now helped to bring needed attention to those luthiers who created guitars instead of just assembling or building them. Many of these luthiers must be considered as gifted artists and should be equally honored for their artistic skills as well as their resulting products. Also, with the buyer's ability to find a guitar online and buy it immediately, along with the seller's ability to immediately offer a guitar to millions of people throughout the world (thanks ebay), it does not take long for a demand trend (quite deserving in this case) to quickly outstrip the existing supply, e.g., O'HAGAN, as a company only built a total of 3000 pieces. In a "new" open world that honestly recognizes the inherent value of a handmade guitar as a piece of "performance art", i.e., it plays as good as it looks so every time it is played, it becomes a single piece art show as well. And even though I am guilty of buying many "new guitars" built by "new luthiers", I sometimes wonder if that is dishonoring those small shop luthiers who paved the way for these new builders to be able to gain access to a product market that was so dominated by the two major mass builders in the 1960's-80's as to make any attempt to introduce real "handmade" guitars into the market almost certainly doomed to fail.
ABOUT THIS GUITAR BRAND.
O'Hagan Guitars (info derived from online public sources but is protected by copyright to various original authors as applicable):
Jerry O’Hagan, clarinetist
O’Hagan guitars were the brainchild of Jerry (Jerol) O’Hagan, then of St. Louis Park, MN, a next-door western suburb of Minneapolis. O’Hagan (born 1942), an affable fellow who speaks with that rising Norwegian lilt typical of MIN-ee-SOA-tuh, had studied music in school, specializing in clarinet, saxophone and piano, and around 1970 was making his living playing and teaching music at retail music stores in the Twin Cities area. In around 1971-72 O’Hagan took a job as a rep for the great musical instrument distributor out of Chicago, Targ and Dinner, and later with a local outfit called Meloway.
The guitar boom that had gone into a hiatus in the late-’60s had begun to pick up again at this time (disco was yet to come). In around 1974 or so, O’Hagan became aware of the very high quality Japanese acoustic guitars built by Yamaki, which were imported into Canada by Great West out of Vancouver. O’Hagan was so impressed with the quality of these Yamaki guitars that he looked into the possibility of importing them into the U.S., but found out there was some sort of legal restriction in the way. Still, he thought that selling guitars was a good idea, and decided to go into business for himself.
Grande acoustics
In 1975 O’Hagan set up his own importing company and began marketing Grande brand acoustic guitars from Japan. This lasted for a few years, but by 1978 O’Hagan had begun to realize that the times they were a changin’. As O’Hagan himself puts it, “John Denver was no longer on the charts.” Besides that, believe it or not, the life of an importer/distributor isn’t a road paved with gold, and O’Hagan was tired of always being at the mercy of his supplier, who would always give preference to the orders of the biggest customers with the most dealers.
Ahead of his time…and wrong
This is when O’Hagan’s intuition yielded two major ideas, both of which were about twenty years ahead of their time and proved dead wrong for that point in guitar history. The first idea was that there was no reason a good, affordable guitar couldn’t be produced here in the United States. The second was that the advantages held by the imports would eventually go away. The O’Hagan guitar company was born.
Here comes the Shark
The first O’Hagan guitar to be made was the Shark, a sort of Explorer design which, as O’Hagan points out, is much more comfortable to play than the Gibson when you’re sitting down. It was designed by O’Hagan and debuted in 1979. Like all subsequent O’Hagan guitars, these were essentially handmade instruments made of maple and walnut and featuring neck-through construction, which O’Hagan preferred for its sustain and easy string alignment. Controls usually consisted of two volume and one tone pot. The early Sharks had unbound dot-neck maple fingerboards, usually with a birdseye or other interesting figure. Shark headstocks were a large, asymmetrical 3-and-3 design which was sort of like if the Flintstones did Gibson. Color choices were either natural or black. The earliest guitars have Jerry’s signature inside the control cavity.
Again, as you look at the shape of the Shark, you should keep in mind that this was the era when hard rock was still king (even though disco and punk/New Wave were busily chipping away at the throne’s foundation) and weird guitar shapes were in vogue. The Shark hit the market at a time when Dean Zelinsky was selling his exotically-shaped guitars, as were Hamer, Carvin, Gibson, Ibanez, Washburn, D’Agostino and just about everyone else.
The line proliferates
A number of more conservative designs followed quickly. Next was the single cutaway Les Paul copy called the NightWatch, followed by a double cutaway Les Paul Junior/Special also called a NightWatch (cf. the Hamer Special), both of which proved very popular. These had asymmetrical headstocks as well, similar to the Shark, but somewhat less exaggerated. These featured two pickups and two volume and one tone control and other appointments like the Shark.
In 1980, O’Hagan introduced the Twenty Two, a maple and walnut V copy, which proved to be his most popular design. All these designs, by the way, came in a bass version as well. The Twenty Two had a rounded point arrowhead headstock, similar to Gibson’s V, with an extra scallop at the nut. Otherwise the electronics were the same as the Shark and Nightwatch guitars.
According to the 1981 catalog, the following O’Hagans were available: Shark guitar and bass, NightWatch Single Cutaway guitar, NightWatch Double Cutaway guitar and bass, Twenty Two guitar and bass, and the Laser guitar. Left-handed options were available for each.
Most six-string guitars featured two humbuckers, except for the Laser, with either the humbucker or three single-coils option. The Regular Bass had one pickup. The Special Bass had two pickups.
Pickup evolution
Pickups, by the way, evolved over time. Initially, from 1979-80, O’Hagan used Mighty Mite pickups from L.A., but had lot consistency problems. In around 1981 Jerry switched to DiMarzio pickups, but found he had to dip them in beeswax to eliminate feedback problems. From about 1982-83 O’Hagans came with Schaller pickups, which Jerry felt offered the best consistency, quality and hot output.
A lot of options
O’Hagan offered quite a few options, so you’ll probably encounter many variations. All had brass nuts. You could choose either rosewood or maple fingerboards, both. Guitars and basses came with Schaller finetune bridges (earlier O’Hagans had BadAss bridges), but a Kahler vibrato option was also available for guitars. Hardware could be chrome or gold (some brass parts were used, but not for long since they didn’t hold up). Tuners could be either Gotoh or Schaller (a very few were built with Grovers). A fretless option was available for basses.
Natural maple, coffee and black were regular finishes all 15 to 16 coats of urethane. Red, blue, sunburst, walnutburst, walnut/maple, redburst, silverburst and blueburst were available for additional charges. (A very few guitars were made with birdseye maple tops, but these would be very rare.)
Most models were offered as Standard for the list price, Deluxe (undefined) for $60 extra, Custom with gold or chrome hardware for $90 extra. “Custom” indicates push-pull volume pots to tap the coils (Standards were not tapped).
Finally, there were a number of basses which featured active electronics, with an onboard preamp.
On carving and logos
There seems to be some variation in carving on O’Hagan guitars. Generally, these are slab bodies. Some had a bevelled German carve edge around the headstock, others (like these Sharks) had the beveled German carve edge around the body’s top, others no edge bevel at all.
Also, a word about logos. Some O’Hagans featured a decal “O’Hagan” logo on the headstock, however, there were also glued-on raised “OH” logos, made of a green pearl, and inlaid cloverleaf. These latter logos were made for O’Hagan in Japan. There are some reports of O’Hagans with just the cloverleaf, but Jerry suspects these may just have lost the original O’H.
Since O’Hagan guitars were essentially handmade and many were custom-ordered, you should not be surprised if you find pieces which depart from the standard format.
The Jemar Corporation
As the ’80s got underway O’Hagan began adding people to try to meet the growing demand. At one point he had as many as 1200-1500 backorders. By 1981, O’Hagan employed between seven and nine workers and became the Jemar Corporation (Je=Jerry; Mar=Mary Ann, his wife).
Widespread distribution
O’Hagans were distributed through a fairly broad-based network of about 600 dealers, with outlets in and around the upper Midwest as well as in Buffalo, Boston, New Hampshire, Bridgeport (CT), New York City, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Texas and California. To be a dealer you had to order six instruments. O’Hagans were also actively exported, with some going to Canada, England, Scotland, Paris, Switzerland and Sweden.
Changing times
Then in 1983 things began to unravel quickly. The main culprit was the recession of the early ’80s, which by 1983 was in full swing, especially in the upper Midwest. O’Hagan also suspects that one of his reps may have been clustering dealers too close to one another, which sapped enthusiasm. However, that may be, back-orders began to be cancelled. Dealers started closing doors, owing O’Hagan money.
I suspect the change in tastes which occurred at that time also had more than a little to do with the company’s demise (other companies like Dean were also affected at this time). Strat-mania began. The imports which O’Hagan was sure would lose their advantage took over as kings of the guitar hill.
Rumors
There are a number of rumors circulating about the end of O’Hagan, most of which have elements of truth in them, but as usual are mostly wrong. Some typical business problems occurred. Partners had been taken in, and some soured personal relationships followed. However, the end really came when a bank called in its note, which O’Hagan couldn’t pay. The I.R.S. was owed money and confiscated remaining O’Hagan stock and auctioned them off.
Relative rarities
During its roughly four years of existence, O’Hagan Guitars produced at most 3000 instruments. Jerry did not have hard figures, but guessed that of these maybe only 200 maple/walnut Twenty Twos were built, maybe only between 100-150 Sharks, and probably only around 100 Lasers. The majority of O’Hagans were the double and single cut NightWatch guitars. About 25 or so of these were made with birdseye maple bodies. Somewhere between 300-400 instruments went overseas. Any O’Hagan you find will be relatively rare.
Dating
In theory, dating O’Hagans should not be difficult because all were supposed to have a stamped coded serial number, although you might encounter slight variations in these code patterns, and the natural Shark pictured here had no serial number at all (pots were coded January ’81). On the back of the headstock on earlier guitars should be stamped just a serial number. Later, a “Made in U.S.A./Product of Jemar Corporation” decal joined the serial number. The sequence can be simply deciphered. The basic scheme is year/month/# of guitar that month. Sometimes the number is prefixed by a letter. The letter may or may not have any significance.
Here are other key features which can help date an O’Hagan. From 1979 to 1980 they had a stamped serial number only (or maybe not). From 1981 to 1983 there was a stamped serial number plus Jemar Corp. decal (or maybe not). From 1979 to 1981 O’Hagans sported Mighty Mite pickups. In 1981 pickups were changed to DiMarzios. From 1982 to 1983 they had Schaller pickups.
Back to the clarinet
Jerry O’Hagan was still active in music at the time this information was collected, although not as a distributor or manufacturer. In addition to working with several business ventures, he was busy running Jerry O’Hagan and His Orchestra, a for-real 16-20 piece Big Band specializing in swing jazz.
Like tracing the life of the legendary Hiawatha, tracking down the mysterious O’Hagan guitar is now the domain of the cultural anthropologist and antiquarian. Namely, guitar collectors. These guitars were well built and represent a very interesting, if brief, chapter in American guitar history, one of the final spasms before the triumph of the imports.
Description
| Condition: | Used: An item that has been used previously. The item may have some signs of cosmetic wear, but is fully operational and functions as intended. This item may be a floor model or store return that has been used. See the seller’s listing for full details and description of any imperfections. See all condition definitions- opens in a new window or tab ... Read moreabout the condition | Brand: | O'Hagan |
| Right-// Left-Handed: | Right-Handed | Model: | Shark |
| Country//Region of Manufacture: | United States |
O'Hagan SHARKMade in USA1980'sVery rare American made guitar from one of the States earliest boutique guitar makers. Apparently only 100-150 Sharks were ever made before the company shut down in 1985.SUPER RARE, super quality guitar Below is the spec for this guitar I got form the web;
About O'Hagan guitars;The company owner, Jerry O’Hagan was a musician (played clarinet) who became a sales rep and then an entrepreneur. It was during this time, late 1970’s, that guitars made in Japan were beating USA guitars in terms of quality, innovation, and style. Jerry recognized that and started his own business building guitars in the USA that certainly equaled, and exceeded, those other brands being built in the USA and in Japan. He was one of the earliest “boutique” guitar builders. By the time his company closed in 1985, only 3,000 total pieces were built.O'HAGAN GUITARS BUILT BY JERRY O'HAGAN.
From the O'Hagan brochure: ".....the pride of workmanship is free, for that has its own rewards".
Another guitar brand my list of most undervalued "vintage custom" guitars.
My current collection of guitars and amplifiers now totals over 1500+ pieces. Within that collection are several brands of guitars that I consider to be unfairly ignored and undervalued as collectible instruments. These include Veillette Citron, Standel, Lado, O'HAGAN and others that I believe will soon attain the status of "collector guitars" and their increased value will be reflected in higher prices that they rightly deserve. The creation of the "collectible" guitar market initially came as the result of "word of mouth", magazine columns, and a lot of hype. The internet has now helped to bring needed attention to those luthiers who created guitars instead of just assembling or building them. Many of these luthiers must be considered as gifted artists and should be equally honored for their artistic skills as well as their resulting products. Also, with the buyer's ability to find a guitar online and buy it immediately, along with the seller's ability to immediately offer a guitar to millions of people throughout the world (thanks ebay), it does not take long for a demand trend (quite deserving in this case) to quickly outstrip the existing supply, e.g., O'HAGAN, as a company only built a total of 3000 pieces. In a "new" open world that honestly recognizes the inherent value of a handmade guitar as a piece of "performance art", i.e., it plays as good as it looks so every time it is played, it becomes a single piece art show as well. And even though I am guilty of buying many "new guitars" built by "new luthiers", I sometimes wonder if that is dishonoring those small shop luthiers who paved the way for these new builders to be able to gain access to a product market that was so dominated by the two major mass builders in the 1960's-80's as to make any attempt to introduce real "handmade" guitars into the market almost certainly doomed to fail.
ABOUT THIS GUITAR BRAND.
O'Hagan Guitars (info derived from online public sources but is protected by copyright to various original authors as applicable):
Jerry O’Hagan, clarinetist
O’Hagan guitars were the brainchild of Jerry (Jerol) O’Hagan, then of St. Louis Park, MN, a next-door western suburb of Minneapolis. O’Hagan (born 1942), an affable fellow who speaks with that rising Norwegian lilt typical of MIN-ee-SOA-tuh, had studied music in school, specializing in clarinet, saxophone and piano, and around 1970 was making his living playing and teaching music at retail music stores in the Twin Cities area. In around 1971-72 O’Hagan took a job as a rep for the great musical instrument distributor out of Chicago, Targ and Dinner, and later with a local outfit called Meloway.
The guitar boom that had gone into a hiatus in the late-’60s had begun to pick up again at this time (disco was yet to come). In around 1974 or so, O’Hagan became aware of the very high quality Japanese acoustic guitars built by Yamaki, which were imported into Canada by Great West out of Vancouver. O’Hagan was so impressed with the quality of these Yamaki guitars that he looked into the possibility of importing them into the U.S., but found out there was some sort of legal restriction in the way. Still, he thought that selling guitars was a good idea, and decided to go into business for himself.
Grande acoustics
In 1975 O’Hagan set up his own importing company and began marketing Grande brand acoustic guitars from Japan. This lasted for a few years, but by 1978 O’Hagan had begun to realize that the times they were a changin’. As O’Hagan himself puts it, “John Denver was no longer on the charts.” Besides that, believe it or not, the life of an importer/distributor isn’t a road paved with gold, and O’Hagan was tired of always being at the mercy of his supplier, who would always give preference to the orders of the biggest customers with the most dealers.
Ahead of his time…and wrong
This is when O’Hagan’s intuition yielded two major ideas, both of which were about twenty years ahead of their time and proved dead wrong for that point in guitar history. The first idea was that there was no reason a good, affordable guitar couldn’t be produced here in the United States. The second was that the advantages held by the imports would eventually go away. The O’Hagan guitar company was born.
Here comes the Shark
The first O’Hagan guitar to be made was the Shark, a sort of Explorer design which, as O’Hagan points out, is much more comfortable to play than the Gibson when you’re sitting down. It was designed by O’Hagan and debuted in 1979. Like all subsequent O’Hagan guitars, these were essentially handmade instruments made of maple and walnut and featuring neck-through construction, which O’Hagan preferred for its sustain and easy string alignment. Controls usually consisted of two volume and one tone pot. The early Sharks had unbound dot-neck maple fingerboards, usually with a birdseye or other interesting figure. Shark headstocks were a large, asymmetrical 3-and-3 design which was sort of like if the Flintstones did Gibson. Color choices were either natural or black. The earliest guitars have Jerry’s signature inside the control cavity.
Again, as you look at the shape of the Shark, you should keep in mind that this was the era when hard rock was still king (even though disco and punk/New Wave were busily chipping away at the throne’s foundation) and weird guitar shapes were in vogue. The Shark hit the market at a time when Dean Zelinsky was selling his exotically-shaped guitars, as were Hamer, Carvin, Gibson, Ibanez, Washburn, D’Agostino and just about everyone else.
The line proliferates
A number of more conservative designs followed quickly. Next was the single cutaway Les Paul copy called the NightWatch, followed by a double cutaway Les Paul Junior/Special also called a NightWatch (cf. the Hamer Special), both of which proved very popular. These had asymmetrical headstocks as well, similar to the Shark, but somewhat less exaggerated. These featured two pickups and two volume and one tone control and other appointments like the Shark.
In 1980, O’Hagan introduced the Twenty Two, a maple and walnut V copy, which proved to be his most popular design. All these designs, by the way, came in a bass version as well. The Twenty Two had a rounded point arrowhead headstock, similar to Gibson’s V, with an extra scallop at the nut. Otherwise the electronics were the same as the Shark and Nightwatch guitars.
According to the 1981 catalog, the following O’Hagans were available: Shark guitar and bass, NightWatch Single Cutaway guitar, NightWatch Double Cutaway guitar and bass, Twenty Two guitar and bass, and the Laser guitar. Left-handed options were available for each.
Most six-string guitars featured two humbuckers, except for the Laser, with either the humbucker or three single-coils option. The Regular Bass had one pickup. The Special Bass had two pickups.
Pickup evolution
Pickups, by the way, evolved over time. Initially, from 1979-80, O’Hagan used Mighty Mite pickups from L.A., but had lot consistency problems. In around 1981 Jerry switched to DiMarzio pickups, but found he had to dip them in beeswax to eliminate feedback problems. From about 1982-83 O’Hagans came with Schaller pickups, which Jerry felt offered the best consistency, quality and hot output.
A lot of options
O’Hagan offered quite a few options, so you’ll probably encounter many variations. All had brass nuts. You could choose either rosewood or maple fingerboards, both. Guitars and basses came with Schaller finetune bridges (earlier O’Hagans had BadAss bridges), but a Kahler vibrato option was also available for guitars. Hardware could be chrome or gold (some brass parts were used, but not for long since they didn’t hold up). Tuners could be either Gotoh or Schaller (a very few were built with Grovers). A fretless option was available for basses.
Natural maple, coffee and black were regular finishes all 15 to 16 coats of urethane. Red, blue, sunburst, walnutburst, walnut/maple, redburst, silverburst and blueburst were available for additional charges. (A very few guitars were made with birdseye maple tops, but these would be very rare.)
Most models were offered as Standard for the list price, Deluxe (undefined) for $60 extra, Custom with gold or chrome hardware for $90 extra. “Custom” indicates push-pull volume pots to tap the coils (Standards were not tapped).
Finally, there were a number of basses which featured active electronics, with an onboard preamp.
On carving and logos
There seems to be some variation in carving on O’Hagan guitars. Generally, these are slab bodies. Some had a bevelled German carve edge around the headstock, others (like these Sharks) had the beveled German carve edge around the body’s top, others no edge bevel at all.
Also, a word about logos. Some O’Hagans featured a decal “O’Hagan” logo on the headstock, however, there were also glued-on raised “OH” logos, made of a green pearl, and inlaid cloverleaf. These latter logos were made for O’Hagan in Japan. There are some reports of O’Hagans with just the cloverleaf, but Jerry suspects these may just have lost the original O’H.
Since O’Hagan guitars were essentially handmade and many were custom-ordered, you should not be surprised if you find pieces which depart from the standard format.
The Jemar Corporation
As the ’80s got underway O’Hagan began adding people to try to meet the growing demand. At one point he had as many as 1200-1500 backorders. By 1981, O’Hagan employed between seven and nine workers and became the Jemar Corporation (Je=Jerry; Mar=Mary Ann, his wife).
Widespread distribution
O’Hagans were distributed through a fairly broad-based network of about 600 dealers, with outlets in and around the upper Midwest as well as in Buffalo, Boston, New Hampshire, Bridgeport (CT), New York City, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Texas and California. To be a dealer you had to order six instruments. O’Hagans were also actively exported, with some going to Canada, England, Scotland, Paris, Switzerland and Sweden.
Changing times
Then in 1983 things began to unravel quickly. The main culprit was the recession of the early ’80s, which by 1983 was in full swing, especially in the upper Midwest. O’Hagan also suspects that one of his reps may have been clustering dealers too close to one another, which sapped enthusiasm. However, that may be, back-orders began to be cancelled. Dealers started closing doors, owing O’Hagan money.
I suspect the change in tastes which occurred at that time also had more than a little to do with the company’s demise (other companies like Dean were also affected at this time). Strat-mania began. The imports which O’Hagan was sure would lose their advantage took over as kings of the guitar hill.
Rumors
There are a number of rumors circulating about the end of O’Hagan, most of which have elements of truth in them, but as usual are mostly wrong. Some typical business problems occurred. Partners had been taken in, and some soured personal relationships followed. However, the end really came when a bank called in its note, which O’Hagan couldn’t pay. The I.R.S. was owed money and confiscated remaining O’Hagan stock and auctioned them off.
Relative rarities
During its roughly four years of existence, O’Hagan Guitars produced at most 3000 instruments. Jerry did not have hard figures, but guessed that of these maybe only 200 maple/walnut Twenty Twos were built, maybe only between 100-150 Sharks, and probably only around 100 Lasers. The majority of O’Hagans were the double and single cut NightWatch guitars. About 25 or so of these were made with birdseye maple bodies. Somewhere between 300-400 instruments went overseas. Any O’Hagan you find will be relatively rare.
Dating
In theory, dating O’Hagans should not be difficult because all were supposed to have a stamped coded serial number, although you might encounter slight variations in these code patterns, and the natural Shark pictured here had no serial number at all (pots were coded January ’81). On the back of the headstock on earlier guitars should be stamped just a serial number. Later, a “Made in U.S.A./Product of Jemar Corporation” decal joined the serial number. The sequence can be simply deciphered. The basic scheme is year/month/# of guitar that month. Sometimes the number is prefixed by a letter. The letter may or may not have any significance.
Here are other key features which can help date an O’Hagan. From 1979 to 1980 they had a stamped serial number only (or maybe not). From 1981 to 1983 there was a stamped serial number plus Jemar Corp. decal (or maybe not). From 1979 to 1981 O’Hagans sported Mighty Mite pickups. In 1981 pickups were changed to DiMarzios. From 1982 to 1983 they had Schaller pickups.
Back to the clarinet
Jerry O’Hagan was still active in music at the time this information was collected, although not as a distributor or manufacturer. In addition to working with several business ventures, he was busy running Jerry O’Hagan and His Orchestra, a for-real 16-20 piece Big Band specializing in swing jazz.
Like tracing the life of the legendary Hiawatha, tracking down the mysterious O’Hagan guitar is now the domain of the cultural anthropologist and antiquarian. Namely, guitar collectors. These guitars were well built and represent a very interesting, if brief, chapter in American guitar history, one of the final spasms before the triumph of the imports.
. BODY WOOD: SOLID MAPLE (Wings on through body neck)
. FINISH: Natural, Clear.
. NECK: Neck Through body construction
. NECK is MAPLE/WALNUT LAMINATE (three pieces)
. FRETBOARD is BRAZILIAN ROSEWOOD.
. FRETS: 22 Jumbo
. PICKUPS: 2x SCHALLER HUMBUCKERS
. CONTROLS: A three-way selector switch, one volume & one tone knobs
. TUNERS: GOTOH SEALED CHROME
. BRIDGE: SCHALLER-Wrap around "FINETUNE"
The guitar is in good shape, the neck is straight and the frets have years of life left in them. Played very well and sounds great. I believe the case is the original sold with the guitar.. FINISH: Natural, Clear.
. NECK: Neck Through body construction
. NECK is MAPLE/WALNUT LAMINATE (three pieces)
. FRETBOARD is BRAZILIAN ROSEWOOD.
. FRETS: 22 Jumbo
. PICKUPS: 2x SCHALLER HUMBUCKERS
. CONTROLS: A three-way selector switch, one volume & one tone knobs
. TUNERS: GOTOH SEALED CHROME
. BRIDGE: SCHALLER-Wrap around "FINETUNE"
About O'Hagan guitars;The company owner, Jerry O’Hagan was a musician (played clarinet) who became a sales rep and then an entrepreneur. It was during this time, late 1970’s, that guitars made in Japan were beating USA guitars in terms of quality, innovation, and style. Jerry recognized that and started his own business building guitars in the USA that certainly equaled, and exceeded, those other brands being built in the USA and in Japan. He was one of the earliest “boutique” guitar builders. By the time his company closed in 1985, only 3,000 total pieces were built.O'HAGAN GUITARS BUILT BY JERRY O'HAGAN.
From the O'Hagan brochure: ".....the pride of workmanship is free, for that has its own rewards".
Another guitar brand my list of most undervalued "vintage custom" guitars.
My current collection of guitars and amplifiers now totals over 1500+ pieces. Within that collection are several brands of guitars that I consider to be unfairly ignored and undervalued as collectible instruments. These include Veillette Citron, Standel, Lado, O'HAGAN and others that I believe will soon attain the status of "collector guitars" and their increased value will be reflected in higher prices that they rightly deserve. The creation of the "collectible" guitar market initially came as the result of "word of mouth", magazine columns, and a lot of hype. The internet has now helped to bring needed attention to those luthiers who created guitars instead of just assembling or building them. Many of these luthiers must be considered as gifted artists and should be equally honored for their artistic skills as well as their resulting products. Also, with the buyer's ability to find a guitar online and buy it immediately, along with the seller's ability to immediately offer a guitar to millions of people throughout the world (thanks ebay), it does not take long for a demand trend (quite deserving in this case) to quickly outstrip the existing supply, e.g., O'HAGAN, as a company only built a total of 3000 pieces. In a "new" open world that honestly recognizes the inherent value of a handmade guitar as a piece of "performance art", i.e., it plays as good as it looks so every time it is played, it becomes a single piece art show as well. And even though I am guilty of buying many "new guitars" built by "new luthiers", I sometimes wonder if that is dishonoring those small shop luthiers who paved the way for these new builders to be able to gain access to a product market that was so dominated by the two major mass builders in the 1960's-80's as to make any attempt to introduce real "handmade" guitars into the market almost certainly doomed to fail.
ABOUT THIS GUITAR BRAND.
O'Hagan Guitars (info derived from online public sources but is protected by copyright to various original authors as applicable):
Jerry O’Hagan, clarinetist
O’Hagan guitars were the brainchild of Jerry (Jerol) O’Hagan, then of St. Louis Park, MN, a next-door western suburb of Minneapolis. O’Hagan (born 1942), an affable fellow who speaks with that rising Norwegian lilt typical of MIN-ee-SOA-tuh, had studied music in school, specializing in clarinet, saxophone and piano, and around 1970 was making his living playing and teaching music at retail music stores in the Twin Cities area. In around 1971-72 O’Hagan took a job as a rep for the great musical instrument distributor out of Chicago, Targ and Dinner, and later with a local outfit called Meloway.
The guitar boom that had gone into a hiatus in the late-’60s had begun to pick up again at this time (disco was yet to come). In around 1974 or so, O’Hagan became aware of the very high quality Japanese acoustic guitars built by Yamaki, which were imported into Canada by Great West out of Vancouver. O’Hagan was so impressed with the quality of these Yamaki guitars that he looked into the possibility of importing them into the U.S., but found out there was some sort of legal restriction in the way. Still, he thought that selling guitars was a good idea, and decided to go into business for himself.
Grande acoustics
In 1975 O’Hagan set up his own importing company and began marketing Grande brand acoustic guitars from Japan. This lasted for a few years, but by 1978 O’Hagan had begun to realize that the times they were a changin’. As O’Hagan himself puts it, “John Denver was no longer on the charts.” Besides that, believe it or not, the life of an importer/distributor isn’t a road paved with gold, and O’Hagan was tired of always being at the mercy of his supplier, who would always give preference to the orders of the biggest customers with the most dealers.
Ahead of his time…and wrong
This is when O’Hagan’s intuition yielded two major ideas, both of which were about twenty years ahead of their time and proved dead wrong for that point in guitar history. The first idea was that there was no reason a good, affordable guitar couldn’t be produced here in the United States. The second was that the advantages held by the imports would eventually go away. The O’Hagan guitar company was born.
Here comes the Shark
The first O’Hagan guitar to be made was the Shark, a sort of Explorer design which, as O’Hagan points out, is much more comfortable to play than the Gibson when you’re sitting down. It was designed by O’Hagan and debuted in 1979. Like all subsequent O’Hagan guitars, these were essentially handmade instruments made of maple and walnut and featuring neck-through construction, which O’Hagan preferred for its sustain and easy string alignment. Controls usually consisted of two volume and one tone pot. The early Sharks had unbound dot-neck maple fingerboards, usually with a birdseye or other interesting figure. Shark headstocks were a large, asymmetrical 3-and-3 design which was sort of like if the Flintstones did Gibson. Color choices were either natural or black. The earliest guitars have Jerry’s signature inside the control cavity.
Again, as you look at the shape of the Shark, you should keep in mind that this was the era when hard rock was still king (even though disco and punk/New Wave were busily chipping away at the throne’s foundation) and weird guitar shapes were in vogue. The Shark hit the market at a time when Dean Zelinsky was selling his exotically-shaped guitars, as were Hamer, Carvin, Gibson, Ibanez, Washburn, D’Agostino and just about everyone else.
The line proliferates
A number of more conservative designs followed quickly. Next was the single cutaway Les Paul copy called the NightWatch, followed by a double cutaway Les Paul Junior/Special also called a NightWatch (cf. the Hamer Special), both of which proved very popular. These had asymmetrical headstocks as well, similar to the Shark, but somewhat less exaggerated. These featured two pickups and two volume and one tone control and other appointments like the Shark.
In 1980, O’Hagan introduced the Twenty Two, a maple and walnut V copy, which proved to be his most popular design. All these designs, by the way, came in a bass version as well. The Twenty Two had a rounded point arrowhead headstock, similar to Gibson’s V, with an extra scallop at the nut. Otherwise the electronics were the same as the Shark and Nightwatch guitars.
According to the 1981 catalog, the following O’Hagans were available: Shark guitar and bass, NightWatch Single Cutaway guitar, NightWatch Double Cutaway guitar and bass, Twenty Two guitar and bass, and the Laser guitar. Left-handed options were available for each.
Most six-string guitars featured two humbuckers, except for the Laser, with either the humbucker or three single-coils option. The Regular Bass had one pickup. The Special Bass had two pickups.
Pickup evolution
Pickups, by the way, evolved over time. Initially, from 1979-80, O’Hagan used Mighty Mite pickups from L.A., but had lot consistency problems. In around 1981 Jerry switched to DiMarzio pickups, but found he had to dip them in beeswax to eliminate feedback problems. From about 1982-83 O’Hagans came with Schaller pickups, which Jerry felt offered the best consistency, quality and hot output.
A lot of options
O’Hagan offered quite a few options, so you’ll probably encounter many variations. All had brass nuts. You could choose either rosewood or maple fingerboards, both. Guitars and basses came with Schaller finetune bridges (earlier O’Hagans had BadAss bridges), but a Kahler vibrato option was also available for guitars. Hardware could be chrome or gold (some brass parts were used, but not for long since they didn’t hold up). Tuners could be either Gotoh or Schaller (a very few were built with Grovers). A fretless option was available for basses.
Natural maple, coffee and black were regular finishes all 15 to 16 coats of urethane. Red, blue, sunburst, walnutburst, walnut/maple, redburst, silverburst and blueburst were available for additional charges. (A very few guitars were made with birdseye maple tops, but these would be very rare.)
Most models were offered as Standard for the list price, Deluxe (undefined) for $60 extra, Custom with gold or chrome hardware for $90 extra. “Custom” indicates push-pull volume pots to tap the coils (Standards were not tapped).
Finally, there were a number of basses which featured active electronics, with an onboard preamp.
On carving and logos
There seems to be some variation in carving on O’Hagan guitars. Generally, these are slab bodies. Some had a bevelled German carve edge around the headstock, others (like these Sharks) had the beveled German carve edge around the body’s top, others no edge bevel at all.
Also, a word about logos. Some O’Hagans featured a decal “O’Hagan” logo on the headstock, however, there were also glued-on raised “OH” logos, made of a green pearl, and inlaid cloverleaf. These latter logos were made for O’Hagan in Japan. There are some reports of O’Hagans with just the cloverleaf, but Jerry suspects these may just have lost the original O’H.
Since O’Hagan guitars were essentially handmade and many were custom-ordered, you should not be surprised if you find pieces which depart from the standard format.
The Jemar Corporation
As the ’80s got underway O’Hagan began adding people to try to meet the growing demand. At one point he had as many as 1200-1500 backorders. By 1981, O’Hagan employed between seven and nine workers and became the Jemar Corporation (Je=Jerry; Mar=Mary Ann, his wife).
Widespread distribution
O’Hagans were distributed through a fairly broad-based network of about 600 dealers, with outlets in and around the upper Midwest as well as in Buffalo, Boston, New Hampshire, Bridgeport (CT), New York City, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Texas and California. To be a dealer you had to order six instruments. O’Hagans were also actively exported, with some going to Canada, England, Scotland, Paris, Switzerland and Sweden.
Changing times
Then in 1983 things began to unravel quickly. The main culprit was the recession of the early ’80s, which by 1983 was in full swing, especially in the upper Midwest. O’Hagan also suspects that one of his reps may have been clustering dealers too close to one another, which sapped enthusiasm. However, that may be, back-orders began to be cancelled. Dealers started closing doors, owing O’Hagan money.
I suspect the change in tastes which occurred at that time also had more than a little to do with the company’s demise (other companies like Dean were also affected at this time). Strat-mania began. The imports which O’Hagan was sure would lose their advantage took over as kings of the guitar hill.
Rumors
There are a number of rumors circulating about the end of O’Hagan, most of which have elements of truth in them, but as usual are mostly wrong. Some typical business problems occurred. Partners had been taken in, and some soured personal relationships followed. However, the end really came when a bank called in its note, which O’Hagan couldn’t pay. The I.R.S. was owed money and confiscated remaining O’Hagan stock and auctioned them off.
Relative rarities
During its roughly four years of existence, O’Hagan Guitars produced at most 3000 instruments. Jerry did not have hard figures, but guessed that of these maybe only 200 maple/walnut Twenty Twos were built, maybe only between 100-150 Sharks, and probably only around 100 Lasers. The majority of O’Hagans were the double and single cut NightWatch guitars. About 25 or so of these were made with birdseye maple bodies. Somewhere between 300-400 instruments went overseas. Any O’Hagan you find will be relatively rare.
Dating
In theory, dating O’Hagans should not be difficult because all were supposed to have a stamped coded serial number, although you might encounter slight variations in these code patterns, and the natural Shark pictured here had no serial number at all (pots were coded January ’81). On the back of the headstock on earlier guitars should be stamped just a serial number. Later, a “Made in U.S.A./Product of Jemar Corporation” decal joined the serial number. The sequence can be simply deciphered. The basic scheme is year/month/# of guitar that month. Sometimes the number is prefixed by a letter. The letter may or may not have any significance.
Here are other key features which can help date an O’Hagan. From 1979 to 1980 they had a stamped serial number only (or maybe not). From 1981 to 1983 there was a stamped serial number plus Jemar Corp. decal (or maybe not). From 1979 to 1981 O’Hagans sported Mighty Mite pickups. In 1981 pickups were changed to DiMarzios. From 1982 to 1983 they had Schaller pickups.
Back to the clarinet
Jerry O’Hagan was still active in music at the time this information was collected, although not as a distributor or manufacturer. In addition to working with several business ventures, he was busy running Jerry O’Hagan and His Orchestra, a for-real 16-20 piece Big Band specializing in swing jazz.
Like tracing the life of the legendary Hiawatha, tracking down the mysterious O’Hagan guitar is now the domain of the cultural anthropologist and antiquarian. Namely, guitar collectors. These guitars were well built and represent a very interesting, if brief, chapter in American guitar history, one of the final spasms before the triumph of the imports.