Hanewinckel Club

[malthumb]

Just thought I would go ahead and start a Hanewinckel Club. I got my first Hanewinckel in 2001. Bought it over the internet having never seen heard or touched a Hanewinckel before. Was TOTALLY blown away by the quality, playability, and tones. Bought another one two years later that actually turned out to be a consecutive serial number to my first one.

Sold both in 2006 or 2007. Both were 6-string basses and my 6-string experimentation ended poorly. I suck at 6-string. But I always maintained that I would eventually have another one, more than likely a 5-string. Brings us to today (or more accurately, next Tuesday).

As with so many clubs, we'll do the numbers thing, but I like to do the numbers thing with a twist. Those who follow the Musicman Sabre Club will be familiar with my little twist. So if you want in, pics of your Hannie gets you a number.

One more twist for this club.... numbers 1 - 6 will be set aside and only assigned to some of the TB members that were most knowledgeable about Hanewinckels during the time (2001 - 2007) when I owned my first two. If / when those guys show up, they get one of the reserved numbers. Guys like

• Bassplayer7770
• Boogiebass
• Frederic B. Hodson
• Geshel
• Zooberwerx
• there are others

Here's a link to an earlier psuedoclub for those who want to do a flashback....

Hanewinckel Basses

One last.... Since I acquired my 3rd Hanewinckel from jebmd he will get an honorary number, even though he no longer has one. So jebmd, you are member

The bass that earns jebmd emeritus status is...

Since I am reserving numbers 1 - 6 for Hanewinckel legends, that makes me number

 

[malthumb]

As we wait for new members, I'll flashback a bit and post a few pics of my first two Hanewinckels. This was my first one, s/n 0498, the 4th bass Pete made in 1998. It is a 6-string fretted bass with Ceres body style and Signature level woods and electronics. The signatures on it ar Nathan East and Gerald Veasley. I sold this bass (both Hanewinckels, actually) to JZucker.

 

[malthumb]

And here are both my prior Hanewinckels. The fretless, which I acquired about 2 years after the fretted, is s/n 0398....the 3rd bass Pete made in 1998. It's an Arpeggio body style with the same Signature electronics as the fretted.

 

[Jomyo]

Can I get in?!

 

[geshel]

Hey cool, sign me up! I've only recently returned to TB after about 6 or 7 years away. I've finally got room to keep my basses out and play them once in a while. After not playing bass for the better part of a decade I'm getting back in the swing of it.

This is my first Hanewinckel - custom ordered in 2000, serial 10100. I had some surprise cash and went for it, never having played any of Pete's basses before. It's a Pro 6, neck-thru, with padauk body, macassar ebony top. 9-piece bubinga / yellowheart / wenge neck. Ebony fingerboard. Bartolini quad-coil soapbars and a piezo bridge. Bart NTMB preamp.

It's heavy (13 pounds). Ridiculously well-made. Sounds very meaty. The Barts are their standard "dark" models, and I've almost always boosted the highs substantially, either via the treble knob and/or the amp.

I re-wired it in 2001 so that the pickup split switch splits each pickup internally, connects each half in series with half from the other pickup, and the result is still blendable via the blend knob. So in "normal", each pickup is quad-coil with everything in series internally, and parallel-blended with the blend knob. In the alternate mode, you've got the P-shape coils of the neck pickup in series with the inside coils of the bridge pickup; blended in parallel with the reverse-P coils of the neck pickup in series with the outside (bridge-ward) coils of the bridge pickup. The latter setting is the one I've used the most with this, as a sort of big J-bass sound. My second favorite setting is normal mode, with the blend centered, so full up humbuckers. That suits the woods the best IMO.

I'm debating getting some Aguilar DCBs for it (which'd just be wired normally).

Here's my second bass, from 2002 - serial 05102. It's a Pro 6 fretless. Mahogany body, spalted maple top. Bolt-on 7-piece padouk and flamed maple neck. Pau ferro fingerboard. Bartolini quad-coil soapbars, piezo bridge, NTMB preamp.

This one is lighter, maybe around 10 pounds? it's got a very warm tone. The piezo setup, and bridge in general, is far superior to the older one. I asked Pete for the closer pickup spacing on this - I wanted a tight, punchy, growly sound (huge Mick Karn fan). It didn't really have that effect, and now that I know more about how the pickup interaction comb filtering works, I can see how that is. I also had Pete wire it with my funky coil-split switch from above, but this time with just inside/outside coils. That's a less useful option on fretless, IMO. It's a very good sounding bass but I've struggled getting a tone that I like, personally. Straight-up bridge pickup is pretty good, as you'd expect. But I just have that Wal fretless tone in my head.

And here's the third one, from 2005 - 06305. Signature 6, Mahogany body, spalted padouk top. GST ("glued, screwed, and tattoo'd") 9-piece maple, padouk, and wenge neck. Ebony fingerboard.

With this one, it's more obvious how I was trying to get a Wal sound. I had Pete commission custom pickups from Bartolini - MM shape, quad-coil, Classic Bass voicing. I gave him exact measurements for the pickup locations which he was kind enough to indulge me in. Instead of a single coil-tap switch, this one has one 3-way switch per pickup: left coils, all four (parallel connection between the halves), right coils. The switches are rotated sideways so the position of the switch matches the position of the coils it selects.

It came with the usual NTMB preamp, but I replaced it with an ACG 01 filter preamp (designed by John East). I think I was one of Alan's charter customers on that? (as an aside, I was very glad when I started getting back into things recently to see that he's been quite successful with his bass business over the years!).

This is definitely my most-played of the three. It's not as heavy as 10100, and it's got huge sonic versatility. It still doesn't really sound exactly like a Wal, but oh well! My favorite settings are

* both pickups, all coils up, filters open, peak all the way up: somewhere in the Wal/Musicman ballpark

* both pickups, neck-ward coils, filters open, mid-peak: J bass

* neck pickup, inside coils, filter rolled back a bit, mid-peak: Rickenbacker treble pickup sound. I just discovered this recently, after putting some light-gauge Rotosounds on it.

* neck pickup, both coils: like you'd expect, like a fat MM/P-bass hybrid.

Some more pics:

 

[geshel]

P.S. anybody talked to Pete or heard about any basses he's made in the past few years? Hopefully he's doing well. He was such a great guy to work with.

 

[malthumb]

Can I get in?! View attachment 908136

You most certainly can. Jomyo, you are Hanewinckel Club Member #

 

[malthumb]

Gushed, I never get tired of seeing your beautiful Hannies. N-E-V-E-R

Since you are the first "legacy" member checking in, you are officially Hanewinckel Club Member #

 

[geshel]

Woohoo!

One name for the list - Dave Grossman. He had one 6er and two 7-strings, one was fretless I believe. He played a lot of Bach pieces on them.

 

[bassman28]

I own a Hanewinkel and know nothing about the builder or bass. Any help? Thankyou
Heres mi

ne

 

[malthumb]

I own a Hanewinkel and know nothing about the builder or bass. Any help? Thankyou
Heres miView attachment 3523109 View attachment 3523110 ne

That’s how I started out. I had never heard of Hanewinckel. I was going to try my hand at playing 6-string bass and was bidding on a Peavey Cirrus 6 on eBay. Some knucklehead came in literally at the very last second and outbid me for one. I was pi$$ed. Went on Bassgear.com (don’t think that even exists anymore) and saw a Hanewinckel 6 offered for sale. My only “anger purchase” that I can remember. Got it. Played it. Loved it. A while later I decided to add fretless to my repertoire. Found a Hanewinckel 6 fretless on eBay. Bought it. Played it. Loved it. Turns out they were consecutive serial numbers. Go figure. Both pictured in post #3 in this thread.

Now, here’s the kicker.... realized that I absolutely S-U-C-K at 6-string bass. So I sold them. Both. To the same guy, a few weeks apart. Fast forward to a few years ago. I traded one of my prized Music Man Sabres for my 3rd and current Hanewinckel.

Pete Hanewinckel is located somewhere in Southern Cal (San Diego area I think?) and produces, in my opinion, some of the best crafted, best sounding high quality custom basses available. Check out his website, Hanewinckel Guitars , to get a feel for what he’s able to produce. His website is seldom updated, but does a good job of displaying his product line and pricing.

 

[bassface73]

I just bought a Hanewinckel at a pawn shop for a ridiculous price. Can anyone tell me anything about this model? I am planning on selling it, but I don't really know what it is. I know Hanewinckel and the quality, but I don't know what model this could be.

Edit: Appears to be the Vintage Series.

Vintage Series

Second Edit: It appears it is the one on that page. The grain matches the one I have in my hand. Also, I bought it at a pawn shop roughly one hour from where Pete makes these.

 

[Aram]

I have two amazing Hanewinckels, one I ordered a few years back, and one last year. Oh and another currently on order.

 

[emjazz]

I have two amazing Hanewinckels, one I ordered a few years back, and one last year. Oh and another currently on order.

That fretless! Hope you're well, Aram!

 

[Aram]

That fretless! Hope you're well, Aram!

Andy, you've gotta come by and try the fretted (chambered!) six ...same hand-wound pickups in there, all passive.

 

[mark35mi]

My Hanewinckel. Midi even. Love.