Happy Birthday, 2020
It’s rare to know the exact date of manufacture of a specific guitar – most can be narrowed down to a month and year – but in the case of this Hayman 2020, we can say for certain that it is fifty-two years old today: its serial number dates it to 8 April, 1974. Hayman guitars were produced from 1970 to 1975, and at their peak of production the company was turning out 200 models every month. The brand arose from a collaboration between British guitar legend Jim Burns and the Dallas/Arbiter company who owned the Hayman name (it was also applied to a short-lived range of drums). The first models appeared in 1970/71 – model 1010, an electric solidbody, and 2020, a semi-solid with echoes of Fender’s Thinline Telecaster. In its original incarnation, the 2020 was a handsome natural mahogany finished instrument, with a maple neck and ebonised fingerboard: the headstock was similarly finished. Two single coil ‘Superflux’ pickups were controlled from a standard three-way selector switch an...
