The Hanson Guitars brand was founded by brothers John and Bo Pirruccello. In 2005, John (a co-owner of Lakland Basses) and Bo developed a line of pickups and electronics voiced for the Lakland basses. The success of the Lakland pickups led to a venture into guitar pickups - specifically a variation on the P-90. Soon after their first P-90 creation, the Pirruccellos began designing guitars to complement them, with fatter, baseball bat-like neck profiles, Tune-o-matic bridges, Bigsby vibratos, and other features that they felt would complement their pickups. The designs have a retro 50s & 60s feel with references to 60's Italian electrics and classic American guitars in the body shapes.

They launched the Hanson Guitars brand at the 2009 Summer NAMM Show. According to John,

“The original concept of Hanson Guitars was to build affordable, professional-grade instruments that sound and feel great. We don’t mind being a small shop, and we’re happy to spend as much time on an instrument’s setup as necessary to make if feel good during quality-control checks when the assembled guitars arrive in our Chicago shop—just what I personally would hope for from a manufacturer.”