Lakland was established in 1994 by Dan Lakin, a bassist, and Hugh McFarland, a luthier. The company has blended the features of Fender and Music Man guitars – Jazz Bass and StingRay, one of the latest lines of bass guitars were based on Precision Bass and Jazz Bass models. Lakland Guitars is a manufacturer of electric basses which is located in Chicago and produces its units in USA and Indonesia. Joe Osborn, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Jerry Scheff, Darryl Jones and Bob Glaub were welcomed to design some signature models in collaboration with Lakland Guitars.
At the NAMM 1994 the first Lakland prototype was demonstrated. It was the year when Lakin and McFarland founded their brand. Ash and a quilted maple top, rock maple neck, and maple fingerboard constituted the body of the prototype and reminded of Fender’s Jazz Bass.
The electronics were taken from Warwick Dolphin bass, pickups were delivered by Bartolini brand. In 1995 the first batch of basses was released and a year later it got under the supervision of A. Lakin & Sons, Inc. – Dan’s grandfather tire recycling company. In 1997 McFarland quit his post in Lakland. The Skyline Series produced in South Korea came out in 2001. The manufacturing of the series took place in the East to lower the price of the models offering South Korean and later Indonesian (2008) options opposite to the American counterparts.
Hanson Musical Instruments had supplied Lakland with pickups and preamps since 2005 before becoming an actual owner of the brand in 2010. That’s how Lakland became Lakland Guitars LLC and while the Lakland brand name remains, signature model names - such as the Bob Glaub, Duck Dunn and Joe Osborn basses - were given numeric designations.
Lakland offers a selection of signature basses, hollowbody guitars, the Decade model, a number of US Series units, and of course the Skyline Series.