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Headstock Shapes


LucSulla

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In light of recent happenings at one company, a question -

Is a decent headstock really that hard to design?  Obviously the Gibson, Strat, and Tele headstocks are iconic, and you often hear people say coming up with just a decent headstock is hard. But is it really?

Ernie Ball, G&L, Peavey, EVH, Shishkov, and PRS, just to name a few, seemed to manage it.  I don't necessarily love all of those, but at best, they don't distract me from the guitar.  In all honesty, Hamer's 3+3 shape was always a little too boat paddle for me, though they never jumped out like some other guitar brands. Binding helped out a bit with them as well. It was more something I'd notice occasionally while they were sitting in the stand, "Man, that really is quite a large headstock." 

So really, is the headstock really that hard, or has that just become a bit of an easy excuse when a guitar manufacturer craps out something like this?

p3_uwqxesahd_so.jpg

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That's right on par with this one from J Guitars. It's a shame, too because he's re-fretted close to half dozen of my Cal'is and does excellent work but that head stock is just plain fugly IMO

 

Screen Shot 2018-02-25 at 5.46.33 PM.png

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                                                                    Has to be one of the ugliest out there!:o[Not a fan of some of their finishes either] As far as the guitars themselves........the build quality and so forth they are top notch. I have played a few and they were great...........and expensive!

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3 hours ago, Steve Haynie said:

The Hamer headstock shapes never bothered me except for the oversized headstock on Martin Turner's Standard Bass. 

The only Hamer headstock I thought was ugly was on an ‘81 Vector.

But what do I know? I had a Heritage and the headstock didn’t bother me at all.

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I have always found the Hamer headstocks to be cool and iconic in the same way as Fender's or Gibson's headstocks.

The PRS headstock though, don't get me started. So ugly it hurts. Or the pointy Kramer 80's headstocks (not the original EVH banana one), or mosty pointy 80's headstocks for that matter, like Jackson's. This IS UGLY:

jackson_sls3_headstock.jpg 

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The thing that always stumped me about that Tyler headstock is that you can tell that the builder put a bit of effort into designing it, and yet it's still hideous. 

Dean's inverted V always comes up in these discussions (apologies to BTMN), but there's this abomination: 

B00186W1TI-3.jpg

Which makes one think that Dime sat down with Zelinsky and said, "I figured out a way to make your iconic headstock even uglier."

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4 hours ago, Disturber said:

I have always found the Hamer headstocks to be cool and iconic in the same way as Fender's or Gibson's headstocks.

The PRS headstock though, don't get me started. So ugly it hurts. Or the pointy Kramer 80's headstocks (not the original EVH banana one), or mosty pointy 80's headstocks for that matter, like Jackson's. This IS UGLY:

jackson_sls3_headstock.jpg 

I actually dig those, though I like them better when they are reversed. 

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One of the features of the human brain is its great difficulty in acknowledging self-made errors. Sometimes, the more intelligent a person is, the more difficult it is to accept he/she has made mistakes.

 

Of course, this implies one could not correct them.

 

Jol/Hamer never accepted their headstock shape was a problem -at best, some customers did not mind it- and the brand finally collapsed. Their most commercially successful era was during the 80's, in which many models used variations of either the Strat (many times reversed upside down) or the Gibson "banana" Explorer shape.

 

That´s sad: the guitars were made incredibly well, but were not competitive as designed.

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20 minutes ago, Jorge said:

Jol/Hamer never accepted their headstock shape was a problem -at best, some customers did not mind it- and the brand finally collapsed. Their most commercially successful era was during the 80's, in which many models used variations of either the Strat (many times reversed upside down) or the Gibson "banana" Explorer shape.

That´s sad: the guitars were made incredibly well, but were not competitive as designed.

I don't buy this argument for a second.  The only complaint about Hamer headstocks I've seen is about the "paddle" headstock that they used for a couple of years in the early 1990s.   The headstock had absolutely nothing to do with why the brand folded.

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22 minutes ago, cmatthes said:

   The headstock had absolutely nothing to do with why the brand folded.

The brand folded for many reasons, here are a few:

1.  Ownership by non-active Bill Kaman

2.  Changes in model names and features that confused the market place

3.  Tried to portray themselves as premium brand but were very reasonable priced most of the their life span, which in turn, again confused the market

4.  Move to Connecticut dictated less production, which lead to less artist budget, lead to less visibility, lead to less sales.................

5.  No consistent model other than the Standard through out their history, which in turn was a Gibson copy

6.  The 20+ different models over the years portrayed a job shop image, chasing the latest trend, not that of an iconic brand

 

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51 minutes ago, django49 said:

Certainly not to everyone's taste, but I do like some that are a bit  "different".

Hartung Fingerboard.JPGWalker Phantom---Headstock.jpgWalker Santa Cruz Reverse Head.jpgHartung LP 3.jpg

What are the two brands on the bottom, and what wood is on them?  The mix of light and dark makes me wonder if that is some of the ebony with light wood running through it. 

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1 hour ago, django49 said:

Certainly not to everyone's taste, but I do like some that are a bit  "different".

Hartung Fingerboard.JPG

I actually have a lot of respect for something that boldly states it's weirdness.  That right there is a dare, like a good Spanish vineyard.  "Like our wine or go fuck yourself.  We don't care either way.  We like it this way, and we make it!"

I can dig on that attitude even though that looks like something that would summon Pinhead if you tuned to DADGAD or something. 

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