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If we weren't Hamer fans, whose fans would we be?


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I found Robin guitars to be a suitable substitute.   I have a dozen great ones.  Dave Wintz built some fine guitars for a time.  That's not to say I've not taken the plunge on almost every guitar builder mentioned in this thread.  Cool how many people mention Charvel.  And who can deny the impact of Paul Smith's guitars back in '85?  Has it been that long?

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for me definitely Ibanez Artist. specially the early 80´s Semi (Stagemaster etc..)

I´ve had a couple of them (AM 66,67, 100...) but they have to leave me to make place (and money) for Hamer :-)

Only one stayed: my dream of the early years an AM 205

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14 hours ago, Steve Haynie said:

I would have been seeking more real Deans from the late 70's and early 80's.  There would have been more Gibson stuff that made it in my hands like a really nice E2 Explorer.  It would be nice to have more Music Man guitars, too. 

Probaly I would have had a few old Deans. I was working extra in a guitar store for a short period when I was around 16. The guy who had the store, an english dude, had the import license on Deans. They were the coolest guitars in the store. A blueburst Cadillac with a gold Kahler and a black Cadillac which I think had a tom bridge were both killer guitars that I really wanted to take home.

I could not afford them, or a Les Paul, back then though. I had a pretty cool blue metallic strat, that I later ruined by putting a Kahler on it. :-= (I installed it myself).

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Gibson.   Fender vintage reissues,  Dean but only the caddy v z not the modern pointy stuff.   Some Charvel.    Ernie ball stingray basses.     Sorry to say. Not really considering hamer an option  great guitars but just can’t roll with the reverb and ebay prices of $1500 to $3000.   Although  I would say the same issue can apply to dean and Charvel as well.  A higher end dean or charvel would be tough time if you sprung $2300 and had to sell.       

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Mainly Gibson, and probably Dean. I’m a real sucker for a good SG or LP. Love the Cadillac’s and ELites. My recipe is simple... Korina or mahogany, set neck, 24.75” scale.

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I’m mostly a F style guy so for me I guess it’d be G&L, Suhr, or Fender. Lesser known, but excellent brands would include K-line and King Bee. This is hard man.  If not for my Hamers I don’t know what I’d do. My Daytona is THE guitar for me and what I do. 

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For me, the idealism is reality: Robins and earlier Peaveys. I currently own no Hamers and have owned very few over the decades (but there's at least one bass I wish I still had).

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Fender/Charvel/EVH, EB Music Man, Suhr, in no particular order. Or maybe I would have just built my own Frankenstein guitar to suit my taste, but I'd still have to find a company for a hollow-body, so either Gibson/Epi or an older Ibanez (I only like Ibanez's hollow-body guitars; I don't like their solid-body guitars because I hate their head-stock design, irrational a reason as that is).

 

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PRS for me.  I have a couple and have owned a lot of them.  I have only owned one that I didn't like and that was because of the color (Orange).  

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Gibson and Fenders for me but only specific Gibson and Fenders: ES 335 and Telecaster. That's it . Tried a PRS once and it was very nice but sold it for a Hamer, probably my first Hamer.

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The only other brand I have much experience with are USA-made Peaveys from the '70s - '90s. They may not be exotic, high-end gear, but they get the job one for me. I can tweak and tinker with them without worrying about hurting them or their resale value, because they don't really have any resale value. And I never worry about gigging with them at less-than-ideal venues.

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My true love is vintage PRSi, as I have a few '86s and '87s that just kill, and I've also got a 2010 Custom 24 with a Floyd, sweet switch, and original 5-way rotary (with cocked wah!) that was part of a 10 guitar run for Martin Music out of Memphis that is unbelievable...  Other than PRS and Hamer, I'd say Jacksons and Gibsons, although I recently picked up a Fender Custom Shop 1960 heavy relic Strat with a compound radius board that I'm totally attached to right now, as it's the most resonant solid body electric I think I've ever played!  I also play in a popular Beatles Tribute band so I've got a full set of "George" guitars, including a Gretsch Tennessee Rose, Rickenbacker 360/12V63, Epi Casino with Bigsby, Fender Rocky Synth Strat, Gibson '57 reissue Cloud 9 Lester in Lucy Red, and a Fender Japan Rosewood "Veneer" Tele.  I've got more guitars than talent, but I sure love to play all of them!  

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If the devil himsef came up from the depths of hell, rounded up all Hamers, and burned them to ashes (the devil has that kind of thing in his wheelhouse, ya know)  I'd have to go with Rickenbacker.  Solid bodies, hollow bodies, I like the pencil necks and the more conventional neck cuts. (no 12-strings on pencil necks, please) I like the Rick-o-Sound and the standard sound.  They sounded great thru all my amps. I like the body shapes. 

The final detail is the 5th knob, the mystery dial.  Once you become a Ricko Jedi Warrior, the 5th dial will no longer be mystery.  But the mystery 5th can only be achieved after The Ceremony 

 

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Gibson. Partly because it was a Gibson that led me to Hamer, but mostly because I need to follow the crowd.

But face it, Gibson in the '50s and '60s created the guitars that are THE icons. LPs, 335s, SGs, Firebirds - all timeless stuff. It wasn't until the quality totally crapped out that anyone really started looking around for something better. And then Henry came to the rescue with the final nail. But until then, they were pretty damn cool.

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On 6/8/2018 at 4:54 PM, BillW said:

G&L

Yep, me too. I still have a G&L ASAT Classic Semi-hollow with an added middle pickup. It can sound like just about anything I want--ES-335, Tele, Strat with extra jangle, or a really nice jazz guitar.

For a real semi-hollow thinline, I have a Japanese-made Ibanez AS180.

I also have a Leo-era Lynx bass that hangs and balances perfectly and seems to play itself.

Oh, and speaking of basses, I have two Guild Pilots, a P-pickup fretless and a Pilot Pro with active preamp and EQ, and P/J active EMGs. Great clarity and rich tone as well.

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I was into Fender and Gibson. That was what most of the bands that I liked used then. Then I started to discover that most of the hardware and eletronic parts came from the same companies (APM, Grover, Schaller, Dimarzio, CTS, Seymour Duncan, Bill Lawrence etc), and so Iooked at other brands too. I always loved the Strat, P and J Basses. There were many Gibson guitars and basses I liked too, Explorer E2 and Flying V2 (those were actually the first Gibsons I ever saw live when I first walked a guitar store), Firebird/Thunderbird (reverse and non-reverse), RD series, Les Paul Artisan, XR2 and Artist, Victory series, Spirit and several others. Of course, the Kramer Baretta in the "no bozos" ad fascinated me, mostly the Floyd Rose, black hardware and the Explorer style headstock combined with a Strat style body. In 1984 I had a flyer from Gibson (XPL series) picturing a white Les Paul with two cutaways (different from the SG or Junior style) with Kahler trem and Explorer headstock which looked totally cool to me. I would have loved a guitar like that, but with less controls (volume and tone plus pickup switch) and a Floyd Rose tremolo. I knew, Hamer did some cool looking guitars based on Gibson designs, so I followed their ads. I liked the old Cruise Bass already which was a cool mix of basically a "Gibson" bass with "Fender" pickups.  When the Steve Stevens guitar showed up in the ads, I thought "this guitar is it". Very similar to the Gibson I had in mind (some similarities to a Strat too, like body contours, 6-inline tuning keys, maple neck, 3 pickups). If that wouldn't have happened, I might have played several Kramer guitars and would have gone back to Fender and Gibson by the mid-90's. Actually that's how it actually happened, just add the Hamers I have.

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