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Tech/Features You Wish Hamer Had


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I got to thinking: Considering Hamer's supremacy in workmanship and design, they were shut down in 2012, theoretically precluding them from having certain features and tech advancements that would have made Hamers even more versatile, utilitarian and/or covetous.  I was abusing several of my harem beauties this AM including a few non-Hamers, and several came to mind. I'll state for the record I'm no expert in Hamer so some of these may have been in certain models:

Graphite rods- this time of year is a major hassle with truss rod adjustments due to the increasing humidity and temps. My graphite rod-equipped Charvels (and other makes) don't seem to suffer the degree of neck bow that the Hamers do. 

In the same general category as the graphite neck rods-  Truss rod heel wheel adjustment, gotta say I love this improvement on the old head stock access variety.  I'll concede a bit of aesthetic impact but the ease and immediacy of truss rod adjustments pretty much negate whatever misgivings I have about the look of it.

So, what recent advancements would you have liked to have seen on Hamers?

 

 

 

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None of the above.

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I've only had one Hamer that needed the seasonal trussrod adjustment.  None of the dozens of others that have come and gone have needed it.  Sting gauge, nut work, yeah, they needed tweaking but not due to the Springtime Swell phenomenon.

I've become quite used to and fond of the classic Hamer 3-knob control arrangement.  V-V-T.  I find it to be very flexible and easy to use.  I wish models like the Eclipse, various Phantom/Protos, etc. had that setup.

 

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FYI, graphite reinforcement rods and truss rod spoke wheels aren't recent advancements and they were already around when Hamer came to be in the 1970s. If rods and spokes were truly that superior and a "must have," I'd suspect Hamer would have both embraced and employed them.

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43 minutes ago, Jeff R said:

FYI, graphite reinforcement rods and truss rod spoke wheels aren't recent advancements and they were already around when Hamer came to be in the 1970s. If rods and spokes were truly that superior and a "must have," I'd suspect Hamer would have both embraced and employed them.

 

I freely admit that I'm not super knowledgeable about the origin dates of some of the items listed; in the case of spoke wheels and graphite rods,  I know I didn't start to see/hear about them until the last 10- 15 years. I, for one, applaud these features though the addition of the rods somewhat mitigates the need for the spoke wheel truss adjustment.

I don't recall ever stating that said features were "must have" or "superior".  Merely more recent or advanced.  It's also reasonable to assume personal preferences and brand loyalty colors one's perspective on how valued such features are.  That said, I was asking if there were any recent changes in tech that y'all have seen that you might have liked to have seen on Hamers. Not necessarily to dis mine. ;)  It's highly personal and subjective- like fret size and composition or fret board radius. 

 

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The spoke wheel at the body end of the neck is a good idea, but there is a question of whether it would have been accepted on a Gibson based design like Hamer used in the early days. 

Hamer never used "roasted" or "torrified" wood.  Hamer would have jumped on that, too, if it was necessary to take their instruments to another level in quality.  The popularity was coming about as Hamer was getting closed out. 

The way Hamer finished guitars in the last 20 years with their Urelaq was quite pleasing.  The guitars can look good for decades.  However, there are several types of finishes that can be equally beautiful and perhaps have benefits.  The finish experts can point to environmentally more friendly alternatives to nitrocellulose lacquer that can be sprayed thin and "breathe."  The chemistry behind finish products gets quite technical.  We see a beautiful finish over beautiful wood, but never think about the innovation in a chemical lab. 

Hamer did make at least one custom order with a raw looking neck.  coolfeel's Chaparral with the wenge neck would have to have some kind of sealer or oil finish to protect the wood, but Hamer was open to the idea.  I have seen Hamers with maple necks that have oil finishes which were done after the guitars left the factory.  Perhaps that is one thing Hamer could have done more often with their shredders.  This is not really advanced technology, just something Hamer could have done more often.  They likely had requests for it. 

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Rods in the neck are hardly new. Carvin introduced their 2-way truss rod and 1018 alloy steel rods in 1995. In 1997 they changed those to Graphite Rods.

So, Hamer had plenty of time to get in on those, if they wanted to.

Carvin later got rid of the graphite rods,  claiming that their improved kiln drying techniques made them superfluous on guitars. I think they kept them on the basses.

Then Kiesel/Carvin brought in carbon fiber rods, with much fanfare from Jeff Kiesel, and everyone kinda said "weren't those decided to be un needed?" and he got all POed.

So, I don't really know if the rods actually helped much at all.

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There’s nothing to complain about Hamer guitars. In many ways they are stunning guitars. Although standard pickups were subject of complaints quite often, and there are a lot of emotions and taste in the discussion, wood selection, fashion, and craftsmanship were top notch for a fair pricing.

No reason to sell any of mine nor am I missing a feature.

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20 hours ago, diablo175 said:

Truss rod heel wheel adjustment, gotta say I love this

I seem to remember Teisco had this feature on at least some of their models in the late 60’s-early 70’s, although I never really considered Teisco as being innovative... I assumed it was due more to the extreme instability of the plywood and cheap production. 😂

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

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Can we also list the tech/features that we wish Hamer had NOT had?
Here are some of mine:

  • Hameritis
  • Duncan P-90s
  • Monaco Elite "shelf"
  • The Talladega
  • Jol Dantzig 
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8 hours ago, HAMERMAN said:

Also in the "been around a while" category but I would have liked having them come from the factory with Stainless Steel frets.

I'd revise that personally and say offer a SS option.  SS is FAR from the alpha-omega of the fret world and it is not all it's cracked up to be, HEL/Shane and I have had discussions about this. Away from the pro of extended wear, which we all agree upon ... consider you don't find SS on acoustics or nice jazz boxes due to its hollow plinkyness in clean playing situations, that alone would have likely made Hamer's decision makers spike it. And the literal noise of strings banging/"tink-tink-tinking" into/against SS frets by heavier hands/fingers at hobbyist/bedroom bandit volumes (which happens to be a significant segment of the guys on this board) ... would have made many around here scoff at SS after the fact. I was talking with Shane recently about me offering SS as an refret option (he already does, I've been putting it off) and I think he and I share the opinion that SS only really makes sense if you are a consistently high-gain, performance-volume player. I'll add that it's also an option if you are meticulous (my polite way of saying borderline OCD or anal retentive) about ZERO fret wear.

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And yep, Teisco was offering spokes on most of their electrics throughout the 1960s. I love spokes and wish every manufacturer used them, but they have bulky, unsightly and an association with cheap ass 20th Century catalog guitars, at least with older players in the case of the latter.

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I feel all my Hamer's miss a good smoke bomb cavity. A rocket shooter would also be good to have.

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Suhr guitars have SS frets and they sound great even at low volumes, though I'll grant any judgement (whether positive or negative) about tone quality is ultimately subjective regardless of who issues it. I suppose everyone has to judge for themselves whether they like the sound or not.

As for the durability of SS frets, it's not clear why not wanting to deal with the hassle of ever having to refret a guitar again is the result of OCD. If I could drive my car without the hassle of ever having to change the oil every 3-5000 miles (or whatever one believes to be best), I'd do so, and not because I'm OCD...which I am...OCD...but that's besides the point.

 

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2 hours ago, Jeff R said:

I'll add that it's also an option if you are meticulous (my polite way of saying borderline OCD or anal retentive) about ZERO fret wear.

Or, own many guitars so that fretwear is a non-issue. Best cure for OCD. 

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4 hours ago, kizanski said:

Can we also list the tech/features that we wish Hamer had NOT had?
Here are some of mine:

  • Hameritis
  • Duncan P-90s
  • Monaco Elite "shelf"
  • The Talladega
  • Jol Dantzig 

FULLY DISAGREE (except for the hameritis).

 

Talladega's are great guitars.

How can you wish Hamer never had that???

 

Gabe 🙂

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9 minutes ago, Gabe said:

FULLY DISAGREE (except for the hameritis).

Talladega's are great guitars.

How can you wish Hamer never had that???

Because I owned one... and a Huber Dolfin at the same time.
Honestly, I have nothing against the guitar, but more that it was Jol's dream and that was the best that he could do: a Huber knock off.
And I truly believe that was the straw that broke the camel's back and got him fired.

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1 hour ago, kizanski said:

Because I owned one... and a Huber Dolfin at the same time.
Honestly, I have nothing against the guitar, but more that it was Jol's dream and that was the best that he could do: a Huber knock off.
And I truly believe that was the straw that broke the camel's back and got him fired.

You may be right about the straw.  I'll never know one way or the other.   But there's nothing wrong with a workingman's Huber.

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