Def Leppard had a strong association with Hamer Guitars for many years. Hamer Specials, Prototypes, Standard guitars/basses and even a pink Hamer t-shirt were featured in early videos.
Pete Willis
Pete was a very visible user of Hamer Guitars throughout his tenure in Def Leppard as he played Hamer Standard with a simple electronics modification pretty much exclusively.
“I stuck an electrolytic capacitor between the middle volume and tone controls, which sort of compresses the sound. It’s like using a Wah-Wah pedal, where you have the pedal set at a certain point in it’s range that creates a rich tone”.
Quote from Pete Willis regarding the mod.
For anyone interested this is an easy mod that can easily reversed and done by attaching a .0047uf – .0068uf cap from the same lug of the bridge volume the pickup hooks to and ground the other end and you have instant wah.
Rick Savage
Steve Clark
