Leaderboard

Great names have come and gone throughout our lives, and will continue to do so long after we're gone. The best we can do is relish the memory, and appreciate & enjoy the legacy. With my Newport in hand, knowing that it was featured as the prime example of the model in the last Hamer catalog published, will be a memory that I will love until the day they close the lid on my life. Here's to all the guys I had the opportunity to meet when I had the chance to visit NH. A nicer gang of artisans you'll never meet. Thanks for the memories...

I'd start selling these for starters. (Of course you'd piss Nielsen off, by selling them.)

yup. I would. In a heartbeat.

you're hired!

Well, since it IS a fantasy mogul thing... I'd kill the competition by planting undocumented C.I.T.E.S. protected hardwoods in their wood stores, effectively shutting them down. I'd then make sure that all the kick-assed designs people seem to want the most, Standards, Sunbursts, multi-course basses, Californians, etc. were available. I'd probably have some sort of "Guitar Designer" workspace on a cool website that would allow people to configure pre-priced, available custom options to help plot out custom orders, and would spend a good bit of money getting cool guitars in the hands of cool players that would actually want them and use them.

Well you are a whole lot of fun aren't you.

A. contract the rough body and neck out to a cnc, bedahl contractor. (Hamer did this). Contract out most of the rough work for that matter, usa baby. There are plenty of lil shops that do this and earn for it, couple of guys on HFC know this... B. fine points, detail, custom ops, prep, etc. done in house. C.Finish work contracted out. D. wet sand, buff, polish, build, setup, etc. in house. deal direct. Works for~ Lakeland basses, Carvin, a few others. and get out to the local gigs and pimp that shit. give it to them for the gig.

Someone on Facebook asked Jol what he thought of the news. He replied: "There are those who believe that products are like a sports franchise, and that even though the players are traded and hired and fired it remains the same entity. I don’t. For me, the dream ended quite a while ago, and now the denial has finally caught up with the reality. I was devastated when the decision was made quite a few years back, so any announcement just seems like picking up an old newspaper. It hurts, but not as much as it did at first. As for the torch bearers of the brand, we have all moved on and are all doing what we’ve always done. For me, that means making the guitars. I think that’s telling. Thanks for caring about something so dear to me."

"I am by no means an MBA, and know little about costs to produce guitars." (Excerpt from Cary). Interesting....I AM an MBA (as well as a CPA, though not practicing as such any more). Any my wife is a (now retired) sales/marketing executive. (There is also some woodworking expertise around here, but NOTHING that would cause me to make or seriously repair guitars!) Neither of us would know where to start with a financial plan for converting a name and a $3 million line into a viable business, I suspect we could add some mental contributions to evaluating and fine-tuning ideas. And there are certainly people here with a history on the retail side of Hamer (and others). Not to mention people with great skills on the repair and modification side. The starting point would have to take into account many comments above.....Like what is the goal? Can it then be made to work? Such as Paul Reed Smith had good ideas and product. He famously nearly starved while hanging around the stage door to put his product into the hands of Carlos Santana. (Who is also linked with Randall Smith at Mesa). I believe Leo Fender and George Fullerton (and crew) did much of the same back in the day. I know which Hamers (and other guitars) I like most. I am not all that much into the 80s and "shredders". Obviously others see those as the reason for Hamer's existence. Is there enough demand for such to catch up with those mentioned that are already using that segment to rebuild? At the same time, how much demand will there be for USA made Monacos, Newports, Talladegas, etc? (And are those, as well as the iconic ones, like Standard, Studio, Vector, sufficiently differentiated from the models they were derived from, largely with the G word on the headstock, to capture a viable sales number absent big spending on marketing---including giving instruments to upcoming acts? I KNOW they are better in terms of quality, but how do you get that message out when money is tight and there is a surplus of instruments----and manufacturing capacity-----out there?) Country/crossover? Maybe. How much potential is there? Will they take to an unknown name and/or go for something beyond the more traditional Teles and Dreadnoughts, at least in a big way. On custom orders......Pretty much discussed above. Chicken and egg......How do you get people to spring for high end things without awareness of the brand? Most of us here can get what we want at a reasonable price used, As much as we dislike the closure of the window on futures COs, you cannot build a business on the hopes that all those people will win the lottery. Side light on COs......I have acquired some such Hamers (used). I have ONE (non-Hamer) CO that I spent a lot on, waited a long time for, was everything I asked for, and yet is NOT the answer I was looking for. The related issue......The competition. If you want the "best" there are a number of makers out there......Will not try to name them all, but such as Nik Huber, Ruokangas, McInturff make instruments arguably as good or better (maybe much more so) than anything Hamer has made.......And Gibson? Yeah, right! Of course, you either buy from (very limited) stock or submit big bucks and WAIT. Hard to find one to play in advance of purchase in many markets. And the odds of getting a "deal" on a used one are low. I don't know that FMIC gave Hamer a full chance. But how far could they push on that particular string? MAYBE they could have devoted more hours per week and gotten the delivery time down to months from a year or two. But how many more orders would they find to refill that pipeline? IF there WAS a viable business plan (and not just killing the competition) I am sure there were SOME wise minds to ponder it. Ultimately it IS business.....As FMIC, Gibson and Guitar Center are painfully aware----And increasingly so. We have seen the tons of NOS Hamers hit the market, blown out to Willcutt and other dealers in bulk. Many of them sharply discounted from (obviously over inflated) list prices. And some of these were already several years old. Many of them are STILL in dealer inventories. Again, how do you compete with such a bottleneck of relatively high priced guitars, even if discounted? Certainly eats into theoretical profit margins! Side note.....As much as there are things I dislike about GC, I got a lot of chances to touch and play high end gear (the good old days at the Hollywood store) that I never (well, seldom) bought. I think I can recall ONE TIME I could actually play new USA Hamers in a "mom and pop". That was many years ago and I am on the west coast where they are less prevalent. Having a chance to physically "bond" with an instrument, rather than read the marketing hype (Yeah, PRS is the master of that!) was a big help in loosening my purse strings, even if I bought used, scouted the neat new tools on the Internet, etc. And, generally, found used ones that someone else had already taken the depreciation on At risk of repetition, most of us are able to find what we want, eventually, at a fair price in the used market. Most of us are not going to place that custom order....And if so, it is generally going to be a once in a lifetime thing.....Yeah, I know there are "lawyer guitars" and such.....Some of mine no doubt fall into that realm. I love them but am not going to plop down $5k or more to propagate the herd. Well, maybe I WILL win the lottery........ Shoot.....More questions than answers. I WOULD be more than happy to compare notes and provide input if/when things get more focused. In the meantime, back to the chicken and egg thing....IF someone is sitting on $3 million of funding, they certainly will not do it without a reality based business plan. But are there those amongst us that can/will develop such a plan unless there is at least SOME potential for funding? People and businesses are sitting, collectively, on TRILLIONS in cash. Money is available. Sort of. Fear is rampant. ("Damn, that fiscal clit is gonna kill us all!") (sic) There will ultimately be growth and maybe even prosperity again. I guess we are all open to ideas on how to make that happen........Seems like the elected class will have a hard time making it happen. Unfortunately. Not sure if that helps at all, but it gets it off my chest. Oh, about that CO I WOULD have submitted.........

Is there brand equity? Hard to say Is there brand loyalty? Yes. Once in, you're in. Did the brand ever damage itself from a quality-of-product perspective? No, for the USA prods. Not really, for the imports... unless the "Slammer" brand is considered. Ugh. Can the brand be revived? FMIC has determined that Guild has more brand equity, which it probably does. Brand revivals can fail or thrive- think Kramer (Music-Yo, Y'all?) and Electar as failures. Think Mini-Cooper, Star-Trek as successful brands (franchises?). Question Fiat. How could it be revived? Diluting the brand (Slammer. XT); Boutiquification; Re-Opening business as usual (but with product innovation); Wait and return in a wave of nostalgia- if pointy-guitars had a resurgence, but they'd have to take a number behind Kramer, Charvel, etc. Modern-Vintage played out. Vintage is owned by Gibson & Fender, Ricks and Gretsch. Smaller unique's by G&L, MusicMan; the 13-year-olds by Ibanez, Schecter, Epiphone (??) How does Peavey fit into all of this? It hurts to see a brand, a company, die. Brands are fashion statements. To me, Hamer says discerning, off the beaten path, and man-in-the-know; alternative. But die they do, from TWA to Pan-Am. Be glad the losses were absorbed by the risk-takers (Yes, FMIC). Be glad of the 50,000 some-odd well put together hunks of straight-necked, vibrant wood and steel were assembled, sanded, polished and wired up. Be glad for HFC, Craigslist, eBay, PayPal, and Google for helping us find them, play them, store them, trade them, show pictures of them, and bring them out on occasion in Chicago or wherever gatherings may happen. I'm at 6 Hamer USAs and I still don't have a Standard, a Vector, a Cali, a Chappy, a Monaco, an A5, a Newport, or a Tally. Many lands yet to explore. I'm going to go plug in my Daytona, relic'd as it is from over-playing, and enjoy its neck and its soul. My boy Henry does.

Two words: Country. Music.

Those guys are in the archives, teetering on irrelevancy, and likely too deep into other endorsement deals to switch over anyway. Same with someone like Dave Grohl. Too late to get any jack from him. From a marketing perspective, a good place to start would be to take it back to the beginning: show up at shows by younger bands on the rise and give them guitars. Rinse and repeat.

Can I raise a practical question at this point? Click