Wolf Hoffman, Glen Tipton and the likes do play Hamer... but they always did. The problem with the brand was that they made no effort to attract the new generations of players by capitalizing on the endorsers they already had.
I am a huge Jeff Beck fan, until Blow by blow, Wired, There and Back.....I just don't dig fusion, jazz based rock. I love blues based playing, hence I get Hendrix and LOVE the first 2 Jeff Beck Group albums.
Damn!, Hamerica raises his hand. Really not a guitar album but after buying that album (BiA) I hated myself enough to continuously play "Out of the Blue" by ELO.