Leaderboard

Hamer Book - nothing less than spectacular, congrats to Steve and Joe! Funny it reminds me of PLAYBOY. I bought it for the "articles" - yeah sure. The photographs of the "girls" are beautiful I am very impressed with the "history" or story of Hamer. The players both inside the company and on stage, all of it is like looking at a time capsule from the early 70's. Fortunate enough to meet a few of the characters in this play. If you haven't ordered the book - Do so now! Hamerica

It was originally white. They can turn cream over time. I have one in my parts bin that started out life as a white guard on a black '97 Standard exactly like this one.

I f#$%* loved it. Thanks for sharing! However, I still know there are differences between rosewood and maple. Just think about a rosewood fretboard on a maple neck as having a "rosewood top" on the neck. It does soften the tone -just a bit, but enough to colour the sound differently. My friend has two Strats with everything identical but the fretboards, and they do sound distinct, although it's more noticeable when plugged. I suppose it's because the amp and the effects react differently to distinct overtones. In spite of that, I did enjoy the video. That guy is funny as hell.

http://m213.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/geoff_f/image-10.jpg.html?o=0&newest=1 This is a flash photo of the guard, which I always thought was white. Did they sell them with the cream guard? So one of you guys was nice enough to pull the images off me photobucket and do with them what I had intended to do from the start. Thank you cynic!

I enjoyed the video. If there's a sound difference between a maple board and a rosewood board, I've never been able to identify it.

Timbre and overtones. If he can't hear the difference then all the better for me that he'll miss the gem and I'll find the prize next time I buy a guitar. Last time I bought a guitar for myself I was in Singapore -- I went into a Tom Lee Music there and they had about 400 acoustic guitars in stock and on display. I spent 2 days playing through them, rejecting and isolating the good from bad until I had my shortlist of about 10 to 15. I'd already found my guitar at that point but I went further and paid to restring the last 10 or 12 before continuing to test and play. The next day I walked out of the shop before it closed with a guitar that was amazing. Total time spent was about 12 hours over 3 days --- I was a 24 year old kid at the time (Holy shit? The last guitar I bought was 20 years ago -- bloody hell, that shit ain't right) and the guys at Tom Lee had never seen anyone spend that kind of time to buy a guitar before. They didn't know what to make of me. I blew their minds when I bought the strings and restrung that last group (leaving them overnight). For me it was an amazing experience - to compare that many instruments virtually unmolested in a big guitar store (the acoustics had their own floor I think so nobody playing eruption or Stairway or Crazy Train). Every guitar played was a revelation as I compared them. Same makes, different makes, same models, different models. Was fully prepared to lay out the big money and buy the best guitar they had there (With only the absolute top shelf stuff like vintage Martins and Taylors really off my list as this was to be a travel guitar), and in the end, to my enormous surprise, I walked out with a humble Yamaha FG-421 for around 400 Singaporean dollars that sounded and played better than anything in the shop. This guitar has been all over the world with me, from the Himalayas to the Mekong Delta - To the moors of Devon, and the streets of Antwerp. I've handed it over to more people to play in more places wondering if I'd ever see it again - and as I sit here typing this the guitar rests beside me on my couch. The point to this is that every instrument has individual characteristics that define it. And the more you play it, the more in tune to those characteristics you become as a player - the more you are able to exploit and suppress them as necessary. The more you are able to evoke the magic and suppress the suck. Instruments are individual -- even mass produced ones. If this guy can't hear the difference that's his problem. He wont be selling me a guitar nor will he ever be touching one of mine. He can bully his way through life slapping people in the face with a bag of dicks -- I'll just keep playing my guitars.

He's wrong - I practice more than I bitch, and I still suck at guitar.

I have heard demand is so high that they have already found counterfeit copies from China.