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I am deeply saddened to inform the community that Annette is no longer with us. She died peacefully. We do not yet know the cause of death. Annette started with Hamer as, I believe, a 15 or 16 year old in 1980, working with us for about 20 years. Initially she leveled guitars (finish sanding) and then worked in the office, coordinating most everything. She was with Hamer until we moved to Connecticut. She was a vibrant and beautiful individual who added so very much to all that was Hamer Guitars. She will be missed.

I've gotten some good classical guitar at thrift shops, including a couple of WIlliams albums, plus various members of the Romero family. I also have some Laurinda Almeido and Julian Bream as well. I got my current turntable in March 2007, just as the return to vinyl was taking off. I had lost most of my record collection to a flood, so I hit the used record stores and thrift shops to rebuild my LP library on the cheap. On my first try, I hit a St. Vincent De Paul and got a lucky strike--an LP of Mozart woodwind suites recorded and pressed by Everest Records, whose claim to fame was no-compromise stereo recordings made on a 3-channel Westrex 35mm magnetic tape machine, though this particular album was in mono, but I was so excited I didn't notice. The original Everest label was only around from about 1958-1962. Many of these (esp. the 35mm magnetic film recordings) are rather expensive items, and are also available as remasters/represses. When I got it home it was too noisy to listen to. Then, in 2015 I got a mono cartridge (to play my Beatles Mono reissue series) and then started digging out some used mono LPs, including the Everest one. To my surprise, played with the mono cartridge, all these old mono LPs were totally noise-free, including the Everest LP and a Segovia box set, plus the Vince Guaraldi Trio and several other mono records whose music I liked, but had been too noisy to enjoy. I also remembering the excitement of finding some chart-toppers such as the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack and some Ray Charles and Johnny Cash. Sliding them out of their sleeves were an easy reveal that these albums had been played to death--you could tell by the hazy glaze on the record surfaces. LPs in like-new condition have a jet-black, shiny gleam to them. And you're so right about the stacks of middle-of-the-road albums such as Herb Alpert and B-list Italian crooners such as Jerry Vale, Vic Damone, and Perry Como. Recordings of these artists found their way into massive stacks in just about every thrift shop I hit. I never knew a Jerry Vale recording in my life, and wondered what market he reached, how & why they bought up his stuff, and why and when his fan base had had enough and dumped ALL of their collections at every thrift shop I visited. One thing I found interesting was the first Tijuana Brass album. I bought it for the nostalgia: Observe the low-budget cover photo: He's sitting sideways in a straight chair, trumpet on the floor, a bota bag, tequila, salt shaker, kitchen knife, and a lime--about a $23 trip to the supermarket for the props, all background hidden by a huge photographer's backdrop of seamless paper. This album and its cover art was done on a shoestring. It turned out this album was recorded in Alpert's garage and I wouldn't be surprised if the cover photo was shot there too. The "Tijuana Brass" were a group of studio musicians led by Herb Alpert. Julius Wechter was the marimba player. When Alpert & Moss (A&M) started expanding, they formed a semi-comedy group, The Baja Marimba Band fronted by Julius Wechter. They also signed Brasil 66 led by pianist Sergio Mendes. Soon Mendes decided he needed his own studio and hired Harrison Ford to build it for him in his back yard. The TJ Brass and Brasil 66 traded band members back and forth as needed for live shows and recording sessions. Soon A&M signed The Carpenters and got the distribution rights from Island Records to repackage and distribute Cat Stevens in the U.S., and they were well on their way. By the late '70s they had signed The Police.

I always stop at Goodwill to peruse their records but almost always walk away disappointed; just how many Davis Soul, Engelbert Humperdinck, Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass albums did they press, and why are they all at my Goodwill? I even played trumpet for years but enough is enough! Some of the vinyl that looked a little promising was in such bad shape I would not play them on my equipment. Anyway, the other day I found a near mint SOR: 20 STUDIES FOR GUITAR JOHN WILLIAMS record for a buck so I finally bought one there! I'll continue my quest.

Annette (2/16/65 - 8/12/16) started at Hamer Guitars in Chicago while in high school and remained with the company until it relocated to Connecticut. As anyone knows, products are a direct representation of people who make up the company, so if you are a fan of Chicago era Hamer Guitars she can be thought of as part of the reason why.

So sad and shocked to hear about this. Annette was such a sweetheart, she took me under her wing and was always so helpful and nice to me. Love that her signature is so prominent on the case for my korina V. My thoughts are with her family.