Leaderboard

I got to hang with Mike and Trish last week for a long-overdue visit. I did manage to get a peek at #0093 (now residing with a happy new owner in the Greater Chicago area), and was -as always - blown away. Here's a bit of her story so far...in pictures:

VID-20200501-WA0004.mp4

I've done a TONS of research on this guitar... online "Japanese sites" and various Aria Pro FB groups with experts chiming in... It was a short collaboration with Gibson & Aria Pro... think "Norlin era Matsumoku Epiphones" I'm guessing about less than a dozen made? There was also another version LS-1800"VD" that came with Dimarzios https://www.mylespaul.com/threads/1981-aria-pro-ii-ls-1800-or-ls-1500-anyone-here-got-or-had-one.478518/

Surprising, considering he took such good care of it.

SOLD. en route to Minnesota! thanks to all

Yup. That used to be mine. I bought it refinished as is. I may have dropped a different bridge p'up in there and likely a new Schaller Floyd. Can't recall. Somewhere between then and now, it's gotten a few additional mods. It is (was?) a solid player but it wasn't enough to remain in the harem. It's worth whatever you're willing to pay for it. As a refin and modded piece, it's not worth nearly as much as it would be in an original, stock state. I paid around $1400 I think and sold it for close to the same amount.

That was the last guitar that Herc Fede did before his untimely passing from a heart attack.

I have that shirt! ETA- gawdayumm. That's some hella ferocious shredding there, @LucSulla

My 72’ lpc has it’s original stock medium jumbo frets. That’s how.

Ooh that ARIA! Hate the LPC, though. You know, 3pc-top and all. 🤣

Ugh, it reminds me of the first pedal I ever bought. A Boss Octave OC-2. Everything that came out of it sounded like a turd farting. I hated it then. I hate it now.

Hi guys, new to the Hamer world and was wondering if anyone had any information on this guitar they could share with me. I know the Steve Stevens association with this but I am looking to see if anyone knows this specific model's origins etc. Obviously it has had upgrades and a new finish but the bare bones guitar itself I am curious about. Any help in this would be much appreciated.

Growing up a die hard "The Jetsons" fan, I had really hoped for more.

Same. Once dialed in, I’ve yet to experience any problems with my Proto ll vibrato. I did swap out the string lock for a Stringlock Pro. Works like a charm.

Oh man, Heck of a week. I ended up in the hospital on the 17th. Thanks for asking, Travis. I'm back in the saddle though. I watched lots of "new" videos yesterday while sipping milk shakes and marked some to post here for you wonderful people. I'm glad I have a support group.

Gary was playing that red strat when I saw him open up the 84 Texxas Jam.

Cool, almost looks like the one Ace held on the cover of Guitar Player

Saw that and it looked intriguing. Not sure it’s my thing, but interesting. Where you been, btw? Seemed like a bit of a mini draught of people posting old ass videos like they were brand new. 😂😜

Everything about that guitar is right. Great work!

Someone gonna be veddy, veddy happy! WOW.

It’s a refin, last time I saw it for sale was by a guy in New Zealand. He listed it on Reverb a while ago trying to get crazy money for it. I reached out to him at the time with what I thought was a fair offer which he scoffed at. I suspect it may have originally been Diablo’s as it has many of his hallmark mods, which is what drew me to it. Here’s the most recent ad from the Kiwi seller: https://reverb.com/item/84931171-hamer-usa-centaura-custom-bengal-tiger-last-month?utm_source=rev-ios-app&utm_medium=ios-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=84931171

I'm going to steal that one. I have a similar expression for wretched smells: "It smells like my foot took a shit!"

Yeah, that would most definitely suck..☹️... Big Montrose fan here!... Got a couple of Montrose inspired LP's

Ronnie Montrose’s widow is gonna be PISSED when, “Stripe”, sells for multi-$100ks.

No argument there. I just don’t think anyone is making a dime off of it at that price of entry.

This concept wreaks (no pun intended, but certainly accepted) of a quantum thought experiment. "A positively-charged turd is emitted while farting and then that turd emits a fart... I can know either its position or its spin, but not both..." 🧐

FFS... just think of it as a personal project that you can sell whenever you decide to complete it, whether it be a year or 10 years from now... just escape to the garage, watch some football, Have a beer.... pull some stickers off one weekend... another weekend, fill the Kahler hole... yada, yada, yada... It's not trash, if the neck is straight and the truss rod is still working I will bet you you will see this guitar for sale in 1 to 3 years all fixed up with a vague description 🤣

Maybe a long way down the road, but at $5150 (apropos price for a lunatic) there isn't a whole lot of money to be made after you re-top and repaint. When you're done you'll have a refinished 4-digit with a headstock repair. Factor in what it would cost to get you there and you're losing money.

Unfortunately I missed out on buying the Fart Pedal 2 a while ago. Gabe 😀

l..l, Rawk!

Well, since we're showing pics of the kids, my ride or die 78 that's I've had since 1999 on a rare outing.

When they were going through the specs of the XS-100, about 15 minutes in, they talked about it having a port for another expression pedal. Lee pointed out that someone somewhere is going to up-one on Tom Morello and figure out their own sound. He went on to say that the XS-100 is the future. So we can sit back, wait and see.

The whole SBS album (minus Fluff).

The guitarist is okay. The guitar is killer.

Armageddon!! Or Pineapple!! What ever our safe word is.

I said if YOU had the skills... "someone like Murkat"... not to farm it out... Geez, fuk'n pay attention 🤣

Too much DNA for me 🤮

I like the Dio fronted Black Sabbath but I recently listened to the whole Paranoid album and it is damned good beginning to end.

Here's my '73 Gibson Les Paul Custom. I got it as a gift from my dad in 1973. I still have it! Yeah, It's definitely not the same now - haha. Been through a million changes. Here's the story... It went through some crazy mods. First, I swapped out the pickups for 2 DiMarzio Super Distortion pickups. My dad drove me to Staten Island, NY and I went to Larry Dimarzio's house where he was selling them out of his basement!! I later added a middle PU a'la Peter Frampton. I then added an MXR Phase 90 inside the control cavity (Yeah, it actually fit) Added Grovers too (still on there) I stripped it down to natural like Mick Ronson and filled in the maple top and took out the middle PU. Kept it like that for a long time. It was a pretty nice sounding guitar! Under 10lbs too. I then decided to fix her up. I sent it to a luthier to completely grind off the maple top and 're-top' it with a Spalted Maple top. Recently, I added some custom-wound Gravelin pickups and 3rd refret by RS Guitarworks to Medium Jumbos. The only part still original is the tailpiece. Weird, but it's Super lightweight and actually makes a big difference in tone. I tried two other gold tailpieces and they didn't sound nearly as good, lightweight really made a difference. Here's a current pic I used for my CD insert on my album. Lastly, I made a nice truss cover to remind me of my dad.

Because they won’t sell as fretless wonders.

How can a '70s LP Custom be considered authentic when it has "medium jumbo" frets?

Specifically and officially, the rarer Centaura 2HB. I've owned two over the years. Considering the graphic is an exact copy of a Lynch tiger, with no clearcoat yellowing as opposed to the headstock (that logo should be white) ... I'd bet the farm it's a refin. Non original tremolo (that's a Gotoh 1996T derivative with what appear to be FU-Tone upgrades). Added claw upgrade, added trem stop, non factory knob. Sweet piece!

Sorry. I have one of his stolen basses from 2012 - his 12 string Hamer and I’m arranging its return to him. That was all, really.

Shit, I never trash them. Everywhere I move, bass players hold the music scene hostage because none of us can find them, and they know it. I don't know how many times in the last 15 years that the bassist made more than I did off a gig.

I knew it was something like that.