Leaderboard

So after borrowing another HFC member’s Talladega, I knew I had to get one. I found this mint almost NOS 2007 model from a collector who rarely played it. It has a much softer V than the other one I borrowed, but I can fly on it and it feels like a vintage carve but with a soft V. And it is in jazzburst!!! Just like my Artist Korina! This is the finest and fastest Hamer I have ever owned. Impeccably built. I love the Double Ds and of course the Sustainblock and Fender scale. It is very light and I believe it has the extra chambering as it sounds that way when doing the tap test. I need to get it x-rayed to be sure. Simpply an outstanding playing and sounding guitar.

A 2004 NOS Monaco Superpro and a 1977 Sunburst 😁

I did manage to bring home a new Hamer this year — a sunburst Daytona w/ a rosewood board. Been looking for one for pretty good while. So I'm up to four in my modest collection now:

2025 was a good year for Hamer in my house.. '93 Studio, 99 25th Anniversary, 2001 Artist Korina P90, 1996 Studio Custom

My end of year Hamer count is the same as the past several years, one Studio Custom. Nothing out or in. I’m using funds to maintain and repair what I have. Neck resets on a Taylor 12 String and Martin HD28, frets dressed on a Tele. Still need to take the Studio Custom in to have the nut and frets checked.

Ca

Crews ST-69.

My only new Hamer this year is also my only new guitar this year, Kaki King's Newport Pro:

Nice pic, maybe you could Photoshop a brick wall behind you, 😁

Laney bass head for one band. Chilly Bo for another.

Three more, Yamaha SA2200, Baker B3, and Ernie's SG Junior.

Saw this on a DYI guitar Facebook page and thought it was kind of cool

It was a light year for me in terms of acquisitions. Only one guitar in: Les Paul Standard 50’s. Had Josh @JGravelinwind a killer bridge pickup for it. Only other thing I picked up was an EQ pedal for my big board. I’ve got something else in the works, but it won’t be here until Jan/Feb. I’ll post that one when it arrives…. 😉

3 guitars in. 5 amps out. Novo Miris Les Paul 50's BB Pro's Memphis Custom Shop 339, rare color. Thinking about turning the Lester loose again tho!

2 Sully's Raven-USA CS 71 Trella-Korea Wasn't asked but got a couple amps too. Ceriatone JCM52 Suhr SL-15

Three, all in the last month. The Monaco is inbound. Okay, I couldn’t resist the deal in the Eclipse XII. So four in the last month.

My ex-wife found this picture and sent it to me. Circa 1981. The "Tim Nickle Band". Tim (the guy on the left with his hand on his head) was a songwriter and formed this band to record an album. We never did a single gig. This image was taken in the recording studio in Seattle. There was one song on the album that I wrote, which got a fair amount of airplay on one of the Seattle radio stations and it made Tim so angry that he broke up the band. I am in the middle, holding my Gibson 1980 Heritage Standard, which was a sweet guitar. Wish I still had it. In 1981, I was 23 years old. Ha!

Interesting to see what Dennis DeYoung was up to back then (between you and Nickle, wearing the vest/flak jacket) Wouldn't think he could sublimate his own name to play in a combo with someone else's moniker...

sale pending...

I also love Grez. Talked to Barry a bit re a redwood Medocino Special, but the Hartung Junico will do just fine. So I will be content with these two, filling a different space in 2025......

Just one new guitar this year. I wanted an all-purpose guitar that I could use for an entire gig, slotted in between my two other two Teles, one normal-ish with two single coils and one 2-humbucker Schecter PT partscaster. My employer has this silly system of brownie points that you get occasionally for going above and beyond, but I got a big slug of points for selling a couple of projects (even though sales is not my job). From the online catalog of quality merchandise, I selected a 3-color sunburst Player II Telecaster. To make my vision a reality, I installed Duncan pickups - a Hot Stack bridge (with series/parallel switch) and an SM-1 neck. Throw in an aged white pickguard from Guitar Fetish, and we have my new #1 gigging guitar. Does a pretty good job of covering all the bases for my '80s mostly-new-wave cover band, including the occasional half-assed foray into hair metal territory. Other than that, my focus in 2025 has been streamlining my pedalboard for the '80s thang. The two Wazas and the OD-3 are new, as well as the HX One "Swiss Army" pedal.

More than I should have. Where did I leave the pix? This is the latest in, another from David Myka. Who I WISH would reopen his build list. 🤧 #157 from 2014. Loving it. Korina body, redwood top, BRW neck, ebony. Hard to find Skyway trem. Ungodly number of tones with that switching and the volume pot. Plugged into the Swart SST with zero effects I can get virtually any tone I can think of. (My #148 is actually very similar, but with figured koa top and cocobolo neck and fixed tail. Why do I need both? Well.....)

Let me look at my list here. This was technically in 2024, but it was in December, right before Christmas, so close enough 😁 The price was too cheap not to get it. I bought it to flip it, but once I gave it a very badly needed setup, it ended up becoming one of my most played guitars. It just plays so wonderfully. Next up was my Hamer Studio Custom goldtop. I happened to pop onto reverb and found a 4 minute old listing, once again at a price I couldn't refuse. I swapped the Duncans out of this for the Lollars that were in my Special. I sold off the Special and held on to this. I still have the goldtop, though I've been waffling back and forth about whether or not to move it on. Next up somewhere around the April/May timeframe was this Studio. A guy had it listed on FB Marketplace forever with a couple lousy pictures. I was in his area for work related travel, threw him an offer, and once again came home with a guitar priced too cheap to pass up. This was another guitar I bought to flip that I haven't flipped yet because I'm enjoying it too much. In the right light this guitar actually has a beautiful top hiding under all that blue Next up was a 1 or 2 year only Schecter Tempest P90 goldtop. Usual story... listed cheap on Marketplace. I was coming home from vacation and got it along the way. This one came with the stock Schecter noiseless pickup in the neck and a Dimarzio P90-sized Super Distortion in the bridge. I swapped in a set of Guitar Madness P90s that absolutely crank. The neck sounds identical to my Gibson P90s and the bridge is hotter. Killer sounding combo. As much as I like this one, I think this is going to get moved along shortly. Next I believe was an Epoch Les Paul off of marketplace. This was a local kid selling it for $50. It was unplayable with 10/64" action and the bridge was binding so it wouldn't go any lower. I had to plug & redrill the holes to prevent binding when lowering the bridge. Now after that and a complete setup it plays great. I'll be featuring this in an upcoming youtube video for a dirt-cheap budget upgrade, then I'll sell it off. Next was a Leo Jaymz LP copy with the american flag on the front. Why? Because Murica! It was dirt cheap, had free shipping, and included a hard case and a set of Grover tuners. I put on a different set of tuners and currently have it for sale. I'll save the Grovers for a future project. Let's see... next is an Epiphone Les Paul Special P90. Yet another deal that was too good to pass up. This is a 2022 but was virtually unplayed. The seller bought it new from Sweetwater in 2022 and it arrived with a cracked neck. They gave him a full or partial refund, and eventually he parted with it. This showed up cheap on Marketplace and I immediately pounced. I made a video documenting the neck repair, and I intend to do another video or 2 with it (one will compare it to my Gibson LP Special) and then I'll move it along. I've been enjoying playing it in the meantime though! After that, what do you know... another deal! A Daisy Rock Rock Candy Classic popped up cheap. I gave it a setup and a good cleaning, and managed to sell it within a couple days of listing it on Reverb. And lastly (so far... I have my eye on a couple more that I hope to grab while I'm at my inlaws for Christmas 😁) is this Firefly doubleneck. They did a drop recently, and after watching last year's drop of doublenecks take a while to sell, I decided to wait while I watched the inventory. Sure enough, they dropped the price $40 so I pounced. Because the Firefly doublenecks include the hard case, this was a tremendous opportunity. Since my kid will probably use this on some songs (he thinks he'll be playing Hotel California next semester) the hard case was a necessity. I've been having a ton of fun playing this, and I'll end up doing an upgrade video on it too.

Oh yeah, finally brokedown recently when I got a deal on a Hartung Junico. More or less the same thing as a Huber Krautster, but with a bit more "personality". Not a huge fan of the factory girl, but I can live with it...... Secret sauce on this one comes from the rosewood neck and a push/pull that selects both Haussell pups in series, effectively creating one huge sounding humbucker.

some Imports from Amazon: I got a headless Eart last spring (don't waste your birthday, suggest something you actually want), I really like it and play it often, awesome practice and/or backup guitar An IYV 5 string headless fan-fret multi scale bass, it required a bit of setup, also a really good bass, I have almost nothing bad to say about it (volume pot makes a little 'whoosh' when turned up when the electronics are active, - dead quiet when active is switched off via the pull pot. I have no desire to sell it and buy a similar design Ibanez or other

A couple of immediate returns due to finish issues: an EVH 5150 and Ibanez RG The keepers: Jackson MJ Series RR 24 A Charvel USA San Dimas 2H A project Charvel Star, now on it's way to be painted. And the big Kahuna- Jackson Custom Shop Kelly... also with finish issues. 🙄

(not Studio) Artist Custom. Currently my only Hamer.

Two in 2025, to my surprise...wasn't palnned at all. A 1978 Sunburst and a 1980 Special, both in very good condition (the Sunburst had changed tuners at some point). They are the oldest guitars I have now. Everything Fender form the 1960s long gone and I don't think I will ever be able to afford one buying again (love the 1960s Jaguars with matching headstocks).

One in:

At the risk of non-guitar-gear-posting excommunication, here's the only significant haul of the year: Sitting on the couch Sunday I get a surprise notification from FedEx - a delivery! It was around 24 degrees, so I go to the door, poke my head out and survey the empty front porch. I then, at great risk of hypothermia and/or frostbite, step out onto the front porch, peer to the north and see a large box on the driveway next to the garage door. I suppose it was too much to require the driver to comprehend the (surely) French marking "Fragile" (fra-GEE-lay) on the box. I wasn't holding out a great deal of hope for the contents. I let it acclimate for a day before opening (or to be more precise, finish opening). It was saved by the superior Roland box inside. I sold my JD-Xi a couple of years back - great synth but the mini keys were a bummer. This has full-sized keys and a useful feature set. Sweetwater had them $200 off. I had been not-buying a Fantom for quite a few years ($$$$). This does all I'd want to do with the Fantom at a fraction of the price. And to answer the obvious follow-up question - yes, despite the gaping hole and packing material excreted into the Japanese maple, the Sweetwater candy packet was safely inside.

ok, I'll go first: quite a good year (but zero Hamers). Left to right is a Spirit (small now gone Nevada shop), neck thru with Lace splittable hums, really cool guitar. Custom shop John Douglas painted Peavey, Yamaha 1221, and an AZ series Ibanez. The Ibanez is not rare, valuable or collectible, but it is a keeper because it's such a good guitar

Just last week I took delivery of a “minty fresh” (truly like new) Talladega. It is the best Hamer I have ever owned.

No, the submarine is right side up. The guitar itself appears to be for a lefty strung righty.

I'd be far more concerned with the propeller.

I must have a parasitic infection.

Cerriatone makes a great ODS clone. Several different voiced ones! I bought a Cerriatone 18 to check the quality and they really are nice amps!

Uh…. Isn’t that an Artist Custom…? 😉

Glad you found the Tally Jakeboy. I know you've been looking hard. On another note. Aren't you about a week late on those NGD pictures?

Import Hamer 12 string bass. that's all.

Tried, but my lowball offer was rejected.... : )

Whatever you call it, it’s gorgeous. Congrats!

"Toys are hereby declared illegal, immoral, unlawful!"

1 - Nashville T-51F. (... maybe 2....) ETA: OK, it's official -#2 - '94 Daytona. Total Hamer count: 6 - Junior, Special FM, Daytona (blue), Daytona (blonde), T-51F, and a 5-string Slammer Series bass.

"Nuthin up muh sleeve..."