Leaderboard

So true! Here I am playing in my full checkered outfit. It takes awhile to get everything perfectly lined up, but you can barely see me. 😝😄

Make sure you get the pants, they are a must!

Added another Hamer to the collection. Smokin' deal at $899. It has definitely been played quite a bit as there are some worn frets along with a few scratches and dings but overall in great shape. Interesting that it has a Drop D tuner because I am finishing up a new song that needs a dropped D for the final riffs. Thankfully, the original tuner was in the case. Took it apart to clean it up and tweak it to my liking. Can't wait to play it at my show tomorrow.

Chris, These pictures are amazing. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and insight to our club, world and love of "Hamer"! Thanks! M

No. Rick didn’t give somebody a checkerboard Hamer V. He gave them one of the three checkerboard Flying Vs that Gibson gave him close to a decade ago. He never really played any of those - live or otherwise, and although I’ve seen him show up at a Rock’n Vodka event a time or two wit one of the marching checkerboard Explorers that Gibson also gave him at the same time, I can’t say that I’ve ever seen him playing any of those onstage either. Although he hasn’t bashed them, the fact that he won’t play them, but has given a few away kind of speaks volumes about how they aren’t his Hamers. Rick does have a dead on copy of his Checkerboard Hamer V that was built by Mark Grant in the fall of 2022 (along with a second one built for Michael Adamany), and he’s been playing that live a good bit and it shows up regularly in his stage rack. It was built using his original V as a template and for measurements. His original hasn’t been onstage since the very early ‘80s. It currently resides at the Rockford Hard Rock Casino. The Reverb one has long been confirmed as a conversion by two of the people who would know (one is actually named “Hamer”), and I remember seeing it listed for sale in a VG classified in the ‘90s. It’s really cool, but not one of Rick’s and it didn’t leave the factory like that,

speaking for someone in the electronics industry (defense and whatnot) If anyone needs help lemme know. I use this site alot. Www.findchips.com

Thank's Guys!! I got it all working! The Preamp circuit board is tan on this 1994 model and has some bad tracings. So that's gonna take a bit. Just jumpers for now! Thanks Again!!! Another Hamer has risen from the doesn't work stuck in a closet to a player once again!!!

Great job... I almost bought that one myself👍

Good lord! 😳

I’m not sure the dude is getting the love that he should. There are three classic riffs (Ramones, Deadboys and twisted) that you could arguably say were nicked from the dictators go girl crazy. And then there’s the Manowar stuff which is out of my league musically. I’m pretty sure Jack Black listened to some Manowar.

That one is a different value. It's the volume pot. The probly ran out of black ones. All of mine say "Made in Spain" I'm still trying to figure out where the circuit board was made. I do know that PCB's from the 80's had a tendency to be tan. I'm thinking about building new PCB's. I think if I send one in they'll clone it. Then it just add the parts! Surface mount parts...I hate those tiny things....

Okay, so I cobbled together the pieces to bring out to a gig yesterday. A few quick pictures from the site. The TKIP is the master, with the TKRP in the preamp loop. In front of the TKIP, in order, a Teletronix La-2A compressor, Brother AM (more or less a somewhat more obtainable King of Tone with built in Rangemaster---each side can be set as a boost, OD or distortion) and Love Pedal Super Six. TKIP out to a TC Chorus and delay/echo pedal that feeds into the small Carvin (cheap and affordable) stereo power amp, then into one of my small shop built stereo cabs. Power supply and power strip mounted underneath, so can run it all on one cord to be plugged into AC. Big sounds in a rather compact and light package. Tones? TKIP is pretty much a Fender Deluxe and a "Tweed".....The latter, with the boost in front, can get into that highly saturated Mesa or D tone realm. (Santana like?). Bypass the TKIP and the 2 TKRP channels are pretty much a JTM and Plexi. (Allman Bros, Gary Moore???) The TKIP as master allows the use of its built in Rev and Trem even when its preamp is bypassed. Meanwhile, if BOTH TKs are bypassed and the Super Six is selected (esp with some boost) we are into "Texas Blues" territory. (split the coils on the guitar and Pride and Joy, anyone?) I may yet swap out a piece or two. I like it. TWO fully tube preamps (with the PI) give a really nice set of tones on the fly, nevermind the digital power amp. Steve, a much better player than me, really loved the "blackface" tone, which is mostly what I used live yesterday. (I could say that the very versatile Huber Redwood {"Voice of the Angels"} with BRW neck was part of the equation). All of which comes at a cost. Add up the pieces and you are well past $2k for such a board. Could you program some sort of modeler to get something similar? Sure. Cheaper? Certainly could be. How much does it matter in a live setting? YMMV. Do you hate diving into menus to program and tweak? I do. FWIW, the two amps (Imperial and Royalist) in 1 x 12 combo amp form are around $2700 each. Seems to me this is not a bad way to get there, with stereo, esp if you can fab your own cabs. And these each have essentially the exact tube preamp of the combo amps. And that includes an attenuator on each channel to make it adaptable to the gig. I won't bore with details of the flexibility of each preamp...Plenty demos of that out there. Including ability to go direct and add IRs. Is it better than my "old" board that largely gets to the same place? Jury is out. But I think this one is a lot of fun. Thumbs up to what TK is doing, Will be interesting to see if and how much better it gets when the Wampler "Pedalhead" piece drops later this year, presumably replacing the Carvin for an even more "perfect tone" for live use. (If/when I settle on final configuration, I will lose the zip ties).

I exclusively use Pirateship now. I have a UPS account, but since the UPS Restructure/Cutbacks they eliminated my “Guy” at depot. I can still drip off, but I cannot get any kind of assistance. You being pushed to UPS Stores, which is the same as going third party like Pirateship. FedEx and go F themselves. I have had just too many problems over the years that I stopped using them. USPS is just the most expensive route, and they used to be the reliable route. Now politics have just ruined or at least eroded the system. I ship from “The Heart of IL” and going West Coast Sucks, East Coast Sucks for certain areas. If your shipping to a rural area, its gonna hurt more. It is what it is. I am getting ready or what I hope is the last big purge and I’ll use pirate ship. Guitars, Amps. I have a partial garage stall of boxes ready to go. You want to save money: Pack it yourself Get an account Drop it off, instead of using pickup. All the extras are extras.

The LAST option for me would be USPS. Abysmal service in my area. I recently ranted in the Outer Circle about several of my packages they routed to Puerto Rico. I don’t live there.

Thanks for that, some great playing by both of them, true masters of the guitar. Here a video of the interview Rick Beato did with Joscho.

I saw Joscho Stephan last year. He has a show in Charlotte tonight, but I already paid for a BulletBoys / Once Bitten concert ticket, so that is where I ended up. It would be nice to see Joscho again.

So Gibson copied a Hamer copy of a Gibson? 🤪 Anyway I wonder if someone should let Diablo know, they seem like a reputable shop.

it'll be the most "Dumble" part of the amp...

Those are such nice guitars! Congrats!

I always privately insure at secursus.com It’s cheap as chips and I’ve been using them for years. They insure any parcel anywhere…

Yikes. 😬 Been wrestling in recent months with getting myself a V but it won't be this one, even with the cool 6-in-line Standard head stock.

I'll go with the Dictators' cover of "Search and Destroy" on Manifest Destiny. Methinks it had canned crowd noise and the guitar solo ain't long but 50 years ago it burned into my brain like a laser.

I'm visiting an old friend on the other side of the country next month and he bought the parts so we can make 2 while I visit. I met him 43 years ago at a first year college electral circuits class. We found out we both liked Y&T, motorcycles and guitars... then started a band! Wish us luck!

Great deal, congrats!

Oh boy. Now that I'm the overly-proud owner of a checkerboard guitar strap. I need a checkerboard guitar. And checkerboard shoes, socks, trousers, shirt, tie, sport coat and short-billed cap. And then we get into the checkerboarded greasepaint on hands and neck and face. It's the madness of devout consistency.

I always thought that Vector of Rick's was the coolest V. The Standard headstock on it takes it over the top.

I just put a Powertron Plus (a hotter Powertron, the Billy Gibbons sig pup) in my Ibby, had one in a Gibson Midtown awhile back, it's my fave bridge pup.

Thank you, @topekatj! It was good of you to donate the strap for the HFC cause. I hear my guitars arguing over which one gets to try it on first. They can be such nasty mofos.

Cheap Trick 1977-12-31 Long Beach, CA