Leaderboard

... at least at my home: Recently I discovered this beautiful neon sign (not LED!). I suspect that it is from the 80s or 90s. I even had to buy a step-down transformer to be able to use it. Amazing that it survived all these years unharmed. With more than 40 Hamer guitars in my collection, it seemed to me to be the cherry on top. I hope you like it too.

We're at an AirBnb about 30 miles south of La Crosse (home of Dave's first guitar emporium), so a visit is mandatory. My wife is with me this time, but she is aware of why we're there - to swap the Rainsong for something better suited to my hands. Although it's not a done deal, they have a suitable replacement (more on that later). We browsed the main floor but nothing says 'buy me', so we head upstairs to Dave's own stash. It's my 3rd time but her first, and for a non-guitarist she was surprisingly into it. We made a long slow lap around and were starting lap #2 when Tim (yep!) the website photographer strikes up a conversation. Little did we know that that conversation would lead to about a 2 hour guided HANDS-ON tour of Dave's personal gear. That's right - one after another guitars were being pulled down and put in my hands. At first I resisted but my wife chimes in, "When will you ever get another chance?" and with that Les Pauls from '54 thru '60, Strats from '54 thru '64, and Teles from '52 thru I forget were plucked from their perches and placed in my now-sweaty mitts, each with their own tale. Not sure if I was more in awe of holding them or more fascinated with their history. What a trip! The Explorer/Vee/Moderne backstory, the wall of Gretschs, the Gibson Switchmaster, more stuff hidden in the back - and the five Hamers in the corner, including a checkerboard '81 Special and Keef's Belushi Standard (which had an even better story of how it came to Dave). The '54 Tele found caseless in a farmhouse attic and tossed into a dumpster by a clueless renovator, only to be saved by said renovator's brother, had to be my favorite. That guitar was as weathered as you'd expect, and flat out gorgeous. My wife was right - it was an experience I'll never get again, and won't forget for as long as I live. This here doesn't begin to scratch the surface. Holy hell what a day.

Hi Folks, First off this is not a plea for money, I appreciate all the support that people send, and I plan to keep the HFC going until it doesnt makes sense. Feel free to read as much or as little of this as you like but I wanted to be transparent on whats going on. As many of you may be aware we have been struggling over recent months. Our hosting company was sold last year and things continual are getting worse. The service being the most obvious as you may have noticed frequent 503 errors due to them reducing the amount of resources available. They have also increased our hosting prices by over 300%. furthermore, the plan we are on no longer works for us due to the resource demands from the board and the only option for staying is Virtal Private Server which cost exponentially more than of a traditional shared hosting account or offloading the board to invision cloud hosting but that alone is over $1000 per year and I dont want to lose the other pages. This really maked me miss the old days when I hosted the HFC on a throw away 386 running linux and apache in the basement of my inlaws office. Anyway, over the last few months I have been trying to find a situation that was reasonably affordable. I am planning to move hosts and am close to narrowing down my choice. The initial costs are reasonable as they give you a deal for a year then increase your monthly the next year. One of the issues is the size of the database as I have been retaining ALL posts from when we first moved to invision 20 years ago. I like the idea of having them available to search and revisit. However, I might need to drop quite a few or them. If I do, I will keep a copy and maybe bring it back up under an archive site. We'll see. I am working on keeping the recent stuff going first. What you need to know is this migration is going to happen soon, likely in the next two weeks. The site may be down or unavailable for a while as I migrate data. maybe days but I am hoping to avoid that. Please give me some grace on that as I do have a real job as well which has been very heavy. Lastly, I want to thank each and every one of you for being here. YOU are the HFC not that site and I am going to do my best to keep this clubhouse going as long as I can. your friend Ted Martin

Someone really likes Blitzes...

Write an article about fake Gibsons for Vintage Guitar. Use a photo of your Chibson. Then advertise the guitar for sale as "featured in Vintage Guitar Magazine." You might even make a profit.

After tons of hours and thousands of co-pilot messages (amazing really) to figure out the new host created a broken VPS. The site should be back and better than ever. Beat it up and let me know what you find. That said. IPB message board we use has become bloated and is bugging me to constantly buy updates and move to their cloud services. It's to the point that I am ready to jump to another forum product. I am not planning on doing it this week. But likely in the future. If you are interested check out xenforo, its lighter weight, has a very similar feature set and much more appealing licensing. Thanks all for your patience. I appreciate every member of the first and best damn guitar forum on the internet for over 30 years your friend Ted Martin For those that have no clue what I am referring to see the back story here:

As noted in a thread about a Peavey Dyna Bass I acquired a while back, I'll still poke my head into pawn shops on occasion if I'm out of town and ahead of schedule for some kind of business or medical appointment. There are certain sections of larger towns that have turned into combat zones, and I no longer look into shops in such areas. Made that (easy) decision after hearing nearby gunfire when I left such a store a few years back. So this '72 Micro-Frets Stage II came from an alternate location, and once again, I just stumbled into it. It's in Near-Mint condition and I paid too much for it but should be able to make it back if and when I flip it ...And it may be a while before I flip it on accounta this Maryland-made oddity has all sort of cool attributes and innovations: A "Calibrato" vibrato (feels like a Mosrite), a tuneable nut, and a reportedly-Bill-Lawrence-designed "Hi-Fi" circuit that suppresses 20% of the coil windings to offer a switchable tone shift. Neck profile feels like a Mosrite as well (YMMV), Instrument is fully original. Moreover, It's got the original plush-line hard case, instructions, and a November 1972 newsletter...checking out case candy is always a cool experience. Pickups are P-90ish (IMO) and it plays like butter. Micro-Frets only made about 3000 instruments during its initial existence. Finding one this nice from that era is probably a rare experience. HFC members from the Old Line State can probably relate.

My brother's band just released their latest music video, and I thought you guys might enjoy. No Hamer content here, but my bro plays a pretty tasty solo on this one. ...However, there IS some Hamer content in the acoustic version they did of the first single "Goin' Crazy;" the bass player is playing my brother's fretless cruisebass (i think?)

Pics of how it looked when I got it and how it looks now. Prefer to meet in person driving distance from DC area. Guitar and case are all original to the best of my knowledge, with the exception of the switch tip and possibly the brass nut. The volume pot for the neck pickup cuts in and out and probably needs to be replaced. I tried to clean it up with DeoxIT without success. There are some dings that don't photograph well, but nothing major in my opinion. This one has the 3-piece neck. The humbucker mounting rings are replacements that I thought matched the binding better, but the originals are in the case. I will follow up with more pics and will attempt some neck measurements if I can find my calipers.

Ting Ho Dung has confirmed the Monaco Elite has landed and zenmindbegginer is a very happy dude right now. Hopefully he'll stop by the HFC sometime soon to share a quick pic or video of it in action. Thanks to Thorn for facilitating this transaction and to the HFC members who contributed to this effort. And congrats again Geoff on reacquiring that badass guitar! Hope to see it in action soon 🤘🤘

Did Gene go to stomp on a pedal and stomp on your foot by accident? 😁

Still got mine, including the sustainblock trem arm hardware.

Thanks for EVERYTHING you do behind the scenes and right out in the open here for the HFC! I can’t believe that I’ve been on this board for close to half my life, but it’s all because of you taking the plunge and making it happen. I think most of us here have made great friends, bandmates and even adopted siblings. It truly is (and has always been) the best hangout on the dubayew dubayew dubayew. You rock, Ted!

OK, you talked me into it:

I totally dig these Blitzs 🤩 Here are mine

Nice! I'm still hanging on to this one.

Good News! I have a reasonable host and am in the process of setting things up. Fingers crossed it goes well. I'll keep you posted. So far, its been a grind, but so good. Cant wait to ditch this crappy host

Despite having the aggregate gear, talent and work ethic of a legit, gigging band, my current line up won't or can't do legit 3 set-gigs. Instead, we have to settle for 1 set opening slots with other bands, featured set appearances or 3- 4 song sets at open mics. It ain't so bad. True, we don't get paid BUT load in/load out is stupid simple, my gear can be carried in one trip and doesn't break my back, PA & sound is always provided, I am in no danger of forgetting parts to 3 - 8 songs and I'm in and out and home in +/- 1.5 hours and get a full good night's slumber. Win. Did an open mic last night where we followed the house band and got to do 4 songs, all of which featured my C3- Checkered Cali Custom. Behold...

If that sold and Ionel’s sells, I’m putting up my Custom-Ordered Greenburst Standard. At those prices? Damned straight.

It's not even OCD. Only a deranged maniac would list all of that in paragraph form.

A total knucklehead got banned from here for trying to pass one of those off as the real thing when he 100% knew better. That was the last straw after he had proven himself to be a bit of a scammer and just overall weirdness.

No photos? Dude.

That top is mental. Oof.

This is all I have for now. The guitar is in storage and I'm going to get it out about a day or two before the show. The back is mahogany (of course) and the sunburst on the back matches the front. Will Boggs GregWinds with taps. I don't have the original pickups.

I found it on "Kleinanzeigen". It's a website similar to "Craigslist". The seller is a musician himself (keybords) and had a studio in which he used the neon sign as decoration. He had acquired it many years ago when a music store closed down and now wanted to get rid of it. I had to pick it up in person, because he did not want to ship it for understandable reasons. I didn't even know that such a thing existed.

Kurt made one for Brad Whitford and one other for a guy in New York (he can't tell me). Both were creamsicle orange. Mine's a different color...

Big chunk of wood!...............I owned 2 of them back in my fusion days. One I custom ordered from Gibson and the other I bought from "Pete's Guitar" in St Paul Mn. The original design from 1958 - 1962 are the real collector's item. I played one long, long ago at a guitar show. It had a mandolin on top and a six string on the bottom, but Gibson would let you custom order different configurations. Here is a photo my brother took of me back in the early 1970s.

For all us OCD f***ers who can't comprehend it unless it's in list form: Rolph PAF set "underwound" for $350. Two really nice aged nickel covers for $45. LovePedal Mosferatu pedal for $145 (has the good transistors). Early Wizz humbuckers (no paperwork and no logos) for $600 (I don't have provenance, but they are the shit). Gibson Rhythm and Lead Pro pickups for $250. Boss Volume Pedal (the industry standard) for $50. Gravelin "Ultimate Charlotte" set for $350. "PTP" Indonesian PAF pickups for $100 (they sound pretty good). Seymour Duncan custom mini-humbucker four conductor pickup for $125. Gibson Sonex 180 pickups known as "Velvet Bricks" by Bill Lawrence for $350. Thorn Staple P-90 set for $350. Ron doesn't sell these anymore. Stewart MacDonald Golden Age 5400-Z/5401-Z set for $100 (highly underrated PAFs). Gibson Pat# from the mid-sixties (re-wind required)) for $150. Generic humbucker for $30??? Gravelin Ultimate Charlotte for $150 (not sure about the measurements, but I can find out!). Fender Tele pickup (generic import model) for $50. Marshall Gold logo reproduction for $40. Nickel Grovers from 2001 for $175. Celestion Greenback 25Watt speakers (2) for $300 (plastic mag covers are damaged, but pickups sound great). Stevens Pat Pend pre-1952 slide for $50. Oahii steel slide for $35. Oahu Diamond thirties slide for $35.

Crappy pic of my Blitz bass.

You can probably have one made for the cost of what... four Rush concert tickets?

Just don't take the gold waist chain off and you should be fine 😳

Hamer Vector Flying V 1985 - Red and Black Zulu Bengal Tiger Finish Electric GUI https://reverb.com/item/93062934?utm_source=android-app&utm_medium=android-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=93062934 Honestly, this is not a bad deal considering 20 plus years ago these were averaging selling at $3,500 and this one is quite unique and are getting super super rare... I'm not into Kahlers, but if I were and had the money 🤷

It just reveals the demographic that uses it, which I think it's safe to say is a different demographic than the one that uses the HFC forums.

All of this Corrosion of Conformity talk on the thread a couple of weeks back made me take another shot at an SG. I need a dedicated guitar for tuning to D standard. Found a pretty good deal on a 2016 SG HP someone had thoughtfully improve, i.e., removing the G-Force tuner. I thought the titanium nut and the sculpted heel were cool ideas. I like the thought of easily being able to raise and lower the nut, particularly for something I am going to set up for DOOM. What I was not prepared for was the "soloist" neck. Gibson wasn't joking around by calling it a "soloist" neck because it feels exactly like my 98 Jackson Soloist. You may like or hate that depending on preference, but I think it is pretty cool. Maybe I will actually keep an SG for once. I also have swapped some pups on a tobacco burst LP traditional and threw in some Gravelin pups he made for me awhile back. I sold the guitar they were in, but kept the pickups. Proof positive that modern LPs have a more pronounce arch than the Norlin era LPC they came out of. The treble pickup ring cracked IMMEDIATELY. Should have thought of that before I thought of that!

I think the primary problem is over seventy years of failure to defend. It would be difficult to argue sudden harm when you've been letting it go for the better part of a century.

Good for you! I am amazed at how comfortable we've become with foregoing life in the interest of documenting it. How much are we missing solely in the interest of saving some visual record no one will likely ever care about or revisit? This entire concept first occurred to me when in 2014 I took my daughter to see Rush (Clockwork Angels tour). Most of the place was watching the entire concert through their phones. Have you watched any of the fan footage of any concert on YouTube? Is that really worth foregoing the experience? Any experience? So good for you! Congratulations - you experienced life!

I respect your perspective but the person who bought Zorrow’s will have it in his hands within a matter of days or whatever he and @zorrow worked out. It is a beautiful guitar and I think the buyer is a lucky dude.

Looks like someone already has.

I thought Jim bought new sets of shorts for gigs...

You guys are too slow. 😜 It’s back “on hold”, and you know that us here, we honor our word. In few months it will be gone then, but the good news is that it stays in the family. Cheers! 🍻

What do you want to know? I was assembling them at the cs in 2009, 2010. They're nice. (Big necks)

Well guys, the guitar is now ON HOLD. So, it looks it will stay in the HFC family, which always feels good —for some reason, that matters to us. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Reminds me of this one. Though, I like the factory paint job on yours!

Gone to a place where a nickel still plays the jukebox. Another bought you a glass of warm beer. He was odd but incredibly original. Did tours consisting of nothing more than prisons and small bars. All with beat up Peavey PA equipment. Truly the wandering minstrel that drank to much, smoked to much and you never had to wonder what he was thinking. An American Original! RIP Mr. Coe

this is on layaway, I can pick it up next time I'm up that way. They sweetened the deal enough to make me wait (the store employees get some sort of bonus if they get enough layaways at the end of each month, so it's common to get a better discount if bought on layaway). '89, mostly just dirty and neglected, the funny thing is that it's much easier to assume it's a real one if it's dirty enough, and I think all the fakes have the serial on the back of the headstock instead of the neck plate like the earlier ones. I had a desert yellow one a while back, and or course I should have kept it, this eases my pain quite a bit

Thanks for the update, all the best for the move! The hfc is quite fabulous. The only forum I activley follow. Cheers! C.

Cover them up? We are on such different wavelengths...

I'm setting up at the third Sarasota Guitar Show this year. June 6th and 7th, unless you want to pay a fee to get in on dealer day (June 5th). I'll have lots of cool stuff including these guitars, amps and cab w/ lots of parts and collectible stuff: 2006 Robin Avalon Custom w/ double crown inlays (one of ten) / 2017 Thorn Artisan Master Lacewood w/ trem / '22 Gibson Murphy Lab Blonde Kossoff Les Paul / Hamer Rowyco Blue Sparkle Special w/ crowns, Floyd (Gary Moore style) and Will Boggs Gregwinds w/ taps / early seventies Gibson L6-S w/ block inlays (needs frets) / '86 PRS Pre-Standard natural mahogany rare w/ birds / '13 Suhr Archtop Korina body/neck w/ killer quilt top / Ornett's GM-6 Custom quilt top monster Japanese top quality guitar / BC Rich Eagle Supreme quilt top / '06 Robin E-Type Tele-style ash w/ big flamed neck and Dirty Harry pickup / '18 Fender white Eric Johnson thinline with all case candy and brand new condition / '96 PRS Santana I rare natural back / All-Parts Telecaster Custom w/ custom pickups and aging / Robin Japanese Artisan in black w/ Ian Anderson PAF's / Danocaster blonde ash '57 model w/ killer neck / Vaschenko Tele-Paul upscale custom / 2008 HAMER STANDARD w/ SUNBURST FRONT AND BACK / Rhoney custom korina Strat w/ dolphin inlays, flame top and stop tailpiece / All-Parts pink Strat parts guitar aged / PRS Archon 25wt combo w/ '65 Creamback Celestion / PRS archon 1x12 speaker w/ Vintage 30 (sealed back) / JLA Jarrod Lee Hooker combo amp (IYKYK), and lots of other stuff. I'm guessing I'll meet a few of the west coast Floridian Hamer Forum members this time. I can't wait. DR