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Sustainblocks rule!

This: http://www.hamerfanclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=41036

I'm glad for her. She can certainly play, and she's also a ver cool person. I used to exchange emails with her back in the days when she wasn't very known --BTW, I swear to God I only discussed with her about guitar-related stuff. I still have her personal email around, so I've thought about writing to her again more than once; but after she made it as Michael Jackson's guitarist, I confess I feel a bit shy about it.

...and I (also) have the perception Jol was the man who was pressing on the brake pedal all the time. The Hamer brand wasn't "breathing" anymore, IMHO.

^Feynman says this best.

BTW, no official news from Jol in his blog?

WTF!!! Well, I guess now the party is really over. Probably the Hamer brand will survive the founder, but it will never be the same again.

Yes, the Hamer imports are in general of very good quality. I've owned four: one 90's Cali (great guitar), one Slammer by Hamer Centaura (not bad at all), one Korean Vector XT (which sounded and played really great) and one Chinese Standard (great guitar, but never adapted to its shape). Sadly, the only Hamer import that's left in my stable (a Slammer Series with the small switch, whose body is made of light mahogany) is for sale here: http://www.hamerfanclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=40448 I'm selling it just because I need cash now and I don't even use Floyds anymore, but this little Superstrat has all the potential to make a caring shredder VERY happy. It's specially well-built, and sounds and plays REALLY amazing.

I'm trying to reduce my stable to five electric guitars. Three of them will be American Hamer Vectors. The other two will be Dean Vees.

I guess the time to do so is getting closer and closer... Any version in mind already, or we just wait a little?

great point, to me the key is a tube power section, i can live with a solid state preamp into an alltube power section, not vice versa however................. That's my conclusion too. I still gig with an overdrive plugged into a Peavey Classic 50, as simple as it gets. However, I plan to definitively move to my Tech 21 Power Engine 60 using two solid-state/digital preamps: the Pignose Piggy-in-a-box (my rawk tone) and the Digitech RP-250 (for everything else, from chimey to spacey to funky). This way I'll preserve the "natural punch and dynamics" I get from a tubes-based power section, while at the same time I'll take advantage of the versatility of my digital equipment, as well as the amazing tone I get from my solid-state preamp.

You mute the strings, using a little blanket or a towel, and one of your hands as well. Then, put your ear on the body of the guitar and knock at it. The sound made by the body is like a drum's, so it does have a fundamental harmonic. Knock at the body several times, and you'll end by identifying the note corresponding to the sound it makes. Repeat the procedure with the neck. According to Steve Vai, guitars having consonant body/neck intervals are prone to sound better. BTW, he also says it's one of his cork sniffing trips, so don't take it too seriously.

By the way, just discovered the previous owner also had installed a coil-splitting pot on the bridge position --the original pot was in one compartment of the case, so I guessed it. Now, when I coil-split the bridge pup to single coil mode, I get an amazing lead tone with all the bite and dynamics I like. However, this configuration makes the lower strings sound blurry and muddy. Shamefully, the low end tone gets back to focus only when I use the bridge pup in humbucking mode. Well, I guess I need now a bridge pickup offering me a focused rhythm tone with tight lows, as well as a soaring, biting-but-not-piercing lead tone with lots of dynamics and "openness". I just realize that the Hamer Slammer pickups do exactly so, and that's why I like them so much.

Not really, excepting the "surprise factor". Honey had given me a check of a "certain amount" the day of my birthday. She said: "buy the guitar you want, provided it's priced around this amount". I saved that money, because I had no plan of purchasing anything. So, when this Dean arrived I just had to pull the trigger, as my gun was already loaded and also had the boss' authorization to shoot. Ah! This date comes in handy too! Great Christmas to everyone as well!

^Yeah! BTW, Ed Roman claims being the sole builder to have the legal right to build Mosrite-type guitars: http://www.edroman.com/guitars/mosrite.htm PS: Gus, I love your Dillion!

Yeah, but he's not accessing much of anything these days. Bah! He accessed enough for long enough to be considered a true guitar hero. Most of us will never make it that far... nor that high --hoping he's in Heaven now.

This guitar is addictive. I like the way its neck feels, and I like it A LOT. The sound however is not what I prefer. The neck pickup is great, but the bridge doesn't give me the "attack" I'm used to. Too sweet for my tastes. So, I definitively will try other pups for the bridge position. Can anyone please recommend me something? Preferably a Seymour Duncan, as I don't want to change both pickups. BTW, The stock pups are the unlogoed Deans. I haven't tried them yet. I'm also wondering how humbucking-sized P-90's would sound on this guitar. I definitively want an "edgier" sound than what I'm getting now.

The stock Dean pickups were replaced by Duncan JB (bridge) and Jazz (neck). I got the stock pups too. I might try them later. Any hint about their sound? Yes, which is surprising, given its size. Just my neighbor veteran HFC'er. But his opinion is important because he knows about guitars, and in addition he's my friend.

The neck I would say it's between a "C" and a "D" shape. The thickness should be medium+. I like this neck a lot. Very comfortable to play. The fretboard is ebony. That's very slippery; I'm more used to rosewood. The frets are medium jumbo, I think. The action is set the way I like it: not very low, but not high. The fretboard feels very "fast", probably also because the radius seems to be wider than my Vectors'. About the sound now: it's actually very sweet. Compared to my Vectors, the later sound more "cutting", while the Dean is way smoother. To give you an idea, when played unplugged it sounds almost like a classic guitar: loud and clear, with a lot of richness in the mid range and loads of sustain. When plugged, it has almost no "chug". The "Fenderish" "snap" I get from my Vectors (supposedly from the sutainblocks, or so I believe) is not there at all. This guitar vibrates just transparently, like a nylon guitar, though it does handle well my high gain settings --the distorted rhythm tone through my rig is "thick" or "dense", never harsh or aggressive, but it's not muddy either. By the way, I did the test of trying to find the notes when tapping the neck and the body. The body seems to be tuned to Eb, while the neck is definitively G. That means they are a major third apart, which is a consonant interval, so it should be ok --according to Steve Vai's criteria for evaluating the natural resonance of guitars.

I wanted a Korina V and I was also caressing the idea of getting a Dean guitar. Suddenly, a Czech-made beauty arrives and it's a Dean V and... it's Korina too! And what do I do? Well, I grab it without hesitation! So, meet now my new acquisition --BTW, inspected and approved by no other than Nick himself! Enjoy! Cool, isn't it?

Great access to the higher frets... for players like Jeff Healey.

I love Hamer, don't get me wrong. I plan to purchase a no-pickguard (back routing) Korina Vector probably in middle/late 2010 --I have other priorities at this point. In the not-so-near future I might also order a new Vector made to my specs --it will be like "my dream". All that said, it's still true new USA-made Hamers are beyond the reach of normal "working musicians", and that's a shame IMHO.

You forgot Carvin. I was stunned by my friend's custom bass. I've also tried that model Marty Friedman used to play (it looks like an odd Explorer) and it's so comfortable you will be playing it for hours just for the pleasure of touching and feeling its fretboard. I understand however Hamer doesn't want to play in that league anymore.

Great! Congrats to the buyer!

I disagree. It's full of contradictions, the most glaring of which is the desire for cheap American-made products. Which do you want? Cheap or American made? The two don't typically go together. "Affordable" <> "cheap"