zorrow

Brian May's Red Special. I spent hours watching at a picture of his guitar while listening to Queen. I wanted one even before I started playing! The picture was something like this: Later on I realized it is too much of his and started falling in love with Les Pauls, but my bandmate already had one, so I tried Flying Vees and got hooked forever.

I like Steve Vai's "Live in London" and the ultra-doctored "Alive in an Ultra World". His "nerdy" side gets tamed a little when playing live, so true feeling gets more apparent. I also prefer Malmsteen's live efforts to his studio albums -- "Live in Lengingrad" and "Live in Brazil". It sounds more like a band (not just a shredder); and normally his set lists are well chosen too. Racer X's "Extreme Volume" does for me better than any Racer X studio album. I love them live more than anything! Bruce Dickinson's "Scream for me Brazil!" is a "best of" played impeccably live. It is my preferred album of his solo career. Gamma Ray's "Skeletons in the Closet" is my preferred album from them, and it is live. While I am not into power metal, I've always respected Kai Hansen. I always have a blast listening to that guy playing and singing live. +1 to many albums you've mentioned so far, but "Kiss Alive!" is the one.

36 here, but looking forward to be rocking like my older pals here who still rock. So, yes, AMEN!

Steve Vai played in Alcatrazz's third album, "Disturbing the Peace" -- that is, their second studio album. I think it was a great album. Pretty weird and unconventional, but very tasty too. I also own a copy of the "Power Live" video, which is Alcatrazz playing live with Vai in Japan. Vai struggled a little with the material originally played by Yngwie, but he was flawless on his own stuff. And I like Graham Bonnet because he is a good singer and he sounds like nobody else. His voice has its own tone, very harsh and scratchy, sometimes even like almost out of tune, but at the same time with this expressiveness and bluesy feeling I enjoy tremendously. It's perhaps a love or hate voice, but I am at the love side in this case. In fact, I like almost all the stuff Graham Bonnet has put out, be with Rainbow, MSG, Alcatrazz, Impellitteri or even solo. (edited some typos)

+ 1

I would say you are right if no company in the world went broke. But many of them go broke, which demonstrates that those who decide what the business model is, well… they can also be wrong. Some customers would like to remain loyal, but if the company refuses to deliver, well, they will buy from others, yes. But I still believe any company has to listen to its customers to survive; and it also has to get some new ones, because older customers will eventually die -- anyone said baby boomers? Anyways, if a company cannot follow the market trends, it will remain on a niche market if it's lucky enough, or simple starve to death. And to me Hamer has already had better days, really -- though I know its end is still far ahead.

You bet they can! And some even have "the look". The Vector, the Standard, the Monaco (to some extent) on the USA lines; and the Californian, the Scarab, the Vector and the Standard on the XT line; all of them wouldn't look out of context on a metal band. But somehow they are not marketed properly to enter in the game.

Ok, after some research I finally understood. MIJ = Made In Japan (pre-1997) CIJ = Crafted In Japan (post-1997) Yes, Japanese craftsmanship is great. Perhaps Hamer should open a factory there. But back to American-made guitars, that's true young shredders can't afford 2K and more for their dream guitars, but I just saw a brand new Gibson Flying V USA (V-Factor) well below 1K. Perhaps Hamer should do the same with the Californian, the Diablo and the Centaura models. Personally I would also welcome a minimalist USA-made Vector; as 4K for a Korina V is well above my budget -- at least for now.

Those were wise words! But the fact is that lately there's a rise on both shred (fake or not) and metal (more true metal than fake, though there's still some left), and Hamer is completely missing the game. And young players don't want some stone-age guitars anymore, period. See, for each picture that has been posted here showing Strats and Les Pauls, I think you can find at least ten showing Jackson, B.C. Rich and ESP in the hands of young players.

Used to have one and it was great. Nothing wrong at all with my Cali, but I sold it to buy a Vector KK, which sounds meaner and in addition it's a Vee, my preferred shape -- I own now four electric guitars, and only one of them is not V-shaped.

I can imagine... and it's scary. My Dad is still alive and just the idea of loosing him brings tears to my eyes. But it also brings a lot of good memories, and those you bet will never go. I wish you then a lot of strength to move through your sadness, as well as the best memories in the world. And remember this: it is always great having made it this far. It is a privilege being here. Life is also death, but your father's continuity is in you and in your siblings (if you have them) and in whatever else he left in this planet. If there was at least one single happy moment in his life, then it was worth it. My deepest condolences!

Yeah, you're right! After what we have seen on eBay with the green Californian with a bolt-on neck, this one could be close to 2K – though I'd stop at the same price than you.

Easily more than $700, I think -- well, I would pay that for her (hey dudes, doubled the default offer! )

350, for sure!

AMEN!!!!!! In any case, if there is room for newcomers such as Ran Guitars (with Jeff Waters, an ex-Hamer customer endorsing them, mind you!) there should be some room for a well-established builder like Hamer. As one of us said before, if they choose not covering my needs I'll end by looking to somewhere else, and that's a shame -- thinking about Jackson, Schecter and ESP/LTD now.

Of course they are fine for metal! My Vector import simply rocks. But they don't push it that way at all. And even if you don't need a Floyd Rose to play metal (nowadays I personally dislike floating bridges) that still is a must-have gadget for many players. I mean, I know the player and the music is what matters the most, but Hamer could actually push it that way and I don't even think it would be such a big effort or investment.

Well, my impression is that they don't dare to penetrate into a market in which they could actually make some bucks just by making slight modifications to some of their models. I own an old Californian '91 and a new Vector XT. Both are great guitars, and currently I even prefer the Vector to play anything I have to play. Many people I know get impressed when they see these guitars, and at the same time recognise good quality there. But nobody seems to notice that a Vector or a Californian are good choices faced to ESP/LTD, Jackson or Ibanez imports. In my opinion there's poor marketing there. For example, I believe a black or red Vector with boomers and Duncan-Designed open coils could easily enter in the current game. One little of visibility and people will embark for sure. If in addition you add both Tune-o-matic bridges and floating tremolos as options, as well as jumbo frets like Jackson's, they would be in! Also, take for example the current import Californian XT. That's a good example of unappealing design. It is a guitar with a lot of binding and everything, but it lacks of fret inlays. Hey! Dots or boomers, but please place some inlays on its fretboard, for the Goddess' sake! And also spare all that super-binding! Metal guitarists won't buy a guitar that looks too vintage, while other guitarists won't buy a guitar that looks too metal. I wonder how many of those sell today!

Time is to get a bunch of new models more oriented to the metal market. Why isn't Hamer seeing the rebirth of metal and shred as a business opportunity? This is a mystery to me, really. Take for example Schecter, ESP/LTD and Jackson, and the way they mass-produce quality models for metal players. Or take the new import Kramer models; or even how Ran guitars in Poland signed Jeff Waters (an ex-Hamer customer). Has the marketing dept in Hamer just decided that metal players won't use Hamer anymore? How about Frank Aresti, Glenn Tipton or (again) Jeff Waters? This looks pretty weird to me, really.

I'M JEALOUS!!!

That's great news, man! Because here in Canada you get totally screwed with taxes -- and customs are no exception when it's about screwing you -- but yes, if we live here it's 100% our fault, I know... THANX! Zorrow

Chris, Ok, that's great. By the way, I see now that I owe you around ten bucks for S&H then -- given those 15 you're mentioning here. I'm sending them to you tonight -- my email is <lemalhereux@hotmail.com>, so you'll be able to do the follow-up. Thanks, Zorrow

Hello, I wanted two XL-sized HFC T-shirts: one dark green, one purple. I placed my order last August 5. So far, I have no news. I wonder if shipping to Canada was a problem, or if not every order was fulfilled. Is there any other Canadian around here that already received his/her T-shirts? Thanks for your help!

Nevermore. Their last album, "This Godless Endeavor", is worth a listening. I also make the last albums from John Sykes ("Bad Boys Live") and George Lynch ("Furious George") to spin endlessly.

I think the Distortion is a great pickup for heavy metal soloing. It gives me that "milky" sound I head for, with plenty of overtones. It has a high output, full of middles and highs, and just a fair amount of lows. In addition, it never gets muddy. It always produce a very well-defined sound, with a lot of sustain. Nevertheless, you'll have to combine your bridge Distortion with something "fatter" in the middle or neck position if you want to play rhythms full of "meat", with a darker edge. I recommend getting Cold Rails (or Hot Rails, if you prefer more output) for the middle and neck positions in order to enrich your lower frequencies range. By the way, I have something interesting to mention here: I replaced the stock Duncan Designed HB102 in the bridge position of my Californian import by a true TB-6; and to be fair, there's no big difference. The TB-6 just keeps the output at the same (high) level in the highest notes (beyond fret 22 in the high E string). Apart from that, the cheap HB102 is almost as good as the TB-6 -- which for me is a sheer surprise.