Never2Late

Wow...that fret-board was BUTCHERED on the previous fret-job...scary.

This guy is wrong. Period. Rock music was going-places in the 1990s, and then the 'hot chicks' started making their own music - to dance-to. Brittney, Christina, Taylor, Gwen, Katy, etc. Meanwhile, 'rock' started to mellow-out - less grunge/punk, more Matchbox 20-lite. European techno/trance/dub started to get airplay here. The 'party-place' to rebel and hang-out was a RAVE, not a rock concert. Dance music, drugs, and girls became a 'thing'....not a guitar in sight. Once Emo hit, 'Rock' was for sad losers who needed an album's worth of songs to tell us all how lonely they were and how bad they felt. The Warped Tour gave every crybaby-band a stage to weep into a microphone and 'emote' about nothing. An entire genre of music became utterly disposable, or at-worst a marketing tool for Chinese-made sneakers. The 'Slipknot' segment of 90s Rock went off the deep-end - multiple/odd timing-changes, ultra-distorted sludge riffs, and unintelligible cookie-monster scream-vocals whose lyrics are about....nothing. Its laughable and sad. I bought a ticket to the Sad Summer Festival here in Worcester - it could have been billed as "Warped Tour Lite". Attendance was great for 90-degree heat in a massive parking lot, but the bands....sheesh, Rock was in-trouble! Most were indistinguishable from the next, and in the crowd that was there, I saw 'maybe' three people over-30 that gave this 'newer' version of Rock the time-of-day. We need another "Sex Pistols moment"....now!

Neck carve is everything for me - the 'thin' guitars of the 1980s were for hair-metal teenagers who bought a guitar because they saw an ad in a Circus Magazine issue. I....just....can't.... My Scepter and Blitz are ODD ducks - the necks are thicker than your typical period guitar. Dunno how that happened, unless somebody requested it. The rest of my collection are all post-1994 made.

I can tell you from experience that most-all guitar re-finishers will NOT put-in the work to color match this. Other than preserve the serial number, most would just rather strip it down to wood and start-over with modern finishes. It ain't a '59 LP.

A guitar the 'new crop' of Punk/Metal guitarists can't live without....something that would have kept the line moving, and made the company loads of profit. ANYTHING that would have had Fender re-thinking their decision to shutter the company.

Can one imagine the lawsuits that would occur if the Executives admit what was lost truthfully? Estate-heir lawyers would be employed for decades, a reality that seriously motivates Studio executives from any specifics regarding this story. Granted, the labels could claim "the Masters belong to us, therefore the loss also belongs to us and no-one else".....as-if that would somehow boost sales, faith and reputation of the Major Labels considering their careless and callous treatment of what can only be regarded as National Treasure.

What's the story? I didn't see any mention of these in 'the book'....

Well, the primary issue is, the entire building was consumed by fire BEFORE they had a thorough accounting of what was on-the-shelves. Since this material existed nowhere-else, the assumptions are quite sound. Where ELSE would these recordings have been at the time of the fire? The true test will be for Dave Grohl/Eric Clapton/Steven Tyler to request the master tapes for a re-mix/re-release, and the Studio can't produce them. BOOM. Given that the Record company made an effort to archive properly after the fire, I suspect their panic and true sense of loss is pretty steep.

I keep looking for one of those cases....can't find one.

Greg still flies the Hamer banner in his store. Rock on, sir! We'll see you on my next trip into town, good luck with the party!

I paid over $350 for mine, two years ago....it was either that, or nothing.

Downplayed by Record Company Executives who can't lie anymore - their cover is now blown. I'm utterly shocked at the sheer volume of loss, and Corporate deception regarding that loss, represented by this article. Clearly, there are many in the "music industry" who just don't CARE....

Agree - a FAN of Glenn Campbell could be motivated to spring for the asking price, but HIGHLY doubtful any of them are in the market for a $8K Shredder. Same deal with Billy Joel's Hamers. If they were PIANOS, you might have something. Otherwise, his guitars aren't worth $8K just-because "Billy Joel"....

Its good to see that shipping/delivery from these Japanese sellers (they seem to have some pretty nice Hamer stock over there) goes down fast and smoothly with no issues. LOVE the axe - how would you describe the neck?

Looking at some of those picks, Fender can't even get a 'checkerboard' pattern right.....sheesh.