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cmatthes

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Posts posted by cmatthes

  1. 8 hours ago, StillKickinMusic said:

    OK, thanks. I know import serial schemes are super fragmented. And I know many on this board could care less about imported Hamer's. I'll paste here the patchy info I have so far if anyone wants to see it. There do seem to be some periods where there was at least an attempt at indicating date by serial:

    -------------------------------------

    Front of headstock can say “Hamer Slammer Series,” which I believe will be from the 90s, mostly Korean; “Hamer” perhaps on late 90s models, as well as newer Indonesian models; and “Slammer by Hamer,” which appear to be the cheapest models made in China. Dates below with a question mark are dates claimed by sellers in used guitar ads but not verified. Dates without question marks are ones I’m a little more confident of, but this whole section is guesswork at this point.

    Korea (6 or 7 digits. First digit may indicate year, but not verified.)

    111255 

    423640 (90s)

    428912 (1990?)

    437604 (mid-90s?)

    2551001

    6011692 (1996?)

    6042540 (1996?)

    6078776

    6053696

    6094023 (90s?)

    6544288

    7071005 (90s?)

    8083800

     

    China (7 digits)

    1552466

    1151145

    1700031 (early 2000s?)

    1701147 (1999?)

    1701186

    1704636

    5850831 (2003-06?)

    5810800 (2000s?)

    6850166 (early 2000s?)

     

    Indonesia (seemingly 3 different serial schemes shown below)

    (First digit indicates year perhaps)

    7901643

    7903583 = 2007?

    8901517 = 2008

    930xxxx = 2009?

    (Lesser seen scheme starts with “P.” Perhaps two following digits indicate year.)

    P10060561 (2010?)

    P11040850 = 2011

    P11071351 = 2011

    (Two digits following “IW” indicate year. This seems pretty solid.)

    IW11081118 = (2011)

    IW12070188 (2012?)

    IW18020545 = 2018

    If you’re getting your information from seller ads, you’ll never get it right, unfortunately.  I’ve seen hundreds of sellers pushing imports that are clearly early-mid ‘00 production, and because the stamped or stickered number starts with a particular digit (say a “7”), then they look it up on a BS site and assume that it tracks USA production numbers somehow - it doesn’t, unless a batch or two are purely lined up by coincidence. 
     

    My information came directly from Hamer/KMC, where two people who would know both stated that the import serial numbers are meaningless when it comes to dating an instrument.  They may be more batch codes or production run identifiers, but aren’t really valid for dating the guitars like a USA Hamer scheme, or even an Ibanez, Fender or Gibson serial scheme.

    The best way to date an import would be by knowing when a particular model was catalogued and its country of origin.  The numbers are secondary, and unreliable, honestly.

    • Like 1
  2. Honestly, the old VG series is kind of a hack job.  Several members here contributed real information that was either changed or completely omitted, and they got some things pretty wrong along the way.  Bro Steve’s book partially arose out of the frustration of that experience as well as all the pure horseshit that proliferated on the Internet about the Hamer brand.  Things like the Ed Roman site and a lot of dealer-driven hogwash has been taken as gospel when it’s pure fabrication.

    Steve’s book remains the “Standard”, despite some info being edited out for length.  
     

    As far as import Hamer serial number tracking…good luck!  Those were quite random and whatever schemes they used changed many times with little to no rhyme nor reason, not to mention that there were numerous lines/trim levels that just appeared or disappeared at random.

    • Like 3
  3. There are all-Mahogany Standards and flame top Blitz guitars  😉

    The Blitz body shape is different from a Standard’s, and the bodies were usually thinner, and made from multiple pieces of mahogany, where most Standards had one (sometimes two) piece bodies.  Pickups, control layout, routing…the Blitz Guitars were factory built and designed for more of a production/efficiency process, while the Standards were built mostly outside of the shop and finished/setup there later.

    • Like 5
  4. Siobhan and I just went there in. November (I’ve been several times, but her first visit).  We hit all of the “Big 3” guitar stores, but I was honestly not blown away or anything.  The Gibson Garage is like an overpriced Guitar Center where everything is locked up, but there are some pretty impressive guitars there.  I think the sushi place next door was okay.

    Gotta try at least one (of the many) hot chicken joints too.  We also had a good time axe throwing…

    Broadway (Land of the “Woo-woo girls”) is always fun to see once, and you can walk in and see a great band anywhere for free.  Lots more cool clubs in East Nashville, there’s The Bluebird Cafe, and some other places south of The Gulch.  We saw a great comedy show at Zanie’s, which is down the street from GRUHN’S.

    Just stay the hell away from Luke Bryan’s bar… 😬

    • Like 1
  5. 29 minutes ago, Cboss said:

    Thank you so much for the info, is there anything particular to know in dialing them in?

    Has this always been made by gotoh? If so great, I love their stuff

    Gotoh bought up the Wilkinson designs years ago.  The original Wilkinson stuff may be a slight touch better quality, but Gotoh stuff is usually still excellent.

    • Like 1
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