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Charlotte, Winston, Greensboro, they all had bad radio in the 80s! The college radio stations were better, but the signals were usually too weak to pick up with any consistency, so I pretty much stopped listening to radio for music. Hmmm. Sounds like today's radio too! Every now and again, one of the local stations will slip and play "Crackerman" though.

"Old Time Rock and Roll". Gawd I hate that song. Makes me think of cheesy wedding bands in tuxedos with plastic happy smiles plastered on their faces, moving with no rhythm whatsoever. When I moved to PA from NC in the late 80s, there was a phenomenon I dubbed "the Three B's" that was a pervasive sickness in the prime radio stations in the major markets between the two states. "Boston, Bad Company and Bob Seger". Thank providence that that has passed. Unfortunately, it has been replaced with the Rob Thomas fever, which is far worse. I hate that guy more than Coldplay. Oh yeah, ANYTHING by Clapton after Derek and the Dominoes (that includes that horrid acoustic version of Layla!).

Shout at the Devil has a great guitar tone IMHO. Particularly the rhythm stuff.

Glamour personified. Robbin Crosby at the end. Lemme guess, Salem is writing a term paper on the effects of silly posts on messageboards.

The Cali Deluxe came out in '90 or '91. Those also have a tone control unlike the other Calis. Don't ask me to trace the name lineage of the Sunburst, Sunburst Archtop, Artist, Archtop Artist, Studio, Studio Custom stuff!

I think that some of the confusion comes from Hamer's name game which started on the Calis. The original Cali came in two bolt-on trims, Californian (dots) and Californian Custom (boomers). IIRC, the set neck Custom came out in '89 or 90 and the former Custom (the bolt-on w/boomers) became the Elite. I had an '89 flamebody bolt on/boomers that was listed in the Hamer log book and printed on the warranty card as a Cali Custom.

I had a really nice Cali Custom (set neck) that Stonge ended up with IIRC. Ice pearl. Very nice guitar. They were a regular catalog item, but you don't see 'em much.

ALL of the limited run of 72 were made in AH. The model was available after that in Japanese catalogs and by custom order, so a few popped out here and there, but I think it wasn't until 2003 that they became a regular item.

The 97s were all made in Arlington Heights, which some sellers will advertise as "better". I don't know about that necessarily, as the CT produced ones are superb. The ones from the run of 72 are as well (the ones I've played). Not that all are perfect, but I've played maybe two dozen korina Hamers and they were ALL excellent guitars. I've spoken to some of the guys who were at Arlington Heights in the final days and more than one has mentioned that they really took pride in the korina Vectors, even though they were going to be losing their jobs. The last AH guitar was a Korina Vector from the run of 72 (NOT #72, although that was done just before the last day-that run was not done in consecutive numbers like the run of 100 Standards in 95/96). I can't see how they can make the new ones any better.

I silently thank JeffR several times a week for hooking me up with the Korina Vector I now own. It is above 95% of the guitars I've owned in the past 20 years, with only some old original Standards challenging it or bettering it. I think $2K is a steal for one of these. I've got more guitars than I need, especially after getting that Korina Vector. Realistically, I could survive with that one and a guitar with a trem and cover all bases I would ever need to.

Wow-exactly what I was looking for. Cool new tunes! Thanks DavidB!!! And from my all-time favorite producer too.

OK, a Sunburst (little different) and a VERY old Hamer. (BTW, #7 0012 looks killer!)

Yeah DavidB-anything to get on the HFC 3 or if you've got recordings, post where we can get 'em.

"feel free to post pics of your old woman, Matt". JackC you pig. Yeah Matt-what he said.

My thoughts on the post-pulling and censoring is that it leaves no one accountable for their cyberballs gone awry. If you type $hit and hit the ""post" button, you need to think about what impact those words might have on others AND what kind of reflection it has on you. I've typed a hundred posts or more over the years and just hit the backspace rather than hitting the "add reply" button. Trust me, it's a better approach and maybe I get some venting done simply by typing the words out. Whether they're posted or not at that point sometimes makes little difference.

I've been listening to Waltham a bunch lately (thanks to jwhitcomb!)

Ho' mojo?

Gotta be "vibe".

The one that McChris has looks like it would fit the bill perfectly for ya. AND, he's a good guy to boot. Korina is kool...

Buckcherry had the ability to fit into that category nicely, but I think that they imploded, didn't they?

Thanks for the great news! So glad that he turned up ok. We take so much for granted and it is unfortunate that it takes some hellish event like this to wake us up sometimes. I know I'm a little more "awake"-this is sobering shit.

I think that this is more of an issue of former Gibson Art & Historic/Custom Shop/Whatever we're callling it today dealers looking for instruments to fill spaces on their wall that the high-end Gibsons occupied. If they can push Hamers out to the LP/Gibson guys, that'd be good for Hamer. By and large the Hamer instruments are better!

I haven't heard anyone have a negative guitar purchase issue from Joe. I played the 12 string neck on that Fath double a while before the present owner got it and in fact within five minutes of Michael Fath dropping it off at the shop (I passed him in the parking lot). At the time I played it, the 12 string neck needed a LOT of adjustment. The 6 string neck was fine other than having old strings. Fath apparently used it for a photo shoot and cased it for many years thereafter. I never said nor intimated anywhere that the neck was warped, simply that at the time I picked it up, it was virtually unplayable (as often happens with these 12ver necks if they aren't set up I suspect from talking to other owners). The korina Virt is a very early one (the earliest one I know of date wise, but I don't have the first few logged in) and has had the end frets shaved off at the body. The early ones were made from korina picked up from the old Gibson factory in Kalamazoo. The celestial finish was one of the handful of custom finishes offered on Hamers in the late 80s and is VERY cool IMHO.

Rock bands didn't live like movie stars? They might not have actually KEPT any of the money that they made, but many of them sure lived like they were movie stars (for a brief period only in most cases!). How many jets with band logos were there in the 70s? They were at all of the parties, drank all of the pink champagne they could, banged Britt Ekland, etc....

I'm always tryin' to break new ground! Brian Johnson's got it right, even though he's no Bon Scott, I could never trash a band with Malcolm AND Angus in it! And Kiss holds a special place in my heart (pre-Peter leaving the band the first time). I guess I just like original lineups.