kizanski

What? No P90 DuoTones?

Canfield (Ohio) Fairgrounds.

LOL! Well put.

Sad but true. I think it had something to do with Day Tripper and "not being a Strat guy."

You could try switching strap location for one gig, a la the Iceman.

peedenmark7(42), JohnnyB(54), KeyOfZ(35), bobsessed(50), shankyboy(44), SG Lou(48) Happy birthday, guys!

It does when HE plays it!

Ok, but by that rational, Victory inlays would spread it out into at least three different directions, making for a very weak, flat sound.

Tone is in the fingers, hence "no inlays." It has been proved by boo-teek independent labs that inlays interrupt the tonality patterns of your fretboard woods. That's right: "tonality patterns." I JUST made it up, but you know it will appear in some bullshit marketing for a guitar maker somewhere. Maybe even by a certain self-proclaimed "guru."

I don't know how accurate that is, as I have seen a few early '77 Sunbursts in Natural. One of my favorites from Jol is on his "Guru Tour" Web page, where he claims one of his (many) contributions to guitar history as the "founding of the Hamer Guitar Company in 1973." Don't believe everything you read.

LOL! I you, Jaye Isham!

I'm definitely in the "No Inlays" camp, but I may have to rethink things, because... THESE inlays are The Shiz!! I'm considering getting one of these just so I can have the inlays - LOL!

I'm going to have to agree with you there! Yea...what they said!

Oh Christ...

Nah...no way. Those are very much hyped up by their owners, most of them having payed well under $1,000 for theirs. They are OFFERED at outrageous prices, but I have yet to see a deal done at those levels. A real transaction would be at, what, maybe $2,000, if at all? AND, "Reissues" tend to be cheaper than the market prices of the real stuff. (Edytehd four zpellyin) Nah, you're way off. I've seen them sell for more than twice that, and whenever one does come up for sale, prospective buyers need to take a number like they're at their neighborhood bakery. Granted, that's still not $20,000...

"Kaman is also the industry leader in the accessories business, a market where Fender is only a minor player.” Discussing the relative positions of the combined company’s guitar offerings, he (Bill Mendello, chairman and CEO of Fender Musical Instrument Corp.) said 'Ovation is a unique guitar line that doesn’t really compete with anything else on the market, and the Takamine line really complements Fender’s acoustic guitar offerings, well priced between our Fender acoustic line and our U.S.-made Guild line.'” Hmm...I think we'd all be more inclined to think Hamer is in the grand plan if he had made ANY mention of Hamer in there. He said he doesn't want "to Fenderize it," but that could also mean it ain't worth the trouble. "$10,000 Hamer"? Sold "regularly"? I'm going to need a few examples of $10,000 Hamers, and your definition of "regularly." Yea, the list price on an Improv is $10,000, but how many have they made since the first one several years ago? 50? 60? I've seen other insane list prices on other custom ordered pieces, but again I find it hard to believe that either $10,000 Hamer example is being churned out regularly. If you know better, then tell me how you know. This is dancing dangerously close to the Gibson and Fender megabuck guitars (the Clapton ES, Clapton's Blackie, SRV's #1 -and now the Lenny - the list goes on and on), and unless Hamer's direction is changing, that isn't what the company is all about.

(Flynn wrote "My former '79 Blackie" above it). 8 0213 is somewhere in the great state of Nevada with some Kilroy fellow.

Well, I don't. Particularly when you take into account that it goes against everything we have been told and have come to expect about Hamer USA guitars. Remember their commitment to quality: There are no seconds. Every guitar has to be perfect before it leaves the factory. Jol "plays every guitar," after all. Sure, there are still screwups (I have owned a few of them), but a multi-tier model implies (or even ensures) that some guitars will be better than others and some will even have a few QC issues. That's OK for Gibson and Fender, but it's not why I like Hamers, and I think that most if not all of you agree with me. That's not to say that it WON'T happen, of course, but Jol will have to dramatically change his tune to try to sell that to anyone, particularly any of us.

I agree with Jonathan (and it comes as much a shock to me as anyone else), except for the part about Hamer USA's "relative profits...in the overall Kaman Music division." Jol had said that they don't turn a profit, so I don't think that the estimate that Jonathan guesses at could be possible. But I think his point is still a valid one. Hamer is small. Very small. So small that one of the only things that could save it is if it made money. I'm no economist, but I find myself asking "What would Fender want with Hamer, USA?" While this guitar brand is very important to US, I think it is barely a blip on the radar screen of most Fender Custom Shop buyers (and most Gibson followers, for that matter). I think as far as the music division goes, Fender wanted to acquire Ovation, Takamine, and the accessories manufacturers, but I don't think that Fender considered Hamer USA in the plan any further than the the fact that they came with the package. In fact Hamer USA might have kept the over all sale price down. Handing over a company in the red is rarely a selling point. Why do so many people posting in this thread feel that Hamer is so important to one corporation acquiring another? Hamer is not an entity that has any more of a right to exist in this economy than any other. Sure we love the guitars, but I don't really think that Fender cares too much about a band of rabid supporters in a sea of the millions of "mainstream" guitar enthusiasts. Do you really think that with all that they have just purchased that they're sitting around thinking, "Now, what can we do to make Hamer USA profitable, while still managing to keep everything in place the way it is and without having QC suffer?"? Maybe, but I'd find that VERY hard to believe. How much time are they really going to devote to a company that makes about 100 - 150 guitars a year (or whatever the actual figure is)? So "someone very high up at Hamer" said that things will continue on, status quo. Well, what would you expect him to say? "We're goin' down, kids! Grab what's yours and abandon ship!" The truth is that none of us are on the ground floor here and will not know anything about what happens next until it's already done. Kinda like the airline story that Mattson posted above. I don't mean to sound negative. In a perfect world, everything would stay the same. They'd find a way to get the guitars to us a little faster, QC would not suffer at all, they'd bring back the set neck Chap for BlackMagicJack, and they'd even lower prices. Unfortunately, I think all of those would fall in the same category at this point, which is to say, I seriously doubt it.

Huh??? My understanding from threads on the hFC is that they sell every one they make and they could sell more if they made more. The reason there's a waiting period is because they are sold out 8-10 weeks in advance of production. I said that backwards. I meant to say what you said.

Jol told us at an Open House that the USA division is kept afloat by the import line. His words, not mine. I doubt that demand exceeds production, however. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a waiting period (what is it now - 8 to 10 weeks?) to get a new one. The point is that they don't show a profit, and that's never a good position to be in if you've just been "bought."

It would be good to see the employees buy the company...if it made money. Many of you have forgotten that Hamer USA is only kept afloat by the import line and that it is in the red every year. I'm not saying that this IS what will happen, but don't be surprised if the Fender bean counters look at Hamer USA as a loser and simply close it down. As that article pointed out, Kaman liked the idea of having the innovative division in with the high tech aerospace division, but Fender might not share that opinion. They didn't get to be as big as they are by holding on to dead weight. Hamer makes great guitars, and that's a point no one would argue, but as far as being a money-maker...

Except for EVH. He's never welcome in one place too long and always blames THEM for outstaying his welcome.

Of course the crew at Hamer can decide they don't want to wait and see what Fender does and jump ship on their own. Suddenly, the Hamer craftsmen have Scott Boras as their agent.