Andrew

The logos on the DA Sunburst are tiny.

Brilliant! The Hamer bridges are slightly angled, somewhere between the two. Personally, I hate the Wilkinson wrap-tail and their trem.. Hamer's worst ever choice.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1984-Hamer-Blitz-Bass-Uber-Cool-Vintage-Bass-Made-in-USA-Inc-Orig-Hard-Case/143598894859?hash=item216f293f0b:g:UtwAAOSw85Jet1KH Y'know… I don't even have the words to describe what I'm seeing.

Can you post a picture? Like to see that. Anyway, in the Nielsen Guitar Book, it's described as being the "first" Hamer with a lock-down tremolo (ie: Floyd?), so I guess the one fitted by the time of the book is a later one with fine tuners.

Sometimes it seemed Hamer followed the whims of Jol and made mistakes – I don't think that's true, it's a bit of a myth. Towards me, he's been generous and a gracious host. Okay, he comes over a little odd at times but he's pretty decent overall. And let's face it… we're here because we love the guitars he had a hand in creating.

Sorry, my error. Gonna Raise Hell was 1982, although it did have a tunerless Floyd back then. The actual guitar I was thinking of with the hand-plated parts was #0181, the yellow Standard made in 1979 as in the Nielson Guitars of the Star book. Both Nielson and Dantzig claim his was one of the first guitars built to incorporate the new tremolo design.

Fascinating! Rick Neilsen's "Gonna Raise Hell" Hamer Standard had originally a very early Floyd and Jol Dantzig claimed he had the parts black-coated himself as they came in a raw state. That was 1979-ish. However, at some point a later Floyd with fine-tuners was put on the guitar, and the only old pic I've seen is very fuzzy, just good enough to see the fine tuners aren't there. Any more information on that? Most early Hamer ones (c1982) are the Mark3, I believe.

Don't try it – the screw and string holes do not align; the Mighty Mite has much wider spacing.

It's certainly a mystery why there is no impression of an historical sustain-block. When was the Schaller introduced? Possible something else was originally fitted with a similar footprint? I don't know the height of the Mann reproduction, so I can't comment… 0 15XX would be amongst the earliest Arlington Heights guitars, and the body will be Holmes; the neck you can tell by the spacing of the 12th fret dots – wide is Holmes, narrow is Hamer.

I've heard of this neck angle problem before – I believe Hamer were still assembling some guitars from Holmes-made parts (mostly the bound-bodies) in 1980, and possibly they got the neck-angle a bit wrong. I've seen another Sunburst (can't remember if it was 1980) that had some thickness machined off the underside of the bridge block to compensate. I have a letter somewhere where Frank Untermyer recommends this as the solution. I would also point out later sustain blocks (86-88) were higher, possibly to equal the height of a floyd, and if you've used one of these it will be too high. As for the Schaller - little chance it's original. A photo of the screw holes sans-bridge might offer some clues.

The Floyd-fitted Sunbursts (both Archtop or flat-top) differed in having a maple neck and a slightly altered neck angle to accommodate the back-rout for pull-ups. These were short-lived, early nineties only (and '89 flat-tops). Just to stir the pot, the Wilkinson wrap-around is probably the worst hardware item Hamer ever used, as found on Studios 86-87.

There is no difference between: Sunburst Archtop (with crowns, but some do have dots) 1991-1993. Sunburst logo on most; it superseded the traditional flat-top model. Archtop Custom 1993-1997. Archtop Studio is unbound, dots and some have wrap-around bridges. No name below Hamer logo. Studio Custom 1998-2012. The latest ones from the noughties have Victory markers. Studio is the unbound/dot version. "Studio" usually on TRC. Same guitar, different names!

Two vols, one tone. Pots are 500Kohm, log taper; although HAMER labelled, they are exactly the same as DiMarzio's pots. The capacitor is a small, yellow cylinder-type, and 0.01MFD (µF). That's in an early '83 Cruise, although I sure the same is in 82s. Hope that helps.

They were made in-house from black/white two-ply, the same material as the scratch-plate (if black), with a bevelled edge and an oval cut-out for the strings to pass through. Don't know if they still have it, but Chandler guitars used to have the correct plastic laminate. Easy enough to make.

All Phantoms went 6-in-line early in 1984. The first one might have been 1983, but that was made for Glenn Tipton, originally with a sustain-block trem.but later modified to a Kahler. An early 1984 6-in-line (4 10XXX) was blue/black zulu, single pickup with no scratch-plate, Kahler, and a "Phantom" logo under the HAMER USA.