Lockbody

FMIC bought Kaman for its distribution network. Everything else, including a guitar company stocked full of craftsmen making guitars hardly anyone bought, was simply baggage. As much as I wanted Hamer to be Fender's "Gibosn killer" I don't imagine Gibson would have taken too kindly to their main competitor making almost exact and upscale copies of their designs, as they did with Hamer. Hamer making Standards was no threat to Explorer sales. Fender making fancy Explorers and putting them in every Guitarget on the planet. Different story.

Well, damn.

It would seem Gibson has finally caught on that it's not 2008 any longer and is pricing everything to move. Then, once all the old stock is gone, new, lower-price models take their place. Just like now, when the economy started to suck wind in the 70's, they started to release all these lower-end, no-frills guitars to keep people in Gibsons guitars. Cant' swing that Les Paul? How about a The Paul or a Sonex or maybe a S-1? I think Gibson sees the writing on the wall for the foreseeable future.

Except for my '61 RI SG with lower-output humbuckers, all my other guitars have singles. Three Strats with singles and my '64 SG Jr with one P90. My '84 Squier Strat has Rumpelstiltskin Pre-CBS pickups (my favorite from him), A Classic Player 60s has the stock Custom Shop 69s, and my '75 hardtail has the stock pups with an ancient Dimarzio FS-1 in the bridge. All three sound different, but they all sound like Strats. I used to think Strat bridge pickups were good for nothing except swapping for humbuckers, but since getting a Super Reverb, my thinking on that has changed. Even with the CS-69s, the tones are big, expressive, and hard hitting... no "ice pick" tones to be found. Leo Fender really knew what he was doing. A fender guitar though a Fender amp is truly a thing of beauty. Of course, the SG Jr just murderizes them all. Too bad it just sits in its case these days as I'm not playing anything I can get away using it with.

Yeah, I'm simplifying, too. I just sold my Marshall, I've got my Boogie Mk IV, Thiele, and 4x12 on my local CL, and plan to use just my Super Reverb and a few pedals going forward. Maybe when my Boogie setup gets sold I'll pickup a Deluxe or Princeton Reverb for when I don't feel like schlepping the Super around. My sound is all about clean these days, and for me, nothing does that better than a Fender. When I need dirt, fuzz, or delay its right there at my feet. Of course, this is all made possible because I have a basement jam space where I can pretty much turn up as loud as I want without waking anyone in the house, much less disturb any neighbors. If I was an apartment dweller, then I imagine I'd be all about modelling and the ways to replicate those sounds on stage when needed. I still bet I'd be frustrated when trying to model Strat -> Clean Fender Amp (with or without reverb and/or tremolo).

Something I worry about every time I fire up my chainsaw. The boots I wear, and a couple of pairs of my jeans all have some nicks, etc, from some close calls. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Are you a full-time novelist? Do I have to be for my opinion to count? It's easy not to be concerned with profit from your novel when your ability to put food on the table doesn't depend on it. Ah, yes: some animals are more equal than others. There should be an Orwell equivalent to Godwin's Law. I guess it isn't enough that I aspire to be a full-time novelist, and that I'm aware enough to see that the new digital environment creates opportunities along with the threats to traditional earning models. Not at all, but aspirations are meaningless if you can't sustain yourself in your chosen vocation. If you chose to live on your military pension one day and produced novels merely for the satisifaction of doing so, then profit becomes a secondary concern. Sure, you're a "full-time novelist" and the extra dosh is nice, but you have no worries when it comes to providing for yourself, or your familiy. An artist who depends on sales of his output, no matter what the medium, to put food on the table generally sees profit as a driving motivator.

Are you a full-time novelist? Do I have to be for my opinion to count? It's easy not to be concerned with profit from your novel when your ability to put food on the table doesn't depend on it.

That's a strange way of looking at it. If they've downloaded my music for free, then I'd assume that they would probably give my music away for free as well. I'm not sure how that benefits the musician at all.

Salaries, studio equipment, building leases, electricity... none of those are cheap.

After watching the video, we can call this one part lockbody, two parts store. 1. The hanger. The hanger wasn't lined up with the rest. Also, the little "disks" on the ends of the hanger were worn out and did nothing to keep the guitar in place. 2. So when I put the guitar back in the hanger I lined it up with the other guitars which left it a tad cocked in the hanger. 3. Ten minutes later the ceiling fans cause the the guitar to move enough to twist and fall out of the hanger. My bud, the manager, said he felt if the hanger had been in the same position as all the others then this more than likely would have never happened, that's what he was going to tell the owner, and if there was anything else for me to be concerned about he'd call today after talking with the him. I didn't hear anything.

Thanks for weighing in Dave.

You are a wise man.

Yeah, I got the text a good ten minutes after I left, and I know I hung out for around ten minutes after playing the Gretsch. I understand how this type of thing can happen with something like a Telecaster, but man, have you seen that big, fat headstock on the Gretsches? Django49, I don't think they're assuming the worst, I was just the last one to touch it.

After work yesterday I stopped by my favorite haunt to hang for a little while and check out some guitars. There wasn't anything in there that I couldn't live without, so I just pulled a few different ones down to check out an old Vox AC15 that just came in. One guitar that sounded pretty decent though the AC15 was a MIK Gretsch 5125 Electromatic, the one with the singlecoils. So anyway, once it's time to go I hang everything back up and take off. Now, I'm really careful when I hang a guitar back up, especially in this store. I've been coming to Highland Music since the mid-eighties, and the owner has been very good to me (and just about every other musician in Birmingham) over the years, so I always tune 'em up if they need it while I'm playing them, make sure I don't leave a bunch fingerprints behind, and when I hang them up I make sure they're not still moving when I walk away. Well, on my way home I get a text from the manager, who is also a friend saying: "You know that Gretsch you were playing? It just fell off the hanger and smashed on the floor!" I call and he said he didn't know what happened, but sure enough, it fell, and the owner will probably be pissed (as you might expect), and want to know who the last person was to play it. There's a security cam tape, but the area where the imports are is right on the edge of the screen, and you really can't tell what happens. I did get him to admit that he's walked in a couple of times to guitars on the floor, and his and some other customers opinion was that the ceiling fans sometimes cause the lighter guitars to sway in the hangers and eventually fall. Now I don't have a problem owning up to it if I was in the wrong, but I can't see it. I'm going down there this afternoon to watch the tape, but the owner won't be there. What should I expect... pay for damages, buy the guitar, tell him he should make sure his guitars are secure and that his employees should know what's going on with his stuff and that he should turn the fans off and let the employees turn the air conditioner on(My wife's suggestion)? The wife also says it's karma that means I should stay out of that store!

RIP

Then add a power amp and speakers, or a powered speaker set if you're looking to play live.

It's possible to do just that with the Axe and it's plug-n-play foot controller (or any midi fc with a bit more effort). Set it up to run as any typical pedal board and have full control of each pedal on the fly. So, when you switch to patch #1 that is a clean Fender sound from patch #2 that is a distorted Marshall sound with 3 additional distortion boxes turned on manually, the dirt boxes stay on? Can you switch amp settings separate from the "Pedals"?

For me other than a wah and compressor, it's different flavors of gain. A Marshall BluesBreaker pedal to warm up the clean just a smidgen or add a little more oomph to the mid-gain sound, a Brown Sound in a Box 2 for an even more distorted "Marshall-y" tone, and a Bad Monkey set as a lead boost. I use an ancient Quadraverb in the loop and switch it on an off with the Boogie's "FX" switch on the footswitch. Going back to the OP: I'd rather have all these options at my feet than program every different permutation in software. What if you want to have all three dist boxes on at one time? Better program it in advance. Maybe only two of them, with a flanger? Another program. What if, this time, for some unexplained reason when I switch from the lead channel to clean I want to leave the delay or all three of those dist boxes on, whereas every other time I've ever played this song live it's been off, and that's how the patch is set up? Unless you've thought about that very scenario and programmed for it in advance, it ain't gonna happen. Maybe if I was a touring pro or in a tribute band that needed the exact same sound every night for every song I'd consider it, especially if I was looking to recreate the recorded tones of the album/s. But for me, I'd rather go my own way.

You know, I try to keep up. I keep seeing people refer to an FRFR... what the hell is it??? Two Full Range speakers. Powered PA cabs are one example. Those AxeFX seem real neat, but a Boogie Mark IV, a few pedals, and a simple rack processor, and I'm good for about any tone I care to dig up. I made the mistake a few years ago of trading away my first Mk IV for a Triaxis and TC G-Force thinking I needed more options, but the IVs give me everything I need. I don't care to spend countless hours dialing in countless tones when I've already figured out what works for me.

Well, I guess as far as "iconic" HFC owned Hamers go, the Pizza Day Standard would rank right up there. One of those awesome playing and sounding Hamers that for some reason got passed around more than a cheerleader at homecoming.

BadgerDave's old Artist Custom. I hate I didn't have the scratch to buy this one when it came up for sale. Foodermon's Alligator Burst, Boomer'd Standard. One of the nicest I've ever seen, bar none. and then there's...

Holy SMOKES! That is awesome beyond words! And with a doubleneck body lighter that most regular Daytona bodies? Get the f**k right out!

I haven't forgotten When my wife saw that pic, she said "You're going to buy that, aren't you?" I told her "Yep. Not today, but hopefully one day I'm going to tell you I'm buying that guitar and that will be that.".

There's just one Hamer I want these days, and it's in the possession of a member of this board. Two P90s, a wraptail, and the Beatles. I sure hope he sells it to me one day, and that I can afford it if he does.