Since 2005, Dave Hlubek has been plaing with Molly Hatchet again... one of the two original members.
Dave is a Dean Guitars endorsee too. He is still big as a house and wails but I have not seen him in The Bobby Ingram Band , I mean Molly Hatchet, with him back in it yet.
I met Dave about 6 months after I bought 0189 in a Jacksonville club and he told me the guitar "wasn't any good any more and wouldn't hold a tune on the G string". By then it had had a once over by my favorite local tech with the nut setup for 10-46 so I wasn't having any problems. Kept it the same as the day I bought it for 14 years. I had to get it refretted in '96 and I had a new nut put on it then, but no other parts were ever changed. Stays in tune just Fine Dave. Think he was just irked he pawned it and lost it?
Right after I met Dave, Late Spring of '83, I also called the Hamer offices and gave them the serial numbers of the two guitars I had requesting any info. In a couple days a call was returned to me. It was a Frank but dont recall which of the two it was, Frank U. or Frank R.. He wasn't to happy about the sum I had paid for them, the fact Dave had pawned them, and asked if I had receipts from the pawn shop. I did.
I think my heart palpatated a few seconds when he told me that, yes, the Standard was made for Dave but how he got the Vector was a question as it was made for Michael Schenker. Dave had told me they toured together and he gave it to Dave at the last date together but he never played it. I think in recall that irked Frank a lil more too. Frank wished me well and I've been a Hamer owner since with 24.5 to my name. The .5 is a '93 Daytona neck mounted on a late '70s Mighty Mite Explorer body. I have since learned 0189 is the Standard right after James Honeyman-Scott's and 3 numbers before Dez Dickerson's, of Prince's band at the time, Standard. Nice company of owners.
My Hamers: http://www.hamerfanclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=26447
My .5 a Hamer..... MDHM
Armitage there has quite a few Hamers too. Life is Good eh Bill?
Cool stories.