Hamer makes a great guitar as well as EBMM, and both brands don't have to many overlapping products, otherwise it would be a hard choice between them... Own two hamer's, Duotone custom - bound and crowned and a P90 artist. Two EBMM's, Albert Lee and a Steve Morse models One Warmoth parts strat, EMG's and a GK3 pickup All are totally different sounding guitars, and I'm pretty much done with GAS for awhile, unless a Newport for a heck of deal comes around... I hate mail-ordering anything, all my purchases have been made locally in the Tampa area. The Duotone was purchased new from a guitar shop that just switched owners, and the new owner wanted nothing to do with any guitar costing more than $750 so he was blowing out the Hamer (got it new for $825!). My Artist was purchased via Craigslist used. Both EBMM's came new from Express Music (somewhat local shop) for going internet rate on the guitars. The Warmoth was built for me from another local shop (Guitar Gallery). I wish there were more Hamer dealers around, and if it's true that they are going custom order only, new one's are off the list for me...