willhutch

The price of admission is kinda steep around here. I gotta give away all kinds of guitars AND I need to have command of the language!!! Can I just be a honorary member???? The Monaco III continues to serve me well. I'm still floored by the sound of this guitar. Fat, but in no way flabby. It's rare to find a guitar with so much girth yet so much punch. It captures the best aspects of hollowbody and solidbody characteristics. It has the airiness, woodiness and roundness of a hollowbody. But it also has the sustain and explosiveness of a good solidbody. Many of the semi-hollowbody guitars I've played are kinda plinky, with sharp attack and rapid decay. Not here. In an effort to keep it real, I will offer the following criticisms: 1) The tuning stability isn't what I'm used to. The G string drifts. It seems to go flat after big bends. Goes sharp if I use the bigsby. Hopefully this can be addressed with some TLC. 2) The guitar doesn't play as sweetly up the neck as some of my other guitars. Granted, high notes loose some sustain on all guitars, but the effect is a little more severe on this guitar than on my Andersons (which are chambered solid-bodies). Maybe this can be tweaked by a good tech. I'm not skilled enough to work with this. The things I CAN adjust - intonation, trussrod, saddle height - all seem to be in proper adjustment. 3) The guitar is not as comfy as my other axes. Being a hollowbody, it is thicker, which feels awkward to my right arm. Also, the place where the top meets the side cuts into my right forearm. It got downright uncomfortable on the first gig, but I'm getting used to it. Also, the bridge seems to catch my sleeve when i do certain theatrical movements on stage. It happened about 6 times over the past two gigs. These issues are not criticisms or flaws. These are simply observations made thru contrast with my more familiar gear. 4) This guitar doesn't play nice with all of my amps. It loves my Two-Rock Opal and my Vibrolux (LOVES the Vibrolux, I say!). It doesn't get along with my Princeton or my Savage Rohr 15. The PUPS are TOO HOT. I need to roll off a lot of volume to keep the inputs of my low-power amps from being overloaded. Maybe some new PUPS are in my future???? But, back to the positives: TONE, TONE, TONE...........RESPONSIVENESS, PUNCH, SUSTAIN, CHARACTER. Anyone care to offer their experiences?

Thanks for the warm welcome! It sounds like Lollar P-90s are popular in the Monaco III. Seeing the way some of my amps respond to the stock PUPs, a lower output P-90 might fit the bill.

I just bought my first Hamer: A red Monaco III!!!! What a toneful instrument - way fat and full of wood and air! Never having owned a guitar with P-90s, I'm now in experimentation mode to see how it interacts with all my amps. It behaves much differently than my other guitars. Specifically, the pickups are somewhat hotter, requiring the amps to be dialed in differently. The guitar seems to work best with my higher-wattage amps, it seems to eat my 12 and 15 watters for lunch, unless I roll the volume on the guitar down a bit. The P-90's seem very well suited to controlling with the guitar's volume. There are usable sounds with the knob at 4 all the way up to full volume. A wider range than on my other axes. Excellent playability on this guitar - nice string tension and action. The bridge design and position of the pickups are comfortable. It's a bit different than what I'm used to, however. The neck is fatter and the body shape creates different contact points with my body. I had no idea that Hamers were such great guitars. Played my first gig with it and was really pleased with the tones available on the guitar. I have been playing Tom Andersons and I find the Monaco a wonderful addition to my collection. I hop I can join the brotherhood of Hamer users. I'll check back often!!!