mirrorimij

He didn’t strike me as a cheerful young lad. I vote no.

That’s the one Hamer I wish I could get. It was a project Jol let me run with. I did all the CAD/CAM work and tooling. Damn. edited to add that Chris’s template doesn’t show the real beauty of that guitar “under the hood”. Obviously it’s the second one from the right. That is NOT Rick’s Tbolt next to it. You can see the point of that one is much different.

I’m not sure which model numbers they were. I’m going off the cuff here but I would say this was around 1995. Frank cut a deal to finish/assemble those because Hamer’s finishing/assembly area had a greater output capacity than the wood shop. He was looking for ways to bring in additional income. Perhaps a sign of things to come. i worked on the neck line and did the fretwork at Hamer at the time. I remember being very impressed with the fretwork on those. I believe the logos were thin abalone.

Some of those were finished and assembled by Hamer in Arlington Heights.

My .02..... I worked for Jol during the early New Hartford years. I can share the following: 1) Arlington Heights was run like a factory (a good one but still a factory). New Hartford was run like a shop. That was because of Jol’s presence in New Hartford. 2) I left Hamer in July 2000. Most, if not all, of the customer order rejections I was aware of had a pretty good reason. What people don’t understand is many fixtures, patterns, etc necessary to do the old models and custom orders were trashed in Illinois. A lot had to be recreated. It is very likely the first “no” was because it wasn’t possible. If several requests were made then it was probably considered and tooling was made. He was also particular about the way Hamers looked. I wanted an all mahogany Archtop Custom goldtop. Jol wouldn’t do gold over mahogany because it would sink (even though I worked there and Jol had an all mahogany 57 Gold top that he loved). I remember another order specifying ugly Korina was rejected because he didn’t want it to look like a factory second and no one “will remember the story three owners down the road” or something like that. 3) He could be opinionated and would sometimes act superior. Most of the time he was a very pleasant person to be around. 4) I probably wouldn’t have moved to New Hartford if Jol didn’t go. I think most of us felt that way. If he didn’t go to New Hartford and a few of us decided to stay in Illinois they would have built Hamers on the Ovation line and the New Hartford golden age wouldn’t exist!

It looks like he was playing air drums on Global Citizen “You Can’t always get what you want” but it sounded like he was playing?

I can’t believe the Fender Custom Shop hasn’t tapped into this market. Send them your specs, photos or actual neck and they make a fully functional replica to play while the original sits in the case.

Dave, You are killing me here.....I don’t even have a guitar for it but I feel like I need to secure one of these hens teeth. If anyone needs a:reference for Dave I’ve known him for 30 years (he trained me how to fret and carve necks at Hamer), he is a straight up guy to deal with and he builds a pretty nice guitar. Deal with confidence. Bob

Yes. Chris is correct. Those 100% came from the factory. If they aren’t 2 FIG could they be from Parallel?

Not much of an update since my last post. My original plan to trade my Hamers for what I thought would be 90% of the funds I would need for the property was unrealistic (big surprise right). That property had a whacky HOA and ridiculously high fees. In order to get something that is reasonable from a HOA $ perspective it requires more cash up front. I just turned 50.....there are a lot of affordable 55+ communities in the Safety Harbor area.I started a fund that I will contribute to over the next 4 yrs 9 months to help buy into one of these when I turn 55. i can’t figure out how my Hamers factor into the new plan....I still have the handshake agreement for the sale and I’m still unwilling to let them go at this point. Probably not the smartest financial move but I stand by my decision.

Update.....everything is on hold for the moment. We have a handshake agreement to complete the sale contingent on me finding a property. I don’t want to bank the cash and then find a property. I seem to remember a story (maybe from here) about a member who sold a gold top “back in the day” and basically converted it to pizza money. I can only be at peace with this if I immediately convert it to something that significantly contributes to my quality of life. I’m not really worried about him backing out of the sale so it’s not a factor.

Gtrdaddy says Uh.Uhm(clears throat)...........remember I’m selling Hamers.

Update.......problems on the property end related to the association fees. This makes it tougher as I was interested in that specific place because of its proximity to the water. We are still on for him to fly up on Wednesday. I really don’t want to sell the guitars without a property to immediately sink the funds into. Otherwise I fear I would just convert them to alimony payments and I’d rather burn the fucking things. Hopefully I will get this sorted in a few days.

Thanks to all that responded....even Joe LoL. Will post an update as this unfolds.

I never thought I would be in this spot...... i just turned 50 and accepted a new position with a company based out of Clearwater, FL. I will be covering the state of Connecticut working out of my home (which I intend to keep) in the Northwest corner. I’ve worked with these guys before and it’s a good fit. I am considering purchasing a 2nd home near the office. I really like the Safety Harbor area and a place I like is available. I was down there last week getting oriented to the new position. I was talking guitars over dinner and a very wealthy man offered to buy my whole Hamer collection. I have a few special guitars and all have sentimental value but I honestly don’t play them. I play a very good Fender Strat about 90% of the time. I’m considering selling them to 90% fund the purchase of what would be a decent vacation spot/retirement home. It’s almost a no brainer! Im torn because I had a hand in building them. Most have unique factory documentation and/or other little bits of swag. I gave 10+ years to that place and there is a lot of sentimental value attached to these instruments. I have one daughter who likes music but most likely wouldn’t want to be the recipient of guitars after I pass. I think I’ve made the decision to sell but I’m almost in shock over it. The guy is flying up this week to check them out. I would still have plenty of other brands of guitars to play.