mirrorimij

Judging by some the Gear Page guys, Hamer is doing themselves a disservice by putting out a finish that shows some depth. If it looks thick it must be thick (and must sound like my poly incrusted Strat). I feel like taking a cabinet scraper to that guys finish just to prove a point.

+1

Well said Chris. I recently saw a post on another forum were someone was showing off a new PRS/Guitar Center exclusive run. IIRC, they paid $3500+ for it. The wood looked terrible. The top was nice but the mahogany looked like it would have made a nice shipping skid. I know for a fact that it would have never made it upstairs in New Hartford.

There isn't 10 people there and Kaman isn't independent. Don't rely on Wiki.

Keep safe and thanks for letting us know you are ok.

Howlin' Wolf

I apologize in advance for another speculative post (I said I wasn't going to do that). I think the price has to be high enough to cover the opportunity cost of what can't/won't get built in lieu of the custom Hamer. I don't think the Hamer staff is sitting around doing nothing and patiently waiting for our order. They are probably off working on other projects. If someone needs to break away from working on BRAND X to build a custom Hamer, it means some units of BRAND X don't get built. You lose all economies of scale if your custom requires new tooling, programming of the CNC, etc. It will require time (sometimes a LOT of time). If one custom Hamer means 10 units of BRAND X don't ship the one Hamer has to have as much profit in it as those other 10 units. Even though the Hamer pricing may seem out of whack to some of us they probably have to charge those prices to avoid leaving money on the table.

+1

The USA Guild's are now produced in the same facility that houses Hamer USA. In fact, some of the Hamer boys are helping out with the transition and that may be contributing to this. There is only so much talent to go around and that talent might be focused on Guild right now instead of Hamer USA. These rumors of Hamer USA closing, getting bought out, etc existed long before Fender owned them. Until we hear something from Hamer I'm inclined to believe this is a temporary shift in focus. I bet once the warehouse is cleared out and Guild is up and running it will be business as usual. edited to add - If these rumors are coming from sales reps on the street take it with a grain (block) of salt. I've been in that position. Usually they are too far removed to know what is really going on.

Yup. Can someone direct me to the post from Greg? I thought Greg's news was about Hamer's participation at the NAMM show. I can't find that thread anymore.

Have any of the dealers here heard anything? Seems premature (almost irresponsible) to post that without an official announcement. Not that it matters but I disagree with several of the "thoughts" listed. Has anyone heard if the import line has been discontinued? My local dealer told me that a sales rep told him they were not building any more imports. I haven't heard or seen that anywhere else. edited to add that I was referring to the leftyfrets thread in my second sentence. I didn't mean Thundersteel's post was premature or irresponsible.

It must have been a custom order as the trem and switch layout were not standard for that model. The only set necks that had the wilky trem as standard equipment were the Mirage and Mirage II.

RIP Les.

Sustain block.

The first two T51 prototypes. Mine (#2 prototype formerly owned by Bill Kaman) is on the right and Dave B from Hamer owns #1 on the left (formerly owned by Frank Untermyer). I believe Dave's was the one used in the Modern Vintage ads.

Its a 2006. Must be cleaning out the warehouse.

What is the first digit of the serial number? If that TV yellow one you are selling is from the first run (and I think it is) it should be a 1999 or early 2000. All of the guitar bodies in the TV yellow run came from the same slab of mahogany. The neck should be thicker than an early 90's Special. Mine is from the second run (the Cherry ones) and the neck is a baseball bat. $1500 is a very fair price for that guitar. I wouldn't sell mine for twice that. Good luck with the sale.

I believe it was sometime around 1999 - it was after the move to New Hartford if I recall correctly. The original 4-digit run stopped by '85, and there were a small handful of custom orders done after that and before the "reissue" in 1995. I ordered one that arrived in '91 with a veneer top, but it was a slightly thicker veneer than on other 4-digit Standards I've owned. I also bought one of the first '95s off the line, and the top was the same as on my '91. In '99, Jol mentioned that the tops on Standards were being done differently - an actual 1/4" maple top was glued on to the mahogany back and then milled down to spec. I've been playing my '08 Standard a lot lately, so it's out on a stand - I'll check that out tonight and see if I can get a better idea of the final thickness on the current ones. That sounds about right Chris. I left in July 2000 and the change had been in place for awhile. I believe the top thickness spec is .100" (slightly under 1/8 inch).

NTTAWWT, right? I'm not saying one way or the other... Junior Mint? And you wanna be my latex salesman.

I can stop anytime.... Just one more to show I can control it..... It's just too good to pass up...... Just going to add a celebrity guitar for collectibility ETC ETC ETC Might be time for an intervention- send all of your guitars to me so you can quit cold turkey.

Vintage Gibson ES 125

That looks like his signature. Its a close enough match to my Standard cover plate and the COA that came with my Vector.

Thats a beauty- very classy. Too bad they didn't read the back of the headstock prior to writing the ad.

Thanks for the answers Chris. I would be willing to bet that the import korina Standard uses a 3 to 5 piece body covered in a veneer (like the Epiphone V and Explorer). Not that there is anything wrong with that. Its just when you build it that way you don't have to sort through a truckload (literally) of korina to find clean pieces. I would also be willing to bet that none of the import necks are allowed to age for months before the radius is put on the fingerboard. Doing so adds to inventory and cost. Anybody that has ever taken the HFC tour has had this very important step demonstrated and explained to them. The stressed neck system and allowing the neck to age prior to radiusing the fingerboard are the reasons why you hardly ever see a modern Hamer with a twisted neck. Greg -that is a beautiful guitar. Make no mistake. I'm not in any way belittling the imports. They are fine guitars and I applaud Kaman/FMIC for making them better than they need to be at that price point. I am saying that there are significant differences that justify the price. It's like comparing a Mexican Fender to a Fender custom shop or Masterbuilt. Yeah, you can gig with the Jimmie Vaughan Stratocaster (or any of them for that matter) but they don't put the attention to detail into it like they do on a $4 or $5K Masterbuilt. Just about every current Hamer USA employee is a very capable builder in EVERY step of the process. You won't find that in a typical guitar factory. I even hesitate to use the word factory when referring to New Hartford. Arlington Heights was a factory. New Hartford is a shop. BUY USA. I'm getting off my soapbox now.