mirrorimij

The original red "Gibson" Rick has isn't really a Gibson. He also has a Hamer Thunderbolt, i believe Gibson recently released this as a limited edition.

Not with that serial number. Must be an import.

Nice guitar. Just curious- are the speed knobs original or did 79s come with top hats?

The second set of Daytona and T51 prototypes. Purchased from Bill Kaman several years ago. The Daytona has a hand cut trem cover plate, the belly cut differs from later production models and the side dots on the Daytona are quite a bit smaller than ones on the production run. The T51 doesn't have ANY side dots! Also, the Sperzel tuners on the T51 are original- they didn't get plated. Initially Hamer sent out the tuners to get plated. I'm not sure Sperzel ever offered these tuners in nickel (somebody feel free to chime in if they have more info on that). Edited to add that these two have serial numbers that fall outside of the standard Hamer numbering scheme. They indicate date of completion from the woodshop (August 5, 1993 for the Daytona). See below I've only seen a few Hamers that deviate from the standard numbering scheme. Below is a letter from Bill.

Cool article. I have to wonder why the state of Connecticut would need/want to commit funds to Fender. I would think they could fend for themselves. I didn't think the Guild project was going to create many new jobs. My understanding of it was that some Ovation workers were going to be re-assigned.

I think I sold that green Eclipse to Citrus. If that is the same guitar IT IS A MONSTER in the tone department.

Did the real 57's have the pointers on the knobs? just wonderin'.

Can someone explain what is going on with the Gibson with the pickup on the BACK?

Pirateflynn, The picture of your Sunburst up against the Blockhead reminds me of the old "modern vintage"ads from the early 90's. Great picture. Bob

I think the neck for E=MC2 has been retired. I saw it hanging in New Hartford the last time I was there.

Somehow I don't think Kiz had Ed Roman in mind.

From the Hartford Courant...... "In the colorful annals of Kaman Corp., this will be remembered as the year the music stopped. The Bloomfield maker of aircraft parts and helicopters is selling its 40-year-old Kaman Music Corp. division to Fender Musical Instruments Corp. of Arizona - maker of the celebrated Stratocaster and Telecaster electric guitars - for about $117 million. For Kaman - and American industry - the deal will end a long-lived and quirky business combination, one that blended the stone-sober practicality of aerospace manufacturing and industrial supplies with the whimsy, levity and creativity of musical instrument innovation. The blend was natural, at least for a time. Company founder Charles Huron Kaman, now retired, is not only a helicopter inventor, but an accomplished jazz musician as well. Still, the company's current leaders believe that giving up the guitar-making music unit will help Kaman, which has long faced skepticism about the division from earnest investors. And now, years after most other conglomerates sold off their ill-fitting sidelines to focus on their core businesses, Kaman is following suit. "Wall Street has been quite clear in hoping that we would find a way to be more focused," said Russell H. Jones, Kaman's chief investment officer and treasurer. Fender chief executive William Mendello said his company has not decided what to do with Kaman Music's operations in Connecticut, but said the division president, 35-year Kaman veteran Edward Miller, will stay on. Fender will lease space at Kaman's Bloomfield campus, Mendello said. "There's no doubt that corporate headquarters will remain in Hartford," he said. Kaman Music employs about 500 people nationwide, most of them in Bloomfield and New Hartford, home of the company's guitar factory. Layoffs, if any, will likely be few, Mendello said. Mendello said Fender, one of the world's most famous electric guitar brands, would significantly increase sales of percussion instruments and musical accessories, such as guitar picks and drum stands, through the Kaman deal. Kaman is the nation's largest independent distributor of musical instruments and accessories. Kaman makes Ovation and Hamer guitars, as well as Gretsch drums, and is the exclusive distributor of Takamine guitars. In all, the company distributes about 20,000 different musical instruments and accessories, from bongos and cymbals to guitar picks and drum racks. Mendello would not disclose annual sales figures for Fender, but they have been reported as $430 million in 2006. Fender employs about 2,600 people. Music has always been Kaman's smallest unit, contributing $215 million, just under 20 percent of Kaman Corp.'s 2006 sales of $1.2 billion, and about the same percentage of the company's profits. But Kaman Music also represented the innovative spirit of Kaman, now 88, who is no longer with the company and is better known as Charlie. Kaman, who declined an offer to join the Tommy Dorsey band to become an engineer, created the music division in the late 1960s, after losing a Defense Department contract to make rotors for Kaman's own H-43 Husky helicopter, according to Jones. Kaman used Sitka spruce he had stockpiled for use in the H-43 rotors to make a new type of acoustic guitar. Highly resonant, the wood helped minimize vibration in helicopters; in guitars, Kaman found, it could maximize it. "You don't want a helicopter shake, to vibrate," Jones said. "But you want your guitar to shake, because that's what music is, vibrations." Over the years, Glen Campbell, Melissa Etheridge, Neil Diamond, Billy Joel and Cheap Trick have all played guitars made by Kaman. John Lennon used an Ovation during his last acoustic recording session, according to Frank Untermyer, the Kaman Music executive who oversees the New Hartford guitar factory; Untermyer says he has a photograph of Lennon with the Ovation to prove it. Charlie Kaman, a spunky inventor and a workaholic, developed the Ovation along with his engineers in the mid-1960s and introduced it in 1966. It was the first round-backed, acoustic-electric hybrid guitar. Between 1985 and 1998, Kaman's son, C. William Kaman, ran the music division, tripling its sales and merging together a half-dozen scattered companies into one business. In the late '90s, before he retired, Charlie Kaman assigned aerospace engineers to help in the design of a revolutionary graphite Ovation guitar, which came out a few years later. Kaman founded the company that bears his name in 1945 as a helicopter and aviation parts manufacturer and it remains a major supplier to Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. of Stratford, among others. With the sale of the musical instrument division, Kaman's primary non-aerospace business will be industrial supplies distribution, which sells nearly 3 million different items, mainly bearings, but also gears, sprockets, chains and other parts for motors. For better or worse, Wall Street stock analysts have found helicopters and machine parts easier to deal with than guitars and drums. Kaman shares rose 1 percent Monday, to a close of $37.14, after rising more than 5.5 percent on Friday. " I wish Jol, Frank, Mike, Dave and all the others the best of luck.

Well... I attended Juilliard... I'm a graduate of the Harvard business school. I travel quite extensively. Sorry but I'm calling bullshit on all of the above.

I would like Wordupperman to respond to my last quote. Perhaps he can also state his qualifications since he seems to have "inside" knowledge.

Where is that smiley that is banging his head against a wall???????

Ummm, read my post above. They have already done it. Doesn't mean they will do it again but it's been done. Bob P

Hamer already built a Les Paul. I believe only one exists (besides the tooling prototypes that were never completed). IIRC, it belongs to someone at Kaman.

There was a limited run of Natural finish Diablos done right about that time. I can't remember the specifics but I thought they all went overseas. More info please. This is the stuff I that gets me excited about this board.

Damn Kiz........you got it covered. Who did the refins? I won't even ask about the other one.

I remember a gold logo Hamer from the mid 90's that was placed across the top of the headstock (a la Gibson) instead of in line with the tuners. Again, never say never with Hamer.

Thanks. That one made me laugh out loud.

My thoughts exactly. Now, that's got me confused. Gibson forcing Hamer to make Vectors only if the headstocks looked like Vees? I would think the obverse. IIRC, there was a settlement in the early 90's between Gibson and some other companies (Hamer, Heritage, maybe others). I believe the Hamer 3 x 3 headstock on the Specials, Sunburst Archtops (Studios), etc was slightly changed as part of that. I'm talking about the exact headstock shape of the early 80's Vectors and Specials. I have no idea why Hamer wouldn't put their current 3 x 3 Studio headstock on a Vector. Unless they have made some big changes to the way they build their necks it would be an easy switch. My guess is that someone at Hamer doesn't like the look.

I think the necks are still done without the CNC (on shapers). I think there may be legal reasons why that exact old shape can't be used (perhaps an agreement or settlement with Gibson).

Best post ever! I second that. BEST POST EVER!

Personally I can see how a Floyd Rose upcharge can cost that much. I sell CNC equipment and get this a lot when someone wants an option that is not part of our standard offering. For instance, our standard cutting table sizes are 5' x 10' or 6' x 12'. I had a customer that recently wanted a 12' x 8' table and, by his logic, the upcharge should have equalled the cost of the additional material involved for the larger table. When I accounted for engineering time to make the design change, time to test/troubleshoot possible issues with the larger design, time to update the drawings and schematics to accurately reflect the new machine configuration and (most importantly) money to cover the pain in the ass factor of building something we don't normally do the actual price was about 5 times as much as the customer thought it should cost. The guy was pissed at me and the reality was my company would have lost money by building it for any less. In Hamer's case you have to account for the fact that tooling may have to be created or modified, a CNC program may have to be written, someone may have to take the time to input part numbers and vendor info into an ERP system, etc. Your local repair guy only is probably taking a Stew Mac template, a router and maybe a few hours labor to do the job (not that there is anything wrong with that but I doubt Hamer would approach it the same way). I remember in the early 90's when I worked at a vintage guitar shop. I was new to vintage guitars and asked the owner why the vintage stuff cost as much as it did. He told me that, in his opinion, a vintage guitar was worth what it would cost to accurately reproduce it. That is no longer the case but,by his logic that set neck Cali was worth every penny that was bid on it.