Bloozguy

I think you've already been there more times than he has, haven't you? hey, watch yourself. i'm in all the archives. and I was at the first 4321 AND the first MWJ Hey now...If I don't give you grief who will? You just have too darn much stuff going on...

It's not going anywhere soon, but you can have first right of refusal

I don't think I had a Daytona when this thread got started, but I'll play now: Light weight and loaded with Fralin Blues Specials.

I’ve got 2 (actually one story in 2 parts) as well: Part 1: In 1994 I went to work for a startup company in NE Minneapolis. As we grew, we ended up hiring three other guitar players (probably bad HR skills ). Before too long our lunchtime ritual ended up being a music store crawl at least 2 to 3 times per week. One of our local music stores had an abused cherry red 1993 P90 Special hanging there: at one time it had a Roland synth pickup mounted between the bridge and bridge pickup...with screws big enough to make dime-sized chips in the lacquer on the top; an ill-fitting screwdriver had hacked up the tailpiece studs badly enough that they would draw blood if you brushed your hand over them; the bridge adjusting nuts looked like someone worked on them with a Vise Grip pliers; and the finish on the back of the neck had been sanded down to the bare mahogany. I had seen it hanging there many times and never gave it a second look. I had a mahogany Standard and Vector back in the early ‘80’s so out of curiosity one day I grabbed it off the wall. Instant lust! The neck felt great. Light to medium weight. Acoustically it rang like a bell. Plugged it into a little Naylor amp and it sang on the neck pickup and growled on the bridge pickup. The owner of the shop was glad to see it go and sold it to me at a price that reflected that. I decided to fix the abuse so I brought it to a luthier friend of mine who said he could redo the finish if I got the proper cherry tint for him. I called Hamer in Arlington Heights, explained what I had, and told them that I wanted to buy new tailpiece studs, new bridge adjustment nuts, and some cherry tint. Whoever I talked to asked me for the serial number of the guitar and when I gave it to him he said “cool…I worked on that guitar.” He asked me for my address and said he would send me the stuff at no charge. He said “just play the hell out of it when you get it fixed up.” And I did. I regret not writing down the name of the person at Hamer, but whoever they were they were the absolute epitome of customer service. My friend made it good as new. A buddy of mine who owns a late ‘50’s Les Paul Special played it once and said “I want this if you ever sell it. It plays better than my old Special.” Now the crappy side of that story is that there was a black and white graphic Special hanging right next to the red one that, because I didn’t know how sought after they were, I didn’t ever touch. Part 2: Since that guitar store was a regular on our music store crawl route, I got to know the owner fairly well and bought and sold a few guitars there over the years. I don’t know if he was ever an authorized Hamer dealer but in 1996 he ended up with a brand new Archtop GT (predecessor of the Studio P90 Goldtop). I’m kind of a sucker for goldtops so it caught my eye the next time I walked into the shop. I couldn’t afford it at the time, but the owner was kind enough to let me wank on it…probably at least once a week for better than a year! One day I walked in and it was gone. I was bummed but really breathed a sigh of relief because now I could stop lusting after it. Over the next few years I got busy and traveled heavily internationally so my once a week visits dropped to once every month or two. In 2002 I was in the shop talking with the owner. We were busy lamenting guitars we wished we had never sold when I said “how about guitars we wish we had bought...like that goldtop Hamer you had a few years back.” He looked at me, smiled and said “do you still want it?” I said “Hell yes!” He walked into the back room, thrashed around quite a bit, walked back out and handed me a dusty Hamer case. I opened the case and there was the goldtop…still brand spanking new but 6 years old. I think he noticed the WTF look on my face and said “it wasn’t selling so I put it back in the case, stashed it in the back room and over the years it got buried and I forgot all about it.” I bought it for what he had into it and still have it to this day. Now has Fralin underwound P90s and it’s a MONSTER! And the Special? As soon as I got home with the goldtop I called my buddy and asked if he still wanted it. He was at my house with the cash in about 20 minutes. My Archtop GT was my only Hamer until April of 2007 when my girlfriend bought me my Newport Pro from BruceM. While I was at his house picking it up he said “you should visit the Hamer Fan Club Messageboard.” Bad move. Since then 39 Hamers have gone through my hands and 27 have stayed. It's all Bruce's fault

I think you've already been there more times than he has, haven't you?

I don't know if I need the lift chair, but I do need someone to carry the martini down the stairs

I may need help hobbling up and down the stairs, but I'm planning to be there.

From a fellow biker...Get well soon bro...and here's hoping you get the hot nurse to deal with the catheter Number 1 and 2 causes of MC accidents in Minnesota (and probably most everywhere else) are: deer and idiots in cars. Get a hell of a good personal injury attorney. If you don't know of one I can refer you to someone local that specializes in motorcycle stuff. Ray

If I could get the pickups in black that's what I'd do. Chrome or gold are my only choices.

I'm not a fan either, but Sue sure likes it. I was thinking about a Bigsby, but then I'll have to fill the switch hole. When I get the contours done I'm going to set one on there just to see how it would look.

I recently bought a "beater" '92 Special from Hamerweizen (thanks Eric!) that's about to embark on a customizing journey. Someone routed the bridge pickup cavity pretty badly, smashed the tone pot hard enough to break through the mahogany, and stripped all the finish off the back of the neck. A perfect candidate for the project! It's getting: 1. Forearm bevel and tummy cut like an Eclipse 2. Pickup cavities filled and re-routed for TV Jones TV Classic (neck) and TV Classic Plus (bridge) 3. A trip to Stikeland for some bling Here's a couple "before" pics: And after stripping the hardware: I was originally planning to have Stike shoot silver flake with cherry transparent over it, but my girlfriend (who puts up with living in a used guitar and amp warehouse and has even bought me a couple Hamers ) one day said "you don't have any white guitars...why don't you get one." I decided then that this one would be pure white . She also likes gold hardware on white guitars. I'm not a big gold hardware fan, but I'm tempted to go that way on this one. Any opinions?

I seem to remember warning you that this could (and likely would) happen If you're going to get hooked, a Korina Standard is a fine way to start

Email sent

Austin - I believe those are called a #551 shape - those are smaller than a standard #351 and come to more of a point. I can see if we can get those done, and will let you know. Not sure if we'll incur additional charges to get the logo to fit on there, and we may have more limited choice of colors, but I'll check. If the Jazz III works out count me in for a few packages ...maybe even in Ultex

Awesome! I've always loved the "Les Paul on LSD" look of the Cadillacs. Probably the same as you...since I first saw Elliott Easton with one

I was thinking the same thing... I don't want to hijack this thread, but since the red one's fairly rough right now, I'm thinking about Eclipse-style body contours, a set of TV Jones Filtertrons, and a bass boat sparkle finish of some sort By the way, buy with confidence...Eric's a great guy to deal with.

Email sent on the red Special. I think this one will make a trip to Stike

My Monaco SuperPro and Newport Pro are my only two Hamers that weren't begging for a pickup change...

WOW!!! That is beautiful...great color...great grain. Nice score Chris! Seeing that made me break out my Kool Blue one and get a refresher course in how kick ass it plays and sounds.

I see exactly where you're headed...but we've never ever had tee many martoonis have we?

I think you played it before and liked it, so I'll have to say yes

And some more... BluesLand B40 3x10 Combo (a hot rodded tweed Bandmaster) Mesa Blue Angel 1x12 Combo Mesa Maverick 1x12 Combo with EVM12L Thiele extension cab. I'll put a basic pedalboard together with a tuner, compressor (Barber Tone Press), couple flavors of OD/distortion/boost (Fulltone OCD, G2D Cream Tone, Butler Real Tube, Fulltone Fat Boost), chorus (Fulltone Mini Deja Vibe), trem (Fulltone Supa Trem), delay (MXR Carbon Copy) and a wah (Teese RMC-4 Picture Wah).

Good score I have the exact same amp...and absolutely love it. Best reverb of any Mesa that I've heard. They do need to get cranked a little to really come alive and that's when you'll notice the difference between the power tube settings. brion's right - they can be fussy about preamp tubes.

You send me money via paypal. The address is stevefinch101@hotmail.com Make sure to send it as a gift so there are no fees

...and my 4-digit Standard