velorush

No one's heard that old joke? It's referring to how many fakes there are out there. I think it's even in "Beauty of the Burst."

According to Jol: The mystery was solved in the early 1980s, when then owner Gary Moore took the guitar to his friend and the founder of Hamer guitars, Jol Dantzig. Both Moore and Dantzig assumed that the secret to Peter Green’s tone was out of phase pickups. When pickups are wired out of phase, they usually produce a sound that is typically a bit thin and hollow. This they thought, accounted for the difference in tone in Green’s Les Paul. They agreed to deconstruct the instrument, expecting to find that Green had re-wired his pickups to achieve his signature sound. When they took it apart though, they found that this wasn’t the case. The guitar was essentially an off the shelf model. Dantzig remained puzzled, until he checked the polarity of the pickups. In his own words: Dantzig suspected that the guitar had been set up incorrectly at the Gibson factory. If that was the case, then it was certainly a happy accident in a year when Gibson manufactured thousands of Les Pauls. This was an idea supported by Joe Bonamassa, who acquired a 1959 Gibson just over 10 years ago that had the same feature. Edited to add: "thousands of Les Pauls?" "Thousands?" There were only around 1800 bursts built 1958 - 1960 (of which only around 2,500 - 3,500 survive 🙃). They just didn't sell well, which gave us the SG. [/opinion]

Found this. Also wondering if Seymour Duncan would sell one (with proof it was going on their pickup, perhaps)?

Do those headstocks fit in the normal Special / Les Paul case, or did they require a different case?

The Senior is off to greener pastures. I appreciate all of the words of encouragement and well wishes. I will encourage the new owner to join the HFC. 🙂

Just occurred to me as I was waiting for Spotify to open and staring at that switch (above), the reason I was able to implement the EQ mods with a normal 5-way was because the Charvel did not have a Tone control (the EMG SPC was the second control). The second side of the 5-way was open then to routing the cap/resistor circuit for switch position 4. If someone wanted to switch this in on position 4 and have a normal Tone control a superswitch would be necessary. A couple of pics from my post-nerd-school Paducah apartment c.1989. It was a 1986 Model 3 and the first new guitar I'd ever bought. Seems like it was around $450 with case.

Last call for the HFC. If anyone is interested in the Kiz' Senior at any (realistic) price, now is the time to shoot me a message. I plan to start Reverb discounting this weekend. It has 18 watchers presently (likely some HFCers among them). Surely someone needs this special Special. I will not be undersold! Crazy Cheap Prices! Everything Must Go! Biggest Sale of the Year! Christmas is Around the Corner! And all that sort of thing... 😁

Sorry, didn't mean to misinform. I was at work and didn't get to watch the video (yet). I was just afraid everyone might be getting their hopes up and he's typically a stickler about shipping his stuff. That is a spectacular looking Newport and what a deal!

That reminds me: I've never owned an accordion! Hmmm... off to Reverb... My boss (drummer) and I have a secret pact that one day we're both going to order bagpipes.

Just a heads up for expectations sake: when Uncle Larry is selling his guitars he makes it clear he won't ship them. I suppose Nash Vegas is a large enough market to permit that policy. Selling for Big Al may change that if Al has someone who can assist with boxing them up and getting them to a carrier.

I had a request to post some documents I referenced in another thread about some conversations (by long distance telephone no less) with the folks at EMG and the resulting tweaks they recommended to get a more authentic "split" sound out of the 85 humbucker when combined with an SA single coil. These instructions are very yellowed (filtered out by the scanner) and in very fragile condition. They were out in the shed in a shoe box full of scrap guitar parts I've been moving with me since the late 80's and refuse to throw away. I scanned the instructions to JPGs to post here, but I have both pages in a PDF I can email anyone interested. I also found a prototype switch I wired up (although the capacitor is missing) back in 1988. The instructions called for an extra switch, but I did this with the stock five-way (well, the old-style Fender 5-way rather than the stock plastic Charvel 5-way). It's a concept explored by Leo Fender in his PTB circuit (G&L). This is a static high-pass filter that just cuts some of the girth out of the humbucker. They may not even pitch this as an alternative as (IIRC) the dual mode 89 humbucker came out within a year of my conversations with them. I also found the original instructions for installing a set of SAs and a separate set of instructions for installing SAs with a single EQ circuit. I installed an SA/SA/85 set with the SPC (Strat Presence Control) that cranked the mids for a more 'humbuckeresque' tone out of the SAs (made a really terrible sounding overdrive with the 85, however). Really great guys to take the time to share this with a poor graduate student soldering in a dorm room. Some good times though when I think back. I received these instructions, went straight to Radio Shack and had the prototype soldered up and working that afternoon.

This was interesting: in the Gruhn Guide (3rd Edition), the entry for Ripper says "see L9-S." Never heard of an L9-S, but it was introduced in 1973 and was renamed Ripper in 1974. Discontinued 1982. About the only anomaly that might help narrow it down is the sunburst finish was discontinued in 1975 and was replaced with an optional ebony finish with ebony fretboard that year. At any rate, the Serial Number chart for 1970-1975 places 109807 between 1970-1975. Since we know the model started in 1973 and the end of the 100000 serial numbers was 1975, we can at least narrow it down to the three years of 1973-1975. Also, if it says "Ripper" anywhere on it (control cavity, neck pocket), that would reduce the range to 1974-1975. If, instead, there is a L9-S marking somewhere that might mean 1973. IF serial numbers were sequential (don't know), finding out production numbers from the 70's might provide a clue of the specific year [that's one big IF and a MIGHT].

The sparkly one is absolutely killer. Is the other one black or blue? This monitor isn't that great for colors. What I have determined is this process could be hazardous to your wallet. It doesn't cost that much to build them, but now I want to build one in every combination imaginable. Anyone remember the short-lived Starfield guitars Ibanez put out in the 90's? A friend with a shop in Paducah carried them (and Hamer and PRS). The initial order included a mahogany bodied Starfield with single coils - haunts me to this day. Years later I was blown away by a PRS KL380. Combining the two, I'm thinking, mahogany body and three P-90s. I've gone so far as to watch a few mahogany bodies on Reverb.

Great suggestion. I changed the Brand to "Hamer" and included "Hamer (USA)" in the Model Description. Thanks.

Oh great, just received this: Below that solicitation is: Nico D. cannot receive messages at this time. So I can call him or I can gmail him, but I cannot contact him within the protections of Reverb. Great. I have this vague recollection of some HFC sage posting an opinion of Reverb just this week... Something about applying a vacuum to the universe? 🙃

Yep, not showing up searching "Hamer Special." That's a problem (though I've got watchers already...). I'll edit and see if I can get better visibility. Hamer USA Special (CO) 2003 Vintage Orange | Reverb Edit: it popped up on top when I sorted by "Most Recent"

Now up on Reverb at the original price. Is anyone here interested at any (serious) price? If not, I'll shut up about it. There are a few instruments here and there (the spruce-topped Special, any of the BCR Juniors, for example) that really seem to be HFC guitars. I feel like this is one of them. If someone here is interested, drop me a message. I am receptive to alternative ideas of price.

Given the "pariah" part was due to his overprescription of drugs throughout the 70's and 80's, and given the sheer volume confessed to in trial, it could be said to be likely any prescription bottle from that period would have his name on it. 😄

Dr. Nick! The pariah of the early 80's! - all over the Memphis news when I was a teen.

Absolutely stunning. I've always liked PRS, but the only one I've ever absolutely fallen for was a used KL380 (argued over price with GC for an hour only to go home empty handed). This is the KL380 but way more to look at!

Some might notice the different routing pattern. Inspired by @cmatthes' excellent examples, I set out to try my hand. The Filtertron guide came from TV Jones. With a little two-sided tape and a sharp bit, I ended up with this: Prototyping: The pickguard (and a single-ply, eight screw white pickguard) came from Terrapin Guitars. TV Jones Classic Neck, Classic Bridge and Classic+ Bridge wired with a five-way that gives me Neck+Bridge in the "3" position. The first tone control is the normal low-pass tone; the second tone control is one of Leo's high-pass PTB (bass rolloff) controls. After a month I was able to start buffing, respraying the burn-throughs with an airbrush and more buffing. Finally got it together (Iteration 1): That was fun, but I was watching Tom Bukovac (Uncle Larry) and he was waxing on about the benefits of rosewood with Strats - I've never owned a rosewood Strat, so I ordered a similar neck in rosewood. But the single-ply pickguard couldn't go with rosewood, so, Iteration 2: And that's where it is today. The bridge/middle combination is quite quacky, bridge/neck has nice cluck as one would expect from a couple of humbuckers. I have yet to get the neck/middle to work satisfactorily. It gets really dark - the bass rolloff helps, but there is probably some adjustment to do to get it really right. No Hamer content, but I hope this interesting.

Back in 2017(!) I posted a question on the Ask The Experts forum: "What Color for S-Type Partscaster" and really enjoyed the discussion and all of the different ideas. What I just realized is I never concluded the thread and now it's archived. Here's the update if anyone's interested: I started looking for parts and ran across this on Reverb: That was an American Special body, a Fender '57 reissue neck, the Gilmour Strat pickup set and a Callaham bridge. Other than the neck, that was about what I'd throw together anyway. Shipped from AZ in one of the newer TSA-approved Fender cases. The '57 neck was an absolute breeze to sell (too thin for my old hands), so I picked up a Fender-licensed AllParts fatty in maple and played that for few months. Going back to the original thread, I needed color. The body was originally black but had been stripped back to that clear stuff Fender coats them in before the poly goes on. I naively went to the PPG paint store one town over, gave him my historically correct code for Sherwood green and asked for a pint of lacquer. Dude looked at me like I had three heads. "First" he says, "we haven't sold lacquer in years. Second, I don't recognize this paint code." Apparently, in the thirty years since I've painted a car lacquer has become pariah. Poly is the way to go! Stewed on that for a really long time, gave up and bought some rattle cans at Lowe's and laid on some color. It was hideous! The finish was great but the color turned out to be a John Deere green - popular with the locals, but not my thing. Around that time I found Oxford Guitar Supply. Lots of great colors and, though pricey, nitrocellulose lacquers available in cans (ReRanch had only rattle cans - why is it hazardous to ship paint in a can but not the same paint in a pressurized rattle can?). Sherwood green (over desert sand for primer) it is. I had purchased a cheap HVLP spray gun on Amazon and after a bit I was doing a decent enough job.

Not much obviously...

Couple of things: 1. Just weighed it on the same UPS scale used 12 years ago when it was delivered. That day it weighed 8.7 lbs. Today it weighed 8.65 lbs. Probably within the margin of error of a UPS scale, but it was interesting to me, nonetheless. 2. Given the response I'm going to go way out on a limb and guess I have grossly overestimated the market price of the Kiz' Senior. I really thought there'd have been at least some response. I based the price on Reverb listings for 80's Specials. Those are great guitars but the build quality on this is (just my opinion) on a different level. Any interest at $2,000, shipped (CONUS)? Feel free to message me if you'd be interested at a different price (other than tree fity, tree fity one, etc.).

(c.1988) I bought the 85 from a non-dealer, but new. It went bad, so I called EMG (long distance, from my dorm room) and asked about warranty. They were absolutely accommodating and sent me a new pickup (I think I sent the bad pickup back to them). I told the guy what it was going in (HSS super Strat) and that I was interested in getting a nicer 4 position quack. He sent, along with the pickup, some handwritten notes and some other prepared instructions on putting a capacitor in the circuit on the 4 position to change the 85's frequency response (might have been a resistor in there, as well - I still have all that in a box somewhere along with the prototype 5-way switch). It absolutely worked. Great folks at EMG. IIRC, the 85 was a wider, fuller sounding humbucker compared to the 81. Would have loved to have had the opportunity to try a 89. I had SA/SA/85 with the SPC in the Tone position and for all the grief they get, I never thought they were sterile sounding at all. And so quiet.