holLoWskull

I have to give you points for being one of the most persistent people I've met! Just like someday your Indigo Duo will be mine! Oh yeah, here's a pair that see regular gig action: (the Fishman VMV Powerbridge equipped 94' Mirage I and Fishman VS-100P Powerbridge equipped 96' Mirage maple top - converted to a 2-post trem) and just for Caddie....the purple people eaters (95' trans-violet Studio and 96' factory buckered trans-purple Daytona)

Admittedly I didn't have the greatest seats, but I saw CT with Heart and Journey in Saratoga Springs, NY a few nights ago and it looked like Tom was the only one playing a Hamer most of the night. It looked like some multi-string Monaco looking contraption, but again I wasn't close enough to get a great look. Rick was playing a Les Paul most of the evening and only busted out a couple Hamers towards the end of their 40 min. set (they were the opening band).

Looking at the picture, I'm 99.9% sure it's a USA Diablo. The fretmarker dots at the 12th fret are spaced closer like a USA Hamer and the Floyd is squared off like the Schaller model Hamer used. It's probably a 94'-97' model (when they went to the non-reverse headstock). There's an import Diablo on ebay right now that you can look at for reference, but you'll see the Floyd and dot inlays are definitely different from the ones on the guitar on the cover.

If you had bought it in the days prior to our very own Lady Scary single handedly driving the market value of USA Cali Elites up well over a grand, I would have said you overpayed. (how I so wish I had held on the the two I had a few years ago and let go for well under a grand) At today's market value for a Cali Elite however, I think you made out reasonably well price-wise.

I have a El Diablo 100-C combo (the big ass 2X12 monster). I agree it's versatile, but I think it's forte is hard rock and metal. So....upside: versatile enough for most styles of music, looks awesome on stage (blue LED lights make for a cool yet erie glow), can be switched between 50W and 100W (loud or brutally loud), switchable between EL34's or 6L6's, good 3 year warranty (transferable even if bought used), and rock solid build quality. downside: HEAVY!!! Not kidding...95 lbs. Thank God for the edge lift handles and casters, and footswitch cable is somewhat of a delicate thing IMHO. Gotta be careful not to step on it too often or wrap it too tight or it can get some shorts. All in all a good bang for the buck on the used market. FWIW I find turning the master volume up to about 4 or 5 in 50W mode and using the preamp volumes (warm and hot channels) to get the desired stage volume produces the best tone with these amps. You can keep the pre's low enough to not deafen yourself or others yet still get some nice tube distortion sounds.

there was the trans blue burst "Centdiablo" that I believe Admiral B had and sold to Jeff R if memory serves me correct. I don't have any pix of it, but maybe one of it's previous owners does? That was a little bit of both guitars IIRC, neck & fretboard of a diablo, body of a centaura 2 humbucker...real sharp.

LOL....you a funny man Caddie. Thank God I wasn't drinking anything when I read that or it would have been all over the monitor

that kool blue guitar is HFC'er collarguy's. I can't speak for him, but he might even do a little better on the price for an HFC'er with cash? He's a good guy to deal with and I've personally played that Mirage and if I didn't already have one just like it, it would already be mine. The top really is even more spectacular in person under some nice sunlight. It's a good guitar, especially at that insane low price! As for how does it compare to a Studio custom. IMHO, it's a different animal. If you like the vibe of a set neck mahogany/maple guitar but don't like the fret spacing of a 24 3/4" guitar, the Mirage maple top is for you. I personally like Strat scale guitars, so I'm a big Mirage proponent. Playability is, well kind of like a PRS or a Strat. I don't care for the JB at all in any of these guitars, adding a bright pickup to an already brighter sounding guitar (thick maple top + longer scale + 500K tone pot) maybe wasn't the best idea Hamer ever had. I've had great success with an F spaced Rio BBQ in the bridge and a GenTex in the neck (4 conductor for cool sounds with a 5-way Superswitch). Want a strat sound, position 2 and 4 have you covered. Want a nice Allman Bros. tone, position 3 (humbuckers together in series) has you covered. Want some quasi-PRS sounds, look no further than position 1 and 5. So much untapped potential with these guitars it's not funny. Why did Hamer stop making them? Probably because they didn't really sell all that well from what I've heard and read. I think these guitars will hold their own with just about any similar PRS for a fraction of the cost on the used market. Too bad Hamer didn't try and sell the Mirage line after their recent move 'upscale' in the guitar market. They might have been more successful than the first time around with the right marketing?

I'm guessing that if this auction doesn't get the infamous 'auction ended early because this item is no longer for sale', this Cali will set the new record for highest sale price...but we'll probably never know since chances are good that there will be a behind the scenes deal made. I'm out (hell, I was out before the first bid), but good luck to all of those that are getting ready to re-mortgage their houses and sell off their first born children for this guitar.

Yep...that's the very same one. The reason I did it....I really don't know other that I'm an idiot when I look back in hindsight I guess I was between bands with no prospects at the time, so I imposed a silly self-induced goal to reduce my number of guitars I owned. Now that I'm gigging again I really wish I had that guitar again. Oh well, that was my "the one" that so many of us talk about selling and regretting almost immediately afterwards. That's why I'll wait until you have a moment of insanity and decide to part with your's

Damn you Bobby, you're such a tease! ....you know I love that guitar. Oh well, at least I can remember drooling over it back at the 04' Open House too. Just remember, I called dibs on it a while back if you ever have an insane moment of weakness and decide to sell that one It would be in great company with my other purple Hamers too. I still kick myself in the ass for selling the 94' Cali Elite I had in the same color

With all the folks around here that insist that they hate EMG's and Floyd Rose trems, it should narrow down the drawing pool for those of us that actually prefer those features on our guitars. Seriously though, I've seen many custom orders shown off here on this site, and I still personally think this guitar is one of the coolest New Hartford made Hamers I've seen in a while. Based on the color combinations and features it almost looks like something Hamer might have built as a spoof to appease those of us that clamour for the return of the "notice me" painted Hamer shredders of old, but I totally dig this guitar and will be "in it to win it"! Regardless of who takes this beauty home after the raffle, I am just thankful that Hamer was generous enough to not only build it, but to offer it up to the HFC.

I bought the vintage orange T-51 off of you and it is indeed a beauty as well as an awesome player. That was the same T-51 that we were both bidding for on ebay many moons ago and you ended up winning. Kind of funny how it still found it's way to me, just a little later down the road. It truly is a cool community were you can get that Hamer you've always wanted...if not today, maybe someday in the future.

My 95' Special FM is still for sale and it's not a burst finish, it's what Hamer calls 'violet' in their 95' catalog. Honestly, you'll be hard pressed to find a Special FM in nicer condition (I can honestly say it's easily a 9.5 out of 10 and that's being EXTREMELY critical...it's most likely what you'd see graded as a 9.8 out of 10 by most online dealers), and to further sweeten the deal for HFC'ers, I'll even throw in a Hamer hardshell case instead of the SKB I originally was selling it with for the same price as I was asking before (check earlier in this thread). There has to be someone out there besides me that appreciates purple USA Hamers and is jonesing for a Special FM that not only plays and sounds great, but will set you apart from all the other more common colored ones!

Yes you did see it in another thread a few weeks ago, and yes it is a refinish. The original finish was faded bad on the top and had several bubbles under the clear (not Hameritis, something totally different that I've seen in a lesser degree on a couple other purple Hamers from the mid-90's). The refinish was done by the guys at Hamer in the Connecticut factory back in early 04' and they did a fantastic job of matching the original color (which was still perfectly intact under the pickup rings and under the control cavity plate). In hindsight, I should have saved my money and just left the guitar as it was and played the snot out of it without worrying about how the finish looked. Alas, I was a couple years younger and more foolish (if that's possible) back then I digress, the guitar is still for sale and I'll give it another try on ebay in a couple weeks if I get no HFC takers. If you or any other HFC'er is interested, please e-mail me within the next couple weeks.

My purple 1995 Special FM is still for sale. Not the best picture in the world of the guitar as it makes the top look like it's two different colors, but I can send more pictures if interested. $800 shipped/insured to a CONUS address, $775 + all shipping fees to non_CONUS HFC'ers. I'll even pass on the savings and knock off $25 if you pay in cash/USPS money order/cashier's check drawn from a US bank instead of Paypal. Price may seem steep to some, but this thing is about as close to mint condition as you'll probably find in a used 1995 Special FM. OHSC (Hamer) also in NM shape now included instead of the SKB one in the picture since it seems to be a deal breaker for most HFC'ers.

Very cool...count me in the minority that thinks that there was some cool and interesting playing going on by both guys in that video. Then again, I'm also someone who is bored of hearing nothing but the same 12-bar blues and pentatonic minor scales getting rehashed with predictable phrasing that seems to be appreciated by most folks. This sounds muscially 'fresh' to me even if it isn't my cup of tea so to speak, and I appreciate it on that level as well as both of the guy's percussive phrasing.

Damn, there's more interest in my newly acquired studio (which isn't for trade/sale) than my Special FM...what's up with that??? Thanks for the offer to do some swapping, but I'm still getting to know the studio and enjoying the thing too much to part with it so soon. In an attempt to generate more interest in the guitar that actually IS for sale, to CONUS HFC'ers...send me a USPS money order for $750 US and I'll have the guitar shipped to your doorstep in a few days. If you want to use Paypal, make it $775 US (basically covering Paypal's fee). Either way, that's a $25 - $50 reduction in price, so hopefully that will get some wallets to open Oversees HFC'ers, we'll go with the above prices as a point of reference, but you cover shipping (probably USPS Global) and are responsible for any fees/duties your country might charge. I'll keep the guitar for sale exclusively here for another day or two to see if anyone in the weekend crowd is interested, but after that it's off to ebay. Come on fellow HFC'ers, this guitar is damn close to mint condition (easily a 9.5 out of 10 and probably would be grader better by most online dealers) and actually is a great playing guitar too! Not heavy at all (put some pearloid tuner buttons on it and you may even get it under 8.0 lbs.), decent sized neck (mid-90's style medium 'C'), cool rare factory color (it's transparent purple, need I say more...in fact I had Frank Rindone at Hamer verify the build date and color and it is indeed the correct original color)...only thing it doesn't have that most folks here look for is a $350 price tag

Well Danny, if I had a tobacco burst wraptail studio and you were interested in it, it would be trade bait for that duotone of yours...alas you have me mistaken as the owner of that guitar Ah, the purple studio wraptail...well I do own that guitar and it's the one that has caused me to put my Special FM on the for sale block, so I'm not opening the door on that one just yet Besides, I've only owned the studio for a few weeks and after spending damn near 5 hours to clean the filth off of it that was on there when I got it, I'm gonna enjoy my what pleasantly turned out to be a diamond-in-the-rough studio for a while. Besides, my purple studio and I are still on our 'honeymoon' period, so you just stay away from her Mr. Noonan, and sell me your indigo duotone so the two guitars can look incredibly impressive together on stage! Back to the Special FM, look at it this way guys...it's purple. It'll be an easier sell with your Mrs. as you know she'll love the color and probably will thank you for bringing it into her home

Geez, come on guys...this guitar is as nice or nicer than some NOS guitars that have been sitting around stores for a few years. You won't find many USA Hamers in purple and this one would be great for a Hamer collector or for anyone who wants a fantastic playing/sounding (and rare!) Hamer. I'll give it a few more days here before sending it off to ebay. This is a guitar I thought I'd never sell, but again it's so close in sound to my newly acquired Studio and I dig the "gut cut" on the back of the Studio and the wrap bridge as well as the slightly chunkier neck on the Studio, so this one has to go to help get me down to my 'top 10' guitars resolution I made back in January. Who ever gets this Special FM will be extremely happy, I've got over 100 positive feedback on ebay and have sold guitars there and here on this forum, so if you need 'references' just let me know. Need more pictures, I can supply them to serious potential buyers. What happened to all the guys posting that they were looking for near mint condition Special FM's....did aliens abduct them or soemthing? This is the Special FM you guys who only buy 'pristine & clean' Hamers have been waiting for. Again, $800 US and for CONUS buyers I'll cover the shipping/full insurance & Paypal fees if you want to use Paypal. HFC'ers outside the CONUS can e-mail me and we'll figure up what your total cost would be based on your shipping address.

Well, with the recent acquistion of the violet/purple Studio off ebay, I really can't justify a purple Studio AND a purple Special FM since they're both so similar in what they do. I like the body bevel and the neck on the Studio a little better, so up for sale is one near mint shape 95' Special FM. I had it refinished to it's original shade of 'transparent violet' as the Hamer catalog called the color at the Hamer factory back in 2004. No hameritis, no nicks, no chips...maybe a few light swirl marks on the face and back that could be rubbed out and a super tiny little impression/dimple by the rear pickup mounting ring. Other than that, she's damn near perfect. No fret wear, nickel hardware is in great shape (I did wrap the strings around the tailpiece a couple of times, so there are some light marks where the strings rubbed into the nickel plating of the tailpiece), and a medium neck typical of mid-90's USA Hamers (on the slimmer side of medium but still medium 'C' shaped IMHO, NOTHING as thin as the toothpick neck on my old 92' Special or some of my Hamer 'shredders' had). The only non-stock things I see are the tailpiece, it's a Gotoh aluminum one and the volume pots. Volume pots where kind of scratchy when I got the guitar a few years ago, so I replaced them with new CTS 500K audio taper ones (tone pot is still stock and works perfectly). The pickups are the stock SD 59'/JB combo (they have been out of the guitar as I've tried Phat Cats and a 59'/Custom combo before putting it back to stock). Guitar weighs 8.1 lbs. according to my digital bathroom scale (not the most accurate means of weighing a guitar I'm sure, but it came up with the same reading 3 times so I'm going with it) The guitar will be shipped in a SKB hardshell case in fantastic shape as well. Not looking for trades (unless it's Mr. Noonan's indigo duotone + cash on my end) as I told the Mrs. I'd be down to my 'top 10' guitars this year and with the Studio purchase, I'm going in the wrong direction so hopefully it sells here. I'm asking $800 US for it, Paypal OK and if you live in the CONUS I'll cover shipping/insurance costs. Believe it or not I've got about $950 into this guitar between purchasing it and having Hamer refinish it (a lesson learned in if you buy a mid-90's Hamer guitar with 'pizza day' prints all over the finish....leave it alone and just enjoy playing it if you ever hope to not loose your shirt should you sell) Oversees HFC'ers can e-mail me too and we'll see what kind of shipping costs you'd be looking at, but sorry I won't claim the guitar as a '$100 gift' on customs forms, so be aware you may have some extra costs to get it over to you. Anyway, here's some pictures...kind of makes the guitar look way more red than the color really is and makes the top look a little funky like it's two different colors. It's a hard color to really capture but it's (no pun intended) more of a deep purple in color, less red. E-mail me if interested.

This past summer I ended up changing the tubes in my Peavey 5150 head with EH 12AX7's and a matched quad of Svetlana 'Wing C' (I believe these are the ones you're considering?) 6L6GC's. Initially I wasn't thrilled. Even in a "high gain monster" like the 5150, I noticed an immediate change in tone from the Sovteks that were in there. I'm not sure which set of tubes had the bigger effect on the tone, but the amp sounded alot "crunchier" but unfortunately to my ears it also got "colder" sounding as well. Perhaps it was just that I was so used to the tone before, but after a few months (probably helped that the tubes got broken in during that period of time also) of experimenting with knob settings on the amp, I'm now very pleased with the tone of my amp. A good thing I found with the EH/Svetlana match is that it made the amp's distortion noticeably more articulate than before and improved the clean channel sound quite a bit from what it was with the Sovteks in it. The EH/Svetlana 'Wing C' combination results you'd get in your Mesa might differ from my 5150, but it took me some tweaking time and some tube break in to get them to sound to my liking, you may have to do the same.

I have no problems with their electric guitar strings, as I use them myself...good tone but I think that there are better strings out there when you factor tone vs. cost into the equation (I just don't like changing strings on all my guitars...so Elixer's do retain a pretty constistent tone from new to after a few gigs with them on). My problem is with the acoustic Elixer's...I've not had a good experience with them at all! I know that if I had a Hamer Duotone strung with acoustic strings, I would stay away from Elixer's brand unless I wanted to be changing a broken wound string in the middle of a song (you could reduce this chance of course if you put fresh Elixer acoustic stings on before every gig..but isn't that defeating the point of buying a $13 set of Elixer's in the first place?). Again though, no problems with the electric guitar set after using the brand for over a year.

Never had a problem with Elixer electric strings (I currently have them on all my Hamers and they sound good...not as bright as uncoated strings at first, but will still hold up well tone-wise after a couple months of gigging with no string breakages thus far for me). Elixer acoustic strings are a different story...TOTAL CRAP IMHO! I know Taylor and other companies use them from the factory on their guitars, but I've had D and A strings break near the saddle on my Takamine, and the guy I'm in an acoustic band with has had the same problems with the strings on his Yari (this is only after a few shows, different batches of strings, and neither one of us "beat" the strings when playing). Plus I've heard the same complaint from another guy who does acoustic gigs around me. I switched to D'Addario EXP's and am very satisfied....might try them on my Hamers next.

High gain amp (such as previously mentioned Peavey 5150 or a Soldano) and/or ADA MP-1 preamp and rack mount amp + rack mount stereo effects processor + EMG pickups (yes, the very same ones that some folks here say "suck" and sound "sterile") should get you well on your way to nailing the "80's sound". I don't think it's been mentioned yet but all that won't get the complete sound unless you develop the "80's technique" (I've been fortunate to have jammed with and picked up some licks from decent slide-blues, jazz and country players who totally smoke my ass at those respective styles, but try getting 'em to do a 32nd note flurry of two handed tapping or arpeggiated notes and they look dumbfounded...it's all what you grew up with I guess)