HAMERMAN

More positive vibes from CT. Please keep us up to date when you know more.

Vector was also the name of an american auto maker that tried it's best to make the first american supercar. I think they sold far more posters than cars! :-) Edited to add: Just remembered the Lamborghini Diablo. Not sure when the guitar first came out but the car came out in 1990 and I imagine it was probably talked about in the car magazines a year or two before that.

Wow nice collection, and you didn't leave out Brad Gillis!

What do they generally weigh?

That is an awesome Cali! Does an HFCr own it now? Last I knew Vernon still owned it as well as several other Hamers (Ying Yang, E=MC2, Mummy, and something with a tree?).

Yikes! Does that happen on a regular basis? Do you always play that close to the bridge? I have heard that using fingers that close to the bridge is part of getting the Geddy Lee sound, would you agree with that?

I wonder if this changes the outlook on Standards and Vectors at all (In regard to overall shape and headstock design)?

Volume pot looks funny because of the switch for of the bridge pickup (the EMG 89 can switch between HB and single coil modes). Middle tone pot is probably and EMG RPC or EXG and the second tone pot is probably an EMG SPC. Just a guess of course but it's all definitely EMG made.

That could give an entirely different slant to "Tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree"!

210mA should be plenty for anything analog. Digital delays and the like will likely need more current.

A smallish number of guys do the majority of the posting but don't take that to mean that other voices aren't welcome. I think there is a lot of joking around and sarcasm that goes on and it's easy to misinterpret unless you stick around long enough. Also if you had ever had the chance to meet anybody from the board in person you would likely discover that 99.9% of them are great people with a real passion for music.

I learned a life lesson yesterday -- DON'T TAKE MY IPHONE IN THE BACKYARD. Or at least put it in a ziplock bag first! :-) Super cool that they hooked you up with a new one.

Very cool! I put iPhony on my Treo 650, that's about as close to a iPhone as I can afford. :-) http://www.tuaw.com/2007/01/13/iphony-launcher-for-palm-os/

I guess the secret is out. Bondo - it's not just for cars anymore! :-)

It looks like a fun band - I say go for it!

A carvin bolt-on kit would also work well since you get decent parts and the body comes unfinished.

>>I have already figured out how to derive the 13 pin output from the variax electronics >Wow! Can you elaborate at all? Did you need to use any additional electronics to buffer/ amplify the piezo out between the Variax ins and the GK circuit ins? Or are there safely isolated points to tap on one or the other? If you grab the signals after Line6's buffering circuitry where the signals are going to the AtoD's all you need is isolation resistors to make them compatible with the Roland gear. The signals have a +2.5VDC offset that normal GK ouptuts don't have but the Roland gear has caps on the inputs that handle that. I haven't made mention of this over at ION because I don't have any idea if any of the non Roland gear also has the appropriate caps on the inputs. It would also be nice to be the first one to get this working on a transplant. :-) >What are you using for piezos on the Spirit's bridge? My original plan was to put the L.R. Baggs piezos into modified R-trem saddles but I may try getting a set of pre made saddles from graphtech. My R-trem saddles all have the round insert so they can't just be milled for the peizo's like the older ones can. I emailed Lea at graphtech about this but havent heard back yet. I'm not sure how that will work out since he had asked me last year some time if I wanted to be a beta tester for their upcoming piezo floyd saddles. At some point that seemed like it had fizzled away only to see one of the prototypes pop up on Jeff Millers site. When I emailed him about buying saddles Lea acted like he had never correspeonded with me before. It wouldn't have botherd me so much if he hadn't been the one that asked me if I wanted to be a beta tester. >I love the Lo-Pro Edge myself, and have been wanting one of the piezo-equipped ones for years, but they cost an arm and a leg when you do see them. I like the Ibanez floyd too. >Also, we'll need pictures. As soon as it's done I will defintely let you know and send some pics. Your Parker experiments defintely inspired me.

That's a definite bummer. Once it's done my main gigging axe will be a steinberger spirit with variax electronics and a hex out. I also swapped out the wood neck for a graphite one. It should be a great guitar for the tiny spaces my band always seems to have gigs in. When the spirit is done my hope was to make a Floyd based variax/hex backup using one of my existing guitars. If there are no reasonable piezo options I will have to figure something else out. I have had the urge to try out a lefty MIM strat for a while now so maybe that would be the way to go since there are plenty of piezo options. I haven't liked the neck on any strat I have tried but I suppose if I am willing to route out a body to take some electronics I shouldn't be scared off by having to reshape a neck! :-)

The music man setup seems to get a lot of praise, perhaps they are doing some tone shaping before sending out the piezo signal. Piezo setups always need some buffering circuitry but I don't know how much tone shaping they normally do otherwise. I know high pass filters are pretty common to prevent low frequency "mechanical" sounds from making it out.

I am after two things in one Floyd equipped guitar: 1) Piezos driving transplanted Variax electronics. 2) Roland compatible 13 pin output for use with a guitar synth. I have already figured out how to derive the 13 pin output from the variax electronics so the thing grinding everything to a stop is finding a piezo floyd. Hopefully I will end up with a decent acoustic sound from the Variax electronics but that's really secondary to getting access to all of the different electric tones.

A while back somebody here mentioned having bought several Ibanez floyds with piezo's built into the saddles. I would really like to get a hold of one of these but they seem to be pretty rare. Just curious who it was that had them and where you got them? Anbody have any interest in selling one? Note: Most (all?) Ibanez baseplates seem to have material in the right place to be drilled out for a left or right handed trem arm. I am counting on this since I would need to set it up lefty. I could live with the empty right handed trem hole. Minimal Hamer content: As I like the feel of an Ibanez floyd I would consider putting one of these on my sustainer chap if it would go in with minimal fuss. If not I would probably rather put it in my RG550. Edited to add: For a while it seemed like graphtech was going to offer retrofit piezo saddles but as far as I can tell they dropped the ball on this one after a small number of prototypes.

I'll take number 10. (The pots and switches) Please send Paypal payment information to ryand@curtisinst.com Thanks.

No idea but he looks a lot like the guys playing Drums and Bass! :-)

The only tune from the album Via was on (Disturbing the Peace) that I remember getting any airplay was "God Blessed Video". Probably because it had a video. :-) For me the entire album was an acquired taste. It didn't do anything for me at first but eventually I loved all of it. I haven't listened to the cassette in a while to see if it's help up over time but I do plan on eventually getting it on CD.

+1 for your way of thinking. As a lefty playing lefty I very much understand all the points that everybody makes about availability of right handed guitars but I have to think that at some point it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. If all the lefty's out there keep learning right handed then the situation will continue to remain bleak! I think there really is room for both. I for one am very glad lefty Hamers exist because for me there was no choice, lefty worked and righty didn't. :-)