Another mysterious part from the DGS $995 1980 Special

[BadgerDave]

After consulting "The Book", I'm nearly certain that this is not an original Hamer sustain block saddle.  Consensus?

There are six of them, they fit the bridge block perfectly and align without gaps between them.

Anyone know for sure if Hamer ever used these and/or what brand they may be?  Mighty-Mite?

 

BTW, the restoration is proceeding nicely.

 

[stonge]

I think that is original.  I have similar saddles on my 1980 Special, and I believe Butcher has similar saddles on a 1980 Special as well.

Hamer seems to have gone through multiple vendors and iterations of the Sustainblock bridge and saddles. These were cast (looking at how the top radius blends into the sting hole, and then a slot was machined towards the aft end), but there are different castings used during production (the most common ones are fully cast with the intonation and height threads drilled and machined after casting).  Fully machining them from scratch is a little more time and labor intensive (which translates to additional cost if you have a machinist or some random idiot in a freezing garage in January making them on a four-digit Bridgeport milling machine).  

--Edited to add: I have two 1980 Specials that have different saddles that i think are original; i forget how far apart the serial numbers are.  I'll try to excavate them from the basement and drop photos up here later today.

[BadgerDave]

20 hours ago, stonge said:

or some random idiot in a freezing garage in January making them on a four-digit Bridgeport milling machine

There's a blast from the past reference 👍2FIG lives!

[BadgerDave]

The '80 restoration project is almost finished.  Sourced and installed early 80's PAF pickups, rewired to original spec, and touched up the frets.  Also completely disassembled and cleaned and buffed everything.

The guitar needed only minor adjustment to set up with great action.  Sounds awesome.

I'm very happy with this one.

[specialk]

Great job, it looks killer. 

[stonge]

that cleaned up really nice!

two 1980 specials

 

[stonge]

0 1826 (green) 

0 2155 (amber) with the keyslot saddles 

[stonge]

and yet another 1980 Hamer Special checks in with the keyslot bridge saddles. It looks pretty nice, but it's a bummer (to me) that the guitar used to be green.

https://reverb.com/item/75363499-1980-hamer-special-factory-faded-green

[ZR]

Yeah, it would have faded to a very vintage look by now too if you're into that. Looks pretty nice as is too though. I lean towards carved tops but there's something about the simplicity of those slab body guitars!