New Hamer Day!

[draelyc]

I finally got my mitts on the Centaura I purchased from Guitar Center Used last week.  It shipped super fast, which while normally am awesome thing was in this case a bit of a complication, as it showed up before I got back to town.  Had a friend snag it from my porch and hold it for me till today.  <whew>
 

So it turned up without the tremolo arm & bushing, which I expected because none of the pix in the listed showed a trem arm.  But it also turned up with an original Hamer hard shell case, which is way cool because that was not mentioned at all in the ad.  Sweet!

The guitar itself is gorgeous — always hard to tell for sure from photos, but the sunburst is a nice, subtle fade without a hint of clownishness, if you know what I mean.  And the maple board has a stunning grain pattern.

I plugged it in long enough to make sure the electronics work — all good there.  

The thing has clearly been loved and even more clearly has been gigged and rocked hard.  A few deep nicks (all pictured in the ad) and a layer of grime that I suspect dates all the way back to the ’80s.  I’m prolly gonna spring for a full cleaning & setup at my local shop.  Might as well, as I’m gonna have a treble bleed cap installed.

So, not meandering tone-test videos yet, not till I’ve got my preferred strings on it & have it cleaned up & set up.  But here’s a short clip from the unboxing video I took — I cut out all the ASMR bits to shorten the running time, lol:

 

 

[draelyc]

Welp, she’s gonna need a bit more work than appeared at first glance:  I haven’t been able to get the truss rod to turn at all.  It might be the same thing that happened to my two oldest Hamers — that the nut’s been turned so much over 30 years that the wrench can no longer get all the way down to the nut because the top of the rod pokes out too far.  

If so, I know that can be fixed because I’ve had it fixed on my other two guitars … but I’ll have to take it to the repair shop do that.  And I’ll have to get that looked at before I can do a proper setup.  Which I’ll have to do before I can find out if this guitar will be as awesome as I hope it can be.

So stay tuned, True Believers — it’ll be a little while before I can share any NGD vids. 🤞🏼

 

 

[bry4321]

Good luck! Hope it is an easy fix!

[draelyc]

Huzzah!  Got the truss rod to move on my own!  Had to keep tinkering with it b/c of my CDO*.  Guess it was just old and ornery, lol.

I still have no idea what trem arm to get for the Schaller Floyd bridge — a quick net search yielded way too many options for my ignorant self to figure out.  But since the truss rod is working, now it looks like I will be able to set it up to my specs, and that’s a huge, uh, well, relief.  Pun apologized for. 😬

 

*CDO is the exact same disorder as OCD, except the letters are in proper alphabetical order as God intended. 😎

[draelyc]

Can somebody tell me about the mini toggle switch?  Up makes the tone darker; down makes it brighter (more noticeable thru the clean channel than with overdrive).  But which setting is “normal” and which is the “special feature”?

[Carl.B]

19 hours ago, draelyc said:

I still have no idea what trem arm to get for the Schaller Floyd bridge — a quick net search yielded way too many options for my ignorant self to figure out.  

Check with a pawn shop, MusicGoRound or local music shop. It's like they have all these unwanted trem arm's, and cases that people don't want for their guitars. I have bought a few term arm's from MusicGoRound they had a rather large box of them hidden behind the counter.

[RobB]

21 hours ago, draelyc said:

I still have no idea what trem arm to get for the Schaller Floyd bridge — a quick net search yielded way too many options for my ignorant self to figure out.  

Get one with the threaded collar. They work with OFR and Schaller versions.

 

Edited May 27 by RobB

[draelyc]

33 minutes ago, RobB said:

Get one with the threaded collar. They work with OFR and Schaller versions.

 

Much appreciated — having a pic to go by is a huge help … thanks!

 

[scottcald]

I have a Centaura exactly like that one.   Great guitar.  Personally, I prefer the push in arm.   The screw on ones don't stay put for me.    

https://www.floydrose.com/products/frtapi?_pos=1&_psq=push+in&_ss=e&_v=1.0

They're available on Amazon too.

 

[RobB]

8 minutes ago, scottcald said:

I have a Centaura exactly like that one.   Great guitar.  Personally, I prefer the push in arm.   The screw on ones don't stay put for me.    

https://www.floydrose.com/products/frtapi?_pos=1&_psq=push+in&_ss=e&_v=1.0

They're available on Amazon too.

 

Scott beat me to the punch. I've installed the push-in arms on an OFR NFT and original and am never going back to collared arms. No slop at all, even when hanging loose. Easy to install, too.

RobB sez, "check it out."

Edited May 27 by RobB

[Jimbilly]

20 hours ago, draelyc said:

Can somebody tell me about the mini toggle switch?  Up makes the tone darker; down makes it brighter (more noticeable thru the clean channel than with overdrive).  But which setting is “normal” and which is the “special feature”?

I think it's supposed to be a mid-pass filter?, mine seems to do nothing, but maybe that just my ears. Down is probably 'neutral', as it should require a battery to make something brighter than it already is?

[draelyc]

7 hours ago, RobB said:

Scott beat me to the punch. I've installed the push-in arms on an OFR NFT and original and am never going back to collared arms. No slop at all, even when hanging loose. Easy to install, too.

RobB sez, "check it out."

Thanks, y’all!  I would very much prefer a push in arm — would that fit with the bridge that’s on the guitar?  When y’all say “easy to install,” I have to wonder how, um, subjective that is, lol!!😂 

[draelyc]

7 hours ago, Jimbilly said:

I think it's supposed to be a mid-pass filter?, mine seems to do nothing, but maybe that just my ears. Down is probably 'neutral', as it should require a battery to make something brighter than it already is?

I suspect you’re right — good call. 👍🏼

[RobB]

21 minutes ago, draelyc said:

Thanks, y’all!  I would very much prefer a push in arm — would that fit with the bridge that’s on the guitar?  When y’all say “easy to install,” I have to wonder how, um, subjective that is, lol!!😂 

Remove the original housing (Allen wrench). 

Use a 12mm box or small crescent wrench for the new install.

Remove the snap-in bar from the housing.

Insert new housing into bridge plate.

Screw-in 12mm nut below the bridge plate, making sure to keep the top housing’s bar-tensioning Allen screw facing rearwards. 

Tighten nut. You’re done.

 

[draelyc]

14 hours ago, RobB said:

Remove the original housing (Allen wrench). 

Use a 12mm box or small crescent wrench for the new install.

Remove the snap-in bar from the housing.

Insert new housing into bridge plate.

Screw-in 12mm nut below the bridge plate, making sure to keep the top housing’s bar-tensioning Allen screw facing rearwards. 

Tighten nut. You’re done.

 

It’s does look pretty simple on paper.  But the cavity on the back of the Centaura  t let me access the backside of that socket without taking the bridge all the way off the guitar.  Not that that’s not doable; it’s just a hassle, gnome sane?  Oh, and the fact that I’m pretty lazy… 😬

[RobB]

2 minutes ago, draelyc said:

It’s does look pretty simple on paper.  But the cavity on the back of the Centaura  t let me access the backside of that socket without taking the bridge all the way off the guitar.  Not that that’s not doable; it’s just a hassle, gnome sane?  Oh, and the fact that I’m pretty lazy… 😬

Sack up, son. Do it right the first time. 
 

[draelyc]

52 minutes ago, RobB said:

Sack up, son. Do it right the first time. 
 

Yessir! 🫡

[draelyc]

Welp, I’m pretty disappointed, y’all.  Looks like this one’s going back to Guitar Center.

Ive been struggling to get the thing set up and playing — and more importantly *feeling* — right.  To be fair, I am VERY persnickety about my setups.  I have a certain set of string gauges, a certain string height, a certain neck relief, &c., that I pretty much have to have in order to feel connected with a guitar.

This one just wasn’t falling into place, no matter what I tried.  And tonight, I finally sussed out why.  There’s damage at the 18th fret.  I’ll try to post some pix.  I don’t know if it’s fixable — probably is — but I don’t want to have to do a repair on a guitar I just bought from a vendor that was supposed to have inspected the thing thoroughly beforehand.  Gnome sane?

But man, a New Hamer Day is pretty rare for me.  I’m am disappoint!

 

 

[Bennyboy-UK]

Oh no - thats a shame - Centauras are probably my favourite Bolt on Hamers - which makes them probably my favourite all round guitar.

If thats going back to GC - i might see if they fancy shipping over the pond at a massive discount to save them too much hassle readvertising!!!!!

Cheers!
Ben.

[Cboss]

Something you could try, I have had to do this on import fretboards; take a wooden dowel, put it right at the spot where the Fret is lifted and give it a light bang with a hammer.. this has worked many many times for me

[draelyc]

1 hour ago, Cboss said:

Something you could try, I have had to do this on import fretboards; take a wooden dowel, put it right at the spot where the Fret is lifted and give it a light bang with a hammer.. this has worked many many times for me

I thought about that, actually, but it looks to me like the wood of the fingerboard is splintered there a little bit, and I’ve no idea what to do about that…

[RobB]

Sorry to hear about the condition issues. Now you’re clear to buy my 90s Centaura! PM me if interested. 

[Dave Scepter]

1 hour ago, RobB said:

Sorry to hear about the condition issues. Now you’re clear to buy my 90s Centaura! PM me if interested. 

Photos and price~

[RobB]

1 minute ago, Dave Scepter said:

Photos and price~

I’ll do a FS post shortly, Dave. PM me if you have any questions in the meantime. 

[burningyen]

19 hours ago, draelyc said:

Ouch, that sucks. Definitely fixable, but it won't be free or invisible.