Lied to myself.

[Hbom]

For a while I've been thinking that if I ran across a nice Junior at a fair price, I'd jump on it.

One showed up this morning on eBay. Good price, but the seller's feedback made me say "not today".

So here it is. I hope one of you has bigger gonads than this old man. And that the seller is better than his feedback suggests.

1999 Hamer USA Special Junior P90 Electric Guitar Natural Finish + Hard Case | eBay

Good luck

 

[stedge]

Thought the usa ones had diff bridge??  
 

 

[velorush]

Izzat some sort of humbucking P-90 with the offset polepieces? Asking 'cause I don't know.

[kizanski]

No wrapper, no Junior.

[Hbom]

21 minutes ago, kizanski said:

No wrapper, no Junior.

It does look more like one of the import juniors from a few years ago than a USA Junior, that's why I included the back of headstock pic. But the listing said Special Junior, and that's what I posted here. 

[kizanski]

5 minutes ago, Hbom said:

It does look more like one of the import juniors from a few years ago than a USA Junior, that's why I included the back of headstock pic. But the listing said Special Junior, and that's what I posted here. 

I agree it looks like an import, mostly because of the lack of wrapper goodness. That's just one of the reasons why I don't like it.

"Special Junior" is actually the model name, but no one on the planet calls them that.

[Hbom]

34 minutes ago, kizanski said:

"Special Junior" is actually the model name, but no one on the planet calls them that.

 

No one except the guy that's trying to sell one on eBay this morning. 

[RacerX]

It’s local to me, and I’m looking for something P90, but I the lack of wrap bridge is a deal breaker for me. 

[bry4321]

I assume the “004” under the s/n indicates it was a special run? Perhaps that has something to do with the non- wrap bridge?  

[RacerX]

Back in 99 Hamer did a few “ matched sets” of Korina Junior and Special with consecutive serial numbers in a giant 2 place case.

 I think Ernie had a set years ago? 
Anyway, I assume the 004 would make this one of the 004 pair. 
 I don’t remember the stop/tuneomatic bridge on them but maybe they were all like that?

 Someone must have a pic…

Mark 

[Jakeboy]

Something just doesn’t look right with this guitar…but maybe they did a special run (like described above) before they started making the “normal” wraptail Special Junior Korinas.

Edited March 20 by Jakeboy

[santellavision]

My matched pair had Wrap tails.

[DarkHammer]

Is that Korina wood?

[santellavision]

Notice the screw holes on the guard are different than a normal Hamer Jr. 

[Jakeboy]

Good eye, Ernie. Something appears amiss here.

[topekatj]

2 hours ago, santellavision said:

Notice the screw holes on the guard are different than a normal Hamer Jr. 

 

3 hours ago, santellavision said:

My matched pair had Wrap tails.

Hey Ernie, did the matched pair guitars have USA STAMPS ON THE BACK of the headstocks? Also, I’m surprised to see the older arrowhead TRCS on those two.

 

If it were me I’d run away from the EBay listing.

[santellavision]

13 minutes ago, topekatj said:

Hey Ernie, did the matched pair guitars have USA STAMPS ON THE BACK of the headstocks?

I can't remember if they said Made in USA. I'll see if I can dig up an old pic of the headstocks.

 

[santellavision]

My other NAMM Limited Jr was #003 and did not say Made in the USA.

[joshoowah]

Ebay is chock-full of interesting korina Hamer offerings right now. My favorites are the two listings for korina Artist P90s "made in 1990..." with the same guitar and pics from different sellers in Japan.

[WorstBandName]

Pretty sure I saw that one from photos of a storage unit some guy outside of chicago bought.  He posted for values on a Facebook Hamer Group a bout 1-2 weeks ago.  I can't find the post any longer but there were 3 Korina - a junior that looked like that, a Korina V / Vector, and a limited korina artist.  There was also a few others, including the green artist he has up for sale too, I think.

Edited March 21 by WorstBandName

[Jim85IROC]

On 3/20/2026 at 6:19 PM, joshoowah said:

Ebay is chock-full of interesting korina Hamer offerings right now. My favorites are the two listings for korina Artist P90s "made in 1990..." with the same guitar and pics from different sellers in Japan.

That's pretty common. Multiple Japanese resellers will post the same guitar. If you buy it, they go buy it and ship it to you. Often if you do a reverse image search you can find the original store's website they pulled the pics from and buy directly from them for less.