B8S S/N 0287 has come home!!!!!

[jclasen]

The most amazing thing has happened!

The B8S that was stolen from me 18 years and 3 months ago has been returned.

My earlier thread, "WTB - B8S" about 5 pages back, prompted the current owner to contact me. He, who shall remain nameless (unless he indicates otherwise), sent the bass to me last week. He refused any money and covered the shipping costs.

Although it is pretty well beat up, it plays well.

I play in both a church band and my pagan band, so I thought it might be interesting to rock the tabernacle last Sunday. Our band (1 of 3 bands at the church) is the heavier of the bunch, so it didn't seem that it would be pushing it too far to 8-string it.

Well let me tell you, it was like Cheap Trick meets Jesus! We had a great time and the rest of the band played just a bit harder than usual.

The sound man came up after we were done and just said "It sounds HUGE!".

Tomorrow night will be the first time I play it in the band I was with when it was stolen. It should be a fun trip back in time.

My thanks to the gentleman who returned it, and to the people on this board who kept the thread going long enough for it to be noticed.

Now that I'm once again a Hamer owner, I hope you don't mind if I hang around here.

Thanks to all,

John

[BCR Greg]

FANTASTIC!!!!!

Kudos to the samaritan that sent you your bass back, and congrats on getting back what is rightfully yours.

See? Good stuff DOES happen!!!!!

[cmatthes]

That's a GREAT story. Glad you got your baby back!

Now, take a pic of you with that bass and a goofy skinny tie and post it already!!

[Guest pirateflynn]

I have no idea how the last owner ended up with your bass but I commend him for his decision.

Congrats!

[mc2]

BRAVO!!

I know you've been one step behind the bass every time it showed up the last few years.

Glad all the leads finally paid off.

[atquinn]

Wow! That was really classy on the part of the owner. Nice story.

-Austin

[HAMERMAN]

That is too cool! After hearing about all the scams that the internet make so possible it's nice to hear a story where the internet helped create a happy ending. Major cool points to the previous owner. It was classy of him to give it to you and it was classy of you to offer to pay for it. I hope the dirtbag who stole it in the first place is out of circulation.

[marcnorth]

That's great. Glad to see it came back home. Whoever sent it back to you is one hell of a guy. Congrats on it's return.

[Rockola]

Wow, impressive gesture. It's good to see some good karma, Divine Intervention, good deed, luck, or whatever you want to call it after the week of shenanigans we've endured.

Steve

[sw686blue]

Very cool.

[David B]

That is so great, awesome for that owner to return it.

[SirDouglas]

grats on gittin yer gee tar back....

so when are you going to show it to us.. pics pics pics

RAndy

[Nuclear Wessel]

Man that is great news.

Very classy of the owner.

[Hamerica]

THAT IS A GREAT STORY! Congrats and welcome to the board. To the person that sent the bass to you - if you ever decide to come out in the open Hamerica wants to buy you a drink. Pure class.

[polara]

And I'll buy the second round. To part with a nice instrument worh serious bucks that YOU paid for, when you find it was stolen.... A+ good karma your way sir or madam, wherever you are!

[wyldbil]

That may just be the coolest thing I have ever heard. Sounds like you have good karma flowing bigtime!

Now if I could just track down my old Sunburst that was stolen in '84. *sigh*

If anyone ever sees a REALLY beat up old Trans Cherry Sunburst with a headstock repair, dot neck and a name ending in Roman numeral "II" engraved on the inside of the control cover, PLEASE let me know where it is. She's the one that got away and I miss her...

[BTMN]

I'm blown away by this cool event. HFC slaps ya, encorages ya, and generally keeps it spinning. What an intense thing. I'm in for the third round of drinks if you are ever in St. Pete.!

[Bass Guy Dave]

Man, what a great story!

Congrats on getting your baby back! The honorable person who returned it to you will be repaid in one form or another...with interest.

Great news!

Best Wishes

[jclasen]

I just got home from the first pagan band practice with my long lost 8-string!

What a trip it was, to recreate the sound we had almost 20 years ago.

Our lead guitar and vocal guy said, "That's the way it's supposed to sound!”

And damned if he wasn't right. If this isn't the coolest story to be told in a long time, I don't know what is.

The "Good Samaritan" who returned it is due more than a few drinks in my opinion.

I know his name and location, but he prefers to remain anonymous. If and when he changes his mind, I'll make good on a reward for his honesty and the shipping costs.

I'll also ship back the BC Rich case that the bass was in when it arrived.

However, I did comment to him that putting a Hamer in a BC case was a little sacrilegious.

I think what he did entitles him to the nice guy of the century award!

He didn't seem to want to make a big deal out of it, but I think what he did rates him right up there in the annuls of high class.

I don't know what the "week of shenanigans we've endured" that Rockola mentioned is, but I can tell you that in the last week my Dad had a stroke and Mom broke her hip. Both are in the hospital and I visited both of them today.

The one bright spot in my week was to be able to play this bass with my best friends.

I am forever grateful!

By the way, since I now know about the free picture hosting sites, is there a place where I could place wav or mp3 files for sharing on the board?

I have some recordings of the very first time we played with the Hamer 8 that sound pretty damned good.

John

[geoff_hartwell]

Totally inspiring story. Once again- totally class act.

You can set up an 'artist' profile on myspace.com for FREE that can host music, pictures and video.

Yeah, dude. Free.