Cheap acquisition

[Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame]

Yeah, I know it's an import. Yeah, I know it is a 2nd-tier Korean import, and thus not quite as good as the "Slammer Series" imports.

But this still seems like a huge steal, to me.

Me?

I had the treefitty bid on this one

...still kind of kicking myself for not going to $400, but I didn't want to just make someone else pay more.

[analogsystem]

Those are both killer deals

[jwhitcomb3]

I was watching that Eclipse, but it looked pretty beat up. Considering there was a black Eclipse in much better shape for sale here recently for $500 shipped, I wouldn't have gone over $350 shipped for that one.

-Jonathan

[holLoWskull]

I snagged the Eclipse, so thank you Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame for not making me pay any more. The photo of it almost looks like the fretboard could possibly be ebony (how cool would that be!), though most likely it'll turn out to be extremely filthy rosewood in need of a good cleaning. Regardless at that price I figured what the heck it's a USA Hamer w/ original case for $386 shipped, so it's worth rolling the dice even as a beater/player. Now I'm really hoping somebody buys the Cruise bass 5-string I have for sale here before next month's credit card bill rolls in

[backinit]

I think it's tough to go wrong with either one. Let us know how the Ecplipse works out.

[Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame]

I snagged the Eclipse, so thank you Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame for not making me pay any more. The photo of it almost looks like the fretboard could possibly be ebony (how cool would that be!), though most likely it'll turn out to be extremely filthy rosewood in need of a good cleaning. Regardless at that price I figured what the heck it's a USA Hamer w/ original case for $386 shipped, so it's worth rolling the dice even as a beater/player. Now I'm really hoping somebody buys the Cruise bass 5-string I have for sale here before next month's credit card bill rolls in

Well, you know I got dibs, right?

Actually, I'm sorry I made you go up to $386 shipped.

I should have stayed out of it. But I couldn't resist taking a shot at getting an Eclipse, even beat up, for the legendary tree-fiddy.

[Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame]

Looking at the pictures again, I think the seller screwed himself out of $ by being such a bad photographer.

His pictures aren't centered well, there's no single shot of the whole guitar, and half the pictures are blurry.

I'm thinking that most of the poor finish is actually poor photography, and it may well polish up to a shiny black finish. I didn't see any major chips or gouges in the parts of the guitar the pictures actually show. If there isn't anything hidden by omission, you probably got a huge steal, there, holLoWskull.

Hopefully: Congrats!

Edited to fix unfortunate results of my reading comprehension deficiency.

[backinit]

I didn't buy it.

[Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame]

Oops

[zorrow]

Wow! That Cali is just a steal! Killer guitar, and for that price it's just a no brainer. Is the lucky guy one of us?

I have BTW a story about an import Cali of those: 5 years ago or so, I got one with a gig bag, black hardware and loaded with authentic Seymour Duncans (Distortion and Hot Rails). After doing a setup, my luthier back then loved it and wanted to buy it, but I refused. However, I got GAS for a Vector KK and finally sold it for 600 CND (the price the luthier was willing to pay) to BlueRedWhite here. Back then that amount of money seemed to me fair, as you pay around that for any import here in Canada. This Cali had in addition the USA Duncans, the gig bag, sounded great and it was "as new". But time went by and I've been seeing these guitars going lower and lower in value, month after month. So, every time I see one for sale at those ridiculous low prices I feel so freaking guilty about having sold mine for 600 to someone I really appreciate!

[gorch]

Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame, I wonder it would have ever arrived in Baghdad if you had bought it.

So, your are lucky you stepped out bidding.

[Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame]

Wow! That Cali is just a steal! Killer guitar, and for that price it's just a no brainer. Is the lucky guy one of us?

I have BTW a story about an import Cali of those: 5 years ago or so, I got one with a gig bag, black hardware and loaded with authentic Seymour Duncans (Distortion and Hot Rails). After doing a setup, my luthier back then loved it and wanted to buy it, but I refused. However, I got GAS for a Vector KK and finally sold it for 600 CND (the price the luthier was willing to pay) to BlueRedWhite here. Back then that amount of money seemed to me fair, as you pay around that for any import here in Canada. This Cali had in addition the USA Duncans, the gig bag, sounded great and it was "as new". But time went by and I've been seeing these guitars going lower and lower in value, month after month. So, every time I see one for sale at those ridiculous low prices I feel so freaking guilty about having sold mine for 600 to someone I really appreciate!

The near-identical black Korean import Hamer Cali deluxe (w/ boomers) in my sig block was obtained for about $175+shipping.

The transparent cherry import Hamer Slammer series Cali was purchased about a year ago for $300. I can't say I regret it, it was well worth it.

The point is, you have no idea which way prices will go. You didn't rip him off, there was no intent, you just sold it for what was a fair price at the time. If the price doubled after he sold it, would he owe you more money a year later? No.

I absolve you of any sin. Go in peace.

[holLoWskull]

Looking at the pictures again, I think the seller screwed himself out of $ by being such a bad photographer.

His pictures aren't centered well, there's no single shot of the whole guitar, and half the pictures are blurry.

I'm thinking that most of the poor finish is actually poor photography, and it may well polish up to a shiny black finish. I didn't see any major chips or gouges in the parts of the guitar the pictures actually show. If there isn't anything hidden by omission, you probably got a huge steal, there, holLoWskull.

Hopefully: Congrats!

Edited to fix unfortunate results of my reading comprehension deficiency.

that was kind of my thinking too (or at least what I'm hoping for) plus black can be an unforgiving finish w/ glare and magnifying imperfections. I should get it next week sometime, so after a thorough tear down/cleaning I'll post some pictures up on the HFC. and yes N.O.B.F., you most certainly have dibs if I decide to move it down the road.

[Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame]

Looking at the pictures again, I think the seller screwed himself out of $ by being such a bad photographer.

His pictures aren't centered well, there's no single shot of the whole guitar, and half the pictures are blurry.

I'm thinking that most of the poor finish is actually poor photography, and it may well polish up to a shiny black finish. I didn't see any major chips or gouges in the parts of the guitar the pictures actually show. If there isn't anything hidden by omission, you probably got a huge steal, there, holLoWskull.

Hopefully: Congrats!

Edited to fix unfortunate results of my reading comprehension deficiency.

that was kind of my thinking too (or at least what I'm hoping for) plus black can be an unforgiving finish w/ glare and magnifying imperfections. I should get it next week sometime, so after a thorough tear down/cleaning I'll post some pictures up on the HFC. and yes N.O.B.F., you most certainly have dibs if I decide to move it down the road.

Please, don't be so formal, we're all friends here. You can call me "N."

[holLoWskull]

The Eclipse has landed (that was fast!). No pictures yet as it is completely disassembled at the moment for a throrough cleaning (FWIW the fret board was extremely filthy rosewood).

the good:

no breaks or repairs, light weight, nice medium to med/chunky neck, all original (probably even the strings!), should clean up good

the bad:

Dear God I have never seen a more dirty guitar in my life! Some of the screws have gotten rusty and a couple of the phillips heads have been stripped by a previous owner (time to get the drill and easy out bit out)...did I mention this guitar is filthy?

the ugly:

some of the Hameritis was allowed to get so bad that a couple small areas of the finish lifted off on both the treble and bass sides of the neck. Plus there is some missing finish at the headstock. Nothing horrible, but not shown in the seller's ebay pictures. I'm pretty easy going about ebay deals if I'm going into it knowing it's a risky gambit (scored some pretty great Hamer deals over the years that way)...I could have asked for more pix but bought this guitar knowing it was a good priced gamble. The description was still close (not like the ebay sellers who say it's mint and then you get this beat up guitar in the mail).

Overall: Once I'm done cleaning, scrubing, polishing, and setting up this guitar I have absolutely no doubt it will rock out and be a fine player that will actually look pretty good (maybe an 8.0 or 8.5 out of 10). No complaints at the price I paid...but I know what I'll be doing for the next 4 hours tonight. Photos upon completion (probably tomorrow sometime).

[specialk]

Congrats on the score, holLoWskull! (but it's not purple!)

And a tip of the hat to Nathan for not driving up the price. This is a great place!

[gtone]

Sometimes you really open up a can of worms when you get a guitar like that. All kinds of little issues can be found that you wanna deal with before reassembly and final setup. Good luck with your new acquistion.

[Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame]

I snagged the Eclipse, so thank you Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame for not making me pay any more. The photo of it almost looks like the fretboard could possibly be ebony (how cool would that be!), though most likely it'll turn out to be extremely filthy rosewood in need of a good cleaning. Regardless at that price I figured what the heck it's a USA Hamer w/ original case for $386 shipped, so it's worth rolling the dice even as a beater/player. Now I'm really hoping somebody buys the Cruise bass 5-string I have for sale here before next month's credit card bill rolls in

...so....not ebony?

[holLoWskull]

Sometimes you really open up a can of worms when you get a guitar like that. All kinds of little issues can be found that you wanna deal with before reassembly and final setup. Good luck with your new acquistion.

Boy, you must have been in my house or something, you are SO right (hence why my post of pictures has been delayed). So after getting into the cheap Eclipse some more I found some issues that (fortunately) I was able to fix and some that I couldn't. To all who may have wanted to buy this guitar off ebay, unless you had a good sized parts drawer on hand from years of playing/collecting Hamers and lots of patience, but thankful you didn't bid.

First off there was finish damage never shown in the ebay listing:

bass side Hameritis:

treble side Hameritis:

not that big a deal really as I've come to almost expect some form or another of it on most mid-90's Hamers, but it still would have been nice if the seller had disclosed it.

finish missing at headstock:

I'm not sure why this one bothers me, it's a sub-$400 USA Hamer? Probably because it was never shown in the auction. Gotta love ebay, but still I'm OK w/ things.

After replacing the wraptail bridge and studs w/ spares I had lying around from my 95' Studio (the original parts on this Eclipse were badly worn/tarnished and the screws were rusted in place!), cleaning just about every metal part w/ metal polish and/or super fine steel wool, and putting a fresh set of DR pure blues strings on I proceeded to set it up and intonate it (yes, I am a pussy) All is good, more fretwear than I would have liked to have seen, but nothing too bad that it requires a dressing or re-fret. The good ones get played afterall, right? I plug it in and hear crackling...output jack is worn Lucky for me I have spares, so I pop open the electronics cavity to see this:

Now certainly it's not horrible, but it just looked cobbed (globs of solder, cold joints, and exposed connections where the neck pickup had a wire extended...all in all the work of a hack. So now I'm looking at more time to fix. Using what I had available to me I installed the new jack and removed some of the solder globs/rewired things to be a little nicer to look at (and covered the exposed splice w/ shrink tube):

Finally, plug it in and all is well. The unfortunate thing is that all the time/work I had to put into this guitar did kind of sour me a little to it, but it has a neck profile similar to my 95' Studio (which is chunky for a mid-90's guitar) and the Eclipse tips the digital scale at 7 lbs. 3 oz....pretty light for a set neck mahogany guitar.

So basically I rolled the dice on a cheap USA Hamer and pretty much ended up getting what I paid for, nothing more/nothing less. I will play it for a while to see how it sounds w/ my band and decide whether to keep it or to sell it (probably at a loss if I figure in the parts I've added). At least if I do sell it, the new owner will have a guitar that has been cleaned up, works without incident, and is surprise free...gotta love ebay sometimes So concludes the 'Cheap Acquisition' Eclipse story. At the end of the day it was played hard probably because it has a great neck and is light, so for $386, some parts that would probably never get used anyway, and a whole lotta elbow grease and solder de-braid, I got a pretty good playing, sounding, and ergonomic guitar...so I did OK.

[Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame]

Sometimes you really open up a can of worms when you get a guitar like that. All kinds of little issues can be found that you wanna deal with before reassembly and final setup. Good luck with your new acquistion.

Boy, you must have been in my house or something, you are SO right (hence why my post of pictures has been delayed). So after getting into the cheap Eclipse some more I found some issues that (fortunately) I was able to fix and some that I couldn't. To all who may have wanted to buy this guitar off ebay, unless you had a good sized parts drawer on hand from years of playing/collecting Hamers and lots of patience, but thankful you didn't bid.

First off there was finish damage never shown in the ebay listing:

bass side Hameritis:

treble side Hameritis:

not that big a deal really as I've come to almost expect some form or another of it on most mid-90's Hamers, but it still would have been nice if the seller had disclosed it.

finish missing at headstock:

I'm not sure why this one bothers me, it's a sub-$400 USA Hamer? Probably because it was never shown in the auction. Gotta love ebay, but still I'm OK w/ things.

After replacing the wraptail bridge and studs w/ spares I had lying around from my 95' Studio (the original parts on this Eclipse were badly worn/tarnished and the screws were rusted in place!), cleaning just about every metal part w/ metal polish and/or super fine steel wool, and putting a fresh set of DR pure blues strings on I proceeded to set it up and intonate it (yes, I am a pussy) All is good, more fretwear than I would have liked to have seen, but nothing too bad that it requires a dressing or re-fret. The good ones get played afterall, right? I plug it in and hear crackling...output jack is worn Lucky for me I have spares, so I pop open the electronics cavity to see this:

Now certainly it's not horrible, but it just looked cobbed (globs of solder, cold joints, and exposed connections where the neck pickup had a wire extended...all in all the work of a hack. So now I'm looking at more time to fix. Using what I had available to me I installed the new jack and removed some of the solder globs/rewired things to be a little nicer to look at (and covered the exposed splice w/ shrink tube):

Finally, plug it in and all is well. The unfortunate thing is that all the time/work I had to put into this guitar did kind of sour me a little to it, but it has a neck profile similar to my 95' Studio (which is chunky for a mid-90's guitar) and the Eclipse tips the digital scale at 7 lbs. 3 oz....pretty light for a set neck mahogany guitar.

So basically I rolled the dice on a cheap USA Hamer and pretty much ended up getting what I paid for, nothing more/nothing less. I will play it for a while to see how it sounds w/ my band and decide whether to keep it or to sell it (probably at a loss if I figure in the parts I've added). At least if I do sell it, the new owner will have a guitar that has been cleaned up, works without incident, and is surprise free...gotta love ebay sometimes So concludes the 'Cheap Acquisition' Eclipse story. At the end of the day it was played hard probably because it has a great neck and is light, so for $386, some parts that would probably never get used anyway, and a whole lotta elbow grease and solder de-braid, I got a pretty good playing, sounding, and ergonomic guitar...so I did OK.

Well, that does suck a little bit.

But you have the satisfaction of semi-resurrecting a semi-dead Hamer USA guitar.

I wouldn't have been able to do that, so I'm glad you got it and not me.

[holLoWskull]

Things are looking better w/ the Eclipse deal. I contacted the ebay seller and it appears there will be a partial refund due to me having to replace parts. Not a whole lot, but a classy move nonetheless considering it's ebay and considering there is no obligation for the seller to do that. Saved a USA Hamer in need of some TLC, got a few dollars back...WIN-WIN.